EERI is cosponsoring an evening of four UC Student Research Presentations offered by the San Francisco Section of the Geo-Institute of ASCE. SEAONC is also a cosponsor. EERI members will receive the GI-SEAONC member fee of $10 (students are free) to attend.

The World Bank, supported by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), announced today that it has mobilized scientists and technical experts around the world to help assess the impacts of the earthquake in Haiti. The initiative, called Operation GEO-CAN – which stands for Global Earth Observation – Catastrophe Assessment Network, will estimate and classify building damage based on high resolution aerial imagery in areas severely affected by the earthquake, including Port-au-Prince.

The initiative to create this network came from ImageCat, a leading provider of advanced technologies for risk and disaster management headquartered in Long Beach, California, and its partners – Rochester Institute of Technology, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), and other institutions. The World Bank and GEO-CAN are working in a joint mission to collect, process, and analyze very high resolution optical, thermal infra-red, topographic images allowing detailed visualization of houses, public buildings, cars, vegetation, and even people. Imagery and data from other collectors in this global effort, such as Google and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is also being analyzed.

Results of the analysis, with pre- and post-imagery, are visible at ImageCat's Virtual Disaster Viewer site.

Some of the nation's leading experts in the field of bridge engineering will visit the University at Buffalo (UB) this spring to deliver lectures as part of a Bridge Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series. The lectures will be held Monday evenings, January 11 through April 19, at 5:00 pm EST and will cover a wide variety of topics in bridge engineering, including project development, public policy, and lessons that can be learned from bridge failures.

Individual presentations can be viewed via a live webinar each week. The webinars are free, but pre-registration is required. For a list of speakers, additional information, and/or to register for the webinars, visit mceer.buffalo.edu/education/Bridge_Speaker_Series/default.asp.

Our colleagues at NEEScomm have announced that EERI Board President Farzad Naeim has agreed to serve as the first chair of the NEES Governance Board.  This independent, network-wide, 12-member Governance Board is key to providing strategic oversight of NEES Operations and ensuring that NEES operates with transparency and accountability to NSF and stakeholders.  Dr. Naeim brings outstanding credentials to serve as the inaugural chair.

Dr. Naeim is Vice President and General Counsel for John A. Martin & Associates, Inc. (JAMA), one of the largest structural engineering firms in the country.  He is the Principal in charge of setting and implementing policies with respect to technical, analytical and legal issues involved in operation of this unique international firm.

EERI’s New Madrid Chapter (NMC) is planning a poster competition for students in 2010. Students may apply for the competition by submitting an application with an abstract. The topic can be any discipline of earthquake hazard study or earthquake-resistant design. Disciplines may include seismology, geology, engineering, response and recovery issues, and socioeconomic issues. Topics related to Central U.S. earthquakes may receive higher scores. Click here to download an application form plus competition rules.

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) is a unique private-public alliance with the mission of producing software and tools that help to reduce earthquake risk worldwide. In order to collect data to guide the design and development of software and its underlying basis, GEM is assessing user needs in a web-based survey requiring less than 10 minutes. The survey can be found at www.globalquakemodel.org and is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, and Japanese. GEM invites all to participate by clicking on the red banner in the upper right corner. Results of the survey will be available at the GEM website upon completion.

With funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), EERI has sent teams to both Samoa and Indonesia.  EERI's reconnaissance team to Padang, Indonesia, headed up by Professor Greg Deierlein of Stanford University, is posting information from the field to a blogsite/virtual clearinghouse.  Visit this site by clicking HERE.

Information from the Samoan investigation, provided by EERI member and structural engineer Steven Baldridge, President of Baldridge and Associates in Honolulu, Hawaii, will be provided soon.  

EERI is pleased to announce that Jay Berger will join the Institute’s management team on December 1, 2009, and will become executive director on February 1, 2010. He will work alongside Susan Tubbesing for two months before she retires at the end of January. As EERI’s first full-time executive director, Susan has served with great distinction and dedication for 22 years.

Looking forward to the opportunity to serve the EERI community, Jay brings over 20 years of professional experience and leadership in private and nonprofit organizations, as well as many years of volunteer service to grassroots and community organizations. Since early 2005, Jay has served as director of Experimental Site Operations for NEESinc, the management organization for the NSF-sponsored George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation. During the NEES Operations start up, Jay, his staff, and volunteers from the earthquake engineering community developed a successful management program for the unique network of 15 university-housed earthquake engineering facilities.