Two major earthquakes with Mw = 6.0 and Mw = 6.1 hit the Cephalonia Island of Greece on January 26th and February 3rd of 2014, respectively. The reconnaissance mission was unique in two ways: First, it brought together the local, highly qualified earthquake engineering community, with a U.S. collaborative team of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, EERI, and the Applied Technology Council (ATC) to form a multidisciplinary 70-person team. Second, the resiliency of the building stock, geostructures, and communities that were subjected to one of the highest sequences of ground motions ever recorded in Europe provided the opportunity to focus on collecting data on good and bad performance marks a new era of reconnaissance.

The reconnaissance team, coordinated by Sissy Nikolaou (M.EERI, 2004), worked with representatives from Greek universities and local EERI members to investigate and document observations. Team member Ramon Gilsanz (M. EERI, 2011), a structural engineer with expertise in concrete construction and non-structural damage, represented both EERI and ATC and worked directly with Greek structural engineers to document structural damage.

The reconnaissance report (Version 1) is available at www.geerassociation.org with observations on: (i) seismological and recorded motions; (ii) geotechnical aspects; (iii) rigid blocks behavior; (iv) structural response; (v) infrastructure lifelines; (vi) nonstructural components response; and (v) economical and societal aspects.

It is with deep regret that we report the passing of long-time EERI member Craig E. Taylor (M. EERI, 1982). Craig was a friend and colleague to many of us and his passing leaves a chasm that can never be filled. As one of his close colleagues so appropriately stated, “Craig had a magical combination of a brilliant mind and an intuitive sense that made him come up with incredibly novel ideas.” Those of us who had the privilege of working with Craig will certainly miss his provocative nature, his extraordinary wit, and that great wry sense of humor.

Craig received a B.S. in philosophy from the University of Utah and an A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in philosophy (logical theory). Craig worked for several consulting companies, including the J.H. Wiggins Company, Dames & Moore (now URS Corp.), EQE (now ABS Consulting Group), before starting his own company Natural Hazards Management, Inc. Recently, he was a Managing Partner at the Baseline Management Co. and a Research Affiliate of ImageCat, Inc. He has also had a distinguished academic career having served as an Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Southern California and a visiting professor at Tongji University in Shanghai City, China.

Craig began his career in 1978 with the Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management for the State of Utah as an Earthquake Safety Specialist/Research Consultant. In this position, Craig assembled a series of reports that outlined in detail innovative seismic risk assessment procedures for virtually every major lifeline system in Utah. These procedures resulted in recommendations for risk reduction that ultimately served as a key element of Utah’s Seismic Safety Program.

While at Dames & Moore, Craig was project manager on a Federal Emergency Management Agency study where he assessed the feasibility of incorporating risk reduction measures into a federal earthquake insurance program, should one be developed. This effort resulted in FEMA-200 and FEMA 201, as well as legislation drafted by Congress. Later on, Craig was instrumental in a study mandated by Congress to demonstrate the efficacy of FEMA-sponsored mitigation efforts in reducing future losses from natural hazards. This landmark study demonstrated that on average, a dollar spent by FEMA on hazard mitigation saves the nation about $4 through reduction of future losses. Craig was a co-recipient of an Applied Technology Council Award for Excellence for this work.

Craig was also deeply involved with improving catastrophe risk modeling for the insurance industry. Serving as Research Director for Baseline Management Co., Craig helped carve out a new direction in CAT modeling, one which strived for more comprehensive simulation of risk and uncertainty. This recent work built on earlier seminal work performed by Craig while at Dames & Moore in the early 1990’s that introduced the notion of incremental real-time risk assessment and risk-based pricing in underwriting. Most recently, he developed a series of methods and indices known collectively as “Robust Simulation” to characterize uncertainty in CAT modeling estimates in a manner appropriate for identifying extreme risks.

In addition, Craig has left a huge legacy in promoting new methods and ideas in multi-hazard, disaster risk management. Working in various capacities, Craig promulgated the notion “systems-based” solutions to complex problems and often shared these ideas with others in his extensive professional society work. Craig was a founding member of the ASCE Council on Disaster Risk Management (CDRM). He chaired CDRM’s executive committee from 2005 to 2007, and served on its awards committee and advisory board. He was a long time editor for CDRM’s Natural Hazards Review journal as well as editor and author of several CDRM monographs and papers. During his tenure at CDRM, he inspired countless colleagues in topics ranging from risk and vulnerability, risk-informed decision making, and advances in information technology for analyses and risk communication. At the time of his passing, Craig was co-organizing a mini-symposium to facilitate an international exchange on policy implications relating to natural hazard risks. Craig was also actively involved with the ASCE Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE) having been awarded the 2006 TCLEE Lifetime Contribution Award.

