Management
2008/09 Management Committee
Photos 100 dpi 167x223 pix
Graeme Beattie (President)
Principal Engineer, BRANZ, Porirua City
Elected to the Management Committee in 2002
Graeme is principal structural engineer in the Fire and Structural Engineering Services group at BRANZ. He has worked as research engineer in the earthquake engineering field for 22 years, having had 6 previous years experience in the structural design offices of the NZ Ministry of Works. The early part of his research experience was as head of the Structures section at Works Central Laboratories where he was involved with a wide variety of research and testing of reinforced concrete structures. His recent and current research projects have been on the seismic response of brick veneer houses and developing solutions for wall/floor joints in multistory timber framed buildings for best structural, fire and acoustic performance. He is the leader of the NZSEE research initiative on the racking systems.
Graeme was a member of the NZSEE reconnaissance team to Seattle following the 2001 Nisqually earthquake. He is also a member of the Structural Engineering Society (Sesoc) Management Committee and chairman of the Wellington Structural Group.
P Brabhaharan
Principal, Geotechnical Engineering & Risk, Partner
Opus International Consultants, Wellington
Elected to Management Committee in 2002
Brabhaharan is a Principal with Opus International Consultants in Wellington and a partner in the company. He leads a team of geotechnical engineers / engineering geologists / risk specialists. Brabha is involved in geotechnical engineering for a variety of engineering projects throughout New Zealand and hazard assessment and risk management for a variety of organisations. He also leads research into earthquake engineering and risk management issues.
Brabhaharan's recent interests include earthquake performance reviews and retrofit for infrastructure, geotechnical design for major infrastructure projects, regional natural and technological hazard studies and lifeline risk management. He has recently developed approaches for the risk management of lifeline networks. Research interests include earthquake performance of retaining walls and integrated risk management.`He is also a past member of the New Zealand Geotechnical Society management committee.
Contact: Opus International Consultants
Majestic Centre, 100 Willis St
P O Box 12-003, Wellington
Telephone +64-4-471 7842
Email p.brabhaharan@opus.co.nz
Bruce Deam
Leicester Steven EQC Earthquake Engineering Lecturer
Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury
Elected to Management Committee 2001-6 and 2008
Bruce is the Leicester Steven EQC Earthquake Engineering Lecturer at the University of Canterbury, teaching earthquake engineering to both graduates and undergraduates. He is a specialist in the seismic response of timber-framed buildings, an area he studied at Canterbury and developed further at BRANZ during the 1990's. He has considerable experience with both static and dynamic testing of structural components and is currently working on building instrumentation for the EQC/GNS GeoNet project. A member of the management committee since March 2001, he has convened the organising committee for the 2003 Pacific Conference, co-ordinated the printing of the Society's Bulletin, and contributed to the development and maintenance of the Society's web site.
Contact: University of Canterbury
Department of Civil Engineering
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, NZ
Phone: +64 3 364 2601
Quincy Ma
Lecturer
Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland
Elected to Management Committee 2008
Quincy is a lecturer at the University of Auckland where he has lectured structural dynamics and structural analysis since 2006. He has experience in computer simulations of seismic loads on structures as well as static and dynamic experimentations. Quincy currently leads a project developing online hybrid testing capability in Auckland. Quincy completed his BE Hons (Civil) at the University of Auckland in 2002. He is completing his PhD also at Auckland investigating the mechanics of rocking structures subjected to ground motion.
Contact: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019,
Auckland Mail Centre
Auckland, 1142
New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 88766
Fax: +64 9 373 7462
q.ma@auckland.ac.nz
Les Megget
Part time Lecturer University of Auckland
Bulletin Editor since 1997
Les has been Editor of the Society's quarterly Bulletin since 1997, after two earlier periods as Editor. He was convenor of all publications for the 12th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering held in Auckland in 2000.
Les has recently retired as senior lecturer in structural design at Auckland University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His specialisations are the seismic design of buildings in reinforced concrete and structural steel and seismic isolation of structures.
Contact: 231 Opaheke Road, RD4 Papakura 2584, New Zealand.
