The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and the Seismological Society of America (SSA) are pleased to announce that Helen Crowley (M.EERI 2008) is the 2024 recipient of the William B. Joyner Lecture Award. The lectureship is jointly awarded by EERI and SSA to those who have provided outstanding earth science contributions to the theory and practice of earthquake engineering or outstanding earthquake engineering contributions to the direction and focus of earth science research—together with demonstrated skills of communication at the interface of earthquake science and earthquake engineering.
Crowley will deliver the Joyner Lecture at the 2024 EERI Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, held from April 9-12, and at the 2024 SSA Annual Meeting to be held April 29-May 3 in Anchorage, Alaska. Her lecture, “Why Seismic Hazard Modeling has Become a Risky Business” will look at the role that probabilistic seismic hazard models have historically played in defining actions for seismic design, will review the criticisms that have been placed on these models—especially, but not only, after damaging earthquakes—and will present numerous examples that underline the need for risk assessment to be an integral part of this process going forward.
Crowley is the current Secretary-General of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation. She holds an M.Eng. in Civil Engineering from Imperial College London and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Earthquake Engineering from the University of Pavia (ROSE School). She has collaborated closely with both the engineering seismology and earthquake engineering communities in Europe, as a member of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) Seismology Consortium, and the coordinator of the development of the first, open European Seismic Risk Model (ESRM20), and won the 2009 European Geosciences Union Plinius Medal for her contributions to the field. Her research has touched on many topics related to seismic risk mitigation, from the definition of seismic actions for earthquake loss models and seismic design codes, to the development of regional exposure and vulnerability models for the built environment. She has nearly 200 publications, including more than 70 papers in international peer-reviewed publications, covering many aspects of earthquake engineering with a common thread of earthquake risk estimation.
Crowley is currently Editor of Earthquake Spectra, where she previously served as an Associate Editor. She is also the recipient of the 2012 Shah Family Innovation Prize.
For more information about the Joyner Lecture Award, visit the EERI honors and awards page or the SSA website here.