Craig is survived by his wife, Gayle, four grown children and four grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life service will be held on July 12, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. at the South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula where friends, colleagues and family can share memories of Craig with others. For more information, you can contact either Ron Eguchi (rte@imagecatinc.com) or Charlie Huyck (ckh@imagecatinc.com).

The Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (10NCEE) in Anchorage, Alaska, July 21–25, 2014, will be held on the 50th Anniversary of the Great Alaska earthquake and tsunami. The theme for the conference is “Frontiers of Earthquake Engineering.” More than 1,000 participants from over 41 countries have registered for 10NCEE, including 250 students and 50 exhibitors. Information about Travel and Lodging, Airline Discounts, Pre-Conference Events, and Thursday Evening at the Alaska Native Heritage Center is available at www.10ncee.org.

10NCEE Online Program
The full program for 10NCEE, including room assignments, is available online at http://www.10ncee.org/program. The program includes over 1,000 presentations in 130 sessions, including 27 invited presentations by distinguished speakers in the plenary and theme sessions. The online program is completely searchable and can be used to search for presentations by colleagues or to find presentations by keyword.

Questions or concerns about the online program should be sent to 10ncee@eeri.org.

EERI Seismic Design Competition Schedule
Over 30 teams from universities across the U.S. and around the world will be competing in the 2014 EERI undergraduate Student Seismic Design Competition (SDC), organized by the EERI Student Leadership Council (SLC). The competition schedule for the SDC is available online at http://10ncee.org/program/seismic-design-competition.

Wednesday is the SDC presentation day when each team presents their model to a panel and is judged on the structural system concept, the analysis method, the clarity and organization of the presentation, and their communication skills. Thursday is dedicated to shake table testing of the complex tall building models made from balsa wood and weighing no more than 7 pounds.

Learn more about the competition at http://slc.eeri.org/SDC2014.htm.

NEES Quake Summit Program
The schedule for the 2014 NEES Quake Summit Activities is available online http://10ncee.org/program/nees-quake-summit-2014 . Pre-Conference Workshops and Meetings will be held on Sunday for NEES Governance Board and on Monday for NEES committee meetings. Don’t miss the Plenary Session on the “Global Impact of NEES” and the NEES Concurrent Theme Sessions on Thursday morning followed by the NEES Project Showcase at the NEES Luncheon.

For more information about NEES, visit: https://nees.org/quakesummit2014 .

The purpose of the EERI Outstanding Student Papers Competition is to promote active involvement of students in earthquake engineering and the earthquake hazards community. Graduate and undergraduate students submitted papers into the competition. The papers are original work and are judged based on their contribution to the field and their overall quality.

This year the committee had a very difficult task, because there were so many excellent papers submitted to the student paper competition. The committee judged each paper based on technical merit, clarity of expression, and relevance for the earthquake engineering community. The process works quite well, and the Student Activities Committee came to a unanimous decision for both the undergraduate and graduate paper competitions in the deliberations following synthesis of the individual judge’s rankings.

The following students were awarded 2013 EERI Outstanding Graduate and Undergraduate Papers:

“Moving Towards An Improved Index for Assessing Liquefaction Hazard: Lessons from Historical Data”
Brett Maurer, Virginia Tech

Brett Maurer (M. EERI, 2014) is a Ph.D. student in the department of civil engineering at Virginia Tech (VT) working in the geotechnical engineering program. His research advisor at VT is Professor Russell Green (M. EERI, 1983), and he works closely with Misko Cubrinovski and Brendon Bradley (M. EERI, 2012) of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Brett’s research focuses on improving liquefaction hazard models, which are widely used for hazard mapping and in the engineering design of infrastructure.

Paper Abstract: While Liquefaction Potential Index (LPI) has been used to assess liquefaction hazards worldwide, recent evaluations of LPI have found its performance to be inconsistent, ranging from largely erroneous, to generally efficacious but inaccurate for a portion of sites. Given the preeminent role of LPI in practice, efforts to improve its efficacy are thus warranted. In 1985, Ishihara considered the influence of the non-liquefied surface layer on the manifestation of liquefaction, and proposed an empirical approach to predict liquefaction surface effects. Accordingly, this study investigates what insights the boundary curves proposed by Ishihara may provide for improving the existing LPI framework. From this historical data, a novel Ishihara-inspired index, LPIISH, is derived. Its performance is evaluated using select liquefaction case histories and is compared to that of the existing LPI framework commonly used in practice. For the selected case studies, LPIISH was found to be consonant with observed surface effects and showed improvement over LPI in mitigating false-positive predictions. This study highlights deficiencies with existing liquefaction hazard assessment and presents an alternative index for discussion. Ultimately, the influence of non-liquefiable layers on surficial manifestation is complex, and further research is needed to fully elucidate and quantify these effects.

