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Board of Directors
Dr. S. K. Ghosh
Biography
Dr. S. K. Ghosh heads the seismic and building code consulting firm, S. K. Ghosh Associates, Inc., in Palatine, Illinois and Laguna Niguel, California. He was formerly Director, Engineering Services, Codes, and Standards, Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Illinois, and is Adjunct Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ghosh has influenced seismic design provisions in the United States for many years by serving on or chairing several committees and advisory panels. He played a major role in the development of shear wall design provisions of the UBC (Uniform Building Code) and the precast concrete design provisions of the UBC and the IBC (International Building Code). He has been an active participant in the development and updates of the NEHRP Provisions from the first edition until now.
Ghosh has been a member of EERI since 1983. He chaired the Finance Committee for the fifth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering held in Chicago in 1994. He is president of EERI's Great Lakes Chapter and chaired the 2006 Nominating Committee.
Ghosh investigated the performance of structures following the 1985 Mexico earthquake, the 1987 Whittier Narrows (Los Angeles area) earthquake, the 1989 Loma Prieta (San Francisco Bay area) earthquake, the 1994 Northridge (Los Angeles area) earthquake, the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake, the 1999 Kocaeli, Turkey earthquake, and the 2001 Bhuj, India earthquake. He also recently visited the areas affected by the Kashmir earthquake of October 2005.
Ghosh has published extensively - including articles in Spectra. His books and other publications on earthquake-resistant design are widely used by those in design practice. Ghosh has long been a provider of continuing education related to structural provisions of building codes to the structural engineering profession and the code enforcement community.
Ghosh is active on many national technical committees, is a fellow of ACI and PCI, and is currently on ACI's Board of Direction. He is a member of ACI Committee 318, Standard Building Code, the Masonry Standards Joint Committee, and the ASCE 7 Standard Committee (Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures). He has received many awards from professional organizations. He was chosen as a "Titan of the Precast Industry" by PCI in 2004. More recently, he received the Arthur J. Boase award of the Concrete Research Council in 2006.
Vision
My vision is in step with EERI's goals and objectives and stems from a deep commitment to enhancing seismic safety. This commitment originated from and is continually strengthened by experiences that have moved me in the course of many post-earthquake investigations on which I participated. I still have only to close my eyes to see entire villages completely wiped out in the Bhuj, India earthquake of 2001. Haunting images from my recent visit to Kashmir, devastated by the October 2005 earthquake, are still vivid in my memory. These visits have led me to a keen appreciation of the human dimensions of the earthquake problem.
I have tried to do what I can to advance seismic safety primarily through work on building codes of the United States and occasionally on those of other countries. I have long been involved in code-writing bodies at the national, and sometimes local, levels. I would very much like EERI to further its role in supporting the improvement of seismic codes and the enforcement of these codes in less advanced countries that are earthquake-prone. I sincerely believe that this will go a long way towards making the plight of less prosperous populations in these countries in future earthquakes more bearable.
In my own way, I have also worked towards enhancing seismic safety (and building safety in general) through continuing education activities and publications that are geared towards enabling design professionals and code enforcement personnel to understand and apply building code provisions correctly. The continuing education activities and publications are also geared towards ensuring that engineering students learn these provisions correctly and that engineering professors teach these provisions accurately. I believe that EERI can play a major international role in this area. It would be invaluable if EERI could investigate further opportunities in providing continuing education to professionals outside the United States at an affordable price. In addition, I would like to see the EERI International Program pursue the formation of international chapters (including student chapters), where there is a local receptivity to it. The members of these chapters should not have to belong to the parent organization (and thus should not have to pay U.S. dues). This will help EERI have an increased international role.
Of all the tremendous publications EERI has produced, I believe the monograph series has had the greatest impact. I am truly pleased to see a number of old monographs finally updated. I would like to see the remaining ones updated and more new ones added. I would also like to see Spectra, for which I have the highest respect, have more content that is directly usable by practicing professionals in various earthquake-related fields.
I think the formation of EERI's International Activities Committee in 2002 was an important development. I think the international alliances EERI has formed in recent times are major steps in the right direction. I would like to see EERI expend additional effort toward forging partnerships with other organizations with a similar mission and vision at home and abroad.
In summary, my vision is that of an EERI that is even more of a worldwide organization to which the earthquake community of the world will habitually look for leadership, know-how, tools, programs, and education related to every aspect of seismic safety.
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Board of Directors