EERI’s leadership program for young to mid-career professionals.
The next class of Housner Fellows will be in summer 2017. Applications will open in fall 2016.
Earthquake engineering and seismic mitigation have advanced dramatically over the past 70 years in part due to the advocacy and persistence of industry thought leaders. Many of EERI’s members over that time have served in such leadership roles and the Institute is dedicated to development of future generations. None have made a more significant contribution to the advancement of earthquake safety than Professor George W. Housner (1910—2008).
Professor Housner left a substantial gift to EERI “to advance the objectives of EERI.” Professor Housner was an educator, a leader of our profession and an advisor on public policy. He was a founding member of EERI and served as president for 11 years. He advanced earthquake safety through his research and writing, by training students, and as an advisor to government agencies. He served on the Newmark-Stever panel that laid the foundation for the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program, counseled Senator Alan Cranston on the need for the program, and served on panels investigating the 1971 Sylmar, 1989 Loma Prieta, and 1994 Northridge earthquakes. He was a founder of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering and sought to increase understanding of earthquakes, to develop engineers of the highest caliber and to use the knowledge to improve earthquake safety worldwide.
The Board of Directors decided to use his gift to train future earthquake engineering policy advocates and thought leaders through the Housner Fellows Program, which has now been underway since the fall of 2011. The inaugural class of Fellows was selected in early 2012. Information on this class is available here: https://www.eeri.org/projects/housner-fellows-program/2012-housner-fellows/. The second class of Fellows was selected in 2014 and you can read more about them here: https://www.eeri.org/projects/housner-fellows-program/2014-housner-fellows/.
Additional funding support for this program is provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction of the World Bank.
The Housner Fellows Management Committee oversees the program. Committee members are listed below:
| David Applegate U.S. Geological Survey |
Wilfred Iwan Professor Emeritus, CalTech |
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| Svetlana Brzev BCIT Dept of Civil Engineering |
Simin Naaseh Forell/Elsesser Engineers Inc. |
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| Arrietta Chakos, CHAIR Urban Resilience Policy Consulting |
Chris Poland Degenkolb Engineers |
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| David Friedman Forell Elsesser Engineers Inc. |
Kate Stillwell GEM Foundation |
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| L. Thomas Tobin Past President – Earthquake Engineering Research Institute |
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