2011 Honorary Degree
ZA-LEE MOH
Doctor of Engineering
Za-Lee Moh is a leading expert in infrastructure design, and his achievements include design and consultation on bridges and structures around the world. Dr. Moh is regarded as among the most highly respected engineers in Asia.
Moh is co-founder of Moh and Associates, a leading Asian engineering and consulting service provider, which began in 1975. The company - now employing more than 800 people in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Bangkok, and Singapore - operates as part of MAA. The firm is credited with revolutionizing geotechnical engineering in Taiwan. In its commitment to higher education, MAA put together a publication every five years, which includes all the papers published by its staff members during the past five years and has so far produced more than 400 technical articles.
Major works of Moh's career include design and consultation on numerous steel, reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete bridges, including the bridge over the Ohio River, the Aiea Interchange of the Hawaii Expressway and a cable stay bridge at Costa Rica. His building structure work includes many high-rise apartments, office buildings and hotel complexes in Honolulu, Taipei and Hong Kong. He provided structural consultation for the special Air-Raid Control Centers for Hawaii Telephone Co., for the West Virginia Broadcast Station, for the 50-story Sing Hong Kee Building, and the award-winning St. John's Building in Hong Kong.
Moh's career includes work for the Indiana State Highway Department, and the universities of West Virginia and Hawaii. He has served in leadership roles on numerous committees and boards. Among those are the China Road Federation, the Committee on Rail Transportation System of the Chinese Institute of Civil & Hydraulic Engineering, the Chinese Association of Engineering Consultants, and the Committee on Engineering Ethics of the Chinese Institute of Engineers.
He is a fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers (U.K.), the American Society of Civil Engineering, and the Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering.
After completing a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at National Taiwan University in 1950, Moh earned a master's degree in civil engineering in 1953 and a doctoral degree in structural engineering in 1960, both from Purdue.
Moh has received many accolades for his contributions to his profession and to higher education. He is a member of Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi. In 1995, he was listed in the Marquis Who's Who in the World and named by Purdue University as a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus. He is listed in the 2005 American Biographical Institute's Great Minds of the 21st Century. This year, Moh is being honored with the Distinguished Professional Civil Engineer Award during the Taipei Professional Civil Engineers 2011 annual meeting.
