EERI is excited to announce that the 2023-2024 EERI/FEMA NEHRP Graduate Fellow is Kayla Sorenson (M.EERI 2021)!
Supported by funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the one-year fellowship seeks to foster the participation of those working toward goals and activities of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). To learn more about the fellowship, click here.
Kayla Sorenson is a PhD student in geotechnical engineering at Portland State University. Kayla’s research focuses on reducing the liquefaction susceptibility of fine-grained soils using the emerging method of microbially induced desaturation (MID). MID uses the soil’s native bacteria to introduce nitrogen and carbon dioxide gasses into the soil’s pore matrix which reduces the excess pore water pressure generated under cyclic loading. One of the goals of this research is to determine how much desaturation needs to occur to reduce the liquefaction susceptibility of the soil, thereby increasing its cyclic resistance.
Kayla has been part of the Student Leadership Council since 2020 and served as co-president last year. She has also been involved in the Portland State University student chapter, having held the role of president for two years. Additionally, she is involved in multiple outreach events aimed at strengthening the ties between the community, industry professionals, and local government officials. She obtained both a B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Portland State University.
Honorable Mention
EERI’s Student Awards Committee awarded an honorable mention to candidate Cristina Lorenzo-Velázquez (M.EERI 2020), who is pursuing a PhD in Civil Engineering at North Carolina State University.
