level. The new approach needed to be directly applicable tothe geological and seismic setting of BC, while recognizingstandards of construction practice in the province.

To direct the research initiative that would lead to thisnew technology, the Ministry turned to Civil EngineeringProfessor, Dr. Carlos Ventura. Parents can appreciate that,with an 11-year-old son in the BC school system, this projectwas a top priority for Ventura. In his 30 year career, Venturahas earned the reputation of being one of the world’s topearthquake engineering experts. In addition to being a profes-sor, Ventura is also the Director of the UBC EarthquakeEngineering Research Facility (EERF).

The purpose of the research initiative was to developstate-of-the-art standards for the assessment and retrofit ofpublic school buildings. These standards were intended to

This is one of the most pressing issues on theminds of BC parents, as the majority of our exist-ing schools have not been constructed to resistearthquake ground motions. The concern is genuine since seismological experts predict thatsouth western British Columbia is overdue for amajor seismic event, referred to as “the big one”.

Consequently, in 2004, over 850 schools locatedin 37 school districts were assessed for seismic safety. About 750 of the schools were found to haveone or more building components rated at moderateto high seismic risk. The remediation cost for theseschools was estimated to be $1.4 billion, using con-ventional engineering practice. However, the recentescalation in construction costs has increased theestimated cost further.

To address the concern, the BC Ministry ofEducation announced a 10-15 year, $1.5 billion seismicmitigation program to upgrade the province’s at-riskschools. New schools, or any schools retrofitted since1990, were not considered to be at-risk. These schools were designed in accordance with the 1990National Building Code of Canada (NBCC), whichincludes design provisions for buildings in seismicregions. Recently, the NBCC was updated with a 2005edition, with refined seismic design provisions. If pre-1990 schools were to be upgraded to the provisionsof the 2005 NBCC, they would certainly be safe.However, the cost of the retrofits would be so high thatonly some of the high-risk schools could be addressed.A different approach was clearly needed that would allowfor all schools to be upgraded to an acceptable safety

Contents

• Message from the Head

• A true mentor–Rob Third

• The Pavilion Lake

research project

• How will your building

behave when the

Big One hits?

• Editor/events coordinator

studies civil engineering

• Retirements

• Flashback

• People

• Events &

Achievements

Faculty of Applied ScienceEngineering News

winter 2006

Seismic Safetyof schools in BC—a top priority

Civil Engineering News at

The University of British Columbia

Victoria Secondary School

“Are our children safe from earthquakes while at school?”

continued on page 3

As I began to reflect on the past year in preparation for writing this message, I was tempted once again to describethe year’s events as “business as usual”. Although there isan element of truth to this descriptor, I soon realized that itwas far from complete in its capturing of the progressmade in the Department last year. First and foremost, in2006 CIVL welcomed another strong cohort of studentsinto our second year program. In fact, the academic averages of our current second year students place themas the top incoming class among all of the engineeringprograms at UBC. Another milestone related to our under-graduate program was reached with the opening of the Civil Engineering Design Studio. In only one of year of operation, the Design Studio has become a favouritehaunt of students, design teams, extracurricular clubs and CIVL faculty members.

Elsewhere in this issue, you will see more regarding theretirements of two of our faculty colleagues, Dr. SidMindess and Dr. Ken Hall. Both have made the transitionto emeritus status and are still actively involved in theDepartment’s mission. Other developments include thatof Dr. Tarek Sayed, who, along with colleagues in the

Sauder School of Business,secured funding for a new Bureauof Intelligent Transportation andFreight Security that will be partlyhoused in CIVL. Progress is also contin-uing in the Earthquake EngineeringResearch Facility on the design and installationof the third and most complex of the facility’s three shaketables. Visitors to CIVL will also notice that the Department’sadministrative offices have been slightly relocated and vastlyimproved in appearance and functionality. Finally, even ourgallery of grad composites has been overhauled to give it amore deliberate and prominent place in our inner sanctum.

I would welcome any comments or suggestions that mayarise as you read this issue of our newsletter. Please feel freeto contact me at ehall@civil.ubc.ca.

Eric Hall,Department Head

2

Messagefrom the Head

Flashback Do you recognize this face?In 1956, Dr. Sheldon

Cherry was a very recentaddition to the faculty com-plement of the Departmentof Civil Engineering. AWinnipeg native, Cherrywas educated in civil engi-neering at the Universityof Manitoba and in struc-tural engineering at theuniversities of Illinois andBristol, before taking upthe position of AssistantProfessor at UBC. Hisresearch interests includ-ed the broad area ofearthquake engineeringand experimental studies

on earthquake shake tables.This year, in his fiftieth yearof service to The Universityof British Columbia as a Professor and ProfessorEmeritus with theDepartment of CivilEngineering, Dr. SheldonCherry has been honouredthrough the establishment of the Shel CherryScholarship. This $2,000scholarship is to be awarded to an undergradu-ate student in CivilEngineering on the recommendation of the Department.

