DesignSafe Radio

This week, host Dan Zehner talks with Ben Mason , a natural hazards researcher at Oregon State University. Mason talks about his special interests: geotechnical earthquake engineering and soil-fluid-structure interactions.   Mason says that since childhood, he was interested in how things work. But it wasn’t until his undergraduate days at Georgia Tech that he discovered his deep interest in geote...

Jason Beunker: Profile of a rising research engineer   On this week’s episode, Dan Zehner speaks with research engineer Jason Beunker.  Currently in year two of his PhD, Jason Beunker studies soil structure interaction and seismicity at UCLA’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.   Why academia? Like many PhD candidates in the field, Beunker returned to academia after working as a pr...

David Prevatt, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida   Raised and schooled in the Caribbean island of Trinidad, from an early age David Prevatt was interested in science and structures. As an islander, he also grew up sailing and windsurfing. He recollects the exhilarating feeling of using wind power to skim the waves. He earned his bachelor’s in c...

Nenad Gucunski, professor and chairman, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rutgers University   Professor Nedad Gucunski from Rutgers U performs novel bridge testing experiments using the large mobile shaker equipment from NHERI’s University of Austin Experimental Facility.   Like so many engineers, Gucunski’s interest in engineering took root in childhood. He liked to build with Legos and model...

Jim Kaihatu Associate Professor, Assistant Department head for Research Texas A&M University DesignSafe episode 35   Son of immigrants from the Netherlands, (via Indonesia), Jim attended a technical vocational high school in Southern California. He was good at math and science and majored in design and drafting, thinking he’d be an architect. But his talents lay on the engineering side of building...

In the second half of this interview, Dr. Scott Brandenberg provides a fascinating and detailed overview of his first major research project, which was to study propagation of earthquake ground motions through soft soil layer —  from painstakingly building the models, to testing them and then analyzing the results. Among other things, Brandenberg explains why it’s important to measure the sheer st...

Today, DesignSafe radio host Dan Zehner starts a conversation with geotechnical research engineer Scott Brandenberg , engineering professor at UCLA. In his investigations, Brandenberg employs the very large geotechnical centrifuge at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling , a NHERI experimental facility.   Brandenberg was raised on a cattle ranch, where he helped his father fix machinery. W...

In part two of our interview with hazards engineer John van de Lindt, we learn how his career expanded from earthquake engineering to other hazards.   After the NEESsoft project, van de Lindt won a grant for investigating sustainable buildings, looking at tornado loading, trying to reduce damage and injury in expansive soils. The team’s structure provided safety by devising shelter in basement wit...

Today our host Dan Zehner talks with renowned earthquake engineer John van de Lindt, who has spent the past 20 years exploring wood-structure engineering and community resilience. Van de Lindt also is active in the NHERI hazards engineering community.   As an undergraduate, he started as a physics major, then moved to criminal justice and considered becoming a lawyer. Fortunately for the engineeri...

The economics of natural hazards engineering Kevin Simmons, Professor of Economics Austin College After spending 17 years working for an electric utility, Kevin Simmons enrolled in PhD program at Texas Tech thinking about starting a new career in the energy sector. But then, a prominent wind engineering researcher, Kishor Mehta, recruited him to examine the societal impacts of engineering against...

Barbeque diplomacy with Ben Preston Ben Preston is fascinated not just by scientific problems, but by how humans respond to weather and other large-scale hazards. He wants to know what societies can do to make different, better choices – to be more resilient over time. After events like hurricanes and wildfires, we feel vulnerable. Cities want to prepare better, attribute responsibility and grant...

Episode 28 Science Based Decision Making by Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure

Do you ever wonder how meteorologists get their hurricane data? On today’s show, host Dan Zehner gets the answers from Commander Justin Kibbey, one of NOAA’s “hurricane hunter” pilots. Kibbey flies NOAA’s P-3 Orion aircraft missions straight into hurricanes, multiple times, while a crew of weather experts and technicians gather data to predict the path and strength of the storm. A U.S. Naval Acade...

Today, DesignSafe Radio host Dan Zehner talks with Joe Fargione, science director with The Nature Conservancy. The largest non-governmental organization in the world, The Nature Conservancy is also one of the first land trusts. Fargione explains how, by purchasing land in need of protection, the group saves natural environments with a non-confrontational approach. The group is also active in prote...

Episode 25 World's Worst Weather On Mount Washington by Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure

Episode 24 Tsunami Resistant Evacuation Structures by Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure

Episode 23 The Life Of A Scientist by Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure

Episode 22 Ski Patrol And Meteorology by Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure

On this week’s episode, Dan Zehner interviews an expert on oceans and ocean storms. Dr. Philip Orton studies ocean physics and evaluates coastal problems, such as storm surge, at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Growing up on Lake St. Clair in Michigan, Orton developed an affinity for water early on. Perhaps it was surfing on those stormy lake waves that got him interested in studying storms a...

Today’s guest is Frank Marks, legendary NOAA meteorologist and tropical cyclone expert. Since the 1980s, he’s flown 10,000 hours on NOAA’s P3 Orion aircraft, including through many, many hurricanes. Marks, who now leads NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division, clearly enjoys learning. He shares some of his favorite experiences with us. The P3 Orion Marks discusses the P3 aircraft capabilities and descr...

Legendary hurricane hunter Frank Marks Today’s guest is Frank Marks, legendary NOAA meteorologist and tropical cyclone expert. Since the 1980s, he’s flown 10,000 hours on NOAA’s P3 Orion aircraft, including through many, many hurricanes. Marks, who now leads NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division, clearly enjoys learning. He shares some of his favorite experiences with us. Curiosity and a career path....

In the U.S., in the wake of the 2017 hurricanes, she and her team helped coordinate recon teams in Texas, post Hurricane Harvey. She describes reconnaissance efforts as a way for to see if engineers “got it right.” Was it a problem with the structure or codes? Or did the hazard deliver an unexpected load? Unlike with laboratory and computer simulations, after a disaster, engineers get to forensica...

We all have a story to tell about how natural hazards have impacted our lives. Today, we hear from listeners and past podcast guests about their personal encounters with hazards and their aftermath.

Engineer Tracy Kijewski-Correa has been doing post-disaster reconnaissance missions since 2005, after the Indian Ocean tsunami. On today’s episode, host Dan Zehner talks with Kijewski-Correa about assessing structural damage and the difficulty of rebuilding communities hit by a natural disaster. At Notre Dame, Kijewski-Correa holds a dual position in engineering and global affairs, the first engin...

Do you ever wonder how meteorologists get their hurricane data? On today’s show, host Dan Zehner gets the answers from Commander Justin Kibbey, one of NOAA’s “hurricane hunter” pilots. Kibbey flies NOAA’s P-3 Orion aircraft missions straight into hurricanes, multiple times, while a crew of weather experts and technicians gather data to predict the path and strength of the storm. A U.S. Naval Acade...