2017 Annual Meeting - The Really Big One

69th Annual Meeting "The Really Big One: Road to Resilience"

Dr. Lucy Jones (M. EERI, 2001), delivers the 2017 EERI Distinguished Lecture

EERI wrapped up its 69th Annual Meeting last week in Portland. Attended by more than 600, including 275 undergraduates participating in the Seismic Design Competition, it proved to be a lively and informative event.

Thanks to our Hosts

Great appreciation is extended to the local organizing committee, led by Jeff Rubin and Carmen Merlo (M.EERI,2013). The committee built the technical program around the meeting theme,"The Really Big One: Road to Resilience,” with many interesting sessions focused on progress with community resilience initiatives, LFE for recent events and recovery efforts, seismic safety of schools, using legal action to improve earthquake safety and a host of other engaging topics. The lively and informative trainings, workshops, and local tours were also smoothly arranged by the local organizing committee.

14th Annual Student Seismic Design Competition

Thirty-three teams from around the world competed in the 14th Annual Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition during the Annual Meeting. The presentations, live auction, and testing all took place in the exhibit hall, bringing the excitement of the competition to the heart of the meeting. For the very first time, the Student Leadership Council streamed the shake table component of the competition live on Facebook, receiving 60,000+ views! In the final judging for the championship, the team with the highest annual revenue as determined by cost performance, oral presentation, poster, workmanship, and architectural design, was awarded to  Cornell University (pictured above). Second place went to Stanford University and in third place, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Congratulations to all the teams! Many thanks to the Student Leadership Council, led by Kristen Hess (M. EERI, 2014) and Yi Tyan Tsai (M. EERI, 2014), for organizing and implementing an efficient, professional, and fun competition.

Gratitude for our Generous Sponsors

The 2017 EERI Annual Meeting and Seismic Design Competition could not have been possible without the generosity of our sponsors. We offer our gratitude and appreciation to FEMA, Computers & Structures, Inc., Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, Degenkolb Engineers, Turning Technologies, California Earthquake Authority, Kinemetrics, Applied Technology Council, Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup, MTS Systems, and Oregon State University.

Want to see more?

Thanks to Marshall Lew (M. EERI, 1978), you can view photos from the 2017 Annual Meeting online. Click here.

Get Ready for Next Year!

You can start making plans now for the 11th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (11NCEE), which will take place in Los Angeles, California on June 25-29, 2018. For details please visit www.11ncee.org.

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News of the Profession

Links to Recent News and Views

Ten recent stories, reports, or opinions from around the web

H.R. 654, Pacific Northwest Earthquake Preparedness Act of 2017 (U.S. Congressional Budget Office) H.R. 654 would direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop a plan to purchase and install an early warning system for earthquakes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Read more

Shake, Rattle — and Drive: WSDOT Builds Flexible Bridge to Survive Earthquakes Unscathed (Seattle Times) Based on pioneering research, an offramp being built in Seattle is designed to be usable as soon as the ground stops shaking — a standard few U.S. bridges can meet. Read more

Oregon to Explore CEA Quake Insurance Model to Battle Cascadia Threat (Risk Market News) The goal of the Oregon’s Earthquake Insurance Task Force bill is to create an insurance system similar to the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) that encourages carriers to offer quake insurance by backstopping risk at the state level, said Mike Harryman, Oregon’s State Resilience Officer. Read more

Millennium Tower's Earthquake Fitness Models May Not Have Been Accurate (SFist) Structural engineer Ronald Hamburger (M. EERI, 1988), who was engaged by the developer to re-review the seismic safety of San Francisco's Millenium Tower, said in a January memo that based on new models, some concrete support structures called outriggers ringing the tower in two places are subject to failure in the event of an earthquake. Read more

A New Tool May Help Oil Companies Stop Earthquakes Before They Start (Dallas Morning News) A new tool developed by Stanford University scientists with support from Exxon Mobil may help oil and gas companies find safe places to operate. Read more

Newly Identified Faultline in California Could Unleash Monster Earthquake (USA Today) Scientists uncovered a newly identified fault line that could unleash a magnitude-7.4 earthquake in Southern California, which other researchers say is already long overdue for a whopper of a temblor along the infamous San Andreas fault. Read more

