Leonard J. Morse-Fortier, Ph.D., P.E.
Consulting Technical Director, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.
Len Morse-Fortier spent his early engineering career performing wind-tunnel testing. He later completed a Ph.D. and spent ten years teaching structural mechanics and building technology to architecture students, first at the University of Notre Dame, and later at MIT. During his time at MIT, he was asked to examine damage from Hurricane Andrew, effectively launching him toward his current practice of forensic engineering. He has accumulated more than 30 years of experience investigating failures and working to solve problems. Although he often claims to be a recovering academic, he recently returned to teaching for a few years in the University of Massachusetts Graduate Program in Architecture. Len is now largely retired from full-time practice and teaching, but he remains committed to his participation in ASCE’s Forensic Engineering Division.