A 51ÁÔÆæ engineering professor has been chosen to serve on a committee that will review the failure and collapse of the mammoth radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico last year.<\/p>\n
Habib Tabatabai, director of 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Structural Engineering Lab, will serve on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine ad hoc committee<\/a> investigating the collapse. Tabatabai is an expert in bridge engineering and assessment issues, most notably the long-term durability and reliability of cable-stayed bridge structures.<\/p>\n Once the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, Arecibo’s 900-ton equipment platform, suspended some 500 feet above the dish, collapsed in December 2020<\/a> after the last of its support cables failed. It had been completed in 1963 and researchers from around the world used the telescope in their studies of radio astronomy, planetary science, atmospheric science, climate science and more.<\/p>\n