3

allow for more efficient retrofits than those prescribed by con-ventional practice, by making use of performance-based earth-quake engineering.

Over the past two years, Ventura and his team in theEERF have been working very closely with the Association ofProfessional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. (APEGBC)on this initiative. The first task of the EERF/APEGBC partner-ship was to develop a new performance-based tool to replacethe procedure used in the 2004 school assessments. One ofthe shortcomings of the earlier assessment procedure wasthat it was overly conservative. While conservatism is usuallydesirable to ensure structural safety, it is problematic in a seis-mic mitigation program as it makes it difficult to determinepriorities for the best use of available funds.

For the last two years, the EERF/APEGBC partnership has been developing a set of seismic retrofit guidelines for BC schools, that take a performance-based approach. Thisapproach is based on sophisticated structural analysis that can predict the amount of damage expected in a buildingbased on local seismic demands. This analysis can alsoaccommodate combinations of structural systems with signifi-cantly different dynamic properties. These advances allow forsignificant retrofit cost-savings over a code-based methodolo-gy, while at the same time achieving the desired level of safety.

While the final product, a Retrofit Strategies andGuidelines Manual, is still a year or two away, the applicationof an interim release called “Bridging Guidelines” is being formally recognized by the Province of BC by the developmentof a stand alone building regulation for retrofit work on BCschools. The EERF/APEGBC partnership has also trained local

engineers in the use of the guidelines through workshops and office visits. The use of these guidelines has now beenmandated by the Ministry of Education and recognized by theAPEGBC council. The first edition of the Bridging Guidelineswas released in 2005 and the second edition will be releasedearly in 2007. The development of the guidelines has beenfunded by the BC Ministry of Education and WesternEconomic Diversification Canada.

The new assessment tool developed by the EERF/APEG-BC partnership has helped the Ministry to improve theplanned retrofit program, by assigning a priority ranking to all high-risk schools. It is anticipated that the implementationof a performance-based, seismic mitigation program could, at the very least, achieve savings of 10% to 20% of the current estimated construction budget. Such potential sav-ings represent a 40-fold return on the investment in theresearch project. The methodology has the added advantagethat it has immediate application to other types of buildinginfrastructure (hospitals, utilities, government and privateindustry) in both BC and other seismically active regions in Canada.

The EERF/APEGBC partnership’s success is the result of synergy between academic researchers and practicing engineers, which encouraged the right number of people toask the right questions. The funding from the Ministry ofEducation and the willingness of stakeholders to take a for-ward-looking approach to earthquake engineering, hasbrought the performance-based approach to reality.

Seimic Safety... continued from page 1

The research and technicaldevelopment of thismethodology has been car-ried out under the directionof Dr. Ventura. His projectteam includes:

Dr. Graham Taylor, Principal of TBG SeismicConsultants Ltd., Dr. Kenneth Elwood, Assistant Professor, Dr. Liam Finn, Professor Emeritus,

Dr. Timothy White, Post-doctoral Fellow, andseveral graduate studentsfrom the Dept. of CivilEngineering at UBC.

The Seismic RiskAssessment Committee ofAPEGBC established a peer review group of professional engineers toprovide feedback on thedevelopment of the

performance-based methodology. The peerreview group includes:

Mr. Andy Mill (Chair), Dr. Ron DeVall, Mr. Clint Low, Mr. John Sherstobitoff,

Mr. John Wallace, andDr. Robert Hanson of the U.S. Federal EmergencyManagement Agency.

The project has also benefited greatly from theinsightful comments andcritical reviews of two well-known practicing structuralengineers in California, Dr. Farzad Naeim and Dr. Mike

Mehrain.

Mr. Peter Mitchell, APEGBC

Associate Director ofProfessional Practice, has been coordinatingthe project.

The success of the Coop program is highly dependent oncompanies like GTS and individuals like Rob who see the benefitof providing students with industry experience and then whoactively partake in this aspect of student education.

Founded in 1910, Burnaby-based GTS is one of the mostprominent steel fabricators in the Pacific Northwest. Prior tobecoming a director in 1988, Rob worked in the company as a fabricator, production manager, draftsman, purchasingagent and project manager. The firm specializes in landmarkbuildings and architecturally exposed structural steel. Recentprojects include Seattle’s Safeco Field and Seahawks Stadium,and Light Rapid Transit Stations on the Skytrain Millenium Line in Vancouver. The firm maintains a reputation for the high-est quality steel fabrication and honest business values. GTS has been the major sponsor of the UBC Steel Bridge Team for the past eight years, and Rob’s role as a mentor to the team has been instrumental to its success.

“The Steel Bridge Team has benefited from Rob’s experience in steel fabrication through his practical suggestionsduring conceptual, detail design and fabrication stages,” saysMehdi Jalayer, a former team member.

Every year GTS donates many hours of shop time to theteam during the fabrication phase. Fabrication is one of themost critical stages of the project, where all the bits and piecescome together to realize the bridge. Most team members lack any practical experience with the fabrication stage.

