National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program

• ACEHR
• ICC

ACEHR Members

On August 24, 2006, pursuant to the July 25, 2006 Federal Register Notice (PDF 60KB), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) concluded a thirty-day formal solicitation period for nominations for individuals to serve on the Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR). Stakeholders in NEHRP, from around the U.S., showed strong interest in and support for NEHRP by submitting over 85 nominees for service on the committee.

William Jeffrey, director of NIST, named 15 distinguished academic, industry, and government experts to serve on ACEHR. The February 28, 2007 Press Release is available online.

The initial terms for the advisory committee will be staggered, with appointed members listed below serving one, two or three years, with a possible full three-year second term. (After completing two consecutive full terms of service, committee members will need to leave the Board for a full year before being eligible for any additional terms.)

Walter J. Arabasz
Director, Seismograph Stations
Research Professor, Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Term Expires: end of February 2010

Dr. Arabasz is a member and past chair of the Utah Seismic Safety Commission and has received the Governor's Medal for Science and Technology for his "tireless efforts to help residents and leaders understand and prepare for Utah's earthquake hazards." He was one of the principal architects of ANSS, co-authored An Assessment of Seismic Monitoring in the United States--Requirement for an Advanced National Seismic System, and currently serves as regional coordinator for the ANSS Intermountain West (IMW) Region. He has served on numerous national and state advisory and policy-making committees, including the Committee on Seismology of the National Research Council, panels of the National Research Council, and the Council of the National Seismic System. He has degrees from Boston College and the California Institute of Technology.

Jonathan D. Bray
Professor, Geotechnical Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of California, Berkeley, CA
Term Expires: end of February 2008

Dr. Bray has been a registered professional civil engineer since 1985, and he has nearly two decades of experience in teaching and performing research in the areas of geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering, environmental geotechnics, and numerical and physical modeling. He is Vice-President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Dr. Bray has degrees from the University of California, Stanford University, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He has received a number of honors, including the Shamsher Prakash Research Award, ASCE Huber Research Prize, Packard Foundation Fellowship, and NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award.

Lloyd S. Cluff
Director, Geosciences Department, Earthquake Risk Management
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, CA
Term Expires: end of February 2008

Lloyd Cluff is a leader in the world of earthquake hazards and seismic safety. Last year, he received the Western States Seismic Policy Council (WSSPC) award in Excellence for Lifetime Achievement in Earthquake Risk Reduction for achievements during his 45-year career as a world-renowned expert in earthquake geology, well-published research scientist, public policy champion of earthquake safety, inspiring educator, sought-after consultant, president and board member of many professional organizations, and successful business leader. From the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to the Aswan Dam to the Diablo Canyon Power plant, Mr. Cluff has used the lessons learned from his investigations of significant earthquakes since 1964 to improve engineering design practices, seismic safety, and earthquake preparedness. His accomplishments have been recognized by his election in 1978 to the National Academy of Engineering. He also served for 15 years as a commissioner on the California Seismic Safety Commission and was its chairman for two terms. He just completed a five-year term as the Chairman of the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee (SESAC), a committee mandated by the 2000 NEHRP reauthorization. He received a degree in Geology from the University of Utah.

David E. Cook
Senior Manager/Fire Chief, Enterprise Fire and Disaster Preparedness
The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA
Term Expires: end of February 2008

At the Boeing Company, Mr. Cook is responsible for evaluation, development and implementation of consistent Fire Protection and Disaster Preparedness; policies and procedures and special requirements from insurance and customers. He is a member of the Security and Fire Protection Enterprise Strategy Council, represents Security and fire as Business Partner for SSG Site Services (facilities), as well as professional organizations including International Fire Chiefs, National Fire Protection Association and Aircraft Rescue Firefighters, and Washington State Chiefs Association. He has been actively involved in fire protection for 29 years serving in a municipal department for 10 and with Boeing for 22.

