What is Hulsey's Forensic Structural Engineering Experience?

[Mick West]

Dr Leroy Hulsey and two of his students are conducting an investigation for Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth into the causes of the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7.

Dr. Hulsey is an experienced and active professor of Civil Engineering who has co-authored numerous papers in the last decade alone - mostly on bridges and the effects of cold weather on structures like bridges. He has a Ph.D in Structural Engineering, and is currently the department chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

In the context of his AE911 work, Dr. Hulsey has been described as a "Forensic Structural Engineer". Richard Gage described him on 9/10/2017 as "one of the top forensic structural engineers in the country". However I can't tell if this is accurate, as it's nearly ONLY used in that context.

Since many proponents of 9/11 Truth argue that for the validity of Dr. Hulsey's credentials, and since "forensic structural engineer" would be an ideal credential, then it would be good if this credential could be backed up.

He is not described as "forensic" on his university web page, where the word "forensic" does not appear.
http://cem.uaf.edu/cee/people/leroy-hulsey.aspx

Dr. Hulsey has University and corporate experience. Before coming to the University, Dr. Hulsey owned and run three high-tech engineering-research corporations. He has extensive teaching and research experience. He taught at the University of Missouri Rolla, North Carolina State University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). While at UAF he has been an active researcher, served as Department Head and participated in numerous university committees.

Nor does it appear on this older resume (page 244)

It DOES occur on his LinkedIn page though (misspelled twice)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-leroy-hulsey-31141720/

Owner

• Company Name Alignment Systems, Inc.
  Dates Employed1993 – Present
  
  Employment Duration 24 yrs
  Software development; development of advanced structural composite systems; Design of bridges; buildings and complex structures such as water slides; etc. Dr. Hulsey also provides consulting services for those requiring Foresnic engineering; instrumentation and monitoring.
  
  
• Associate Director of the Alaska University Transportation Center & Prof of Structural Engineering
  Company NameUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks
  Dates Employed1987 – Present
  
  Employment Duration 30 yrs
  LocationFairbanks, Alaska
  Bridges; advanced composites; instrumentation; Structural Health Monitoring and Forensic engineering for complex structures.
  
  
• 
  President
  Company Name Alignment Systems, Inc.
  Dates EmployedJan 2002 – Jun 2013
  
  Employment Duration 11 yrs 6 mos
  Location620 Cambridge Drive
  Foresnic Engineering; Instrumentation and testing; numerical modeling; and expert witness.

That's a little odd, as the words "forensic engineering" only come up twice on the uaf.edu web site, and neither are in connection with Dr. Hulsey.
https://www.google.com/search?q="forensic+engineering"+site%3Auaf.edu

Dr. Hulsey's company Alignment Systems Inc does not have much a web presence. The Google Reviews page has five five-star reviews from 9-10 months ago that do not really indicate what type of work was done.
https://www.google.com/search?num=50&q=Alignment Systems Inc fairbanks&oq=Alignment+Systems+Inc+fairbanks

Their web site was created on 2016-09-23 (about 12 months ago) and is currently down, and has no history. http://alignmentsystemsinc.com/

They have a facebook page from September 2016, with four followers and one five star review from an account with one friend who appears to be a professional positive reviewer whose friends are also reviewers.
https://www.facebook.com/Alignment-Systems-Inc-524881741036484/

They have a Tumblr page from the same time period:

Source: https://alignmentsystemsinc.tumblr.com/post/152644656314/construction-claims-service-in-fairbanksak-99709
And then there's a Vimeo account with a video made with stock footage, and then the same thing on YouTube. And then a variety of company directory entries that mistakenly classify it as a wheel alignment company
http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/28504850/Alignment-Systems-Inc

Founded in 2005, Alignment Systems Inc is a small organization in the automotive repair shops industry located in Fairbanks, AK. It has 1 full time employee and generates an estimated $112,824 USD in annual revenue.

This odd cluster of social media sites, including a fake looking FourSquare account, and a suspended Twitter account, suggests that someone was paid to establish a social media presence in the fall of 2016. Probably http://411locals.com/ as that's listed as the contact to renew his expired web pageThis is not an uncommon thing for an older business to do. The lifetime of the company has variously been listed as 1993-present and 2002-2013 (both on Linkedin), and 2001-present (in 2011). Presumably he was acting as a consultant, and in about September 2016 decided to increase his social media reach using 411Locals, but did not renew it after a year.

