Biography
Ronald L. Sack received the B.S., M.S.C.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. He is currently Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). His career includes a broad range of experiences from practicing as a structural engineer in the building and aircraft industries to serving as Director of The Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems at the National Science Foundation. Prior to his current appointment, he held the position of Director of the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science at the University of Oklahoma and most recently was Dean of the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering at UNLV.

His research areas include applications of the finite element method to structural and geotechnical systems, and the effects of environmental loads on buildings. He has also performed analytical and experimental studies on mitigating structural vibrations using semi-active control. He has written and delivered papers on his research in the U.S. and at international venues. He authored two textbooks on structural engineering that have been adopted on many campuses across the country.

His international experience includes a year of conducting research on stochastic vibrations of offshore oil platforms in the North Sea at N.T.H. in Trondheim, Norway as an NTNF Fellow. In Hungary he was a Fellow of the program run jointly by the U.S. National Academy of Science and the Hungarian Academy of Science. The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science awarded him a fellowship to give talks throughout Japan and conduct research on snow engineering. At NSF he was a delegate of the U.S. team that traveled to China to explore collaborative research between U.S. and Chinese faculty and students.

His professional service includes membership on the Committee on Construction and Building for the National Science and Technology Council. He was the U.S. editor of the "Structural Engineering Review" and has served the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as: associate editor of the "Journal of Structural Engineering;" secretary of the Executive Committee of the Structural Division; a member of the snow load subcommittee that authored "ANSI A58.1" and "ASCE Standard 7;" and secretary and chair of the ASCE Department Heads' Council. In 1988 he organized and procured funding for the first "International Conference on Snow Engineering," and has been a member of the organizing committee for the three subsequent conferences, which are held every four years. He serves as an ABET program reviewer,

He is a fellow of the ASCE, and his professional affiliations include the American Society for Engineering Education, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., the National Society of Professional Engineers, and Sigma Xi. He is a registered professional engineering and a registered structural engineer.