Aluminum Welding for Fabricators, Inspectors & Engineers

Ronald D. Zieman

Ronald D. Ziemian is the Technical Consultant to the Aluminum Association and a professor at Bucknell University. Ron is the secretary of the Engineering Advisory Committee of the Aluminum Association, responsible for the Specification for Aluminum Structures, which is used throughout the US for aluminum structural design. He is also a member of the Canadian Standards Association’s committee on Strength Design in Aluminum. Ron received his BSCE, MENG, and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University.

In addition to authoring papers on the design and analysis of steel and aluminum structures, Ron is co‐author of the textbook Matrix Structural Analysis (Wiley, 2000), the developer of the educational analysis software MASTAN2, and the editor for the 6th edition of the Guide to Stability Design Criteria for Metal Structures (Wiley, 2010). He is the Co-Editor in Chief of Elsevier’s Journal of Constructional Steel Research.

Ron is a member of AISC’s Committee on Specifications, chairs AISC’s TC3 – Loads, Analysis and Stability, and previously chaired AISC’s TG on Inelastic Analysis and Design. He also serves on the AISI Specification Committees, is active with the Steel Joist Institute, and is the former chair of the Structural Stability Research Council.

Ron was awarded the ASCE Norman Medal (1994), the AISC Special Achievement Award (2006), the ASCE Shortridge Hardesty Award (2013), the AISC TR Higgins Award (2019), and the SSRC Lynn S. Beedle Award (2021) for his contributions to the profession related to the stability analysis and design of metal structures.

Thom Burns

Thom Burns holds a BS in Industrial Technology/Metals Science from Northern Michigan University, has been in the Aluminum Welding Technical field for over 35 years and with the AWS for 36 years. He was the past Chair and the current Vice Chair of the AWS D1.2 Structural Welding Code – Aluminum and the past Chair of the AWS D3.7 Aluminum Hull Guide. Also holds a seat on the Main Committee of the AWS D1 – Welded Structures.

While as the Director of Business Development and Technical Services for three international Aluminum Welding companies, Thom oversaw the customer needs and product improvements throughout the North American region and managed others throughout the world. He has also developed numerous improvements in feeding of aluminum wire and welding practices that both reduce costs and increase performance in aluminum welding. Some of these devices have been patented and are in service today.