McGraw-Hill Professional has just announced the publication of a new textbook on the structural design of masonry. The author is Richard E. Klingner, the L. P. Gilvin Professor of Civil Engineering in our Department of CAEE, and an international expert on masonry.
Klingner, R. E., Masonry Structural Design, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York, ISBN 0-07-163830-X, February 2010, 560 pp.
This new textbook brings together practical experience, laboratory research, and classroom teaching, and exemplifies the way that our structural engineering program at The University of Texas at Austin emphasizes structural behavior and design, and the transfer of research results to building codes and classroom teaching. 
It is above all practical, and intended to give undergraduate students, graduate students and experienced engineers confidence in applying modern building codes to the design of masonry elements and structures. Its design examples and point of view are rooted in Prof. Klingner's practical experience in engineering design and post-earthquake reconnaissance, and are complemented by more than 30 years of investigative experience carried out at the Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory, a world-class research arm of the Department of CAEE.
Many design requirements discussed in this book are the result of research discoveries made at Ferguson Laboratory, and transferred into practice by Prof. Klingner, CAEE graduate students, and colleagues. That research includes a current NSF NEES (Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation) project being carried out at Ferguson Laboratory and elsewhere, and a new project (supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology) on the seismic design of masonry. The book's extensive and unique treatment of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC), an innovative construction material, draws heavily on cutting-edge research carried out by Prof. Klingner and his students over the past 10 years at Ferguson Laboratory.
Finally, the book embodies more than 30 years' experience by Prof. Klingner in communicating complex concepts in ways that are meaningful to students as well as practicing engineers. That focus on teaching students and colleagues is fundamental to the mission of the Department of CAEE.