The first Shah Family Innovation Prize was awarded at the EERI Annual Meeting in San Diego. The $10,000 prize was shared by Bret Lizundia of Rutherford and Chekene and Nicos Makris of the University of California, Berkeley. These two individuals represent creativity and innovation in professional practice and in academia. The Shah Family Innovation Prize was created with a gift to the EERI Endowment Fund by the Haresh Shah family. The prize honors individuals less than 35 years old who have demonstrated at early stages in their careers the potential to make major contributions to the field of earthquake risk mitigation and management.

Bret Lizundia’s creativity is demonstrated by his unique design solution to the seismic repair and strengthening of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hanna House at Stanford University. He also has made significant contributions to seismic risk mitigation through efforts on several significant loss estimation projects, several research and guideline development projects for unreinforced masonry buildings, and through professional service, including serving as a Director of SEAONC and chair of the EERI Seismic Ethics Committee, all activities and leadership roles more typically occupied by those much older.

Nicos Makris is considered an outstanding academic researcher and teacher and one of the top innovators in his field. His creativity and in- novative research has resulted in the design, analysis and development of an eletrorheological (ER) fluid damper, a controllable damper, for seismic protection of structures. Although ER fluid dampers have been proposed in the past, it was Makris’ innovative design that has proven to be effective for earthquake engineering applications.

The Shah Family Innovation Prize Selection Committee unanimously selected the two prize recipients. The committee was chaired by Robert D. Hanson, University of Michigan/FEMA. Committee members included William T. Holmes, Rutherford and Chekene; Wilfred D. Iwan, California Institute of Technology; Peter J. May, University of Washington; and Pratap Shirke, Pan-Gulf Group, Ltd. William Holmes recused himself from the vote because of Bret’s affiliation with Rutherford and Chekene. Follow this link for a description of the nomination process and selection criteria.