Richard K. Eisner, FAIA
Regional Administrator and Manager (retired), California Integrated Seismic Network and California Earthquake and Tsunami Programs, California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Oakland, CA
Term Expires: end of February 2010

An architect, urban planner, and urban designer, Mr. Eisner, for the last 30 years, focused his career on issues of seismic design and urban earthquake hazard reduction, including serving as program manager on a National Science Foundation funded project to develop model hazard reduction and preparedness techniques based on Japanese practice. A key element of his work as Director of the Bay Area Regional Earthquake Preparedness Project (BAREPP) was the implementation of these models and integration of knowledge from the earth and social science communities into mitigation and preparedness programs. In 1993, he joined the team developing HAZUS, the FEMA software for estimating losses from earthquakes. He is a recognized expert in community preparedness and emergency management, and was actively involved in response and recovery operations following the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes. His degrees are from the University of California at Berkeley.

Ronald O. Hamburger
Senior Principal, Structural Engineering West
Simpson Gumpertz and Heger, Inc., San Francisco, CA
Term Expires: end of February 2009

Mr. Hamburger has more than 30 years of experience in design, construction, education, research, evaluation, investigation and repair of commercial, institutional, and industrial facilities. He is an internationally recognized expert in performance-based structural, earthquake and blast engineering, and has played a lead role in the development of national structural engineering standards and building code provisions. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Mr. Hamburger served as the lead investigator into the collapse of New York's twin World Trade Center towers on behalf of the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since, 2000, he has served as chair of the Building Seismic Safety Council's Provisions Update Committee and in that role, directs the development of recommended seismic design provisions for the nation's building codes. He has degrees from the Polytechnic Institute of New York and the Golden Gate University.

James R. Harris
President, J.R. Harris and Company, Denver, CO
Term Expires: end of February 2008

Well versed in structural engineering practice and research, Dr. Harris has designed or evaluated thousands of structures ranging from dwellings to high-rise buildings including industrial and civil engineering facilities, excavation bracing, pile and pier foundations, and renovations of historic buildings. This background spans nearly all types of construction and structural materials and includes responsibility for management of all design disciplines, structures in high hazard seismic zone, vibration issues, and highly expansive soils. His expertise was recognized by his election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. In 2002, he received the Walter P. Moore, Jr., Award from the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has degrees from the University of Illinois and the University of Colorado in structures.

Howard Kunreuther
Professor, Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy and Co-Director, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Term Expires: end of February 2009

Dr. Howard Kunreuther is the Cecilia Yen Koo Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania as well as serving as Co-Director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. He has a long-standing interest in ways that society can better manage low probability-high consequence events as it relates to technological and natural hazards and has published extensively on the topic. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, receiving the Society's Distinguished Achievement Award in 2001. Kunreuther has written or co-edited a number of books and papers including Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk (with Patricia Grossi) and Wharton on Making Decisions (with Stephen Hoch). He is a recipient of the Elizur Wright Award for the publication that makes the most significant contribution to the literature of insurance. He received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Thomas D. O'Rourke
Professor of Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Term Expires: end of February 2009

Professor O'Rourke has been a member of the teaching and research staffs at Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His teaching and professional practice covers geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering, underground construction technologies, engineering for large, geographically distributed systems, and geographic information technologies and database management. Professor O'Rourke has served as chair or member of the consulting boards of many large underground construction projects, as well as the peer reviews for projects associated with highway, rapid transit, water supply, and energy distribution systems. He was President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute in 2003-2004. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2000. He has received numerous professional awards and holds degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Cornell University.

Chris D. Poland (ACEHR Committee Chairperson)
Structural Engineer and Senior Principal
Chairman, President, CEO, Degenkolb Engineers, San Francisco, CA
Term Expires: end of February 2010

Mr. Poland, a registered civil and structural engineer, has worked as an advisor on government programs for earthquake hazard mitigation and as an effective leader in related professional activities for more than 30 years. His professional experience includes projects of all construction types, ranging from new design, seismic retrofit and rehabilitation, to historic preservation. Through his personal advocacy and leadership skills, Chris Poland has promoted and advanced earthquake hazard reduction in California and nationwide. In 2006, he was awarded the California Earthquake Safety Foundation's Alquist Medal for his significant contributions to earthquake safety in California and in other earthquake-prone areas of the United States. Mr. Poland has also made substantial contributions in the advancement of structural and earthquake engineering practice. He served as the founding co-chair of the NEHRP Coalition for Seismic Safety as well as chairman of the American Society of Civil Engineers Standards Committee on Seismic Rehabilitation and the Department of Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee on Structural Safety. He has degrees from Stanford University and the University of Redlands.

