Alumnus of the Year: Karl Pister

On April 8, former Berkeley CE professor and former College dean Karl Pister (B.S.’45, M.S.’48 CE) will be honored as Cal’s 2006 Alumnus of the Year at the Charter Gala in San Francisco. Below is a profile of Pister adapted and excerpted from California, the University’s alumni magazine and written by executive editor Patrick Dillon.

Karl Pister’s sublime Berkeley moment arrives often and like an expected guest when he mounts the stepped bridge spanning the south fork of Strawberry Creek and crosses into Faculty Glade. “Its incredible beauty hasn’t changed in the 50-plus years I’ve been around here,” says California Alumni Association’s 2006 Alumnus of the Year.

The words of an aesthete might sound anomalous when matched against a nine-page, single-spaced résumé listing his 20 academic titles, his university and community awards, and his achievements in the engineering world of concrete and rebar. But, in fact, Karl S. Pister — B.S. civil engineering ’45; M.S. civil engineering ’48; Ph.D. theoretical and applied mechanics, University of Illinois ’52; professor of civil engineering at Cal; dean of the College of Engineering for 10 years; and chancellor at the University of California, Santa Cruz for six years — entered Cal in 1942 as a “terribly intimidated,” bookish 17-year-old farm boy from Stockton who had been told by counselors that he had an aptitude for English literature. He even struggled to avoid flunking his first Berkeley math course. [FULL STORY]

A national win weighs heavily on the minds and paddling arms of the Cal Concrete Canoe Team

The 19th annual National Concrete Canoe Competition starts June 15 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and the Cal Concrete Canoe Team wants nothing less than top prize: a $5,000 scholarship, trophy and accompanying national prestige. To win, Cal must do more than paddle first across the finish line. Teams must accumulate points in men’s and women’s slalom/endurance races and sprint races, an oral presentation, design paper, and overall final product.

“We have the team and canoe to win first this year,” says CEE junior and team project manager Ben Huie. CEE senior and hull design and structural engineer Danny Yost elaborates. “Our paddlers are practicing two hours a day, three times a week, and they work out at the gym. Our construction team meets for five hours every Friday to work on the form. We have 28 active members, several in their fourth year of concrete canoe. If we’re ever going to win nationals, this will be the year.” Engineers also taught classes on hull design and structural analysis and concrete research to their members last semester in order to solidify their expertise.

But before getting to the national competition, Cal must win the regional event. Last year’s team competed in a canoe that weighed 265 pounds, which forced slower starts in races. This year’s team is aiming for a lighter canoe constructed from a new, super-secret concrete formula that it developed. In March, the team spent 20 straight hours casting its canoe into a form that was designed and analyzed for maximum speed and stability. [FULL STORY]

Building homes, communities and character
In Cal Habitat for Humanity, engineers create strong foundation for club

On one of his first days volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, ME senior Peter Do helped frame a roof. He’d never framed a roof before. “When I got there, there was no roof,” he says. “When we left at the end of the day, we’d built the roof truss. It was very satisfying.”

CEE junior Kyle Delwiche shares similar moments of satisfaction. “I’ve built a closet. Someone’s closet! I worked side by side with the family, and we built it. At a different work site, our job was to help put up second-story walls. The mom was there and she said, ‘That’s my son’s bedroom! That’s my son’s bedroom and it has walls.’ And she started to cry.”

Delwiche and Do are senior members of Cal Berkeley Habitat for Humanity. “Habitat is an organization where volunteers build houses for low-income families, but the families also participate,” Delwiche explains. “They have to pay about one-third of the market value of the house, plus work about 500 hours on its construction.” [FULL STORY]

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