Michel Soto Chalhoub

Michel Soto Chalhoub is a civil engineer who pioneered modern practice in shock, vibration, and seismic design using energy dissipating devices [ref]. He developed his methodologies while at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his Ph.D. in dynamics and seismic design.^[1][2][3] He focused his research and his product development projects on critical facilities that are supposed to remain functional during and in the aftermath of a major tremor such as fire command centers, hospitals, and transportation facilities. Chalhoub applied advanced structural dymanics to projects such as TITAN IV Solid Motor, Disney theme parks, and offshore docking cells. Chalhoub became well-known for his work on fluid-structure interaction as researchers, to-date, use his work as a historic reference on structures and fluids in some of the most seismically active countries such as Japan, Turkey, and Iran.^[4] He was awarded the Graduate Student Instructor Award at the University of California in 1988, and the Engineer of the Year Award at the Parsons Corporation in Pasadena in 1990 for pioneering work in applied dynamics to solve environmental problems. While at Parsons, Dr. Michel Chalhoub chaired the committee on base isolation at the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC) and developed the simplified design code on seismic design using shock absorbers which was introduced for the first time in the Uniform Building Code in 1990. Simplified code formulas help engineers worldwide adopt and apply engineering concepts in their daily practice, providing effective design, yet without having to burden themselves with complex research derivations.^[5] As a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and as a registered Civil Engineer (P.E.) and Structural Engineer (S.E.) in the State of California,^[6] he worked as a chief engineer in disaster relief missions in the Loma Prieta Earthquake [ref], the Landers Earthquake [ref], and the Northridge Earthquake [ref], three major natural disasters that claimed lives and billions of dollars in property and public facility damage [ref].

Following disaster relief missions in the USA and in other countries in Latin America, in Europe and the Middle East, Michel Chalhoub became interested in issues of public concern especially as they relate to public health and safety. He formalized his public service experience by earning a Master in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where he concentrated on Business-Government and International Development^[7] . His research then culminated in a policy analysis project for the Office of Technology Assessment on Public-Private Partnerships in the Commercialization of Environmental Technologies in which he addressed defense conversion at the tail of the cold war. His research studied how to transform military research results to find use in civilian applications to better serve society. It was nominated for the Best Policy Analysis Exercise at Harvard in 1995.

References

1. ^ University of California, Berkeley. "Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Earthquake Isolation and Fluid Containers - Berkeley Press 1987", ', Berkeley Press 1987, CA.
2. ^ 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering."Compressive and Bending Behavior of Fiber-Reinforced Elastomeric Bearings - Beijing, China, 2008", ', .
3. ^ 9th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Kyoto-Japan, 1988. "Earthquake Engineering Research at Berkeley", ', Japan 1988, .
4. ^ International Journal of Civil Engineering 2009."Numerical Accuracy of Mass-Spring Models of Cylindrical Tanks under Seismic Excitation", ', .
5. ^ Journal of Structural Engineering. "Comparison of SEAONC Base Isolation Tentative Code to Shake Table Tests - JSE 1990", ',.
6. ^ State of California Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. " ", ',.
7. ^ Harvard Alumni Association. "alumni intranet 1995", ', Cambridge, MA.

State of California, Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, License Lookup Page University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, Alumni Associaton. Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, Alumni Association. American Society of Civil Engineers.

External links

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