The Texas Structural Steel Institute established the Yura Research Prize in 2005 in recognition of Dr. Yura's distinguished career as a faculty member at the University of Texas. The Yura Research Prize is awarded annually to recognize an outstanding thesis or dissertation.
The 2008 Prize was awarded to Quan Chen for his dissertation "Effects of Thermal Loads on Texas Steel Bridges." Dr. Chen's research included both field studies and extensive parametric modeling of steel bridge systems. His work dramatically improved the understanding of thermal performance of steel bridges. He used the results from the field studies and three-dimensional finite element analyses to develop relatively simple methods of predicting the deformational requirements for both straight and curved steel bridge systems.