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Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan, known as the “Einstein of Structural Engineering,” devised the structural tube system that is utilized in most skyscraper designs since the 1960s. However, Dr. Khan did not set eyes on a skyscraper until he was 21 years old.

Fazlur R Khan was born on April 3, 1929, to Muslim parents in a small village near Dhaka, the capital city of modern-day Bangladesh. Khan grew up in a turbulent time in the Indian subcontinent which culminated in the partition of India into the dominions of India and Pakistan in 1947. This partition occurred largely along religious lines between non-Muslim and Muslim-majority regions and resulted in the displacement of between 10 and 20 million people.

Khan’s undergraduate education at Bengal Engineering and Science University in Calcutta was interrupted by post-partition riots when he escaped with peers back to Dhaka, fearing for his safety. He completed his civil engineering degree at the Ahsanullah Engineering College (now Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) and subsequently received a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to the United States for postgrad education in 1952.

In the United States, Khan received his first exposure to skyscrapers as he completed a master’s in theoretical and applied mechanics as well as a master’s and a PhD in structural engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, within three years. Interestingly, it was not the mid- and high-rise buildings of Chicago which inspired Khan’s innovations, but the bamboo which grew in his hometown near Dhaka. He found that the hollow tube shape lent a vertical stability which would extrapolate well to the efficient design of high-rise structures.

Khan joined the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1955. There he worked alongside structural engineer John Zils and architect Bruce Graham. The tubular system designs Khan developed allowed for a significant reduction in the mass of steel required to give a structure height and made the design of the first 100-story buildings economically and structurally feasible. Among his designs are the 110-story Sears (Willis) Tower and the 100-story John Hancock Center, both in Chicago.

In his personal life, Fazlur Khan enjoyed music and poetry. He said, “The technical man must not be lost in his own technology; he must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people."

In 1982, at age 52, Falzur Rahman Khan passed away suddenly from a heart attack while on a business trip in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His concepts have formed the foundation for modern skyscraper design worldwide.