Dr. Nicholas J. Carino Leader, Structural Evaluation and Standards Group Structures Division Building and Fire Research Laboratory National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive Stop 8611 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8611 USA Phone: (301) 975-6063 FAX: (301) 869-6275E-mail: ncarino@.nist.gov
In 1979, Dr. Carino accepted a position at NIST as a research civil engineer. His research activities have been in the areas of in-place testing of concrete for strength and nondestructive methods for flaw detection in construction materials. He has been involved in fundamental research on the maturity method and the pullout test method. He received a Bronze Medal Award and the CBT Communicator Award in 1983 for his publications related to the maturity method. In 1986, ASTM adopted a standard on the maturity method which was based largely on his work. He was the co-recipient of the American Concrete Institute's Wason Medal for Materials Research in 1994 for work on the maturity method with Dr. R.C. Tank, former guest worker from India. He has conducted research on the use of stress wave propagation to locate defects within hardened concrete. In 1986, he was awarded the ACI Wason Medal for Materials Research for a paper describing the initial research on a new flaw detection technique, which was refined in subsequent research with coworkers, and is now known as the "impact-echo" method. He was also co-recipient of the 1987 CBT Communicator Award for a series of papers providing the basis for the impact-echo method. He was a co-recipient of the ACI Wason Medal in 1991 for a paper written with Dr. Mary Sansalone of Cornell University which dealt with using impact-echo for detecting delaminations in slabs. In 1998, ASTM adopted a standard test method for using the impact-echo method to measure the thickness of concrete members. His current activities are in the area of high-performance concrete, and he works closely with researchers in Division 862. He has worked with the National Ready-Mixed Concrete Association on experiments designed to provide the technical bases for recommended modifications to ASTM standards to improve their applicability to testing high-strength concrete. Another of his current projects deals with curing of high-performance concrete. The objective is to develop the technical bases for a recommended curing practice that will assure adequate performance, not only in terms of strength but also in terms of durability.
Dr. Carino has been involved in NIST structural investigations. In 1987, he was the project leader in the structural assessment of the new office building of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and received a Silver Medal Award for his work. He also participated in investigations of the 1981 condominium collapse in Cocoa Beach, Florida, the 1982 highway ramp failure in East Chicago, Indiana, and damage due to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Dr. Carino is a member of ASCE and ASTM and is a Fellow of ACI. He served on the ACI Board of Direction and was the recipient of the 1993 Delmar L. Bloem Award for "noteworthy accomplishment as a technical committee member and chairman." He served as Chairman of ACI Committee 228 on Nondestructive Testing of Concrete, ACI Committee 306 on Cold Weather Concreting, and the ACI Fellows Nominating Committee. Currently, he is a member of the ACI Technical Activities Committee. He is active in ASTM committee work and has provided leadership in the development of several standard test methods. He serves as chairman of ASTM Subcommittee C09.64 on nondestructive and in-place testing and of the C09.61 task group on testing high-strength concrete. He is coeditor with Mohan Malhotra of the Handbook on Nondestructive Testing of Concrete published by CRC Press.
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