“Rob’s involvement in the project bridges the gap betweenwhat’s on the drawing board and what is a practical solution toeach year’s competition,” says Mehdi.

Rob is a past National Chairman of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC) which promotes the safe, efficientand sustainable use of steel building materials. The branch ofthe CISC supporting education in engineering and architectureis the Steel Structures Education Foundation (SSEF).

“I had the benefit of being sponsored during my graduatestudies by the SSEF during the time that Rob was Chairman.This provided great opportunities to meet with people from various parts of the industry, including steel mills, fabricators,detailers, engineers, architects, and university faculty. Rob’scommitment to the industry, continuing education and therespect that those in the industry have for him, were always evident to me,” stated Nathan Loewen, another Steel BridgeTeam member and recipient of the prestigious G.J. JacksonFellowship by the SSEF.

4

Reflecting on a career in civilengineering, one can imagine it’svery difficult, if not impossible, to be successful without men-tors. The help of those estab-lished in the field is imperative—offering guidance, technical train-ing, physical resources and/orjob opportunities—especially foryoung people just getting started.

Rob Third is one suchmentor. He is one of the mostprominent figures in theCanadian steel industry with a

career that spans the past 30 years. He is currently thedirector of local steel fabricator George Third & Son(GTS), a third-generation family-owned and operatedcompany that was founded by Rob’s grandfather. Rob has been very active over the years in associationsthat promote steel construction. His knowledge of thesteel industry and his enthusiasm for sharing this knowl-edge with others is apparent to all who meet him.

For many years, Rob has taken the time to beinvolved with the UBC Department of Civil Engineering.He has been a guest presenter in the Department onseveral occasions. Topics have included education inthe field of steel structural engineering, recent advancesin steel fabrication and construction, and sharing expe-rience gained through the fascinating steel projects that he and GTS have been involved in over the years.These talks, given by a true industry expert, have beeninfluential to many undergraduate and graduate stu-dents who gained an understanding of how the theorylearned in the classroom is applied to a dynamic arrayof steel structures.

The Civil Engineering Cooperative (Coop) programhas had several placements at GTS over the years,and the students involved have reported very positiveexperiences with Rob and the company.

“I learned that it is not only safe engineering thatmatters, but it is also the practicability of the design.In order to become an engineer whose work will beembraced by the rest of the stakeholders involved ina project, your design must be in consideration ofthese procedures of construction,” writes PhyllisChan of her work term.

A true mentor–Rob Thirdmentor n.: an experienced and trusted adviser or guide

The Pavilion Lakeresearch project

The Pavilion Lake ResearchProject (PLRP) forms part of an on-going UBC-NASAled effort to investigate theMars analogue potential ofterrestrial lacustrine carbon-ates. This project is fuelledby interest in understandingthe development, preserva-tion and degradation of car-bonates on Mars. It isimportant to study carbon-ate formation in a series of lakes in which the forma-tion processes vary, in orderto relate the carbonatesformed to possible Martiancarbonates.

Pavilion Lake hasbecome the first target siteof the project, where a com-bination of hypothesis andexploration driven researchis proposed to study theunusual freshwater micro-bialite (“fresh-water coral”)structures found in this lake.These structures are of inter-est in terms of models ofPrecambrian reefs and mayalso be relevant to carbonate

formation in ancient lakeson Mars.

Pavilion Lake is approxi-mately 420 km northeast ofVancouver, B.C. and is locat-ed on Highway 99 betweenLillooett and Cache Creek inMarble Canyon. Travellershave likely driven by andremarked on the beauty ofthe valley and its lake with-out realizing what lies with-in. Its beautiful clear bluewaters and microbialitestructures have made it apopular destination forrecreational and commercialdivers. The basin walls ofPavilion Lake are lined withmicrobialite structures thatare oriented perpendicularlyto the shoreline, at depths of5 to 30 meters.

These structures arespeculated to have beenformed nearly 11,000 yearsago after the glacial retreatof the Cordilleran Ice Sheet.Pavilion Lake is within thetraditional territory of theTs’kw’aylaxw people, and thePavilion First Nations IndianBand holds special heritage

and spiritual connection tothis lake and its surroundingland. Pavilion Lake wasadded to the Marble CanyonB.C. Provincial Park systemon April 18, 2001 as a meansof conserving and managingthis biologically and histori-cally important site.

The PLRP is one of threesites within the CanadianSpace Agency’s CanadianAnalogue Research Networkand is managed byProfessor Bernard Laval ofUBC Civil Engineering andGeobiologist Darlene Lim ofthe NASA Ames ResearchCentre. The PLRP is current-ly in its second year of afour-year funding cycle toprovide logistical support forresearch at Pavilion Lake.

