EERI Central:

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is a national, nonprofit, technical society of engineers, geoscientists, architects, planners, public officials, and social scientists. EERI members include researchers, practicing professionals, educators, government officials, and building code regulators.


Please use the following links to become more familiar with EERI:


EERI WEBSITE

BOARD OF DIRECTORS


EERI British Columbia Chapter:

We are the regional chapter of EERI. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute – British Columbia Chapter is dedicated to reducing the earthquake risk in British Columbia, Canada by advancing the science and practice of earthquake engineering; by improving understanding of the impact of earthquakes on the physical, social, economic, political and cultural environment; and by advocating comprehensive and realistic measures for reducing the harmful effects of earthquakes. You can Use This link to become more familiar with this chapter.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS


Salman Soleimani-Dashtaki
President & Director

Dr. Salman Soleimani-Dashtaki obtained his PhD in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia (2018), working on Seismic Strengthening of Unreinforced Masonry Walls Using Sprayable Ecofriendly Ductile Cementitious Composite (EDCC), and his BASc with a minor degree in commerce from the Sauder School of Business at UBC (2011). He is currently working as a research associate and a sessional lecturer at the civil engineering department of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Dr. Soleimani-Dashtaki has worked on various multi-disciplinary research projects focusing on structural and earthquake engineering as well as high-performance construction materials. During his research career at UBC he has conducted comprehensive experimental programs, jointly between the Earthquake Engineering Research Facility (EERF) and the Sustainable Infrastructure Research Group (SIERA), towards developing practical seismic retrofit strategies for unreinforced masonry (URM) and heritage style structures. He has worked on an innovative UBC developed sprayable composite material, called Ecofriendly Ductile Cementitious Composite (EDCC), and strengthening techniques for seismically retrofitting URM partition walls at BC schools.

Dr. Soleimani-Dashtaki has been teaching and co-lecturing undergraduate and graduate level courses at the UBC civil engineering department since 2015. In 2015, he co-initiated the establishment of the campus wide UBC Vancouver Summer Program (VSP) in the civil engineering department, the first unit to host VSP within the faculty of applied science; since then, he has coordinated the program and taught some of the VSP courses offered annually.

Dr. Soleimani-Dashtaki is the current president of the British Columbia Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI); he also served as the president of the UBC EERI Chapter (2013-2018) and has been on the Board of Directors for the BC EERI Chapter since 2018. He has co-chaired four international conferences, organized many technical seminars and workshops, and has served on the scientific committees of various international meetings. He has co-edited four books: Smart & Sustainable Infrastructure: Building a Greener Tomorrow; Approaching Carbon-Neutrality in Resilient Civil Infrastructure; FRC: The Modern Landscape; and Modern Developments in Performance of Structures Under Extreme Loading. He has also authored numerous articles and technical reports on sustainable construction materials, retrofit techniques for unreinforced masonry, materials undergoing extreme loading, structural health monitoring (SHM), ambient vibration techniques, and operational modal analysis.



Monrit Chatha
Vice-President & Director

Monrit is the current Vice President for the EERI BC Board of Directors. She has been volunteering her time with EERI since graduating from the University of British Columbia in 2017. Monrit is a Structural Engineer currently with the City of Vancouver in their Structures Team.

Prior to this, Monrit spent 6+ years as a Project Engineer with RJC Engineers. Throughout her career, Monrit has focussed on seismic risk reduction and promoting performance-based upgrades and retrofits of existing structures. She is passionate about earthquake engineering and is currently part of several working groups to create post earthquake response plans throughout British Columbia. Monrit has also worked on conducting seismic risk assessments to review targets for functional recovery.



                               

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