CERIS Researcher André Martins Receives MAJR Medal at SSRC 2026 Conference

CERIS researcher André Martins was officially awarded the 2025 McGuire Award for Junior Researchers (MAJR Medal) during the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC) Annual Stability Conference 2026, held on 21 April 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

The distinction, awarded by the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC), recognises excellence in scientific research in the field of structural stability and honours the legacy of William “Bill” McGuire, one of the leading figures in structural engineering. The award distinguishes outstanding early-career researchers based on the impact of their scientific contributions, their involvement in the technical community and their advancement of knowledge in structural stability.

As part of the award ceremony, Dr André Martins delivered the invited lecture
“Modeling and Analysis Joined by Reliability (MAJR): Early Career Shaped by Structural Stability”,
presenting some of his most significant contributions to the field.

The lecture focused particularly on research related to cold-formed steel (CFS) and glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite structures. In the field of CFS structures, the presentation addressed local, distortional and global buckling phenomena in thin-walled members, combining numerical and experimental investigations to better understand structural behaviour and stability. For GFRP composite systems, the lecture highlighted reliability-based code calibration procedures that contributed to the development of the new Eurocode framework for composite materials.

This distinction further consolidates Dr André Martins’ international recognition within the structural engineering community. The MAJR Medal represents his third major distinction from the SSRC, following the Vinnakota Award (2015) and the Yoon Duk Kim Young Researcher Award (2020), placing him among the internationally recognised researchers contributing to the advancement of structural stability research.

Recently, Dr André Martins also joined the Editorial Board of the international journal Structures, published by Elsevier on behalf of the Institution of Structural Engineers, further recognising his growing scientific international visibility.

André Martins holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico and is currently an Assistant Researcher at CERIS/IST-ID. His research focuses on structural stability, nonlinear analysis, reliability-based design, cold-formed steel structures and composite materials.

CERIS warmly congratulates André Martins on this important achievement and on the international recognition of his scientific contributions and wishes him continued success in his academic and research career.