Jack Moehle, the Ed and Diane Wilson Presidential Professor of Structural Engineering at UC Berkeley, is the recipient of the 2020 George W. Housner Medal, which is awarded by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). The medal is bestowed for extraordinary and lasting contributions to public earthquake safety through the development and application of earthquake hazard reduction practices and policies.
Professor Moehle has played a leading role in the development of building codes and professional engineering guidelines for the design of new construction and the assessment and rehabilitation of seismically vulnerable existing construction, including Guidelines for Evaluation and Repair of Masonry and Concrete Walls (FEMA 306); Guidelines for Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings (FEMA 273 and ASCE 356); Development of Next-Generation Performance-Based Seismic Design Procedures for New and Existing Buildings (FEMA P-58); and Guidelines for Performance-Based Seismic Design of Tall Buildings (Tall Buildings Initiative, PEER). He has been a member of the ACI 318 Building Code Committee since 1989, Chair of the Seismic Provisions subcommittee from 1995-2014, and currently serves as the ACI 318 Chair.
From 1991 to 2001, Professor Moehle was the Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at UC Berkeley, and in 1996 he became the founding Director of PEER, where he served through 2008. Under his leadership, PEER pioneered the development of urban earthquake risk reduction technologies within a performance-based earthquake engineering framework.