Congrats to Connie Chen, a recipient of the 2022-2023 EERI/FEMA NEHRP graduate fellowship in earthquake hazard reduction! The one-year fellowship with a stipend of $12,000 aims to encourage the efforts of accomplished individuals working toward the goals of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.
Connie was the president of the EERI student chapter from 2021-22 at UC Berkeley and is still active within the organization. In addition to academic endeavors, Connie volunteers for several mentorship programs at Berkeley, including the Getting into Graduate School (GiGS) program and the GOLD Science Fair program. Connie graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 2017 and an M.S. in Civil Engineering in 2018 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. program in structural engineering at the university.
Her doctoral research investigates the effect of vertical earthquake ground motions on the response of tall buildings by developing numerical models. Current code provisions for vertical earthquake effects, which have persisted since their origin in ATC 3-06 (1978), may be underestimating design column axial forces.
A future goal of her research project is to determine the adequacy of existing building code provisions for vertical earthquake effects applied to tall building design.