Fazlur Rahman Khan was a Bangladeshi-born American civil engineer who is remembered for his innovative structural systems, especially in high-rise building construction. Regarded as the “father of tubular designs,” he was also a pioneer in computer-aided designs . Khan later settled in Chicago, a city that eventually became the base for his ground-breaking structural marvels. He brought a revolution in the skyscraper construction technology during the latter half of the 20th century. He was also known as the ”Einstein of structural engineering” and amazed the world with some of his masterpieces, such as the ‘Sears Tower’and the ‘John Hancock Center’ His contribution to the field of structural engineering was aptly honored with countless awards and honorary positions. The ‘Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’ has established the ‘Fazlur Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal’ to felicitate outstanding engineers. Additionally, Khan published several papers and articles on structural engineering.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Dhaka in 1950, Khan worked as assistant engineer for the local highway department and taught at the University of Dhaka. Qualifying for a scholarship in 1952, he enrolled at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where he received master’s degrees in both applied mechanics and structural engineering and a Ph.D. in structural engineeg. The Sears Tower was his first skyscraper to employ the “bundled tube” structural system, which consists of a group of narrow steel cylinders that are clustered together to form a thicker column. This innovative system minimized the amount of steel needed for high towers, eliminated internal wind braces and permitted freer organization of the interior space.

He died of a heart attack at age 52 while in Jiddah and is buried in Chicago.