Volumes
Connections Oral History volumes may be read online or downloaded in PDF form via EERI’s Digital Library. To access a volume, click on the below link to the Digital Library edition and select the download arrow icon. EERI members will need to log in to their member account; non-members may access a free copy by entering their name and email address. Print copies of some recent volumes are also available for purchase from Barnes and Noble here.
Click on a volume below to view more details about the subject and access the publication.
- Volume 33: Haresh C. Shah
- Volume 32: Robert A. Olson
- Volume 31: Izzat M. Idriss
- Volume 30: Nigel Priestley
- Volume 29: Anil K. Chopra
- Volume 28: Roland L. Sharpe
- Volume 27: Mary C. Comerio
- Volume 26: Mete A. Sozen
- Volume 25: John F. Meehan
- Volume 24: Edward L. Wilson and Ray Clough
- Volume 23: William J. Hall and Nathan N. Newmark
- Volume 22: George Mader
- Volume 21: Ugo Morelli
- Volume 20: Roy G. Johnston
- Volume 19: William A. Anderson
- Volume 18: Eric Elsesser
- Volume 17: Robert V. Whitman
- Volume 16: Vitelmo V. Bertero
- Volume 15: LeRoy Crandall
- Volume 14: Joseph P. Nicoletti
- Volume 13: Clarkson W. Pinkham
- Volume 12: Robert Park and Thomas Paulay
- Volume 11: Joseph Penzien
- Volume 10: Clarence R. Allen
- Volume 9: Egor P. Popov
- Volume 8: Henry J. Brunnier and Charles DeMaria
- Volume 7: Nicholas F. Forell
- Volume 6: Robert E. Wallace
- Volume 5: William W. Moore
- Volume 4: George W. Housner
- Volume 3: Michael V. Pregoff and John E. Rinne
- Volume 2: John A. Blume
- Volume 1: Henry J. Degenkolb
Click here to download the EERI Connections: Master Index (Volumes 1 - 24).
Volume 33: Haresh C. Shah (1937 - )
Interviewers: Thalia Anagnos and Roger D. Borcherdt
After earning his civil engineering degree from the University of Pune in 1959, Shah traveled to California to attend Stanford University, where he earned his PhD. Shah joined the University of Pennsylvania’s civil engineering faculty before returning to Stanford in 1968, where he played a pivotal role in establishing the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center. His work in catastrophe risk modeling led to the founding of Risk Management Solutions (RMS), now a global company. He also held key leadership roles in CUREE and the World Seismic Safety Initiative. After retiring from Stanford, he championed education and humanitarian efforts worldwide, founding programs to support rural schools, farmers, and women’s education. His legacy reflects a devotion to improving seismic safety and people’s lives throughout the world, particularly in underdeveloped countries.
Volume 32: Robert A. Olson (1938 - )
Interviewers: Robert D. Hanson and Stanley Scott
Olson earned an MA in political science from the University of Oregon before a six-decade career as an applied political scientist, including key public administration roles for the U.S. federal government and the State of California. As the first Executive Director of the California Seismic Safety Commission, he shaped key legislation like the Hospital Seismic Safety Act and the Dam Failure Inundation Mapping Act. Olson has also conducted post-earthquake investigations and consulted for government agencies following numerous major earthquakes including the 1972 Managua earthquake and the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and has authored or co-authored over 40 articles and publications related to earthquake safety.
Volume 31: Izzat M. Idriss (1935 - )
Interviewers: Ross Boulanger
Idriss grew up in Syria and Lebanon, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1954 to earn a BS in civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This ultimately led to a PhD from University of California, Berkeley and a six-decade geotechnical engineering career as both a consultant and a professor. His wide-ranging contributions include the development of innovative procedures for evaluating site response, soil liquefaction and earthquake-induced ground deformations, public service as a member of the California state board of inquiry tasked to investigate the failure the Cypress Freeway and Bay Bridge in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a consultant for seismic risk mitigation on major public works projects around the world, and director of the Center for Geotechnical Modelling at the University of California, Davis.