Paul Somerville
Principal Seismologist and Manager, Seismic Hazards Group
URS Corporation, Pasadena, CA
Term Expires: end of February 2008

For the past 30 years, Dr. Somerville has worked at URS Corporation and its predecessor organization, Woodward-Clyde Consultants, and has been Manager of the Pasadena Office for the past twelve years. He has worked in many aspects of seismic hazards, and has been involved in the development of innovative seismological methods for specifying seismic design ground motions in earthquake engineering practice. He has extensive research experience in Japan, where he pioneered the development of commonly used procedures for characterizing earthquake sources for the prediction of strong ground motion. He has been actively involved in the development of building codes and led developments in the engineering characterization of near-fault ground motions. He has degrees from the University of British Columbia, the University of New England, and Sydney University.

Kathleen J. Tierney
Professor, Department of Sociology and Institute of Behavioral Science
Director, Natural Hazards Center
University of Colorado at Boulder
Term Expires: end of February 2010

Dr. Tierney holds a joint appointment in the Department of Sociology and the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado, where she serves as director of the Natural Hazards Center. Dr. Tierney has been a PI or Co-PI on more than a dozen grants from NSF and other agencies, focusing on such topics as hazard risk perception and public preparedness, business disaster preparedness and recovery, and organizational and governmental responses to earthquakes and other disasters. Her other activities include service on the Project Management Committee for the FEMA/NIBS nationwide study on savings realized through disaster mitigation; co-authorship on the NEHRP plan for coordinating post-earthquake investigations; membership on the Executive Committee of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research; and membership on the NAS/NRC Committee on Disaster Research in the Social Sciences. Dr. Tierney received her Ph.D. in sociology from The Ohio State University. Prior to her move to Colorado in 2003, was she was professor of sociology and director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware.

Anne R. vonWeller
Chief Building Official
Bountiful, Utah
Term Expires: end of February 2009

Ms. vonWeller is the Chief Building Official for Murray City, Utah. She is a past President and Chairman for the Board of Directors of the International Code Council. Anne was the first woman in Utah to successfully complete all of the General Contractors Licensing requirements in 1977. She has been a building official for the last 23 years. Her commitment to building safety and interest in construction code development resulted in service as Chairman of the Utah Uniform Building Codes Commission, Co-Chairman of the Utah Seismic Safety Commission, member of the Uniform Building Code Fire & Life Safety Committee, and International Building Code Means of Egress Drafting Committee. Anne has taught numerous classes in construction regulation and authored articles in Building Standards Magazine as well as the Residential Plan Review Manual for the State of Utah. She has served as Director of both the International Conference of Building Officials and the International Code Council.

Yumei Wang
Geotechnical Engineer and Geohazards Team Leader
Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, Portland, OR
Term Expires: end of February 2009

Ms. Wang is a geotechnical engineer at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, where she is responsible for geologic hazards and risk assessments, and developing risk mitigation strategies for the state of Oregon. In 13 years with state government, her work has focused on improving assessment and lowering risk from earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides. In 2000, she served a one-year term as a Congressional Fellow in the U.S. Senate in Washington, DC. She has been the lead advocate on nine successful earthquake safety bills, and has helped shape state and federal policies in her areas of expertise, and on issues relating to the environment, energy, and transportation. Ms. Wang previously worked as a private consultant. She holds degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara and Berkeley.

Sharon L. Wood
Robert L. Parker, Sr. Professor in Engineering, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
Term Expires: end of February 2010

Dr. Wood studies the behavior of reinforced concrete structures. She has investigated the response of various types of buildings following the 1985 Chile, 1994 Northridge, and 1999 Turkey earthquakes. The goal of Dr. Wood's research is to reduce the likelihood of building collapse in future earthquakes. Currently, she is investigating the influence of soil-foundation-structure interaction on seismic bridge response and developing innovative sensors for detecting damage in civil engineering infrastructure. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Structural Safety for the Department of Veterans Affairs. She has served on the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is a former chair of the National Steering Committee for the Advanced National Seismic System within USGS. Dr. Wood has degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois and University of Virginia.

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