Henry Petroski, the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and professor of history at Duke University, will give the Fred K. Darragh Jr. Distinguished Lecture tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street.

In his talk, Why Ships Sink and Bridges Fall Down, Petroski will discuss how success and failure are related to each other from engineering and design perspectives. His newest book, To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure, is about why ships sink, bridges collapse, and engineered systems of all kinds can misbehave. The lecture will be followed by a book signing and reception.

Seating is open, and reservations are requested, but not required, to Lee Ann Blackwell, CALS PR Specialist, or 918-3029.

Petroski has written broadly on the topics of design, success, and failure, and the history of engineering and technology. His seventeen books on these subjects include To Engineer Is Human, Design Paradigms, and Engineers of Dreams, which deal principally with large structures like bridges. He has also written about small, common things in his books The Pencil, The Toothpick, The Evolution of Useful Things, and Small Things Considered. His most recently published books include An Engineer’s Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession, which is a collection of serious and not-so-serious observations, lists, reflections, and speculations relating to the engineering profession.