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Volume 30: Nigel Priestley (1943 - 2014)
Interviewers: Richard Sharpe and Rebecca Priestley
Educated at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he later served on the civil engineering faculty, Priestley also taught at the University of California, San Diego, and at the ROSE School in Pavia Italy. His Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete and Masonry, co-authored with Thomas Paulay, and Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Structures, co-authored with Frieder Seible, M. J. Kowalsky, and Michele Calvi, have had a significant effect on research, practice, and education in earthquake engineering.
Volume 29: Anil K. Chopra (1941 - )
Interviewer: Robert Reitherman
He left India to pursue his doctoral education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he later joined the faculty and taught dynamics for 47 years. His Dynamics of Structures: Theory and Application to Earthquake Engineering has gone through several editions and is widely used to instruct engineers around the world. Another of his works, Earthquake Engineering for Concrete Dams, is based on his extensive consulting and research experience on that subject.
Volume 28: Roland L. Sharpe (1923 - 2018)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Sharpe had a lengthy career as a practicing engineer, for many years working on complex projects such as the Stanford Linear Accelerator and high-rise buildings with John A. Blume and Associates. He served as the first Executive Director of the Applied Technology Council and played a leading role in the seminal document Tentative Provisions for the Development of Seismic Regulations for Buildings, which was the original basis for the NEHRP Seismic Provisions.
Volume 27: Mary C. Comerio (1950 - )
Interviewer: Lucy A. Arendt
Comerio is prominent as an architect working on seismic problems. She taught in the Architecture Department of the University of California at Berkeley where she emphasized the impact of earthquakes on housing and wrote Disaster Hits Home. At UC Berkeley she championed retrofits of campus buildings to provide safety and also post-earthquake functionality.
Volume 26: Mete A. Sozen (1930 - 2018)
Interviewer: Robert D. Hanson and Robert Reitherman
Born in Turkey and long a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sozen was influential in early research on ductile reinforced concrete frames. He was one of the authors of the U.S. Veterans Administration seismic code instituted after the 1971 San Fernando Earthquake.
Volume 25: John (Jack) F. Meehan (1920 - 2011)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Jack Meehan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1942 and worked several years for the American Bridge Company and John Blume before joining the Schoolhouse Section of the California Division of Architecture. He was heavily involved in material research for seismic safety of school buildings and devoted his career to overseeing the Field Act enforcement for public school safety and research to verify code provisions.
Volume 24: Edward L. Wilson (1931 - ) and Ray Clough (1920 - 2016)
Interviewers: Robert Reitherman and Stanley Scott
Edward L. Wilson was a pioneer in the field of finite element analysis. His development of the Structural Analysis Program (SAP) served as the foundation for many of the seismic analysis software packages used today. He earned his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley under Ray Clough and joined the faculty in 1965.
Ray Clough joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley after an early stint in the aeronautics industry followed by earning his Sc.D. from MIT. He made foundational contributions to the fields of structural dynamics and the finite element method and co-founded the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at UC Berkeley.
Volume 23: William J. Hall (1926 - 2020) and Nathan N. Newmark (1910 - 1981)
Interviewers: Robert D. Hanson and Robert Reitherman
After earning his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) under Nathan Newmark, William J. Hall joined the UIUC Civil Engineering faculty where he contributed to the development of seismic design criteria and codes, including work on nuclear power plant design criteria and a large number of consulting projects.
On the faculty at UIUC for 35 years, where he was the advisor or co-advisor of 93 Ph.D. students, Nathan M. Newmark significantly advanced the theory and application of dynamics in analysis, design, and construction. He made important contributions to the design of nuclear power plants, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and seismic design provisions and codes.
Volume 22: George Mader (1929 - 2002)
Interviewer: Laurie Johnson
George Mader grew up in Southern California, served in the U.S. Army before graduating with a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1956. For 45 years, he served as the town planner for Portola Valley, California where he pioneered the use of geologic hazard data in land-use planning, especially concerning surface faulting and landslides. He was one of the first urban planners to participate in federal and state advisory committees on earthquake safety, including the California Seismic Safety Commission.
Volume 21: Ugo Morelli (1922 - 2016)
Interviewer: Robert Reitherman
Ugo Morelli spent his youth in Boston, Massachusetts and Rome, Italy, before returning to the U.S. at the start of World War II. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and then completed his master's degree at Harvard University in International and Regional Studies. By chance, he took a two-week temporary job with the federal Office of Emergency Preparedness, which evolved into a 32-year career with the federal government, much of it from the 1970s onward on with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and he played a pivotal role in the development of the nation’s building design standards for earthquake resistance.
