“Lifetime Achievement Award” for Urs Meier

CFRP pioneer Meier had given the keynote address at the start of the conference, which was attended by some 250 delegates from the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe, on the construction of a network arch bridge near Stuttgart using CFRP suspension cables. In May 2020, a 127-meter-long railroad bridge over the A8 freeway near Stuttgart, whose 72 suspension cables are made entirely of CFRP and were manufactured by Empa spin-off Carbo-Link in Fehraltorf, was completed. This ultra-light yet enormously strong material had been developed to a large extent at Empa since the 1990s on the initiative and under the leadership of Urs Meier, and has since been used in more and more structures.