🌟 Presented by Advancing Mentoring and the Professoriate for Inclusive Excellence

The Office of Advancing Mentoring and the Professoriate Presents

Engagement & Research Seminar Series featuring

María José Echeverría

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at California State University, Sacramento; UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Davis

"Achieving Functional Recovery through Seismic Retrofit of Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings"

Post-earthquake functional recovery has emerged as a critical objective for enhancing community resilience, yet most existing buildings—particularly older reinforced concrete structures—were neither designed nor retrofitted with this goal in mind. While seismic retrofit has been effective in improving life safety, it remains unclear when, and under what conditions, retrofit can support timely functional recovery.

This talk examines when and how seismic retrofit of existing reinforced concrete buildings can meaningfully contribute to functional recovery. It highlights key technical and decision-making challenges that limit the adoption of recovery-oriented retrofit, while also identifying situations in which these goals may be feasible. Attention is given to how building characteristics, ownership priorities, and retrofit strategies shape recovery outcomes, as well as to opportunities to leverage life-safety and sustainability upgrades.

The talk then explores how different retrofit approaches influence post-earthquake recovery outcomes across a set of existing reinforced concrete buildings. Results show that some life-safety retrofits can significantly improve functional recovery, while others offer limited benefit unless nonstructural performance is also addressed. These observations highlight the practical tradeoffs embedded in current retrofit practice and raise questions about how recovery is evaluated in engineering decision-making.

Lunch served starting at 11:30am, research talk with Q&A from 12:00 - 1:00pm.
Everyone interested is welcome.

About

María José Echeverría, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at California State University, Sacramento, and an earthquake engineering researcher focused on the seismic performance and post-earthquake functional recovery of buildings. She holds dual Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering and Engineering Science from the University of Colorado Boulder and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, as well as an M.S. in Civil Engineering from CU Boulder.

Her research spans performance-based earthquake engineering, performance-based multihazard engineering, and seismic retrofit of existing buildings. Dr. Echeverría has contributed to ATC-138–related efforts, worked as a research engineer consultant with Haselton Baker Risk Group and Chile’s National Research Center for Integrated Natural Disaster Management, and serves on ASCE technical committees related to seismic rehabilitation and nonstructural performance.

Upcoming Seminar Series Presentations:

MICHELLE VASQUEZ RUIZ

President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
"Bureaucracies and Borders: Indigenous Immigrants and the Limits of Legalization"
March 4 • 12:00pm • Student Community Center, Room D
Rescheduled - date coming soon!

DIEGO ELLIS SOTO

Postdoctoral Scholar, Environmental Science, Policy & Management, UC Berkeley
"Biodiversity in Flux: Extreme Weather, Human Histories, and New Frontiers of Conservation Science"
March 11 • 12:00pm • Student Community Center, Room D
Learn More

DEBORAH SOUTHERN

Postdoctoral Scholar, School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
April 29 • 12:00pm • Student Community Center, Room D
More information soon.

OLUMAKINDE ADESIJIBOMI OGUNNAIKE

Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics, University of California, Berkeley
May 27 • 12:00pm • Student Community Center, Room D
More information soon.