Volume 20: Roy G. Johnston (1914 - 2008)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Roy Johnston graduated from the University of Southern California in 1935, and worked for Clyde Deuel until 1940 when he joined George Brandow at the Lummus Company designing oil refineries. In 1945 they formed Brandow & Johnston. He was responsible for the design of thousands of significant structures in Southern California and shaped the Los Angeles tall building skyline.
Volume 19: William A. Anderson (1937 - 2014)
Interviewer: Robert Reitherman
William Anderson was born and raised in Akron, Ohio and graduated with a doctorate in sociology from Ohio State University in 1966. He was a member of the university’s Disaster Research Center, the first social science research center devoted to understanding human, organizational, and community responses to disasters. An African American, he was a scholar-pioneer throughout his career, first at Ohio State and Arizona State Universities, and later at the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, and the National Academies.
Volume 18: Eric Elsesser (1933 - 2007)
Interviewer: Grace S. Kang, Christopher Arnold, and Robert Reitherman
After he earned his B.S. and M.S. from Stanford (1951-1956) and worked for John Blume for four years, Elsesser started his own firm. In 1969 he joined with Nick Forell to form Forell/Elsesser Engineers. He led the design of many major projects including early designs with seismic isolation such as San Francisco City Hall.
Volume 17: Robert V. Whitman (1928 - 2012)
Interviewer: Robert Reitherman
Robert Whitman earned his Sc.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After completing his degree and serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, he joined the faculty at M.I.T. He made numerous important contributions in soil dynamics. He was also a leader in the development of seismic codes and earthquake loss estimation. An active member of EERI, he served as its President.
Volume 16: Vitelmo V. Bertero (1923 - 2016)
Interviewer: Robert Reitherman
Born in Argentina, he earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley and specializing in the design of ductile reinforced concrete. He performed many pioneering experimental studies that advanced the understanding of the inelastic behavior of structures.
Volume 15: LeRoy Crandall (1917 - 2011)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
LeRoy Crandall was a pioneer, promoter, and early practitioner in soil engineering, and was the geotechnical engineer for numerous high-rise buildings in Los Angeles. He was born in Portland, Oregon, grew up in San Diego, and went to college at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an early partner at Dames and Moore before starting LeRoy Crandall and Associates in 1954.
Volume 14: Joseph P. Nicoletti (1921 - 2017)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Joe Nicoletti was born in Italy, came to California in 1927, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1943, and served as a naval officer until l946. He joined John Blume & Associates in 1947 and held almost every position from junior engineer to president over 40 years with the firm. He was responsible for many building designs and contributed to the development of seismic codes and guidelines.
Volume 13: Clarkson W. Pinkham (1921 - 2017)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Clarkson Pinkham, known as “Pinky,” entered the University of California, Berkeley in 1937 and finished his undergraduate degree after serving as a naval officer in the Pacific. He joined S.B. Barnes Associates in 1947 in Los Angeles. He specialized in material testing and served on both steel and concrete code committees.
Volume 12: Robert Park (1933 - 2004) and Thomas Paulay (1923 - 2009)
Interviewers: Robert Reitherman
As a civil engineering professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, Robert Park specialized in the seismic design and performance of concrete structures and was an early developer of capacity design concepts. His textbook on ultimate strength design, Reinforced Concrete Structures, co-authored with Thomas Pauley, has been used around the world.
Born in Hungary, Thomas Paulay narrowly escaped communist persecution in Hungary after World War II to finally immigrate to New Zealand. He spent eight years in practice before joining the faculty of the University of Canterbury. His work on capacity design was adopted into seismic codes, including the European Seismic Design Code.
Volume 11: Joseph Penzien (1924 - 2011)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott and Robert Reitherman
As a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, he developed world-class teaching and research programs in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering, including co-authoring Dynamics of Structures with Ray Clough. Penzien and Clough were the first directors of the U.C. Berkeley Earthquake Engineering Research Center.
Volume 10: Clarence Allen (1925 - 2021)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Clarence Allen earned his Ph.D. in geology with a minor in geophysics at the California Institute of Technology and was a professor at Caltech for almost all of his professional career. He conducted early studies on the relationship between faults and seismicity and was a leader in incorporating that research seismic hazard analyses.
