James M. Kelly

Dr. Kelly has been an influential educator, researcher and consultant in a wide range of engineering mechanics, structural engineering and earthquake engineering. He did pioneering work in dislocation mechanics, dynamic plasticity, impact and wave propagation. He developed the first energy-dissipating devices in 1971 to be used in earthquake resistant structures. Since then he has led the way in experimental investigations of elastomeric seismic isolation bearings by conducting many pioneering studies of seismically isolated structures and structures with energy dissipators. In testing hundreds of bearings he achieved numerous advances, including the application of high-damping rubber for seismic isolation bearings - used in the first U.S. isolated building and in more than 100 structures around the world and the understanding of the dynamic and ultimate behavior of elastomeric seismic isolation at large deformation.

Dr. Kelly led the development of the field of seismic supplemental damping, or energy dissipation. He was responsible for the first U.S. shake table investigations of the response of structures containing energy dissipators, and has conducted component and system-level experimental and analytical research on many concepts, including yielding steel, friction, viscoelastic, viscous, shapememory alloy and elecffo-rheological systems. He was instrumental in several of the early U.S. energy dissipation applications, consulted on the implementation of viscous dampers for the suspended spans of the Golden Gate Bridge, and for the first major U.S. building damper project, the Santa Clara County Civic Center Building that was retrofit with viscoelastic dampers following the Loma Prieta earthquake. He worked to develop seismic isolation for low-cost housing in developing countries as a consultant to the United Nations (UNIDO), and has consulted on projects in Armenia, Chile, China, India, and Indonesia, where isolation has been used for residential complex construction. He initiated seminal investigations on the seismic behavior of secondary systems that led to his development of methods for protection of equipment from seismic damage by the use ofjoint passive and active isolation strategies.

He was the first in the U.S. to start teaching university-level courses on seismic isolation and energy dissipation. He has been a consultant to: International seismic isolation projects in Chile, China, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, and Greece; Intemational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); EPRI on seismic performance of equipment and piping systems in power plants; General Electric Co. on seismic isolation of liquid metal fast breeder nuclear power plants; Argonne National Laboratory on seismic isolation for nuclear facilities. He conducted short-courses and seminars on isolation and energy dissipation worldwide.

His work, which formed the basis for significant advances worldwide in the analysis and design of isolation and energy dissipation systems, is the foundation for many of the base isolation design codes used today, including UBC, IBC, and CBC. Base isolation has been used for seismic retrofit of major buildings in the U.S. including important historic sffuctures such as the city halls of Salt Lake City; Oakland, CA; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Berkeley, CA, on which he was a consultant. Dr. Kelly's pioneering efforts have established seismic isolation and energy dissipation as important methods for earthquake protection. Various forms have been used in more than 1000 major structures worldwide. Professor Kelly, well recognized as an outstanding teacher and lecturer, has directed over thirty doctoral students in their Ph.D. thesis research who have gone on to become noted practitioners, university professorsa nd researchersw orldwide. Many Fulbright Visiting Scholars have come to Berkeley to work with him. His students and visitors (and their students), have spread worldwide his creative and innovative work on seismic protection of structures.