Each research year cul-minates in a two-week inten-sive field program in Augustthat includes 25 researchersand students from 16 insti-tutions. While in operationthis field camp is the largestresearch dive operation inCanada. Television crews

from the KnowledgeNetwork, CBC and theDiscovery Channel recordedthe activities of the 2005PLRP field camp. Last yearAidin Zadeh and JoelAtwater from UBC CivilEngineering joined theresearch project. Joining the PLRP this year from UBC Civil Engineering areAlex Forrest and YehyaImam who will be studyingPavilion Lake as part of their PhD work.

5

Aiden Zadeh (4th year Civil Engineering student, UBC), Donnie Reid (Vancouver Aquarium), and Rebekah

Shepard (PhD student, UCDavis) catch up on space shuttle events before exploring the depths of Pavilion

Lake. Photo by Harry Bohm.

Intermediate depth (~25m)

microbialite in Pavilion Lake.

Photo by Donnie Reid.

Dr. Bernard Laval (UBC) and

Margarita Marinova (PhD student,

Caltech) measuring light levels in

Pavilion Lake.

Photo by Donnie Reid.

How will your building behave when The Big One hits?

Damage may be intended, but can we predict how much?

Believe it or not, your home may have been deliberatelydesigned to sustain considerable damage in an earthquake inorder for its structure to ride out the shaking. Traditional seis-mic design is based on allowing the structure to dissipateenergy through inelastic action, in other words, damage isexpected to ensure structural integrity in an earthquake.

Now cutting-edge research at UBC's Department of CivilEngineering will allow property owners to see how their build-ings would react in a major earthquake and provide life-savinginformation on architectural design, retrofit and perhaps eveninsurance options.

The Lower Mainland of B.C. and the West Coast of theUnited States sit atop seismically active terrain with potentialfor hefty earthquakes. In fact, it was reported in the July 2003issue of Nature that the potential zone of rupture along thenorthern Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of VancouverIsland extends 25-30 km closer to the mainland than previous-ly thought, thereby indicating increased seismic risk inVancouver and Victoria. The region may see up to magnitude9 earthquakes—similar to the massive earthquake that struckIndonesia in December 2004.

How will your building behave when the earthquake hits? Will there be damage? Is there a chance of collapse?

Researchers in the UBC Civil Engineering Structures Groupare working towards a future in which the structural engineermay simulate the actual behaviour of buildings on a comput-er. This vision is a significant departure from the current engi-neering practice in which design codes hold a dominantplace. These code documents, set forth by code committeesto ensure life safety in expected extreme loading events, offerlimited information about how a specific structure will fare.“That the design of your building ‘conforms to code’ tells youlittle about how it will actually perform during an earthquake”says Dr. Ken Elwood, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering.“Questions about downtime and repair costs are critical tomany business owners and our goal must be to provide suchinformation based on state-of-the-art research,” he asserts.

The problem of unforeseen structural behaviour has beenapparent in numerous earthquakes around the globe. Forexample, the 1994 Northridge Earthquake in Los Angeles ledto few fatalities but was one of the costliest disasters in U.S.history with an economic loss of $40 billion. This was at oddswith the expectations of owners and the public and indicatesthat our question of actual structural performance is a chal-lenging one.

The $0.9 million CFI New Opportunities Grant awarded

to Drs. Elwood and Haukaas has expanded the earth-

quake engineering research facilities at UBC with a state-

of-the-art “real-time hybrid testing” system. This equip-

ment allows the combination of physical testing and

computer-based simulation of structural behaviour. As a

result, experimental evaluation of large-scale structural

systems at loading rates comparable to those experi-

enced during an earthquake is possible. In turn, this

will improve the computer models used to predict the

probability of damage and collapse for the building in

which we work and live.

The hybrid testing system includes a 1000 kN

dynamic actuator with high flow capabilities to enable

testing at velocities typical of those experienced

during an earthquake. The system facilitates network

collaboration between UBC and national/international

laboratories. For example, the workstations are used

to link to the Network for Earthquake Engineering

Simulation (NEES) in the U.S. and a tele-presence

server is available to enable remote participation in

experiments by UBC.

6

“ That the design of your building

‘conforms to code’ tells you little

about how it will actually perform

during an earthquake.”

By having information beyond today’s answer that “yourbuilding conforms to code” one can decide whether to livewith the risk and the projected damage or spend money onretrofit or improved insurance options. Structural simulationcapabilities would also help the code committees to refine thecode provisions without having to wait for an earthquake tobring out weaknesses in current practice.

The development of reliable computer models to predictseismic damage poses several challenges. It has been saidthat ‘everyone believes in the experiment, except the one whoperforms it, while no one believes in the computer analysis,except the one who runs it.’ The members of the StructuresGroup aim at shifting this attitude through a comprehensivelinking of computer simulation research with results from thecutting-edge Earthquake Engineering Research Facilities(EERF) at the UBC-Vancouver campus.

