Pulse Newsletter

March 15, 2016

2016 Annual Meeting

Session Highlight: Issues at the Intersection of Geotechnical and Structural Engineering

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The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute will hold its 68th Annual Meeting, April 5–8, 2016, in San Francisco, California.

With a theme of "Beyond the Epicenter: Expanding Our Risk Perspective," the meeting program will delve into unanticipated effects, blind spots, and new insights in earthquake engineering. On Thursday, April 7, an afternoon concurrent session will focus on "Issues at the Intersection of Geotechnical and Structural Engineering" with Jonathan Bray (M. EERI, 1990), Youssef Hashash (M. EERI, 1999), Ellen Rathje (M. EERI, 1996), and Sjoerd van Ballegooy (M. EERI, 2014). Presentations will examine multi-story office building performance at liquefied sites, review lessons learned about site response analysis from borehole arrays, summarize research on seismic interaction between tall buildings and underground structures, and describe liquefaction damage prediction and ground modification for building resiliency for residential construction.

For full program, logistic, and registration details, visit the 2016 Annual Meeting website.

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Announcements

WSSPC Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016 to Lucy Jones

lucy jonesThe Western States Seismic Policy Council (WSSPC) announced Lucile Jones (M. EERI, 2001) as the recipient of the 2016 WSSPC Lifetime Achievement Award in Earthquake Risk Reduction.

Jones is recognized nationally and internationally as an authority on natural hazards and disaster risk reduction. Most recently, she served as the Science Advisor for Seismic Safety to Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City of Los Angeles. Her consensus approach involved assembling task forces to develop solutions informed by the best available science and engineering and convening stakeholders in the State’s utilities to address vulnerabilities. Results included a comprehensive program to strengthen the water infrastructure in the City. A summary of Dr. Jones' accomplishments is located on the WSSPC website. external link icon

The mission of the Western States Seismic Policy Council (WSSPC) is to develop seismic policies and disseminate information about programs intended to reduce earthquake-related losses. The WSSPC Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes outstanding leaders in earthquake risk reduction who are actively practicing their profession. The recipient will have demonstrated throughout his or her career an extraordinary commitment, level of service, and contribution to the application of earthquake risk reduction to public policy. This year’s awards will be presented at the 2016 National Earthquake Conference Awards Luncheon May 5, 2016 at the Hilton Long Beach in Long Beach, California. Visit the conference website. external link icon

Grants for Mobility Learning between Europe and Latin America

Euro-Latin America partnership in natural risk mitigation and protection of cultural heritage (ELARCH), a mobility and scholarship project funded by the European Commission, offers grants for inter-university study with an application deadline of March 20, 2016.

ELARCH is organized in a partnership of prestigious universities in Europe and Latin America with an aim of fostering scientific cooperation in risk mitigation and heritage protection. The program offers a double full Masters degree course consisting of two special editions of existing masters (“Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions” at University of Minho, Portugal, and "Heritage and Intervention Design” at University of Basilicata, Italy). The double title includes a project-led education (September 2016 to June 2017) in Guimarães, University of Minho, and on-site education (June 2017 to April 2018) in Matera, University of Basilicata. Both locations are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, providing excellent teaching and research infrastructures. Grants are available for Masters Students, Postdocs, staff, and Undergraduates. Information and application can be found at http://call.elarch.org external link icon

Call for Abstracts: 2016 SEAOC Convention

seaoc16-bwThe 2016 Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC) Convention will take place October 12-15, 2016, at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa, Ka’anapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii. Convention website external link icon

Each year the convention offers a forum to share recent professional experiences with like-minded engineers. The technical theme for 2016 is “Recovering, learning, and rebuilding after recent Pacific Rim earthquakes.” Session topics will also include resilience and building rating systems, new codes/standards/guidelines, new research, other natural hazards, green building design, and sustainability.

Abstracts are requested for papers to be presented as part of the Technical Program. Interested presenters should upload an abstract of their paper (300 words or less) by March 18, 2016, via the convention's Call for Abstracts form. external link icon

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News of the Institute

Brendon Bradley to Receive 2015 EERI Shah Family Innovation Prize

BrendonBradleyProfessor Brendon Bradley (M. EERI, 2012) has been awarded the 2015 EERI Shah Family Innovation Prize. Bradley is a professor in the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the University of Canterbury and Deputy Director of QuakeCoRE: The Centre for Earthquake Resilience. An emerging leader in the profession, Bradley has made innovative and significant contributions to earthquake engineering research and practice.

With a generous gift from the Shah family, EERI annually awards the Shah Prize to young professionals and academics for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit in the field of earthquake risk mitigation and management.

Dr. Bradley has established himself as a leading researcher and scientist in several emerging fields of earthquake engineering. He is known for his empirical analysis and physics-based simulation of ground motion intensity, and his development of a generalized conditional intensity measure (GCIM) approach for ground motion selection. His open-source implementation of GCIM is now widely employed by research groups internationally. Bradley's work in performance-based earthquake engineering—identifying intensity measures for different soil­-foundation-structure systems and developing structure-specific seismic loss assessment methodologies—has been published in over 28 journal papers. Bradley has also collaborated on advanced seismic effective stress analysis and simplified pseudo-static analyses of liquefaction-related problems; participated in major post-earthquake reconnaissance efforts; and been recognized with numerous national and international awards.

