Director
Biography
Ellen M. Rathje, Ph.D., P.E., is a Professor of geotechnical engineering in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a B.S. in civil engineering from Cornell University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been a faculty member at the University of Texas since 1998. She has served EERI as chair of the Student Activities Committee, as a student chapter faculty advisor at the University of Texas, and as a member of the Special Projects and Initiative Committee. She is currently a member of the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee (SESAC) for the USGS and part of the Organizing Committee for the 9th US National and 10th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering.
Dr. Rathje’s research focuses on geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. Her work has encompassed the seismic stability of earth structures and slopes, strong ground motion and site response, field liquefaction evaluation and soil improvement, and the application of remote sensing to earthquake damage assessment. She is co-PI of the NEES@UTexas equipment site at the University of Texas, and has been involved in several post-earthquake reconnaissance investigations. She currently serves as the co-chair of the Geo-engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association and in this role has interacted with the EERI Learning from Earthquakes Program.
Rathje’s awards include the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Arthur Casagrande Award from ASCE, the Shah Innovation Prize from EERI, and the Shamsher Prakash International Research Award.
Vision
EERI is a remarkable organization with a compelling vision of minimizing earthquake losses, and it has a history of bringing diverse earthquake professionals together to help achieve its goals. EERI has been successful in serving many constituents (academics, professionals, governmental agencies, students) and has demonstrated effective technology transfer through various workshop and meeting activities. These activities have made EERI one of the most effective professional organizations related to natural disasters. Additionally, Susan Tubbesing has been a transformational leader for EERI over the last 22 years, and the future includes an important and exciting transition with Jay Berger coming on board as the new Executive Director.
One of the most pressing challenges to EERI is the need to engage a new generation of earthquake professionals through interactions with undergraduate and graduate students. The newly formed Student Leadership Council and Undergraduate Student Design Competition are important activities that are exposing more students to structural earthquake engineering and encouraging them to join this field. However, we must do more to engage students in other earthquake-related fields: geology, seismology, geotechnical engineering, and social sciences, such that these important aspects of earthquake science and engineering are not underrepresented in EERI. One approach to get students in these fields to participate in EERI is to develop activities that are compelling to them. Ensuring that EERI activities are focused on diverse earthquake-related fields will not only attract more students to EERI, it will also attract more professional members from these fields to EERI. These are important endeavors as we move forward over the next five years.
To fully realize its vision, EERI must be engaged in the global earthquake community. It is critical that we strengthen our relationships with earthquake engineering professional organizations across the world, and that we interact with grass-roots organizations that are working with communities and governments to minimize earthquake risk. It is through these activities that EERI can truly make a difference and reduce future earthquake losses.
I am proud to have been a member of EERI for over 10 years and to have been actively involved in the organization in many ways. As a Board member, I hope to bring my experience to the table to help EERI continue its success in the future. I look forward to the opportunity.
