The 150th Game: Dual alumnus hopes for a tie

In 40 years at Modjeski and Masters, one of the world’s largest bridge engineering firms, John Kulicki ’67G ’73Ph.D. has played an integral role in countless design and construction projects. His diverse contributions to the firm, with projects ranging from long-span truss and arch, cable-stayed, suspension, and girder bridges, are recognized worldwide.

This weekend Kulicki is dealing with a very different kind of bridge. Call it the Hawk-Leopard Highway. Call it ‘The Rivalry’ Turnpike.

Whatever you call it, the upcoming 150th matchup between the gridiron squads from Lehigh University and Lafayette College is a bit more intense for Kulicki than it is for most of us.

“I’m really hoping for a tie,” he admits.

Such apostasy may be hard for Hawk fans to fathom, until you learn that Kulicki, who earned his two advanced degrees from Lehigh’s department of civil and environmental engineering, is also a 1965 graduate of the land of the Leopards.

Remaining impartial where neutrality doesn’t exist

In the years leading up to his success in the field of bridge engineering, Kulicki attended and taught at both rival campuses. “At Lehigh—and Lafayette as well,” he’s careful to say, “the faculty provided role models of professionals who were not only very bright and skilled at what they did, they were also good people.”

Both schools had a profound effect on Kulicki’s success. As he puts it, the “specialized knowledge I learned in some of the advanced graduate courses taken at Lehigh, as well as the solid design background from Lafayette,” enabled him to pursue difficult and innovative projects.

Kulicki has been recognized throughout his career for his contributions and his dedication to engineering. In 1984 and again in 1991, Engineering News-Record, one of the oldest and most influential journals in the construction industry, named Kulicki as one of its “Men Who Made Marks.”

In 1996, Kulicki was awarded the George S. Richardson Medal at the International Bridge Conference for leading the development and implementation of the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Specifications mandated by the Federal Highway Administration. In 2001, he received a “Special Citation” from the National Steel Bridge Alliance. The following year, he garnered a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the American Institute of Steel Construction and designation and was named “Engineer of the Year” by the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers.

Kulicki’s other honors include the Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award from the Transportation Research Board, John A. Roebling Award from the American Society for Civil Engineering (ASCE) for lifetime achievement in bridge engineering, and the J. Lloyd Kimbrough award from the American Institute of Steel Construction for his achievements in bridge analysis and design.

Kulicki was elected in 2006 to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors bestowed on engineers, and designated a lifetime National Associate of the National Research Council in 2008. He is also an inaugural Fellow in ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute.

After serving as chairman and CEO of Modjeski and Masters, Kulicki this year was named chairman emeritus and senior technical advisor.

So, if you are heading to the big game this weekend, be on the lookout for a dapper gentleman sporting Brown and White. And maybe a wee bit of maroon.
 

Story by Simona Galant ’18, a writer with the Dean’s Office of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science.