However there's basically zero mention of his business name on the internet prior to 2016. So it seems very difficult to determine what exactly Dr. Hulsey's experience is in the field of Forensic Structural Engineering. All that I can tell he has done that comes close is monitor the structural health of bridges.

[Update] While the odd social media stuff might look suspicious, I looked up 411local on Yelp, and they had several terrible reviews about very pushy marketing. So quite possibly he just got talked into it by some salesman, then did not renew.

 

[FatEarther]

The review from Amy Springer smells of fake due to her wording:

"I really admire people like Dr H";

then

"It's an honour and pleasure to work with such a person"; which to me so far makes it sound like she knows him, but then the next sentence says:

"Highly recommend THEM...". If you know the person personally, why would you then 'accidently' call him 'THEM'?

Sounds like a bot.

 

[Mick West]

Hulsey says:
http://noliesradio.org/archives/128816

Hulsey: I was involved in a project in North Carolina, it wasn't a tall building, kind of like a WalMart or K-Mart, where the contractor was putting up a metal building. They had it up, but they didn't have it completely covered, they went home for the weekend, the wind came through and blew it down. The questions is, was the contractor responsible, was the supplier responsible? And so we got involved and looked at all the pieces of the puzzle, and had a report, and that was forensic engineering: evaluating the cause, evaluating the failure, and coming up with the reason, and who, not necessarily who, but certainly the cause of the failure.

Okay, that's a start. Sometime before 1990 (when he moved to Alaska) he assisted in determining if anyone was at fault when a low metal structure under construction was blown down. That type of thing certainly fits the bill, bit it was a long time ago (nearly 30 years), and it's unclear what his personal involvement was.

 

[deirdre]

It could be more a self imposed title vs an academic credential. Based on this page from Columbia, there may not have been such a thing as "Forensic Engineer" until recently. Wayback only has the page marked as of 2012 .

Engineering investigation and determination of the causes of structural failures of buildings, bridges and other constructed facilities, as well as rendering opinions and giving testimony in judicial proceedings, often referred to as Forensic Structural Engineering, has become a field of professional practice of its own in the US.
....
The purpose of the concentration in Forensic Structural Engineering is to acquaint graduate students, as well as other young practicing professionals, with various aspects of the field, to provide them with the basics for the investigation of failures and understanding some of the pertinent legal aspects, and to prepare them for the eventual practice of forensic structural engineering.

 

[Mick West]

It could be more a self imposed title vs an academic credential. Based on this page from Columbia, there may not have been such a thing as "Forensic Engineer" until recently. Wayback only has the page marked as of 2012 .

"Forensic Engineering" has been in use at least since the 1980s. But yes, he might simply have referred to it as "structural engineering" back them.

Still the point remains that there's almost no examples of his work in the field.

 

[Ph_]

"Forensic Engineering" has been in use at least since the 1980s. But yes, he might simply have referred to it as "structural engineering" back them.

Ever since the CSI shows "Forensic" has become a buzzword as a prefix for people who are experts in a certain field.

 

[deirdre]

Still the point remains that there's almost no examples of his work in the field.

yea I keep looking in between and I cannot find any verification so far. Something he said about his [alleged] partner and computers rang a bell though, so I was rereading about a collapse we had near me and thought this excerpt was apt to the current situation

The computer is simply an analytical tool and can never guarantee the correct solution. The operator should be experienced and competent about all information that is put into the model and fully understand all of the information given out. Assumptions should be checked and compared to the as-built conditions to verify that field measurements match those of the original design https://failures.wikispaces.com/Hartford+Civic+Center+(Johnson)

 

[Jeffrey Orling]

yea I keep looking in between and I cannot find any verification so far. Something he said about his [alleged] partner and computers rang a bell though, so I was rereading about a collapse we had near me and thought this excerpt was apt to the current situation

The computer is simply an analytical tool and can never guarantee the correct solution. The operator should be experienced and competent about all information that is put into the model and fully understand all of the information given out. Assumptions should be checked and compared to the as-built conditions to verify that field measurements match those of the original design https://failures.wikispaces.com/Hartford+Civic+Center+(Johnson)

Your quote is basically why the NIST and the Hulsey approaches are feeble attempts at explaining reality with a model and expecting anything close to fidelity is represented. You can't prove a thing without the as built measurements and all the data from the entire building during the course of the day.

