As we begin 2025, I want to thank our members for your dedication and commitment to EERI. Your volunteer service over the past year—as committee members, chapter officers, reconnaissance team participants, Earthquake Spectra reviewers, meeting organizers, webinar and meeting speakers, Board, and more—has been invaluable. The achievements I name below would not be possible without you.
These are a few highlights of what we all accomplished together in 2024:
- Our flagship Learning From Earthquakes (LFE) program continues to develop new agendas and approaches for post-earthquake reconnaissance. Last year, LFE monitored significant earthquakes in Japan and Taiwan, working with local partners to collect data and resources for our virtual clearinghouses and with the Housner Fellows to arrange a reconnaissance trip to Taiwan in May where they trialled a new functional recovery assessment tool. LFE’s response to the 2023 Türkiye earthquake sequence also continued, with a follow-up reconnaissance trip in October of this year in collaboration with SSEER. A report and webinar from that trip are forthcoming in February. LFE’s website also got a redesign—make sure you check it out!
- Almost 900 people attended EERI’s 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle, which featured a great technical program, including a special program track on the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence. The meeting included a Reconnaissance Training Workshop, a National Seismic Hazard Model Workshop, and a full-day Reconnaissance Field Exercise hosted in cooperation with the Washington Geological Survey, which served as the first full in-person exercise of the new Washington Geologic Hazards Clearinghouse Plan. We also had the pleasure of recognizing the dedication and achievement of many outstanding members in EERI’s 2024 awards and honors ceremony. Meanwhile, the 2024 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition brought together more than 400 students in 40 university teams from 10 countries.
- In addition to publishing four impressive regular issues in 2024, our journal Earthquake Spectra added numerous papers to several special collections on topics including advancements to physics-based simulations, fault displacement analysis, and the 2023 Türkiye earthquake sequence.
- EERI’s Regional Chapters hosted lectures, social events, and workshops that brought together hundreds of members to network and learn.
- EERI welcomed four new student chapters at universities in the United States, Turkey, and Peru. They joined over 100 student chapters, whose members conducted outreach and learning activities furthering EERI’s mission, from participating in ShakeOut and the SDC to hosting campus visits from 29 Friedman Family Visiting Professionals.
- EERI hosted 9 webinars attended by an audience of over a thousand people, and launched two new dedicated webinar series on Spectra issues and Oral History subjects. Watch recordings of these webinars on our YouTube channel here!
- A new membership database was launched and designed to better serve and connect our network.
- Planning is getting underway for the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering to be held in 2026. Stay tuned soon for the reveal of our conference co-chairs and the launch of the call for session proposals in February!
- Thanks to 60 generous donors, EERI raised $20,455 in year-end gifts. Thank you to everyone who contributed, and if you didn’t get a chance, it’s not too late to donate today!
I’m excited for the many things we have planned for 2025, including the 2025 Seismic Design Competition, the 13NCEE Call for Sessions and Papers, the 2025 LFE Travel Study Trip to Mexico, continued advocacy for seismic mitigation policy and NEHRP reauthorization, launch of several new LFE subcommittees, chapter-hosted events and webinars, delivery of the latest earthquake knowledge via our webinars, new Oral History publications, Earthquake Spectra, and so much more. Please encourage your colleagues and friends to join EERI and get involved in our many 2025 activities!
In closing, I’d like to extend my thanks again to our many volunteers, donors, and sponsors, including our Subscribing Member organizations, that share your time, resources, and expertise to furthering EERI’s work. I’d like to especially acknowledge outgoing Board Members Carlien BouChedid (M.EERI 2011), Ayse Hortacsu (M.EERI 2000), and Terri Norton (M.EERI 2004) for their service to EERI and their lasting impact on EERI’s success. It is because of the support and commitment of so many that EERI and its membership will thrive in the year ahead as advocates for earthquake resilience worldwide.
Heidi Tremayne
Executive Director
