Dr Stavroula Kontoe

Stavroula Kontoe is a Reader in Soil Dynamics at Imperial College London, specialising in geotechnical earthquake engineering and computational geomechanics. Her research and professional activities have included studies on the seismic performance of tunnels, retaining structures and dams, on site response analysis and its incorporation in seismic hazard studies, soil liquefaction, topographic effects on seismic ground motion, modelling vibrations induced by pile driving and slope stability in strain softening materials. She sits on the editorial boards of Computers & Geotechnics and the Journal of Earthquake Engineering, has served on the Géotechnique Advisory Panel (2013-2015), represents the UK in Technical Committee TC203 of ISSMGE and in the European and International Associations of Earthquake Engineering.

Mr Paul Doyle

Paul Doyle is a Senior Consultant with Jacobs with whom he has worked for more than 40 years. He has specialised in nuclear structures; seismic design; and design of machine foundations, chimneys, and cooling towers. He is currently on long term secondment to one of the Nuclear Licensees for whom he acts as Seismic Technical Authority. In this role he is involved with review of seismic design of mechanical plant; as well as seismic qualification of new and existing structures. He is a Fellow of both IStructE and ICE.

Mr Andreas H Nielsen

Andreas H Nielsen is a Chartered Civil Engineer working for Atkins in Glasgow. He served as the SECED Newsletter Editor over a period of four years and is now the caretaker of the SECED website. His experience includes analysis and design of steel and reinforced concrete structures, particularly for nuclear safety-related facilities, with consideration of dynamic effects arising from earthquakes, blast and impact. He is interested in numerical models for seismic analysis and has published some papers in this field.

Dr Hamid Ahmadi

Awaiting biography.

Dr Guillermo Aldama-Bustos

Guillermo Aldama-Bustos has worked as a geotechnical earthquake engineer/engineering seismologist at Jacobs (previously CH2M and Halcrow) since completing his PhD in 2009 at Imperial College. During his PhD he focused on the area of seismic hazard analysis, with particular interest on regions with low to very low seismicity. At Jacobs, Guillermo has been involved as seismic hazard analyst and geotechnical earthquake engineer in several major projects around the world involving the design of ports, bridges, off-shore oil developments and dams amongst others. He actively promotes developments in his specialist field both through his job and through his continued research interests, especially in the area of seismic hazard analysis. Guillermo’s main areas of interest are: probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, site-response analysis, liquefaction assessment and the seismic design of geotechnical structures.

Dr Barnali Ghosh

Barnali Ghosh has experience of civil, geotechnical and earthquake engineering. She is responsible for all aspects of geotechnical earthquake engineering and soil dynamics in Mott MacDonald's London office. She has carried out both regional and site-specific geotechnical and seismic hazard assessments for a range of structures in the energy, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. She has extensive experience of determining dynamic soil properties for seismic design, seismic hazard assessment, non-linear site response analyses, the latest liquefaction assessment methodologies and dynamic soil structure interaction. She has acted as a reviewer for numerous projects all around the world.

Dr Damian Grant

Damian Grant is an Associate Director in the Advanced Digital Engineering group of Arup. He is a structural earthquake engineer with experience in the design and analysis of tall buildings, bridges, offshore platforms and other structures under seismic action. He is interested in all aspects of earthquake engineering, seismic design, analysis, risk assessment and code development. Dr Grant has edited the SECED Newsletter since 2012, and in 2020 he co-authored the 4th edition of Earthquake Design Practice for Buildings with ICE Publishing.

Dr Angeliki Lessi-Cheimariou

Angeliki Lessi-Cheimariou is working in Jacobs UK as a senior geotechnical earthquake engineer. She has nearly 11 years of experience in major projects in the UK and abroad spanning the energy, transportation and water sectors. She completed her PhD at Imperial College London and her main research interests include site response analysis, site characterization and probabilistic seismic hazard analysis. Angeliki is an invited reviewer on academic journals and high-profile conferences on earthquake geotechnical engineering.

Dr Andrew Mair

Andrew Mair is a Director of Operations in Jacobs. He has particular interests in seismic engineering, design for blast and impact loads, and soil-structure interaction, and has been involved in the design of a range of structures including military facilities, nuclear plants, dams, bridges, airports and buildings. Andrew is a member of the BSI committee on Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance, and is a Fellow of both the ICE and IStructE.

Mr Mohammad Nazri Mustafa

Awaiting biography.

Mr Mark Scorer

Mark Scorer is a Chief Engineer working for Atkins in the Ground Engineering Team as the Discipline Lead for Seismic Geotechnics and Market Sector Lead in Nuclear and Defence. He has fourteen years’ experience working on and managing a range of sensitive projects in the oil & gas, nuclear, defence, dams and building development sectors both in the UK and internationally. Mark leads a team of more than 20+ specialists with a special interest in earthquake engineering and international development. He is also a qualified Urban Search and Rescue Engineer with the UK charity SARAID and their Engineering Training and International Development Officer.

Dr Ming Tan

Ming Tan is a Chartered Civil Engineer with his experience mostly in the UK nuclear and defence industries. He is currently a Senior Principal Structural Engineer within the nuclear division of Mott MacDonald. He has extensive experience in the field of seismic analysis and design, blast protective design and aircraft / vehicular impact assessments. Ming is currently leading a team of engineers / analysts specialising in dynamic analysis of civil engineering structures against extreme natural and man-made hazards.