The pioneering efforts at UBC are carried out along sever-al axes. One recent and exciting development is the $0.9 mil-lion CFI New Opportunities Grant received by Elwood and Dr.Terje Haukaas for a project entitled Real-time Hybrid Controlfor Large Scale Seismic Testing. With this funding, UBC hasprocured a state-of-the-art real-time hybrid testing systemwhich combines physical testing and model-based simulation,enabling experimental evaluation of large-scale structural sys-tems at loading rates comparable to those experienced duringan earthquake.

Currently, the vast majority of earthquake engineeringexperiments are conducted on individual structural compo-nents subjected to slowly varying static loads. In contrast,

earthquakes subject entire structural systems to dynamicloads, resulting in a complex interaction between compo-nents not captured by most experiments.

Until recently, entire structural systems could only be tested by mounting specimens on shake tables capable ofreproducing the ground movement during an earthquake. For such tests, however, small-scale specimens are normallyrequired due to the limited size of shake tables.

Recent advances in computing and hydraulic controlcapabilities have led to the development of the real-timehybrid testing method, a combination of physical testing andmodel-based simulation capable of testing large-scale struc-tural systems at rates comparable to those experienced dur-ing an earthquake. The real-time hybrid testing methodrequires only the most critical portion of the structure to bephysically tested in the lab, while the remaining structure ismodeled numerically on a computer. The combination of thereal-time hybrid testing system and the state-of-the-art multi-directional shake table at the CFI-funded EarthquakeEngineering Research Facility (EERF) at UBC is unique inCanada, and establishes the university as an internationalleader in earthquake engineering research.

A novel aspect of the computer simulation research atUBC is the recognition of uncertainties. “Even with the mostsophisticated computer models calibrated through hybridtesting it is only possible to predict structural behaviour in aprobabilistic manner,” says Haukaas, Assistant Professor ofCivil Engineering.

Although the engineering specifications for a building areprecise, there is unavoidable uncertainty associated with theactual outcomes of the mater-ial and geometry parametersand the accuracy of thenumerical models themselves.There is of course also signifi-cant uncertainty in the charac-teristics of the actual groundmotion that the building willencounter.

A unique initiative in theStructures Group is the merg-er of the advanced computer simulation models with proba-bilistic analysis. Instead of providing deterministic answers,the uncertainties are recognized and the results are presentedas the probability associated with different damage scenarios.“As we incorporate more experimental and analytical informa-tion into our simulation models, the uncertainty in the resultis reduced. As a result, we can provide the owners and thepublic with more precise damage estimates. The importantpoint is that we must be upfront about the uncertainty in the predictions,” says Haukaas.

7

“ It has been said that everyone believes in the experiment, except the one who

performs it, while no one believes in the computer analysis, except the one who runs it.”

“ Even with the most sophisticated computer

models we can only predict structural behaviour

in a probabilistic manner.”continued on page 9

Editor/events coordinator studies civil engineering

Student changes career-path for altruistic reasons

Michelle Murphy hails from Vancouver and holds twodegrees, a Bachelor of Arts in English and PoliticalScience from the University of Western Ontario(London, ON) and a Master of Journalism fromCarleton University (Ottawa, ON).

After graduating, Murphy worked for four years as an editor and events coordinator in Haifa, Israel, at theBaha’i World Centre, the spiritual and administrativecentre for the worldwide Baha’i community. This afford-ed her the opportunity to interact with many peoplefrom different cultures and backgrounds (the 700 staffmembers came from approximately 70 different countries); fueling her long-term interest of contribut-ing to the betterment of humanity and expanding herknowledge of world issues, political and socialprocesses and economic progress, especially in developing countries.

Upon her return to Canada, Murphy found employment with documentary production compa-nies. One of her duties was to review stock footage of NASA training videos including life aboard theshuttle. Watching this footage, she realized that theastronauts were extremely talented, intelligent engineers whose profession would have an everlast-ing impact on humanity and she realized she wantedto do more than just write or record world issues—she wanted to get involved and make a positiveimpact on society.

Moving forward with tremendous determination, shespoke with several civil engineering friends about their profession, arranged meetings with UBC Professors BruceDunwoody and Susan Nesbit, signed up for Grade 12Chemistry (missing from her high school diploma and a pre-requisite for university) and finally enrolled in two refresh-er courses at a community college for math and physics.

In no time, she was back in post-secondary education,with a purpose and goal—to become an engineer. Due to her interest in development that had been nurtured in Israeland her newly-opened eyes to environmental civil engineer-ing, she became involved with Engineers Without Borders—a non-profit group that believes engineers can have a benefi-cial impact on humanity by providing such simple things as clean water, electricity or irrigation. She is currently thePresident of the UBC chapter.

Murphy’s first two co-op work terms (totaling 8 months)were spent with EnCana in Drumheller, Alberta, as a fieldoperator in the natural gas sector, responsible for the mainte-nance of natural gas wells and the booster/compressor sites.

For her third co-op work term, Murphy is currently work-ing in downtown Vancouver with SRK Consulting; an interna-tional company whose B.C. office is primarily dealing withmine site remediation.

