Sissy Nikolaou

Sissy Nikolaou, PhD, PE, D.GE, F.ASCE

Earthquake Engineering Group Leader, Materials and Structural Systems Division, Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Biography

Dr. Sissy Nikolaou serves as the Earthquake Engineering Group Leader for the Materials and Structural Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She has over 25 years of global consulting experience in buildings and infrastructure systems, with emphasis on performance-based design, soil-structure interaction, seismic hazard analysis, liquefaction evaluation and mitigation, multi-hazard risk assessment of critical facilities; and emergency and action preparedness planning for communities.

Nikolaou earned her 5-year Civil Engineering Diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece on Structural Engineering, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo with focus on geotechnical and earthquake engineering. Nikolaou has served as Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Applied Technology Council (ATC), and is an advisory member of GEER. She is currently a Governor of the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE-GI), where she holds the Fellow status, and member of the Executive Committee of the Infrastructure Resilience Division (ASCE-IRD). Her recognitions include the Prakash Prize for Excellence in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and a Board Certification by the Academy of the Geo-Professionals (AGP).

Nikolaou has led reconnaissance missions of major natural disasters of earthquakes and hurricanes around the world and has played a key role in the development of new generation codes for extreme events. She was instrumental in the development of the Travel Study activity for young professionals offered through the LFE (Learning from Earthquakes) program of EERI. She is active in seismic codes development and has been the chair for the seismic committee of the NYC Building Code since 2014. Most recently, she was one of the experts that prepared the NIST-FEMA Functional Recovery Framework for Buildings and Infrastructure Report NIST SP-1254 that was presented this January to the United States Congress as the future basis of seismic-resistant design.

Abstract

FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY: Design Utopia or Elective Reality?

Resilience was introduced as the most pressing research and practice challenge in earthquake engineering more than 15 years ago. Since then, it has become a catchphrase that, under its placard, has initiated major efforts for the future of infrastructure, facilities, and communities served by them globally. The abstract resilience concept has been stretched so much at the risk of becoming a modern Tower of Babel, where occupants talk without really understanding each other. However, resilience is not a trend that sounds good at water-cooler conversations – it’s making informed decisions based on risk assessments that rely on the best knowledge, science, and technology available, while optimizing funding allocation.

The future of engineering resilience includes the performance objective of “Functional Recovery” in addition to the traditional “Life Safety.” The speaker will present her views on this pragmatic – rather than the idealistic – goal with focus on geo-structural aspects, including: (i) translating the common desire for resilience into quantifiable terms, design frameworks, and decision support tools; (ii) addressing multidisciplinary interaction, cascading hazards, and interdependencies between buildings and lifelines; (iii) incorporating functional recovery as a fundamental metric of life quality, as not a “bouncing back,” but rather a “bouncing forward” strategy; (iv) using engineering as an art form which can be carved with innovative tools and documented lessons of failures and successes to create future cities and safely sustain existing communities; (v) integrating the human factor through a holistic approach that requires education, clear communication and trust, risk prevention, equity and inclusion, and growth.

Examples from design projects, applied research, and geotechnical reconnaissance following major earthquakes will be presented, with highlights of successful performance of functional recovery, achieved through incorporation of innovative soil-structure interaction approaches and geo-technologies. This living proof of the value of a resilience-based philosophy enhances the confidence of the stakeholders and the public and demonstrates that geotechnical engineering leadership is essential in the path to resilience. A path that is the obvious and – possibly the only – choice for the future, as the traditional alternative is no longer enough.