The fib SYMPOSIUM 2020, jointly organized by the Chinese National Group of fib and Tongji University, was successfully held online during 22nd to 24th November, 2020. With the theme of “Concrete Structures for Resilient Society”, the topic of the symposium covered the development and innovation within areas from concrete materials to structures.

This international symposium gathered engineers and researchers working in the field of concrete structures, providing an opportunity to discuss the latest research progress and share their insights into the future development and application prospect of concrete materials and structures. This meeting was also supported by State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering and the BRIDGE Magazine.

The opening ceremony of the fib SYMPOSIUM 2020 was held on 15:00PM BJT, 22nd November, 2020. The opening ceremony was chaired by Prof. Bin Zhao, the Committee Chair and Deputy Chair of Department of Disaster Mitigation for Structures in Tongji University. The following welcome speeches were delivered by Mr. Tor Ole Olsen (Online), President of fib, Prof. Xianglin Gu, Vice President of Tongji University, Prof. Xilin Lu, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering from Tongji University, Prof. Dabin Feng, Member of Concrete and Prestressed Concrete Branch of Chinese National Group of fib from China Academy of Building Research, Prof. Xianzhong Zhao, Dean of College of Civil Engineering in Tongji University. At the opening ceremony, the general assembly conferred the status of ‘Honorary Life Member’ upon Prof. Xilin Lu from Tongji University and the status of ‘Achievement Medal’ upon Prof. Petr Hájek from Czech Technical University in Prague, in recognition of their significant personal contributions to the work of the fib. The fib selects one Honorary Life Member every year. Prof. Xilin Lu is the first Chinese scholar to receive such award from the fib.

Distinguished guests attended the offline opening ceremony of the conference in Shanghai, including SecretaryGeneral Fuqian Xu from China Academy of Building Research, Prof. Jianzhong Li, the director of State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering and Vice Dean of College of Civil Engineering in Tongji University, Prof. Huanjun Jiang, Vice Dean of College of Civil Engineering in Tongji University, Prof. Ying Zhou, Chair of Department of Disaster Mitigation for Structures in Tongji University, Prof. Qingjun Chen, Deputy Chair of Department of Disaster Mitigation for Structures in Tongji University, and Prof. Wensheng Lu, General Party Branch Secretary of Department of Disaster Mitigation for Structures in Tongji University.

The organizing committee invited Prof. Luc R. Taerwe from Ghent University in Belgium (Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium), Prof. Xianglin Gu from Tongji University, Dr. Paolo Negro from European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA), Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Dr. Akio Kasuga (Deputy President and Presidium member of the fib，Incoming President from 2021), Prof. Jean Michel Torrenti from Ecole Nationale des ponts et Chaussées, Prof. Kun-peng Gu from Engineering Structural Reinforcement and Restoration Institute in CCCC Third Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd. and other well-known scholars and experts to deliver six keynote speeches, respectively entitled “Towards resilient concrete structures in a digitalized world”, “Seismic behavior of shear-critical RC columns under different lateral loading directions”, “Sustainability of constructions: the challenge of the integrated seismic strengthening and energy upgrading of existing buildings”, “A challenge to non-metallic bridges”, “Concrete and climate change: how can we solve the problem?”, and “Concrete crack control technology and its application in super-large cast-in-situ tunnel”. The symposium was divided into 8 sessions, with 28 sub-sessions and a special sub-session for “the application of fiber reinforced concrete”. 204 presentations were arranged for the scholars to conduct academic exchanges through online discussion via video speech and real-time online discussion, and successfully achieved the goal of the conference.

After the successful completion of all the oral presentations, the closing ceremony of SYMPOSIUM 2020 was held on 18:00PM BJT, November 24th, 2020. On behalf of the conference committee, Prof. Bin Zhao, the Deputy Chair of Department of Disaster Mitigation for Structures in Tongji University, summarized the conference and expressed the deepest thanks to all attendees, reviewers of the conference papers, chairmen of the conference venue and sub-conference venues, sponsors, supporting organization and conference services staff.Fib President Mr. Tor Ole Olsen also gave the best wishes to all attendees, conference organizers and relevant personnel. The next International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib) SYMPOSIUM will be held in Lisbon, Portugalduring 14th to 16th June, 2021. Prof. Eduardo Julio, the organizing committee of the Conference, on behalf of the conference organizers, welcomed all the engineers, scientists, specifiers, concrete technologists, researchers, academics, practitioners and professionals to attend the conference. Meanwhile, a welcome video of the International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib) 2022 was also played. After that, the conference was officially closed.

This conference was held at the time when COVID-19 was still spreading around the world. The organizers and co-organizers of the conference overcame the difficulties with careful preparation and cooperation and made the success of this important event.

The opening ceremony of the conference was held both online and offline in Shanghai

Professor Xilin Lu was awarded ' Honorary Life Member' by the International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib)