Dr. Benjamin Schafer awarded MBMA’s 2026 Ellifritt Award

In addition to his role as a professor, Dr. Schafer has served in a variety of academic and industry leadership roles.

The Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) presented Dr. Benjamin Schafer with the 2026 Duane S. Ellifritt Research Award. Named after MBMA’s original director of research and engineering, this honor is given annually to a researcher whose contributions led to advancements within the metal building systems industry. Dr. Schafer accepted the award at the 2026 MBMA Research Symposium in Orlando, Florida, Dr. Schafer is the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil and Systems Engineering and the Director of the Ralph O’Connor Sustainability Energy Institute (ROSEI) at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“Congratulations to Dr. Schafer, who has been an invaluable partner to MBMA for more than 20 years,” said Jon-Paul (JP) Cardin, P.E., MBMA’s current director of research and engineering.  “His research has deepened the industry’s understanding of metal building systems and driven meaningful advancements in performance and safety. Just as importantly, he has played a central role in translating that research into the codes and standards that guide and regulate our industry. It has been an honor to work with Dr. Schafer over the years, and MBMA looks forward to continuing this relationship for many years to come."

In addition to his role as a professor,  Dr. Schafer has served in a variety of academic and industry leadership roles, including as associate director for the Academic Center for Reliability and Resilience in Offshore Wind, chair of the Structural Stability Research Council, president of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute (CFSEI), director of the Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium and North American editor of the journal Thin-Walled Structures.

With a B.S. degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, Dr. Schafer has taught at Johns Hopkins since 2000 and served as Civil and Systems Engineering chair from 2009-15. He specializes in the behavior and design of thin-walled structures; specifically, cold-formed steel structures. Enabling engineers to design resilient structures that require minimal material is the focus of Schafer’s research, while translating those developments into accepted codes and standards is core to what he does and has enabled the industry to implement his findings.

Dr. Schafer has led multiple research projects sponsored by MBMA, including work that led to updates and improvements to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) S100 Cold-Formed Specification and AISC 360 Structural Steel Specification. He has performed full-scale seismic testing on cold-formed steel load-bearing buildings and evaluated metal building system seismic response modification coefficients. Dr. Schafer’s seismic research has significantly advanced the understanding of how metal buildings behave as integrated structural systems when subjected to applied loads. He has earned numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (AISC), the 2022 AISI Leadership Award, the Norman Medal, the Huber Research Prize and the ASCE Collingswood Prize for research and service in structural engineering. He has also been recognized for outstanding teaching and mentoring by Johns Hopkins.

The MBMA research award is named for Dr. Ellifritt, who was teaching at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1975 when he was appointed as the first director of research and engineering for MBMA. He served in that role until 1985 when he returned to teaching as a professor of civil engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he taught until his retirement in 2010. Throughout his life, artistic expression was evidenced through his prolific works in various mediums. He always traveled with his sketch book and would transform his favorite drawings into intricate watercolors. His home and art studio were wall-to-wall with original vignettes of his observations of life, especially his interest in bridges and other structures. His most famous work, the Steel Structure, is a teaching sculpture that stands on the Gainesville campus and has been reproduced nearly 200 times at colleges and universities around the world. He passed away in 2018. The Ellifritt family was honored that MBMA has chosen to memorialize his achievements in this way.

About MBMA

Founded in 1956, MBMA serves manufacturers and suppliers that work with industry professionals, architects, building designers, educators, building code officials and others to advance the metal building systems industry. The efforts of member volunteers and association staff regularly lead to industry improvements and groundbreaking research. Resources at MBMA.com include technical materials, research reports, videos and design guides. The MBMA News provides the most current research and new ideas to propel the industry. MBMA also provides graduate and undergraduate educational resources at MBMAeducation.org.