Volume 9: Egor P. Popov (1913 - 2001)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Born in Ukraine, he received his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, his master's degree from M.I.T, and then began his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology under R. R. Martel and finished it under Stephen Timoshenko at Stanford University. Popov became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and pioneered many innovations in the area of inelastic behavior and the seismic response of reinforced concrete and steel buildings, including co-development of the eccentrically braced frame concept and friction devices to retrofit existing structures.
Volume 8: Henry. J. Brunnier (1882 - 1971) and Charles DeMaria (1918-2015)
Interviewers: Frank Killinger
After graduating from Iowa State in 1904, Henry Brunnier was working in New York when he was sent to San Francisco weeks after the 1906 earthquake. He opened his own firm in 1908 and had a long career designing most of the largest and tallest buildings in San Francisco over the next six decades. He was long active in Rotary International and the California State Automobile Association.
Charles DeMaria earned his degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941 and started a long career with H.J. Brunnier Associates. He spent three years as a naval officer in World War II. He led the design of many major buildings in San Francisco.
Volume 7: Nicholas F. Forell (1923 - 1998)
Interviewer: Joseph P. Nicoletti
Born in Germany, Nick Forell immigrated to the US in 1941, served in the U.S. Army, and obtained an engineering degree from Brown University in 1949. After working at several locations, he formed Gillis and Forell, an A/E firm in the late 1950s. Four years later he opened his own firm and in 1969 merged with Eric Elsesser to form Forell/Elsesser Engineers, a firm that provided the consulting structural engineering for many building design projects.
Volume 6: Robert E. Wallace (1916 - 2007)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Robert Wallace attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate student and earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. During his long career at the U.S. Geological Survey, he made foundational contributions in paleoseismology to assess the current-day probabilities of large earthquakes.
Volume 5: William W. Moore (1912 - 2002)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
William Moore became a co-founder of Dames & Moore after studying soils engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He was a pioneer in soil testing and soil engineering, an early adopter of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, first president of the Applied Technology Council, and first chairman of the Building Seismic Safety Council.
Volume 4: George W. Housner (1910 - 2008)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Housner received the first PhD in the United States from the California Institute of Technology for structural engineering applied to earthquakes. and was a professor at Caltech for 36 years. He made profound contributions to understanding the earthquake response of structures and the development of early seismic codes. He was regarded as an international leader in the earthquake engineering community. He was a founding member of EERI and served as its President for 12 of the first 13 years of its existence.
Volume 3: Michael Pregnoff (1900 - 1996) and John Rinne (1909-1993)
Interviewers: Stanley Scott
Michael Pregnoff was born in Russia and obtained engineering training in Vladivostok. He arrived in the U.S.A. at age 23 and obtained a job with C.H. Snyder, initially as a drafter. He stayed at the same firm for his long career with numerous changes of the firm name, including the addition of his. He worked on numerous noteworthy buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Francisco Opera House and the Hoover Library Tower.
John Rinne obtained his B.S. in civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley in 1931. He worked at several engineering offices: Henry Dewell, Huber and Knapik, and Dewell and Earl. He obtained his M.S. and went to work for Chevron Oil in 1937. Active in earthquake code development, he served as President of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Volume 2: John A. Blume (1909 - 2002)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
With an undergraduate and master's degree in engineering from Stanford (years later he returned to complete a Ph.D.) and 10 years of practicing experience, John Blume opened his own structural engineering practice in 1945. After extensive work in Saudi Arabia for the oil industry, he applied his knowledge of dynamics to a large range of projects, including consultation to the nuclear industry, structural engineering for the design of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, and work on many California buildings. Blume was an active supporter of EERI and one of its Presidents.
Volume 1: Henry J. Degenkolb (1913 - 1989)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Henry Degenkolb earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1936. He designed buildings for the 1939 World’s Fair on Treasure Island, did tests on some of the Fair’s temporary buildings during demolition, and joined John Gould in 1946, which evolved into the firm now known as Degenkolb Engineers. In addition to providing the structural designs for many San Francisco Bay Area buildings, he chased earthquakes to share lessons with the profession and served as President of EERI.
