CHAIRMAN OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURAL FIRM TO VISIT UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS TO DISCUSS THE COLLAPSE OF WORLD TRADE TOWERS

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Charles H. Thornton, Ph.D., P.E., chairman of Thornton-Tomasetti, a structural engineering firm based in New York City, will visit the University of Arkansas to discuss the factors involved in the collapse of the World Trade Towers and the potential design changes resulting from the disaster.

The speech will be held at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 10, in room 282 of the Bell Engineering Center on the UA campus. Thornton is the featured speaker with the UA Mack-Blackwell Transportation Center Distinguished Lecture Series, and he will be available for media questions following his speech.

Thornton-Tomasetti designed the world's largest building, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the firm was called within the first hour of the attacks on the World Trade Center to aid in the NYC disaster response effort.

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William Chesser, communications director, UA Mack Blackwell Transportation Center, (479) 575-6026, wchesser@uark.edu

Jay Nickel, assistant manager of media relations, (479) 575-7943, jnickel@uark.edu