Mr Piroozan Aminossehe

Piroozan Aminossehe is an independent consultant. He has extensive experience of analysis and design of heavy complex structures subjected to dynamic loads and had a key role in the design of Sizewell ‘B’ nuclear power station as head of the analytical group. He is a fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and has served as an elected member of council of the Institution.

Mr Ian G Smith

Ian G Smith is a Chief Engineer in the Civil Infrastructure Division of Atkins Design and Engineering. He is a Civil/Structural Engineer experienced in design, analysis and construction across a broad range of projects in the nuclear, highways, water and maritime sectors with particular reference to dynamics, soil-structure interaction and seismic design.

Dr Valentina Putrino

Valentina Putrino is a Research Associate at University College London. Her PhD focused on the development of a framework for the multi-hazard assessment of historic masonry structures. She has gained experience in seismic risk assessment taking part in many field investigations within research and consultancy projects in Italy, Ecuador, and in the Philippines. In 2016 she took part in the EEFIT mission to Central Italy and later she won the EEFIT 2017 Research Award to continue her research on the cumulative damage to the historic urban fabric of Norcia (Italy). She currently holds the position of Vice-Chair of the EEFIT Committee, she is the SECED Representative for the World Federation of Engineering Organization (WFEO) - Committee on Disaster Risk Management (CDRM), and she is also the designated liaising member between both SECED and EEFIT Committees.

Dr David Hawthorn

David Hawthorn is a seismologist with the British Geological Survey. He has more than a decade of experience in onshore passive seismic data acquisition around the world for a variety of governmental, private and academic groups and including site specific monitoring of critical infrastructure. His current role is the management of the BGS’s seismic network of approximately 100 stations across in the UK.

Dr Fiona Hughes

Fiona Hughes is a geotechnical engineer at Arup. She has experience working on numerical analysis and geotechnical design of underground structures and foundations for projects in the UK, India and US. Fiona’s particular technical interest is in soil-structure interaction. Fiona has a Master of Engineering degree in Civil Engineering and a PhD in earthquake geotechnical engineering, both from the University of Cambridge. Her PhD investigated the seismic behaviour of structures with basements in liquefiable soils – through a series of highly instrumented centrifuge tests which she designed and conducted and a mechanical model which she developed and programmed. Fiona was part of the 2016 EEFIT reconnaissance mission to Muisne, Ecuador, and has been an active member of the SECED Young Members Subcommittee since its inception.

Mr Peter Ford

Awaiting biography

Dr Anna Hicks

Anna Hicks is a volcanologist at the British Geological Survey (Edinburgh), specialising in Disaster Risk Reduction and Development. Her research explores the relationships between humans, landscapes, and natural hazards, with a risk reduction focus. She mainly works at the local community level and integrate methodologies from the social and physical sciences, arts and humanities to co-develop innovative ways of empowering communities to respond to and cope with the threat and impacts of disasters. She became the leader of the Geological Society's new "Geohazards, Geoengineering and Georesilience" theme in March 2021. This is one of five new strategic themes which present an opportunity for the Society to engage with major global challenges and advance the contribution of the geosciences towards solutions.

Dr Chris Browitt

Chris Browitt is a seismologist who retired as Director of the British Geological Survey Scotland in 2003. Since then, he has focused on satellite radar observations of millimetric ground movements for applications in the vulnerability of cities and in precursor strain, and has also engaged in studies of induced seismicity prompted by the rise of the fracking industry and against a backdrop of many years of experience with mining-induced seismicity. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Mr Richard Fowler

Richard Fowler is an Earthquake Engineer working for the Office for Nuclear Regulation as a Principal Inspector - Nuclear Safety within the Civil Engineering and External Hazards specialism. He has been with ONR since 2013 and has been working within the nuclear industry since 2006. He continues to lead the ONR assessment of seismic hazard work for new build projects, and is also involved with Generic Design Assessment.

Mr Zygmunt Lubkowski

Ziggy Lubkowski is an Associate Director at Arup, and is their geo-seismic skills leader for UK, India and the Middle East. He has carried out geotechnical and seismic design, analysis and assessment for a range of structures in the energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and humanitarian sectors. He has acted as the seismic specialist for major projects such as nuclear plants, major bridges, tunnels, dams, and numerous seismic hazard studies around the world. Ziggy has been Chair of both SECED and EEFIT. In 2009 he won the Shamsher Prakash prize for excellence in practice of geotechnical earthquake engineering. In 2018 he was made a Royal Academy of Engineers Visiting Professor at UCL. Ziggy is responsible for press and social media communications for SECED.

Prof Tiziana Rossetto

Tiziana Rossetto joined UCL in 2004. She founded and co-directs EPICentre, which is a multidisciplinary research Centre for the study of natural hazard risks to communities and the built environment. She founded and teaches on the MSc Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management. From 2009-2011 she helped establish and co-directed the EngD Centre in Urban Sustainability and Resilience. The main focus of her personal research, has been the development of empirical and analytical methodologies for the derivation of fragility and vulnerability curves, which can be used to predict the probable damage in structures during an earthquake. Tiziana has undertaken a number of field missions to assess damage to buildings and infrastructure in earthquake zones including the L'Aquila earthquake 2009, Wenchuan, China earthquake of 2008, the Kashmir Earthquake of 2005, the Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami 2004, and the Bhuj Earthquake, India 2001.