Citation on the award of Life Membership, March 2014
Andrew King is conferred with Life Membership for his significant contribution to earthquake engineering in New Zealand.
Andrew has been actively involved in a wide range of NZSEE activities, in addition to being a major contributor to research by BRANZ and GNS Science and to NZ Standards committees over several decades, often in leadership roles.
He was the Society’s President from March 1997 to March 2000, and was a member of the Management Committee from 1993 through to 2003, then March 2004 to March 2006. Andrew was a member of the Organising Committee for the 12th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering held in Auckland in 2000, and played a key role in the successful financial management and delivery of the biggest event in the Society’s history. He was the co-ordinator of the NZSEE Reconnaissance Scheme from 2001 to 2006, undertaking an update of the operational procedures and arrangements. Previously in 1994 he was Deputy Leader of the NZSEE reconnaissance (Learning from Earthquakes) team following the 1994 Northridge, Los Angeles earthquake.
Andrew has been involved in other activities of the Society, including contributing to the Ministry for the Environment’s 2003 Guidelines on “Planning for Development of Land on or Close to Active Faults”.
His international involvement includes being a member of the Science Board for the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) since 2009. This appointment acknowledges his international standing as an engineering risk specialist across the fields of hazard, vulnerability, risk, and social-economic vulnerability and resilience – knowledge that he has brought to bear in leading the development of Riskscape since 2004.
Andrew is widely recognised for his leadership of New Zealand’s earthquake loadings standards, which included chairing both the committee that prepared the 1992 revision of NZS4203 and the joint Australian and New Zealand Earthquake Actions committee, which culminated in the production of NZS1170 Part 5.
His other national level roles include being Chair of the Structural Advisory Panel of the (then) Department of Building and Housing from 2005 to 2008, and as a member of the New Zealand Lifelines Committee from 2007 to the present. Following the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, he has been a member of MBIE’s Engineering Advisory Group.
Andrew’s contribution and leadership across this wide range of activities has been extensive. The Society is very pleased to acknowledge Andrew for his outstanding commitment to earthquake engineering in New Zealand through this award of Life Membership.