“Study of Site Specific Seismic Amplification in the National Capital Region”
Mark Tilashalski, Virginia Tech

Mark Tilashalski is pursuing his master’s degree in civil engineering at Virginia Tech and researching the effects of site amplification on the East Coast. Mark wrote this paper as a culmination of the research that he performed as an undergraduate student.

Paper Abstract: The current NEHRP procedures for simplified seismic design use the average shear wave velocity in the top 30 meters of a profile (Vs30) as a basis for design. This procedure was developed empirically from ground motions recorded in the Western United States (WUS). The simplified design method appears to be inadequate for characterizing site amplification in locations where the subsurface profile includes a sharp increase in shear wave velocity at shallow depths. This is a common feature for sites in the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS). Short soil stacks sitting atop hard rock are especially prevalent along the Atlantic Fall Line in the CEUS. This study analyzes site amplification characteristics for six sites from the National Capital Region (NCR) which is situated along the Fall Line. Ground surface motions are computed at each site using 14 different hazard consistent bedrock motions. The results indicate that short-period amplification factors (Fa) for the NCR greatly exceed the values predicted by the current NEHRP guidelines.

To learn more about the EERI Outstanding Paper Award, visit the EERI website at https://www.eeri.org/about-eeri/honors-awards/outstanding-paper-award/.

See the full list of 2014 EERI Award Recipients at http://bit.ly/1c3HttF.

In late May and early June, several preprint manuscripts were posted on the Earthquake Spectra website prior to their formal publication. The list of new preprint manuscripts, including authors, follows:

• “Simulation-based Hanging-Wall Effects” by Jennifer Donahue (M. EERI, 2009) and Norman Abrahamson (M. EERI, 1984)

• “Comparison of NGA-West2 Directivity Models” by Paul Spudich, Badie Rowshandel (M. EERI, 1986), Shrey Shahi, Jack W. Baker (M. EERI, 2004) and Brian S.-J. Chiou

• “North Torrey Pines Bridge Seismic Retrofit: Part II, Structural Analysis and Design” by Nathan S. Johnson (M. EERI, 2012), Mark L. Creveling and Keith J. Gazaway

• “A framework for linking community-resilience goals to specific performance targets for the built environment” by Michael Mieler (M. EERI, 2010), Bozidar Stojadinovic (M. EERI, 1992), Robert Budnitz, Mary Comerio (M. EERI, 1988), and Stephen Mahin (M. EERI, 1975)

• “Classification of Mainshocks and Aftershocks in NGA-West2 Database” by Kathryn Wooddell and Norman Abrahamson (M. EERI, 1984)

• “Framework for Comprehensive Assessment of a City’s Natural Disaster Risk” by Susan A. Brink (M. EERI, 2010) and Rachel A. Davidson (M. EERI, 1995)

• “Inelastic Higher-Mode Response in Reinforced Concrete Wall Structures” by Domenico Pennucci, Timothy J. Sullivan, and Gian Michele Calvi (M. EERI, 1990)

• “Development of Collapse Indicators for Risk Assessment of Older-Type Reinforced Concrete Buildings” by Panagiotis H. Galanis (M. EERI, 2012) and Jack P. Moehle (M. EERI, 1981)

To read preprint manuscripts or browse the complete list of preprint manuscripts, visit the Earthquake Spectra website at http://earthquakespectra.org/toc/eqsa/0/0 .

In addition, the Spectra editors also posted a Special Collection of Preprints of the papers that will be published in the NGA-West2 special issue (forthcoming, August 2014) .

In March 2014, EERI sent an interdisciplinary research team to New Zealand to study issues related to Canterbury’s recovery from the 2010-2011 earthquake sequence. The study is part of a National Science Foundation grant entitled “Seismic Observatory for Community Resilience – A Program to Learn from Earthquakes.” EERI’s internal goal for the NSF project is to evolve EERI’s Learning from Earthquakes program beyond immediate post-disaster investigations toward learning about community recovery from earthquakes. Outcomes of the project will include guidance for conducting long-term recovery reconnaissance, as well as methods for systematic data collection, archiving, and dissemination of reconnaissance findings.

