Background

Professor George W. Housner (1910—2008) left a substantial gift to EERI “to advance the objectives of EERI”. Professor Housner was an educator, a leader of our profession and an advisor on public policy. He was a founding member of EERI and served as president for 11 years. He advanced earthquake safety through his research and writing, by training students, and as an advisor to government agencies. He served on the Newmark-Stever panel that laid the foundation for the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program, counseled Senator Alan Cranston on the need for the program, and served on panels investigating the 1971 Sylmar, 1989 Loma Prieta and 1994 Northridge earthquakes. He was a founder of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering and sought to increase understanding of earthquakes, to develop engineers of the highest caliber and to use the knowledge to improve earthquake safety worldwide. The Board of Directors convened a workshop in September 2009 to consider how best to use his gift. Workshop participants recommended that the gift be used to develop the Housner Fellows Program. Work has been underway for several years to develop the program and the first class of Fellows will be selected in the fall of 2011. Additional funding support for this program is provided by the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction of the World Bank and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Below are listed the current Committee members of the Housner Fellowship Program: