Campus news

Media Advisory: Earthquake engineer to present findings after week in Haiti

By Sarah Yang

ATTENTION: Reporters covering aftermath of Haiti earthquake

WHAT

Eduardo Fierro, president of BFP (Bertero, Fierro, Perry) Engineers, a consulting firm in Berkeley, Calif., will present his preliminary findings from a week of engineering reconnaissance work in Haiti at a two-hour seminar at the University of California, Berkeley. His investigation was partially funded by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), headquartered at UC Berkeley.

Fierro was among the first earthquake engineers from the United States to survey damage in Haiti, having arrived within two days of the country’s devastating 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12. Fierro will present for the first time his personal account of the earthquake, including photos and video that have never been seen publicly. He will also share new information about the current situation in Haiti and highlight from an engineering perspective the damage caused to the built environment.

WHEN

3-5 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 26. This event will be webcast live at 3 p.m. at: mms://media.citris.berkeley.edu/PEER .

WHERE

The auditorium in Room 310 of Sutardja Dai Hall, on the north side of campus. Directions to the building can be found at the CITRIS home page.

WHO

Fierro, a native of Peru, was a postgraduate student at UC Berkeley from 1978 to 1981, doing experimental and analytical research. He is an expert on post-earthquake fieldwork and has completed earthquake reconnaissance in such locations as Kobe, Japan in 1995; Armenia, Colombia in 1999; southern Peru in 2001; central Peru in 2007; and several sites in California.

Fierro is a frequent traveler to Haiti’s neighbor, the Dominican Republic, and since 2003 he has regularly taught seismic design courses there to professional organizations and universities.

DETAILS

The seminar is jointly sponsored by PEER and the campus’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Fierro’s work in Haiti, including links to photos he has taken, is described online at the PEER home page.

PEER is a multidisciplinary, research and education center that develops, validates and disseminates performance-based seismic design technologies for buildings and infrastructure. PEER investigators from more than 20 universities and several consulting companies conduct research in earthquake-related geohazard assessment, geotechnical and structural engineering, transportation, lifelines and public policy.

MEDIA R.S.V.P.: Heidi Faison, PEER outreach director, (510) 642-3462, hfaison@berkeley.edu .

Fierro will be available for individual media interviews on Tuesday from 2-2:45 p.m., and after 5 p.m. Contact Heidi Faison at PEER to make arrangements.