The aim of the New Zealand case study was to observe and understand how stakeholders in New Zealand are measuring, monitoring, and acting upon data-driven indicators of recovery after the Canterbury earthquakes. The team found that a large variety of data are being collected as part of the recovery, for example a province-wide survey of well-being, but it does not appear the available data was significantly contributing to ongoing decision making. The large volume of data is making it challenging for organizations to analyze and interpret it for decision-making. The public health sector, however, seems to be an exemplar for using data for recovery decision-making. Data describing social vulnerability, homelessness, out-migration, business recovery, and the rental market were found to be less well documented.  And while the disaster motivated unprecedented levels of data sharing within and between public and private organizations, privacy concerns and silo-ism still presented challenges. A possible role for the EERI Learning from Earthquakes program for long-term recovery reconnaissance could be the facilitation of analysis of existing data, promoting access to data that can be compared across disasters, and specific guidance on what data should be collected by researchers to be archived in the Seismic Observatory for Community Resilience.

The five-member team interviewed a wide range of decision-makers and researchers. A broad cross-section of organizations were represented, including University of Canterbury, Lincoln University, Massey University, Victoria University, University of Otago, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Christchurch City Council, Strong Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team, Canterbury Development Corporation, Canterbury Public Health Board, GNS, Ministry of Education, Statistics New Zealand, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Land Information New Zealand, Building Officials Institute of New Zealand, New Zealand Reserve Bank, Human Rights Commission, ResOrgs, Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce, Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism Board, and New Zealand Historical Places Trust New Zealand.

The five-member team led by Scott Miles (M. EERI, 2009), Western Washington University, included Nick Hedley (M. EERI, 2014), Simon Fraser University; Chris Poland (M. EERI, 1998), consulting engineer; Liesel Ritchie (M. EERI, 2012), Natural Hazards Center; and Yu Xiao (M. EERI, 2011), Texas A&M University. Combined expertise of the team includes sociology, geography, urban planning, information systems, and engineering.

Register today for the Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (10NCEE) held this July in Anchorage, Alaska at https://www.eeri.org/cohost/registration/10ncee-registration.

Travel and Lodging
If you haven’t booked your travel yet, don’t forget that EERI has arranged discounts for conference participants with Alaska and United Airlines. For details, visit: http://10ncee.org/logistics/travel.

Hotel rooms in Anchorage are selling out fast. The Marriott Downtown and Hilton Anchorage are both sold out at the conference rate. There are rooms available at a discounted rate at the Sheraton Anchorage. For information on booking a room at the Sheraton and to see a list of other hotels in Anchorage, visit: http://10ncee.org/logistics/hotel.

Thursday Evening at the Alaska Native Heritage Center
There is still space available for the Evening at the Alaska Native Heritage Center event on Thursday, July 24. Learn more about this event at http://10ncee.org/tours/evening-at-the-alaska-native-heritage-center and remember to purchase tickets for this event when you register for the conference. If you have already registered and would like to add tickets to this event, please contact Juliane Lane at juliane@eeri.org to update your registration.

Pre-Conference Event: Direct Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Buildings LATBSDC Seminar

Date: Monday, July 21, 2014
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Location: Hilton Anchorage
Presenters: Dr. Nigel Priestley, Dr. Michele Calvi (M. EERI, 1990), and Dr. Mervyn Kowalsky (M. EERI, 1994)

This seminar will introduce participants to displacement-based seismic design (DDBD) and demonstrate how it can be implemented in the design office as a simple and rational alternative to current prescriptive methods of seismic design. The course will show that serious conceptual problems exist with current force-based seismic design and will demonstrate how these deficiencies are resolved when a simple displacement-based design approach is adopted. The DDBD approach results in structures with uniform seismic risk for a given performance level, which is compatible with uniform risk spectra. This is not achieved with current force-based design procedures. To read the seminar program, visit: http://10ncee.org/images/program/DDBD_ProgramPage.pdf.

Cost: Early-bird registration is $295. A companion textbook, if ordered as a part of early-bird registration for the seminar, can be obtained for the price of $120, including shipping, and will be available for pickup at the seminar. Note that current prices for the textbook on Amazon are $206. Registration increases to $365 on June 15th, at which point companion textbooks are no longer available.

Register for the event now at www.eeri.org/cohost/registration/ddbd-july-21-2014.

New Sponsors
The State of Alaska Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management is a new sponsor of 10NCEE. Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management provides critical services to the State of Alaska to protect lives and property from terrorism and all other hazards, as well as to provide rapid recovery from all disasters. Visit the Division’s website at http://www.ak-prepared.com/ .