In 2014, Bradley was honored as the youngest individual ever to receive the Shamsher Prakash Research Award, the most prestigious international award in geotechnical earthquake engineering, and, in 2015, was the youngest recipient ever of the Young Research Award given by the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering's Technical Committee on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering and Associated Problems (TC203).

Bradley has published 80 journal papers over the past seven years, 46 as the lead author and 25 as the sole author. He made outstanding contributions to research studies on the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes, and played a significant role in reshaping consideration of earthquake motions and seismic design in New Zealand. Professor Bradley co-led the establishment of QuakeCoRE, New Zealand's National Centre of Earthquake Resilience, and serves as its first Deputy Director.

EERI recognizes Brendon Bradley's prolific research contributions spanning many disciplines in earthquake engineering, his leadership in highly collaborative international research efforts, and his ongoing efforts to disseminate research to practice and to the public. He will be awarded the 2015 Shah Family Prize at the EERI Annual Meeting in San Francisco on April 7, 2016.

To learn more about the Shah Family Innovation Prize, visit the EERI website at https://www.eeri.org/about-eeri/honors-awards/shah-family-innovation-prize/ external link icon

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News of the Profession

Links to Recent News and Views

Ten recent stories, reports, or opinions from around the Web:

oneAnother Earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti? (Global Research) Was the January 12, 2010 event a coupled rupture of two faults? www.globalresearch.ca external link icon

twoBuilding back better (Oxfam America) Solidifying Haiti against disasters, by strengthening its people www.oxfamamerica.org external link icon

three7.5M Earthquake Threat to Modern Istanbul Shown in History (New Historian) How historical data can be applied to predicting and preparing for future natural disasters. www.newhistorian.com external link icon

fourNew Tech Helps Search-and-Rescue Dogs Find Earthquake Survivors (American Kennel Club) Backpack with GPS technology transmits live video to handlers www.akc.org external link icon

fiveFive Years After Japan’s 3/11 Quake, Survivors Find Relief in Recovery (Vanity Fair) Photographer Mark Edward Harris returns to a region still reeling from a devastating tsunami. www.vanityfair.com external link icon

sixWhat Japan tsunami reporters saw: "hell," despair, confusion (Associated Press) Reporter memories of Japan's "triple disaster" of March 11, 2011. bigstory.ap.org external link icon

sevenFukushima five years later (Stanford News) Nuclear expert offers three lessons from the disaster. news.stanford.edu external link icon

eightAfter the Big One (Motherboard) "Fact-based fiction" on the most devastating quake in US history hitting Portland, Oregon. motherboard.vice.com external link icon

nineSeismic study sends out shockwaves (Corvallis Gazette-Times) Oregon County wrestles with cost of courthouse retrofit. www.gazettetimes.com external link icon

tenEerie sounds heard at the heart of the Mariana Trench (Daily Mail) Recordings capture booming whales and rumbling earthquakes www.dailymail.co.uk external link icon

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Publications

Earthquake Spectra: Preprint Manuscripts

spectra 150Two preprint manuscripts have been posted to the Earthquake Spectra website prior to formal publication. The papers to be published are:

  • "Earthquake Loss Estimates and Policy Implications for Nonductile Concrete Buildings in Los Angeles" by Thalia Anagnos (M. EERI, 1982), Mary C. Comerio (M. EERI, 1988), and Jonathan P. Stewart (M. EERI, 1994).
  • "Using the Conditional Spectrum Method for Improved Fragility Assessment of Concrete Gravity Dams in Eastern Canada" by Carl Bernier, Ricardo Monteiro, and Patrick Paultre (M. EERI, 1984).

To read all current preprint manuscripts posted, visit Earthquake Spectra preprints. external link icon

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Chapter Spotlight

Utah Earthquake Resiliency Workshop on April 27

utah logo webThe Utah Chapter of EERI is pleased to announce the Utah Earthquake Resiliency Workshop to be held April 27, 2016, at the Viridian Event Center in West Jordan, UT. This event will bring together engineers, architects, planners, geologists, government officials, community leaders, business owners, utility companies, and representatives from healthcare, public education, universities, and transportation.

The workshop will bring in nationally known experts as keynote speakers with significant background in the field of resilience. Chris Poland, SE, NAE, (M. EERI, 1978), a world-renowned authority on earthquake engineering, will be speaking on Earthquake and Disaster Resiliency Planning. Kent Yu, PhD, SE, of SEFT Consulting Group will be speaking on the Oregon Recovery plan.

Panel discussions will include local and national experts to discuss such topics as:

  • Earthquakes: Public Perception vs Reality
  • The Critical Three: Schools, Housing, Jobs
  • Utah's Economic Resilience: Getting the Wheels Rolling
  • State Healthcare Resiliency Efforts: What Can We Learn?
  • Utilities and Infrastructure: Understanding the Interdependencies
  • The Role of Government: Mitigation Efforts and Recovery Expectations

Early registration prices are available now through April 13, 2016. Registration page external link icon

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