News

The PEER Student Committee (PSC) is hosting the first annual PEER Pitches Contest during a special session of the PEER Researchers' Workshop on September 19 & 20, 2022. Participating students will be given a limit of 5 minutes to pitch a research idea via an oral presentation with digital visual aids over Zoom or in-person. The best pitch, judged based on PEER-aligned objectives, originality of the presentation, and technical content, will be selected to win a gift card and certificate of recognition from PEER.

The Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has issued an Event Briefing for the Mw 7.0 Earthquake that occurred on July 27, 2022, in the northern Philippines.

Thank you for joining the PEER Student Committee for our 2021-2022 "Meet the PEER Students'' Series. We conclude this year’s series with a self-spotlight of our PEER Student Committee members. Watch the video(link is external) and read the written interview.

PEER has published Report No. 2022/04: "The PEER International Pacific Rim Forum 2021: Regional-Scale Simulations of Earthquake Ground Motions and Infrastructure Response for Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering." It was authored by David McCallen, University of Nevada Reno, Floriana Petrone, University of Nevada Reno, Elnaz Esmaeilzadeh Seylabi, University of Nevada Reno, Arben Pitarka, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Norman Abrahamson, UC Berkeley, and Sherif Elfass, University of Nevada Reno.

PEER celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the UC Berkeley shaking table on June 24, 2022, at the Earthquake Simulator Laboratory facility at Richmond Field Station. Over 80 researchers, practitioners, former and current students attended the event to commemorate the impact of the table on the field of earthquake engineering.

The Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has issued an Event Briefing for the Mw 6.0 Earthquake that occurred on July 2, 2022 in Iran.

The OpenSRA project, supported by PEER and sponsored by the California Energy Commission (CEC), was featured in a special technical session at the 12th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (12NCEE), “Reimagining Risk and Resilience,” which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from June 27-July 1, 2022.

The Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has issued an Event Briefing for the Mw 5.9 Earthquake that occurred on 22 June 2022, Afghanistan.

La Academia De Ingenieria of Mexico inducted Khalid M. Mosalam and Eduardo Miranda as corresponding members on June 9, 2022, for their lifetime contributions to Earthquake Engineering.

PEER has published Report No. 2022/03: "Moment Resisting Frames Coupled with Rocking Walls Subjected to Earthquakes." It was authored by Mehrdad Aghagholizadeh, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California and Nicos Makris, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. https://doi.org/10.55461/MXXS2889

The impact of a PEER funded project "Development of the PEER Simulated Ground-Motion Database (PEER-SGD) for Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering" is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator (PI) David McCallen, Professor and Director of the Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research, University of Nevada, Reno. The Co-Principal Investigator is Floriana Petrone, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno. The Research Team includes Parmida Rahmani, Graduate Student Researcher, University of Nevada.

PEER has published Report No. 2022/02: "Micro-Inspired Continuum Modeling Using Virtual Experiments." It was authored by José E. Andrade, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, California Institute of Technology. https://doi.org/10.55461/RILY6540.(link is external)

Access the report and 2 page summary. Access the full listing of PEER reports.

Abstract

The impact of a PEER funded project "Workshop - Liquefaction Susceptibility Modeling" is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator (PI) is Armin W. Stuedlein, Professor, Oregon State University, Corvallis. The Co-Principal Investigators include Jonathan P. Stewart, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles and T. Matthew Evans, Professor, Oregon State University, Corvallis.

PEER has published Report No. 2022/01: "Capacity Limit States for Nonductile Bridge Columns." It was authored by Jin Zhou and Sashi K Kunnath, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis. https://doi.org/10.55461/FUTW2909(link is external)

Access the report and 2 page summary. Access the full listing of PEER reports.

Abstract

PEER has published Report No. 2021/11: "PEER Annual Report 2020-2021." It was authored by Khalid M. Mosalam and Amarnath Kasalanati, PEER. https://doi.org/10.55461/CGYK9154(link is external)

Access the report and 2 page summary. Access the full listing of PEER reports.

Executive Summary

Four PEER colleagues were recently honored with election to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)(link is external), which is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

I would like to wish all PEER researchers, students, industry partners and sponsors a very happy new year, 2022! Despite the remote work during the pandemic, the Center was active on Research, Education and Outreach fronts. Some of the highlights of the past year are summarized here.

The PEER Student Committee is pleased to present our next spotlighted researcher in the "Meet the PEER Students'' Series. The series features students and postdoctoral researchers who conduct exciting research projects, engage in leadership activities, and perform exceptional work. This month, we met Angshuman Deb, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Structural Engineering Department at UC San Diego.

The Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has issued an Event Briefing for the Mw 6.2 Petrolia Earthquake that occurred on 20 December, 2021. This Event Briefing is an abbreviated StEER response mechanism that briefly summarizes the event and any key lessons that can be learn

The American Society of Civil Engineers has awarded its 2022 H. Bolton Seed Medal to Jonathan D. Bray, Professor and Faculty Chair in Earthquake Engineering Excellence in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the College of Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. The H. Bolton Seed Medal recognizes outstanding contributions to teaching, research, and/or practice in geotechnical engineering.