Jonathan P. Stewart (M.EERI 1994) has been awarded EERI Honorary Membership in recognition of his career-long contributions to earthquake engineering research and practice and his leadership and service to the Institute. Honorary membership is awarded to recognize members who have made sustained and outstanding contributions to the field of earthquake engineering and/or to the Institute and the pursuit of its mission.
Stewart is a Professor in the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned his PhD (1996), M.S. (1992), and B.S. (1990) from the University of California at Berkeley. His research interests are in geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology, with emphases on seismic soil-structure interaction, earthquake ground motion characterization, site response, seismic ground failure, and the seismic performance of structural fills and levee embankments. The impact of his work is exemplified by its incorporation into the USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps, NIST guidelines, and ASCE-7 and ASCE-41 guidelines.
In addition to serving on EERI’s Board of Directors from 2020 to 2024, Stewart was a longtime member of the editorial team for EERI’s peer-reviewed journal Earthquake Spectra. He served on the Spectra Editorial Board from 2004 to 2013 and as Editor of Earthquake Spectra from 2013 to 2018, where he improved and streamlined the submission-review-publication process. He has also led and participated in post-earthquake reconnaissance of many major earthquakes, including through EERI’s Learning From Earthquakes (LFE) program and with the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association. Following the 2023 Türkiye/Syria Kahramanmaraş Earthquake sequence, he led the coordination between GEER and LFE’s responses, helping organize a joint advance reconnaissance team and co-editing the LFE-GEER reconnaissance report published in May 2023. His contributions to EERI’s mission have previously been recognized with the William B. Joyner Lecture Award in 2016 and the Bruce Bolt Medal in 2018. He is a two-time winner of the Spectra Outstanding Paper Award, in 2007 and 2017.
Stewart’s professional service has also included participation in the Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction, the Steering Committee for the National Seismic Hazard Model, the Building Seismic Safety Council Provisions Update Committee, and the University of California Seismic Advisory Board. In 2024, his achievements were honored by induction into the National Academy of Engineering.