This is a perfect match as there is a large environmentalcomponent which is assisting Murphy in achieving her altruistic goals. She is involved in such projects as the cleanup of old mine sites that are no longer functioning; puttingsoil covers over tailings ponds; the installation of tailingsdams; re-vegetation and decontamination of water.

Her duties include gathering and analyzing data for awater balance of a mine site in Peru, writing specifications forthe clean up of a site in Nunavut and manipulating manylarge excel spreadsheets. Before returning to her academics,Murphy, as the sole representative for SRK, will spend the last three weeks of August near Courtenay on VancouverIsland, supervising the reshaping of a coal pile in order toprevent erosion and to re-establish a river which will provide a safe habitat for fish.

Both the academic courses and co-op work terms of her education in civil engineering are providing Murphy theopportunity to achieve her goals of building an improvedenvironment that will have a lasting impact upon society.

From the staff of the Engineering Co-op office, Michelle,we are delighted to have you in our program and look forwardto coordinating and working with you during your final twoco-op work terms in 2007.

8

Ken Hall was always aunique member of theDepartment of CivilEngineering, perhapsmost notably due to thefact that he was thesole chemist in adepartment of engi-neers. Hall first cameto UBC as a post-doc-toral fellow in 1970 atthe Institute ofResource Ecology in theFaculty of GraduateStudies. Subsequentlyhe became a full timefaculty member with ajoint appointment in Civil Engineering and the WestwaterResearch Centre (Faculty of Graduate Studies). Hall’s teach-ing contributions were largely targeted at the graduate level,dealing with topics such as chemical analysis, water pollutionengineering and watershed management. Hall’s most endur-ing research passion was focussed on his famous “meromic-tic saline lake”, better know to some of us as Mahoney Lake,in south central B.C.. Together with his colleague TomNorthcote and a long list of graduate students, Hall reportedone scientific finding after another from Mahoney Lake, rou-tinely demonstrating previously unheard of chemical and biological phenomena. Hall’s other research endeavours didnot go unnoticed. His co-authored 1986 paper on the bio-chemistry of the enhanced biological phosphorus removalprocess was recently named as one of only 10 “groundbreak-ing papers” published in the journal Water Research for the 40 year period 1967–2006. As a newly minted ProfessorEmeritus, Hall now conducts his academic activities from hisnew home base in Penticton, to which he and his wifeShannon relocated earlier this year.

Retirements The closing of the year 2005 marked the retirements of two of our long serving Civil Engineering colleagues, Sidney Mindess and Ken Hall.

Sid Mindess arrived atUBC in 1969 after com-pleting his PhD researchat Stanford University.Over his subsequent 36year career as a UBC fac-ulty member, Mindess’sachievements in the fieldof civil engineering mate-rials made him widelyknown and highlyrespected at the interna-tional level. The experi-mental facilities devel-oped by Mindess at UBCwere by far the best inNorth America dedicated

to the impact resistance of concrete. Indeed, in 1995, UBCconstructed a larger version of Mindess’s testing machineryfor Pennsylvania State University, where these are nowinstalled and in routine use. The UBC facilities remain one of the few laboratories in the world equipped to carry out precision impact testing. Mindess’ worldwide reputationopened opportunities for him to work at the Technion inIsrael, Imperial College in London, the University of Illinoisand in Peru and Cuba. At UBC, his teaching contributions at the undergraduate and graduate levels transformed theDepartment’s instruction in civil engineering materials. In particular, the development of a hands-on, project-basedapproach to laboratory testing, resulted in the innovative CIVL322. This core course utilizes experimental work in UBC’sstate-of-the-art materials laboratory, along with site visits andexternal consultations, to bring all civil engineering under-graduates into the materials field. As an undergraduateteacher, Mindess is highly regarded outside of UBC for his widely utilized textbook with the title that says it all—Concrete. In his final year as a full time faculty member atUBC, Mindess’ career achievements were celebrated by his peers through the organization of a tribute symposium“Concrete: Bridging Materials and Structures”, held inVancouver in August, 2005.

How will your building behave... continued from page 7

9

As an example, building owners will be provided with theprobability that a building will sustain damage in excess of xthousand dollars in the next earthquake. If this probability issmall, the owner may decide to remain with the status quo. Ifit is, say, 50% then the decision might be different. So,although damage may indeed be intended for a building to

sustain seismic forces, we are entering an era in which infor-mation about the extent of damage and the associated costsand repair times can be provided. From there, owners and therest of the general public can make decisions about what isacceptable and in turn, influence future design standards.

10

Dr. Violeta Martin has beenwith the department sinceJune 2003. Initially, she wasworking on several researchprojects as a post-doc and a research associate, andshe was also responsible foroverseeing the day-to-dayoperation of the HydraulicsLaboratory. She startedteaching hydrotechnicalcourses as a Lecturer in September 2005, and has taught EnvironmentalHydraulics, Fluid MechanicsI, Fluid Mechanics II, andthe lab section of Hydrologyand Open Channel Flow.