Phone: +64 9 299-6668
editor@nzsee.org.nz
Stefano Pampanin
Senior Lecturer in Structural Engineering
University of Canterbury, Christchurch
Stefano received a Laurea (magna cum laude) in Civil Engineering at the University of Pavia in 1997, a Masters in Structural Engineering at University of California at San Diego and a Ph.D. in Earthquake Engineering at the Technical University of Milan in 2000.
His main research interests, as part of several national and international joined programs at UoPavia, UC San Diego and UoCanterbury, include performance-based seismic design of reinforced and prestressed/precast concrete structures, assessment and retrofit of existing buildings as well as high-performance materials for earthquake-resistance and development of multi-storey prestressed timber buildings.
During the revision phase of the Concrete Standard NZS3101:2006, Stefano was main author of the Appendix B, “Special provision for the seismic design of jointed ductile connections” (PRESSS_Technology, based on post-tensioning techniques)
In the past ten years, he is has been an active member of several fib committees on Seismic Design (i.e. WG 7.3&7.4, 7.6) and co-chairman of the WG 7.5 “Seismic Design of Buildings Incorporating High Performance Materials”. In 2003 he was awarded the fib Diploma for Younger Engineers (under 40-years old) in the Category Research.
Member of the NZCS Council and of the NZSEE Management Committee since 2003, in the 2006 he was the inaugural recipient of the EQC/NZSEE Ivan Skinner Award “for the advancement of Earthquake Engineering in NZ”.
Stefano is a registered chartered engineer in Italy since 1997 and enjoys occasional involvement as external consultant or peer reviewer in the field of structural/earthquake design and retrofit.
Michael Pender
NZSEE President 2006-7
Elected to Management Committee 2006
Mark W Stirling
Scientist, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Lower Hutt
NZSEE President 2004-5
Elected to Management Committee 2001
Mark is a scientist with the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences (GNS). He specialises in earthquake frequency statistics and seismic hazard modelling, and also modelling of other geological hazards (volcano, landslide and tsunami). He has a dual background in geology and seismology, which enables him to undertake "multidisciplinary" seismic hazard analyses (i.e. requiring a detailed working knowledge of geological and seismological datasets and methods). His prime research objective at GNS is to direct the development of a combined probabilistic model for all New Zealand geological hazards. He also maintains a heavy workload in seismic hazard consulting at GNS. He also works on collaborative international seismic hazard projects.
Mark completed his BSc (Geography & Geology) at the University of Otago in 1983, and after a 2 year period of employment as a geomorphologist obtained his MSc (Hons _ Geology ) at the same University in 1988. He then worked briefly for the New Zealand Geological Survey on contract, followed by nearly 5 years as a consulting geologist with Ian R Brown Associates Ltd. He received his PhD in 1998 from the Centre for Neotectonic Studies, University of Nevada Reno, and has been employed at GNS since August 1998.
Contact: Inst. Geological & Nuclear Sciences
PO Box 30 368
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Phone: +64 4 570 4794
John Townend
EQC Fellow in Seismic Studies
Victoria University of Wellington
Elected to Management Committee 2005????
Peter Wood
Emergency Management Advisor
Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management, Wellington
Elected to Management Committee 2007
Peter is an Emergency Management Advisor with the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management, having worked previously with GNS Science and its DSIR predecessors. Peter has 35 years experience in research, consulting, and policy development on natural hazard mitigation and emergency management. He has contributed to crustal deformation research in New Zealand, California, and Iceland. In New Zealand he has been involved in developing systematic mapping of active faulting, seismic hazard assessments for hydroelectric dams, digital data management, emergency management, and the development of national emergency plans. Peter is an advocate for hazard risk mitigation having had direct experience of or of the response to hazard events that include: Inangahua earthquake NZ 1968; Imperial Valley earthquake California 1979; Edgecumbe earthquake NZ 1987; Spitak earthquake Armenia 1988; Loma Prieta earthquake California 1989. He was co-coordinator for NZ Geological Survey DSIR of the investigation and reporting on the effects of the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake and compiled the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering Reconnaissance Team Report on the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, from first hand experience. He has previously served on the NZSEE Management Committee (1989 – 90).
Contact: Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management