PDC Inc. Engineers (PDC) is a new Silver Sponsor of 10NCEE. PDC is a full-service engineering company. PDC retains established clients and attracts new ones because the company visualizes and makes the “whole” project real: from project management to detailed design and into construction. PDC has 80 employees evenly split between two main offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, with satellite offices in Washington and Hawaii. Beyond Alaska, PDC’s project experience has taken the company to Antarctica, Asia, the Pacific, Europe, and the western United States. Visit the PDC website at http://www.pdceng.com/ .

New Exhibitors
Simpson Strong-Tie is a new exhibitor at 10NCEE in Anchorage this summer. For the full list of 10NCEE exhibitors, visit: http://10ncee.org/exhibitors.

Author and Moderator Instructions
Author and moderator instructions for the 10th U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (10NCEE) are now available at http://10ncee.org/moderators-authors. This page lists all requirements and procedures for conference speakers and moderators. Information about poster requirements and 5-in-5 presentation guidelines is also listed on this page. Questions regarding these instructions should be sent to 10ncee@eeri.org.

Authors who have not yet registered for the conference are encouraged to do so as soon as possible. Papers without a registered presenting author will not be included in the conference program or in the conference proceedings.

Online Program
The full program for 10NCEE is available on the conference website at http://www.10ncee.org/program. From this page you will be able to browse the entire program by session type or search all presentations by paper ID, name, or keyword. Please note that the session schedule on Friday, July 25 has been updated. If you have any concerns about the program or need to request any changes, please contact 10ncee@eeri.org.

Dr. Curt Haselton (M.EERI, 2010) has been awarded the 2013 EERI Shah Family Innovation Prize. Haselton is an associate professor in the department of civil engineering at the California State University at Chico and an active contributor to research and development in earthquake engineering.

With a generous gift from the Shah family, EERI annually awards the Shah Prize to young professionals and academics for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit in the field of earthquake risk mitigation and management.

Professor Haselton has quickly gained a national reputation for his tremendous contributions towards advancing understanding of the collapse safety of buildings and the use of nonlinear dynamic analysis to improve seismic design methods and building code requirements. Haselton has been instrumental in studies by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center, the Applied Technology Council, and the USGS on ways to properly select and scale strong ground motions.

Most recently, the Building Seismic Safety Council’s (BSSC) Provisions Update Committee appointed Haselton to chair a new committee to develop provisions for the use of nonlinear dynamic analysis for the design of new buildings. Beyond his own specific research and professional contributions, Haselton is a very community-minded individual. He has freely shared his ideas and expertise, including making designs, models, and data from his archetype building studies available to other researchers — all with the goal of improving earthquake engineering research and practice.

While a graduate student at Stanford and continuing now at Cal State Chico, Haselton has worked tirelessly on education outreach, including hands-on learning activities for middle- and high-school students and research experience for undergraduate students. Hasleton has been particularly effective at involving undergraduate students in his research and professional activities, which has provided students with great learning opportunities.

To learn more about the Shah Family Innovation Prize, visit the EERI website at https://www.eeri.org/about-eeri/honors-awards/shah-family-innovation-prize/.

Note: See the full list of 2014 EERI Award Recipients at http://bit.ly/1c3HttF. In the next issue of The Pulse, we will feature the Outstanding Graduate and Undergraduate Student Paper Award winners.

The EERI Honors Committee will meet soon to consider candidates for the Distinguished Lecture Award for 2015. The Committee welcomes nominations from EERI members. All nominations must be sent to EERI at eeri@eeri.org by Friday, May 30, 2014, accompanied by a brief justification.

Since 1992, EERI has honored leaders in the earthquake profession through this annual award. The lecture is generally presented for the first time at the EERI Annual Meeting and then at a series of student and regional chapter meetings nationwide.

Past awardees are listed at www.eeri.org/about-eeri/honors-awards/award-recipients/.

For a complete description of the award, visit: www.eeri.org/about-eeri/honors-awards/distinguished-lecture-award.

In early May, two preprint manuscripts were posted on the Earthquake Spectra website prior to their formal publication. The list of new preprint manuscripts, including authors, follows:

• “Evacuation Behavior and Fatality Rate of Residents during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami” by Nam-Yi Yun (M. EERI, 2013) and Masanori Hamada

• “Data from a NEES /E-Defense Collaborative Test Program on Innovative Isolation Systems and Nonstructural Components” by Jean Guzman (M. EERI, 2010) and Keri L. Ryan (M. EERI, 1999)

To read preprint manuscripts or browse the complete list of preprint manuscripts, visit the Earthquake Spectra website at http://earthquakespectra.org/toc/eqsa/0/0 .

In addition, the Spectra editors also posted a Special Collection of Preprints of the papers that will be published in the NGA-West2 special issue (forthcoming, August 2014) .