After completing herB.Sc. in Civil Engineering

with a major inHydrotechnical Engineeringat the University of Novi Sad in former Yugoslavia,Martin worked with theCapital Investments Groupfor the regional waterworkscompany. She moved toCanada in 1993 and laterpursued her graduate stud-ies at UBC, earning anM.A.Sc. and a Ph.D. in CivilEngineering. Her graduateresearch consisted of experi-mental and analytical model-ling work that investigatedthe resistance to flow inopen channels, the develop-ment of the bed-water interface, and the develop-ment of velocity profiles ingravel-bed rivers.

Martin’s work continuedwithin the department withpost-doctoral work on mod-elling pollutant spreading ina drinking water reservoir.This was followed withresearch examining theinteraction between stream-bank erosion and forestgrowth, and the adequacy offixed width stream bufferzones for maintaining largewoody debris (LWD) inputsto stream channels. Besidesenjoying her teachingengagements, she is nowworking towards renewingand upgrading the agingequipment in the HydraulicsLaboratory for both teachingand research needs.

Greg Johnson MAIBC, P.ENG.,LEED® AP, Adjunct ProfessorAfter obtaining his Bachelorof Applied Science inMechanical Engineeringfrom UBC in 1974, GregJohnson worked a short timein the field of engineeringbefore continuing his stud-ies at the University ofMontreal, obtaining aBachelor of Architecture in1977 and Masters of AppliedScience in 1980 on anNSERC PostgraduateResearch Scholarship. Hisresearch included analysis ofwind and snow-driftingeffects around buildings.

Returning to Vancouverin 1981 he became involvedwith issues of sustainabilityapplied to building design,including building energy

performance analysis, pas-sive and active solar design.He worked with a number ofprominent local architects,playing a key role in majorprojects, many of whichgained recognition throughdesign awards.

With the extensive build-ing envelope failures in theLower Mainland region, hefurther expanded his exper-tise into the area of buildingscience, undertaking build-ing envelope consulting,remediation and teaching.He obtained his LEED pro-fessional accreditation, andcontinues to place a majoremphasis on energy perfor-mance, envelope durabilityand sustainability issues inall the projects in which heis involved.

Since the early 1990’s,he has had his own architec-tural practice with severalpartners. At present he splitshis professional timebetween his current architec-tural practice as a principalin Marceau Evans JohnsonArchitects, a firm specializingin institutional projectswhose clients include School Boards and manyFirst Nation communitiesthroughout the province,and teaching at UBC, wherehe instructs in the School of Architecture & LandscapeArchitecture and theDepartment of CivilEngineering. He has beenteaching the jointCivil/Wood Building Science–Enclosure Design coursesince 2002.

PeopleMeet the faces of Civil Engineering at UBC

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Since being appointedas Adjunct Professor, Forgiehas been involved in onePh.D. committee, and has made presentations at undergraduate environ-mental engineering classes. He hopes to be able to usehis experiences in academiaand consulting to furthercontribute to the UBCEnvironmental Engineeringprogram in the comingyears.

Dr. Dave Forgie, P.Eng.was appointed as an Adjunct Professor in CivilEngineering in 2003. He holds a B.Sc. in CivilEngineering (1972) andM.Sc. in SanitaryEngineering (1975) from theUniversity of Saskatchewanand a Ph.D. inEnvironmental Engineering(1983) from the University of Toronto. After completinghis M.Sc. research work,Forgie worked forEnvironment Canada in theNorthern TechnologyDevelopment group out ofEdmonton investigatinginnovative solutions tonorthern wastewater andsolid waste managementproblems in advance of theproposed Mackenzie Valleypipeline.

Following EnvironmentCanada, Forgie was enticedto return to the University ofSaskatchewan in Saskatoonas an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering. In thefollowing years, he taught

environmental engineering,wastewater treatment, solidwaste management and haz-ardous waste managementundergraduate and graduateclasses. He also conductedresearch into cold tempera-ture rotating biological con-tactor wastewater treatmentand sanitary landfill leachatecollection and treatment.During the 15 years Forgiewas on the U of S faculty, hespent three years on educa-tion leave to complete hisPh.D., advanced toAssociate Professor andcompleted a one year sab-batical (1986-87) in Europeinvestigating landfill leachatetreatment. Forgie authoredseveral conference and refer-eed journal papers while atthe U of S.

Eventually, Forgie joinedAssociated Engineering inVancouver, in June 1990where he has remained.Since then, he has workedon numerous wastewaterand solid waste manage-ment projects in Western

Canada and Ontario andaround the world includingBermuda, Sri Lanka andVietnam. This work hasincluded liquid and solidwaste management planningstudies, conceptual and pre-liminary wastewater treat-ment plant designs, landfillsiting and design, leachatetreatment, biosolids man-agement including compost-ing and odour control.Forgie also developed andtaught several wastewatertreatment courses for BCIT’sBachelor of EnvironmentalEngineering Technology pro-gram between 1993 and2003. He has also beenactive in the BC Water andWaste Association(BCWWA) and was theWastewater Committee chairfrom 2002 to 2006. Duringthat time, he was the techni-cal committee chair for thevery successful 2ndCanadian Organic ResidualsRecycling conference inPenticton in 2003.

