MIT World Speakers

David P. Billington

David P. Billington is Director of the Program of Architecture and Engineering at Princeton University. He is well-known at Princeton for connecting engineering to other disciplines within the University -- to the humanities, art, science and politics. Billington has taught perhaps 5,000 Princeton undergraduates since joining the faculty in 1960. He specializes in structural analysis and design with an emphasis on concrete structures, bridge design, thin shell concrete structures, and the history and aesthetics of structures as an art form.

Billington's most recent publication is Power, Speed and Form -- Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century (with David P. Billington, Jr; Princeton 2006). He has written several books on Robert Maillart’s work as well as on other aspects of structural engineering.

Billington was a Fulbright Fellow, and won the 1992 George Winter Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has consulted for the State of Maryland on bridge design and for the State of New Jersey on highway accidents. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineering, among other professional affiliations. He has taught at Princeton since 1960.