Earthquake in Peru Creates Fear of Glacial Floods (Glacier Hub) A recent earthquake in Peru produced significant ground shaking in highland regions of the country and set off a wave of panic that glacial lakes in the Andes might burst their banks and create devastating floods. Read more

Going Deep to Learn the Secrets of Japan's Earthquakes (Gemini Research News)  Japan’s largest-ever earthquake (Tohoku-Oki, March 11, 2011) was a call to action for Japanese earth scientists. Their mission: to understand exactly what happened to make this quake so destructive. Read more

Cornell’s Seismic Design Team Judged Best in Worldwide Competition (Cornell Daily Sun) Cornell University outperformed Stanford University and California State Polytechnic University while unseating three-time winner Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania during the 2017 EERI Seismic Design Competition in Portland, Oregon. Read more

Temblor: An App That Brings Home Your Seismic Hazard (Earth) Temblor is a recently developed seismic safety app for homeowners and others living near potentially active faults. Read more

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News of the Institute

March 31: 11NCEE Special Session Proposal Deadline

Eleventh U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering
Integrating Science, Engineering, and Policy
June 25-29, 2018
Los Angeles, California

Purpose: The Eleventh U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (11NCEE), on the 70th Anniversary of the forming of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), will provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to share the latest knowledge and techniques to better understand and mitigate the damaging effects of earthquakes and tsunamis. With the theme “Integrating Science, Engineering, and Policy,” the conference will bring together professionals from the full spectrum of the earthquake community to discuss and debate a multitude of issues related to seismic hazard, risk, mitigation and public policy. EERI is organizing this conference in collaboration with the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC).

Special Sessions: Do you have a great idea for a special session? Would you like to lead a special session? Time is running out to submit a proposal. The deadline for submitting special session proposals is March 31, 2017! Attractive special session proposals cross disciplinary and general topic boundaries, and raise challenging issues. The program committee is particularly interested in special session proposals that relate to the conference theme of integrating earthquake science, engineering, and policy, and those that address the hazards, risks and policies related to Southern California, the setting for the conference. A special sessions can be presented as a mini-workshops,panels, debates or any other creative, unique and engaging format. Special session proposals must be submitted online. Special session proposers will be notified of acceptance by April 30, 2017. Additional information is available on the conference website.

Call for Papers: The deadline for submission of abstracts is May 31, 2017. The abstract collection system is open. Authors must submit abstracts and papers online.Authors will receive notification of provisional acceptance of their abstracts by August 15, 2017. Final papers, both full and extended abstracts, must be received by October 31, 2017. Additional detailed instructions are available on the conference website.

2017 Housner Fellows Program Applications due March 31, 2017

What makes you a leader?
		The Housner Fellows Program is seeking six exemplary young professionals from among our members who are dedicated public policy advocates committed to earthquake risk mitigation. Fellows will participate in a Leadership Institute and develop a group project that makes a real impact in the field. Members from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. The deadline to apply for the 2017 Housner Fellows class is March 31, 2017. What are you waiting for? Apply Online.

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Publications

Outstanding Earthquake Spectra Paper Announced

The Earthquake Spectra Editorial Board and the EERI Honors Committee selected the following paper to receive the Earthquake Spectra Outstanding Paper Award for 2015:  "Progressive Collapse Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Frames with Unreinforced Masonry Infill Walls Considering In-Plane/Out-of-Plane Interaction," by Khalid M. Mosalam (M. EERI, 2013), University of California, Berkeley and Selim Gunay (M. EERI, 2014), University of California, Berkeley (May 2015, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 921-943).		(photo L-R: John Stewart, Khalid Mosalem, Selim Gunay)
The award was presented by Earthquake Spectra Editor, John Stewart (M. EERI, 1994), on March 9, 2017, at the 69th EERI Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. For more information on the Earthquake Spectra Outstanding Paper Award, visit the EERI website.

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Professional Opportunities - March 15, 2017

Job openings at RMS

Risk Management Solutions (RMS), an EERI silver-level subscribing member, is currently recruiting for the following postions:

Product Manager, Earthquake Models
Please apply directly at RMS.com/careers 

Graduate Risk Analyst, Seismology
Please apply directly at RMS.com/careers  

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