Editors’introduction

Loc Vu-Quoc and Shaofan Li

1Aerospace Engineering,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,IL 61801,USA·vql@illinois.edu

2Civil and Environmental Engineering,University of California at Berkeley,CA 94720,USA·Shaofan@berkeley.edu

On the occasion of Professor Karl S.Pister’s 95th birthday and his long academic career—in research,teaching,and university leadership and administration—we gathered together former students,friends and colleagues to contribute to this special issue,which is composed of three parts.

Part 1 consists of eighteen items,a biography of Professor Pister followed by seventeen individual tributes to Professor Pister.Part 2 consists of fourteen technical papers dedicated to Professor Pister,followed by Part 3,a memory-lane with photos of the participants from way back when,particularly around the time of their closest interaction with Professor Pister,either through research or through administration.

Specifically,we intentionally arranged Part 1 to reflect a certain balance of diversity that Professor Pister sought for much of his later career as a university administrator,as described in detail in the long tribute by Dr.Sheila Humphreys titled“Karl S.Pister and the Foundation of Diversity in Engineering”.It is with regret that the same extent of the balance in Part 1 could not be replicated in Part 2.

We pay particular attention to the permanence of Web resources cited in this special issue.For example,the University of Maryland Homepage|Office of the President(umd.edu),which would show different UMD presidents depending on when this webpage is accessed many years in the future,is accompanied by the archived,permanent webpage Internet archived on 2021.06.05,which will always display the photo and leadership of UMD President Darryll Pines,an alumnus from the University of California at Berkeley,and a contributor to this special issue.A website could have its address changed,or removed completely in the future,but its Internet archived version remains permanent.

Similarly,as Wikipedia articles constantly continue to evolve,with new information added and errors corrected by many editors (and are sometimes vandalized,but almost always quickly reverted to the previous good version),the version of any Wikipedia article at the time of access in this special issue,such as the article‘Cesar Chavez’in connection with the tribute by Ms.Lola Martin-Atilano,is immediately followed by the archived,fixed version closest to the time of writing for this special issue,such as Wikipedia version 19:58,19 May 2021.

We are well aware of the birthdate of Professor Pister.This special issue was started in 2020 when we underestimated the time it took to put it together with a quality level where it is now.Since many participants were informed of the special issue title,we keep it the same,as the (late) birthday present,and the effort expanded into creating it,would mean more than the actual age in the title.In addition,a mid-decade celebration seems to resonate well.

So Happy Birthday Karl.We wish you continued good health and good spirit.

With our appreciation,gratitude,respect,and very best regards,

Karl Pister Special Issue editors

Loc Vu-Quoc and Shaofan Li