Director
Biography
Reginald DesRoches, Ph.D., is a Professor and Associate Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. He earned his bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. He has served EERI in numerous capacities, including the Nominations Committee, the Student Activities Committee, and the Learning from Earthquakes Committee. He is a member of the editorial board for Earthquake Spectra. He was also a founding faculty of the Georgia Tech student chapter of EERI and currently serves as their faculty advisor.
Professor DesRoches’s primary research interests are seismic resistant design and retrofit of bridges, passive energy systems for bridges and buildings, structural applications of smart and auto-adaptive materials, and earthquake response of seaport structures. Professor DesRoches was an active member of the Mid-America Earthquake Center, and is currently the deputy director of the NEESR Grand Challenge Project on Seismic Risk Management for Port Systems. He has published over 140 articles in archival journals and conference proceedings, and has supervised 25 doctoral and MS thesis students.
His service activities include chairing the ASCE Seismic Effects Committee and the Executive Committee of the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE). He is on the Board for Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment for the National Research Council. He is a past member of the National Research Council (NRC) committee that developed a long term research agenda for NEES and is currently a member of the NRC committee reviewing the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Program being developed by the Corps of Engineers.
Dr. DesRoches was a 2001 National Science Foundation CAREER award recipient, and was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2002. He is a two-time invitee to the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Program (2002 & 2004). He is a recipient of the 2007 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, and the Georgia Tech ANAK Award (2007) for leadership in teaching and research.
Vision
I fully support and share EERI’s vision of “a world in which potential earthquake losses are widely understood and for which steps are taken to address the risks”. No other organization harnesses the powers of such a diverse group of people, who range from engineers to architectures to planners to social scientists – all with the express goal of reducing the risks from earthquakes in the United States and around the world.
EERI’s strategic plan presents a bold vision that builds upon its existing strengths, while fully recognizing the many changes taking place around the world. The initiatives focused on education and outreach are particularly critical to the future of EERI, and have been a major emphasis of my early career at Georgia Tech. My work with K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students has helped to excite and educate a new generation of students with an understanding and appreciation for mitigating the effects of earthquakes.
As the demographics of the United States continues to change, it will be important to excite and engage an entire new generation of engineers. Programs such as the EERI student chapters and the undergraduate seismic design competitions are perfect avenues for ensuring that young minds from diverse backgrounds are exposed to the excitement of our mission.
There are numerous local and global changes that will make natural hazard mitigation more challenging and make the leadership of organizations like EERI even more critical. The aging infrastructure, escalating populations in hazardous areas, and the increasing interdependence among the many infrastructure sectors that we study and try to protect are just a few of the challenges we face as we continue to find new and creative ways for managing the earthquake risks. Climate changes as well as the need to find solutions that are sustainable present a challenge to our communities. EERI must continue to bring together a multidisciplinary group and take advantage of new technologies in emerging fields to address these critical issues. I believe no other organization is better prepared to manage these challenges than EERI. As a member of the Board of Directors, I will work with our members to continue the great tradition of EERI.
