As 2023 comes to a close, I want to thank our members for your dedication and commitment to EERI. Hundreds of volunteers—committee members, chapter officers, reconnaissance team participants, Spectra reviewers, student volunteers, meeting organizers, Board members, and more—have contributed thousands and thousands of hours of time and expertise to furthering our mission as we work together to learn from earthquakes and build a more resilient future. The achievements I name below would not be possible without you.
Here are just a few highlights of what we have accomplished together this year:
- In the wake of the devastating M7.8 and M7.6 earthquakes that struck Turkey in February, Learning From Earthquakes (LFE) launched its largest reconnaissance response since the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. A joint EERI-GEER advance team was en route to the region a week after the earthquakes, and three more LFE teams followed a month later. To share their findings, we collaborated with StEER on a preliminary virtual reconnaissance report and with GEER on a joint reconnaissance report, organized a rapid-response plenary session at the 2023 Annual Meeting, and hosted a series of five LFE reconnaissance webinars. This work continues—the 2024 Annual Meeting will feature a special programming track developed in cooperation with NEHRP, and the Spectra team is hard at work preparing the special collection that will be published next year.
- Earthquake Spectra’s 2022 Impact Factor rose to 5.0 from 4.330 in 2021, thanks to the dedication and skill of our editorial team led by Jack Baker and the high quality of the papers submitted, many of them authored by members like you.
- Nearly 800 people attended EERI’s 2023 Annual Meeting and the 2023 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition in San Francisco in April, which marked the 50th anniversary of our flagship Learning From Earthquakes program with a series of plenaries highlighting the impacts of earthquake reconnaissance past, present, and future. We also had the pleasure of recognizing the dedication and achievement of several outstanding members in EERI’s 2023 awards and honors ceremony.
- EERI welcomed a vibrant new regional chapter in the Carolinas, and four new student chapters at universities in the United States, Turkey, and Peru.
- EERI hosted 15 webinars, many of them organized with committees and regional chapters, with a total live audience of over 3500 people. Thousands more have viewed the recordings on our YouTube account.
- Student chapters hosted 21 visits from Friedman Family Visiting Professionals at universities around the United States.
- The LFE Endowment Campaign has brought us within 10% of our total goal of raising $4 million to achieve sustainable funding for the program, thanks to the generosity of our members and the hard work of the Fundraising Committee. We’ve launched a year-end campaign to add another $20,000 by the end of this month, and 2024 will bring a final drive to get us across the finish line. Thank you to all of you who have contributed so far to this essential campaign!
I also want to mention some of the things you can look forward to seeing from EERI in 2024:
- We’re putting together a great 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle, and you’ll hear more about those efforts from EERI President Janiele Maffei soon. The meeting will feature a two-day technical program, a reconnaissance workshop and field exercise based on a Seattle Fault 7.5 scenario hosted in cooperation with the Washington Geological Survey, and much more.
- Planning is also underway for the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering to be held in 2026.
- EERI is developing a bid to host the 2028 World Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Los Angeles.
- Earthquake Spectra plans to release four special collections in 2024—including one on the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence, one on the update of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Model, and one on advancements in broadband fault-to-structure earthquake simulations.
- Fall 2024 will see the release of a new membership database and system to keep you better connected with EERI and our community.
As the year closes, I am also opening a new chapter for my family as we welcome a new baby. During my leave, EERI Director of Programs Maggie Ortiz-Millan will be stepping into the role of Acting Executive Director. With full support of our exemplary staff and dedicated Board of Directors, EERI’s leadership will remain strong and stable. I look forward to seeing EERI’s progress over the next several months when I return from leave. In the meantime, I encourage you to show your support for Maggie and EERI’s leadership team by renewing your membership for 2024 and registering to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting.
I wish each of our members a joyous holiday season and a very happy and prosperous new year in 2024!
Sincerely,
Heidi Tremayne
Executive Director
