Jack Baker is the winner of the 2009 Shah Family Innovation Prize
 — awarded in 2010

The 2009 Shah Family Innovation Prize has been awarded to Dr. Jack Baker, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the field of seismic risk assessment and communication. Dr. Baker is a young researcher whose unique combined advanced knowledge of structural engineering, seismology and statistics has allowed him to make an outstanding contribution to the field of seismic risk assessment and communication. His risk modeling methods and approaches are now widely employed in both the research and industry communities as formal tools for modeling and estimating seismic risk and uncertainty, leading to better-informed and more insightful decision making by end-users of all types. He has identified and introduced the pioneering approaches of using the ground motion parameter “ε” and Conditional Mean Spectrum concepts to select and scale ground motions for nonlinear analysis. These concepts are now employed worldwide in seismic risk analysis and performance-based engineering. The impact that his research and results has had and will continue to have in the research and industry communities is very much related to his formidable communication skills; he has a unique gift in rendering easily understood, even by non-technical audiences, the most intricate of concepts, and is a true pleasure to listen to. His plans and vision for future research are as ambitious and forward-thinking as his past work, and he is thus certain to continue to play a leading role in the field.