 

[deirdre]

You can't prove a thing without the as built measurements and all the data from the entire building during the course of the day.

which is why professional forensic engineers would likely know to use words like "probable" in their reports.

I was more referring to the computer expertise part with that quote though.

 

[benthamitemetric]

Using Lexis Advances's search tools (which are the gold standard among us attorneys), I tried to find a record of Leroy Hulsey serving as an expert witness in federal or Alaska state litigation. There is no record of his involvement in any case, which strongly indicates that he hasn't actually been qualified as an expert in any actual litigation (unless it was 20+ years ago or in some other state).

There are literally thousands of structural engineers who do this sort of work regularly. It is serious work and highly lucrative to those who have the right skill set ($350-$700+ per hour for work on a major litigation, such as what Arup did for the Aegis Insurance case). If Hulsey hasn't even done this sort of work even once at a reasonably high level, it's a real stretch to call him an expert, let alone one of the top experts in the country.

It's also worth pointing out that there are multiple sub-groups within ASCE particular to forensic engineering (see here for the largest), which groups hold conferences, publish working papers, etc. There is no evidence that Hulsey has ever been active in any of them.

 

[Nada Truther]

Does anyone know of his level of interest in 9/11 and WTC 7 Prior to this investigation? What I mean is... Was he one of the 1000+ Architects and Engineers that supported the new investigation and a cover-up prior to being approached by A&E for 9/11 Truth, or did he just get involved recently? It would make me wonder why he got into the game so late, if he is just getting into it. it would make me wonder what his motivation is.

 

[Oystein]

Does anyone know of his level of interest in 9/11 and WTC 7 Prior to this investigation? What I mean is... Was he one of the 1000+ Architects and Engineers that supported the new investigation and a cover-up prior to being approached by A&E for 9/11 Truth, or did he just get involved recently? It would make me wonder why he got into the game so late, if he is just getting into it. it would make me wonder what his motivation is.

When this story broke in 2015, I checked on Hulsey, but could not find anything that connected him to the Truth movement. He was at no time a signer of their petition.
I didn't do a very exhaustive, stalking-level search on the interwebz, though.

I think if he had exposed himself as a Truther before that time, someone would have recognized him and called him out.

 

[totallackey]

"Forensic Engineering" has been in use at least since the 1980s. But yes, he might simply have referred to it as "structural engineering" back them.

Still the point remains that there's almost no examples of his work in the field.

With respect, what examples of any such work exists.

[off topic material removed]

 

[Mick West]

With respect, what examples of any such work exists.

A bit of googling will bring up several. Example:

https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2012/12/21/hawaii-department-of-education-says.html

A 40-foot section of the 58-year-old auditorium's roof collapsed during a heavy downpour. Nobody was hurt in the collapse.

According to the DOE, structural engineers from Kai Hawaii Structural & Forensic Engineers determined that one of the steel trusses that created the roof framing was not designed correctly. A small balcony almost doubled the weight the truss had to support.

Sure, it might be the type of thing that does not get written about. However if he was one of the nation's top forensic structural engineers you'd expect at least one recent example. Instead all we see is 30 years of monitoring Alaskan bridges.

 

[LardyL]

Having worked as a forensic scientist in the field of fire and explosion investigation since 1994 I can confirm that consultants describing themselves as forensic engineers have been around for at least 20 years. Generally there would have been some specialist forensic practitioners back then but not many at all, most of those involved were doing it as a sideline to their normal business roles.

Not so sure about forensic structural engineers though as in the early days we would deal with forensic architects in the UK as they were involved in structural fire precautions and later with fire engineers who took over that role and have branched into their own field in the intervening years. We also dealt with some building/constructional failures in our firm and the building specialists there were of various types, but I can't recall specifics from the mid-90s.

There are a wide variety of experts in the fields of forensic engineering however and some are more professional and "forensic" than others. You might find his Court appearances described in the various judgements, opinions and decisions. But on the other hand if he is a decent expert then there is good reason for him not to end up giving evidence. If your report is good enough then either your side will settle/fold or the other party will reason and settle/fold. Sometimes that depends upon the quality of the other expert!

 

[Paradigm_shift]

The review from Amy Springer smells of fake due to her wording:

"Highly recommend THEM...". If you know the person personally, why would you then 'accidently' call him 'THEM'?

Sounds like a bot.

She was previously talking about Hulsey specifically, then she's referring to the company - Alignment Systems Inc. when addressing a company, "them" is applicable.