Chch earthquake engineers go to international conference

19 September 2012

Christchurch earthquake engineers benchmark themselves against the world

Five seismic engineers from Christchurch’s Aurecon office are heading to Lisbon to benchmark their knowledge and skills at the 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering.

Stephen Hogg, technical director, one of the five attending, said that all the world’s seismic engineering gurus will be present and this was the perfect place to ensure that here in Christchurch we are at the absolute forefront of earthquake engineering.

The others attending are Forrest Lanning, Pedro De Silva, Telma Santos, Debora Hegarty and Craig Stevenson. Hogg leaves for the conference tomorrow September 20).

“We might have a massive ‘working laboratory’ at our backdoor, but are we really as good as we think? That is what we want to find out. Since the last conference two years ago we have had several extremely large natural disasters, Japan and Christchurch being at the forefront, and with each of these disasters new science and knowledge is being developed.

“It is at a conference such as this that these new theories and developments are discussed and explained. This is where we want to benchmark ourselves,” he said.

Hogg said that the fact that there were five from an office of 29 attending showed the firm’s commitment to excellence and to Christchurch.

“We recently won two international awards from the Institute of Structural Engineers in London. These IStructE Awards, which were for our low-damage timber design building at the NMIT in Nelson and our structural steel “rocking” building at Te Puni student accommodation in Wellington, give us the confidence of knowing we are amongst the best in the world. Attending these conferences in such depth of numbers will ensure we retain that reputation,” he said.

The five-day conference starts on September 24 and there are expected to be over 1000 attendees.

About the conference:

The 15th World Conference of Earthquake Engineering serves as an international forum at which specialists in earthquake engineering and relevant fields exchange the latest research results and technologies. The aim of the conference is to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners worldwide from a broad range of disciplines to collaborate in reducing the impact of earthquakes on our society and natural environment. Topics include:
• Engineering seismology and strong ground motion
• Tsunamis
• Geotechnical earthquake engineering
• Seismic behaviour of engineering structures
• Assessment and retrofitting
• Lifeline systems
• Social and economic aspects of earthquakes
• Preparedness and emergency management of large earthquakes

ENDS

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