Huixian Earthquake Engineering Award

“Huixian Earthquake Engineering Award” It is given to those outstanding contributors who have done long-term commitment to advance the field of earthquake engineering or the related. In 2006, the two Foundations decided to give the ‘Huixian Earthquake Engineering Award’ to Prof. George W. Housner from USA and Prof. Hu Yuxian from China. (April 28, 2006)

 

 

George W. Housner is the C. F. Braun Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology.  He is one of the pioneers of earthquake engineering, and his research has revealed the characteristics of destructive ground shaking and has improved seismic design methods for many types of structures.  He has chaired the Consulting Board for Earthquake Problems of the California Department of Water Resources, the Caltrans Seismic Advisory Board, and the Governor’s Board of Inquiry on the Loma Prieta Earthquake.  Engineering projects on which Professor Housner has consulted include the California Water Project, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System, the trans-Arabian pipeline, as well as numerous dams, buildings, nuclear facilities, ports and off-shore oil platforms.

 Professor Housner’s contributions to earthquake engineering have been recognized by his election to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.  He has served the Academies in many capacities, including as chairman of committees on earthquake engineering research, the International Decade of Natural Hazard Reduction, and the investigation into the 1964 Alaskan earthquake.  In 1978, he led a delegation of earthquake engineers to the People’s Republic of China as a follow-up to President Nixon’s historic trip there six years earlier.  Professor Housner has been awarded the National Medal of Science, the National Academy of Engineering’s Founders Award, and the California Earthquake Safety Foundation’s Alquist Award, and he holds honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California.

 

Hu Yuxian, male, Han nationality, is a native of Wuchang, Hubei Province. He graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Hu obtained a doctoral degree from University of Michigan in the USA. 
Hu acted as researcher at the Geophysical Research Institute of the China National Seismic Bureau. He has been committed to the combination between seismology and engineering science, and initiated engineering seismology in China. Since the early 1960s, he has been known for studying the effect of field conditions on earthquakes and damage. His primary conclusions have been applied to the earthquake resistance norms of China. He has put forward comprehensive probability methods for seismic fatalness analysis in the 1980s, combining international general probability methods with the advanced seismic forecast method. These methods have been adopted by the latest seismic block plan of China. His method of designing earth vibration from intensity, distance or earthquake magnitude for regions lacking records has been widely adopted in the earthquake resistance plan of China. Hu advanced the application of random vibration theory to earthquake engineering and conducted the research on urban seismic hazard forecast and earthquake prevention and mitigation in the 1990s. 
Hu Yuxian was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991.