Katherine Thibert graduatedfrom the University ofWestern Ontario with aBachelor’s of EngineeringScience Degree in CivilEngineering. She began herstudies at UBC in the fall of2004 under the supervisionof Dr. Carlos Ventura and iscurrently working on aMaster of Applied ScienceDegree. Her researchinvolves seismic risk assess-ment for the Joint

InfrastructureInterdependencies ResearchProgram (JIIRP). There are 6groups across Canadainvolved in JIIRP, with UBCreceiving the largest amountof funding. Civil Engineeringis playing a key role in theeffort to secure Canada'sinfrastructure from threatsand vulnerabilities that haveincreased as infrastructurecomponents have evolved incomplexity and interconnect-

edness. Thibert has alsodone work with Microtremormeasurements, which areused for estimation ofdynamic site properties. She is an active member of UBC’s EarthquakeEngineering ResearchInstitute Student Chapter,where she currently has the position of OutreachCommissioner.

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The undergraduate Civil Clubannounced that Professors Reza Vaziri, Rob Millar and DonMavinic were selected as the2005/2006 Top Professors inour 2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-year pro-grams, respectively.

Professor Carlos Ventura was a successful co-applicant on afunding award from NSERC'sJoint InfrastructureInterdependencies Program(JIIRP) for the project “DecisionCoordination for CriticalLinkages in a National Networkof Infrastructures.” This is thefirst research grant awarded to a civil engineering professorunder the JIIRP program.

Professor Carlos Ventura washonoured with the 2006Meritorious Achievement Award by the Association ofProfessional Engineers and Geoscientists of BritishColumbia. The award was pre-sented in Victoria at APEGBC'sPresident's Awards Gala, held in October.

Professor Emeritus Liam Finnpresented the 10th Mallet-MilneLecture, sponsored by TheSociety for Earthquake and CivilEngineering Dynamics inLondon. The topic of the daywas “A Study of Pile duringEarthquakes: Issues of Designand Analysis.”

Professor Nemy Banthia hasbeen elected Fellow of theIndian Concrete Institute, one of the world's largest professional bodies devoted to concrete materials and structures with over 50,000members worldwide.

Professor Sietan Chieng wasrecognized with the JimBeamish Award by the CanadianSociety of AgriculturalEngineering at its 2005 AnnualConference.

Professor Emeritus Peter Byrnewas the winner of the 2005Mayerhof Award of theCanadian Geotechnical Society,for significant and outstandingcontributions to the art and sci-ence of foundation engineering.

Professor Rob Millar and colleagues from the Departmentof Geography were recognizedwith the 2005 BGRG Wiley Award by the BritishGeomorphological ResearchGroup, for their paper publishedin the journal Earth SurfaceProcesses and Landforms.

A successful Noel NathanMemorial Lecture in structuralengineering was held onSeptember 19, 2005 at UBCRobson Square, with guestspeaker Professor Jack Moehleof the University of California at Berkeley. Professor EmeritusDon Anderson offered words of recognition and remem-brance of Noel and ProfessorEmeritus Bob Sexsmith servedas Master of Ceremonies, inaddition to his role as Chair ofthe Organizing Committee.

Professor Nemy Banthia’sinternational conference, CONMAT ’05, was successfullystaged in Vancouver in August2005. Conference events included a special symposiumand associated social activitiesheld to honour Professor SidneyMindess for his lifetime of contributions to the area of civilengineering materials.

Professor Ken Elwood, withgraduate students Sahar Safaie,Chris Meisl and Rishi Gupta,presented a special seminar tothe department entitled “2004Great Sumatra Earthquake andTsunami: Damage andReconstruction.” The groupreported on observations madeduring their reconnaissance trip to northern Sumatra to document the earthquake and tsunami damage to struc-tures and the process of reconstruction.

Professor Nemy Banthiahas been appointed to a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair inInfrastructure Rehabilitation and Sustainability. The Chairrecognizes Banthia’s outstand-ing contributions to research on cement-based materials and microfibre-reinforcedcement composites for civilapplications.

Professor Sheryl Staub-Frenchhas been appointed the inau-gural Marshall Bauder Professorin Engineering and Economics.The Bauder Professorship wasestablished with the goal ofenhancing education in engi-neering economics within theFaculty of Applied Science.

Professor Loretta Li and her co-authors were recognized with the GeoenvironmentalAward for 2006 by the CanadianGeotechnical Society. The award was based in part on an outstanding technical paperpresented at the 2005 AnnualCSCE Conference. Li was also awarded a short-termInvitation Fellowship by theJapan Society for the Promotionof Science, for working visits to Kyushu University,Kagoshima University and Kyoto University.