15 ACWE

Americas Conference on Wind Engineering (ACWE) expands its legacy to St. Louis, Missouri, on May 19-22, 2025---15th ACWE. It was chaired by Dr. Grace Yan, a Professor of Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). On May 16, as the local organizing committee worked tirelessly to prepare for the conference, St. Louis offered its own dramatic welcome—by “arranging” for a devastating EF-3 tornado to sweep through the Greater St. Louis area, resulting in $1.6 Billion in property loss. This tornado simply reminded that we, wind engineers, still have a lot of work to do, to reduce the adverse impact of extreme winds; This tornado made the theme of this conference feel less like a topic—and more like a mission, an urgent mission: Promote advanced research and practice to better confront the grand challenge of wind hazards, which includes the improvement of building codes for diverse wind conditions; This tornado reaffirmed to society the critical importance of our wind engineering community in protecting lives and fortifying community resilience.

This conference started with the welcome remarks by Drs. Claudio Borri (IAWE president), Dorothy Reed (former AAWE president) and Kamal Khayat (Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation of Missouri S&T). This conference featured keynote speeches by Drs. Ahsan Kareem, Jane Smith, Xugang Hua, Ruby Leung, John von de Lindt and Greg Kopp (in the order of presenting). The Peter Irwin Lecture this year was delivered by Dr. Peter Vickery, titled Dr. Barry Vickery: The Legacy of a Pioneer in Wind Engineering. Following months of careful study of his father’s work, with a heart full of love, Dr. Peter Vickery spoke about the groundbreaking and pivotal contributions of Dr. Barry Vickery, a true pioneer in wind engineering. This is an amazing way for a son to memorize his dear father. The opening ceremony, the keynote lectures and the Peter Irwin Lecture were recorded and can be found at the following webpage: https://15acwe.mst.edu/program/. Seven workshops, panel discussions and professional development were organized by experts in various fields. All conference attendees happily networked with each other with red/white wine from Day 0, and presented their exciting research from Day 1 to Day 3 (242 abstracts were received). Before the banquet on Day 2, 286 conference attendees happily danced together to record this historical moment, as shown by the “W” photo that represents “Wind”. This “W” is filled with people from 14 countries and regions. This conference offers a platform for participants to engage in conversations on collaborating with each other to address the grand challenge of wind hazards together.

The conference chair did take care of all the details, from the metal, arch design of name badges, to the text growing lanyards, to the poetic conference program around the word of “wind”, to the selection of gifts to attendees, to the setting of each conference room, to the selection of snacks and meals, to the blues band and dance party, and to the scenario photo taking, etc. However, the chair did not get a chance to prepare anything for the occurring of the devastating 2025 St. Louis Tornado. To her own surprise—and with no regrets—the chair successfully secured two large shuttles and organized field trips to tornado-damaged sites, offering conference attendees a rare opportunity to witness a “live experiment” in tornado–city interaction, which is a billion-dollar, full-scale testing set up by mother nature. The chair wants to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of conference attendees, all conference sponsors/exhibitors, all local organizing committee members, and numerous volunteers from Missouri S&T, as well as IAWE and AAWE, for their contribution to the success of this conference in various ways. The chair wants to extend her gratitude to Missouri S&T for her generosity and strong support.