Welcome to the web site of our research group at the University of Canterbury (UC). We strive to develop innovative methods and utilise advanced computational and experimental technologies to revolutionise societal resilience to earthquake hazards. In particular, our research focuses on various fundamental and applied aspects of earthquake engineering, from seismic hazard analysis and ground motion prediction to fragility analysis of structures, as well as over-arching subjects such as performance-based frameworks, structure-specific seismic loss assessment, and their role in decision making.
Brendon has been on the faculty at UC since 2010. He obtained his BE(Hons) and PhD from UC in 2007 and 2009, respectively. During 2009-2011, he held positions at GNS Science in Wellington and a post-doctoral fellow at Chuo University in Tokyo, and in 2016-2017 was a UPS Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Further information about the current research group members can be found here.
Brendon has consulting experience in seismic hazard analysis, ground motion selection, structural and geotechnical seismic response analysis, and seismic risk/loss assessment. His awards include: 2023 University of Canterbury Research Medal, 2021 ISSMGE Bright Spark Lecture Award, 2018 NZGS Geomechanics Award, 2016 Prime Minister's MacDairmid Emerging Scientist Prize, 2016 ASCE Norman Medal, 2015 Shah Innovation Prize, 2015 TC203 Young Researcher Award, 2015 UC Teaching Award, 2014 New Zealand Young Engineer of the Year Award; 2014 Shamsher Prakash Foundation Research Award; 2013 Rutherford Discovery Fellowship; 2012 Ivan Skinner EQC award; 2008 NZSEE research prize. He is a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand (2021), Fellow of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (2022), and Fellow of the Royal Society | Te Apārangi of New Zealand (2022). He is also the director of QuakeCoRE: NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience, and a current member of the editorial boards of Earthquake Spectra and the Bulletin of the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering.
Jack Baker, Brendon Bradley and Peter Stafford have written a textbook on seismic hazard and risk analysis published by Cambridge University Press. See pshabook.com for the text and open-source supplementary material.
Recent news:
10/04/2024: Cesar Pajaro and Jake Faulkner started in the research group as postdoc fellow and software engineer, respectively. All group member details can be found here.
9/04/2024: Our group presented six papers at the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) Annual Conference. You can view the papers here.
5/03/2024: We currently have openings for two PhD and one postdoc positions. Please see the Research opportunities page for further details. Applications close 30 March 2024.
31/1/2024: Several papers from our group appeared in the BSSA/SRL focus sections on 'seismic hazard models'. You can find copies of the papers on the Publications page.
1/12/2023: Juan Jose Sepulveda Garcia joined the research group as a PhD student. All group member details can be found here.
16/10/2023: We currently have openings for two PhD and two postdoc positions. Please see the Research opportunities page for further details. Applications close 30 November 2023.
03/10/2023: Brendon Bradley was awarded the University of Canterbury Research Medal, awarded annually by the University Council for excellence demonstrated by a sustained record of research of the highest quality.
31/08/2023: Congratulations to group members, Felipe Kuncar and Ayushi Tiwari who won the QuakeCoRE Lightning Talk competition (Felipe - Judges Winner, Ayushi - Judges Runner-up and Audience Choice Winner).
28/08/2023: The research group attended the 2023 Te Hiranga Rū QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting in Ahuriri | Napier, New Zealand. Collectively 8 posters were presented in the poster sessions, two Lightning Talks were given by Ayushi Tiwari and Felipe Kuncar, and Chris de la Torre, Chuanbin Zhu, and Robin Lee gave presentations at the pre-meeting workshop on "modelling and analysis of ground-motion spatial correlations for several engineering use cases".
16/03/2023: Brendon Bradley was inducted as a Fellow into the Royal Society of New Zealand | Te Apārangi.
07/03/2023: Research group member, Felipe Kuncar, is off to the USA for several months to have an in-person collaboration with Adrian Rodriguez-Marek at Virgina Tech. We are looking forward to fruitful collaborations through this project.
01/10/2022: Chuanbin Zhu joined the research group as a Research Fellow, with a background in data-based methods site response analysis during his prior experience at GFZ, Potsdam.
15/09/2022: Brendon Bradley attended the 2022 SCEC Annual Meeting in Palm Springs - its first in-person meeting since 2019. He also took the opportunity to visit Jack Baker at Stanford University, Palo Alto for a few days.
02/09/2022: The first Te Hiranga Rū | QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting in Ahuriri | Napier was successfully held!
01/08/2022: Ayushi Tiwari commenced her PhD studies within the research group - the list of current group members is here.
01/05/2022: Brendon Bradley delivered one of the two invited Bright Spark Lectures at the 20th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering conference in Sydney. You can view the video presentation here.
28/04/2022: Brendon Bradley was made a Fellow of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering
27/04/2022: Brendon Bradley, Robin Lee, and Jesse Hutchinson attending/presented at the 2022 NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering Annual Conference. You can view the papers here.
03/02/2022: Brendon Bradley was recognised as a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand.
02/02/2022: Brendon Bradley received the 2021 Established Researcher Award from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Canterbury.
02/02/2022: "Seismic Hazard and Risk Analysis" was runner-up in the Earth Science category of the Association of American Publishers PROSE awards. You can find more information here.
15/12/2021: Chris de la Torre's (lead author) paper "2D geotechnical site-response analysis including soil heterogeneity and wave scattering" was including in EERI's Earthquake Spectra Highlights for the December 2021 month. You can view the paper here.
02/11/2021: Brendon Bradley and Robin Lee received funding from the prestigious Royal Society of New Zealand's Marsden Fund for two projects "Accelerating the advent of physics-based ground-motion simulation for seismic hazard analysis" and "Creating a physics-based understanding of the spatial correlation of earthquake-induced ground motions in regions of complex geology" which will be undertaken over the next several years. Graduate Students and Postdocs interested in these projects can see the Research Opportunities page.
17/06/2021: Brendon Bradley gave a talk at the PEER Pacific Rim forum on ground-motion simulations. The presentation slides are available here.
12/05/2021: A review of the upcoming book "Seismic Hazard and Risk Analysis" by Baker, Bradley, and Stafford was published by Prof. Steve Kramer of the University of Washington in Earthquake Spectra.
16/04/2021: Numerous members of the group attended the NZSEE Annual Conference in Christchurch, NZ. Papers presented can be found here.
10/03/2021: Mertcan Geyin, Brett Maurer, Brendon Bradley, Russell Green, and Sjoerd Van Ballegooy recieved one of the inagural DesignSafe Data Depot Awards for "CPT-Based Liquefaction Case Histories Resulting from the 2010-2016 Canterbury, New Zealand, Earthquakes: A Curated Digital Dataset (Version 2)." See more here.
14/10/2020: Brendon Bradley received one of the two 'Bright Spark Lecture Awards' from the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). The keynote lecture for the award will be delivered at the 20th ISSMGE conference in Sydney in May 2022.
09/10/2020: The QuakeCoRE (NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience) proposal to be a Centre of Earthquake Resilience (CoRE) from 2021-2028 was awarded $31.5M for 7.5 years. More details: http://www.quakecore.nz/
28/06/2020: Jesse Hutchinson joined the group as a postdoctoral fellow. Jesse completed his PhD at the University of Victoria, Canada with a focus on seismicity analysis and structural interpretation of the Nootka Fault Zone and Southern Explorer Plate, Cascadia. Further details on Jesse, and other members of the group can be found here.
14/03/2020: Brendon Bradley delivered a lecture as part of the online NZSEE Seminar Series titled: "Observed ground motion basin amplifications and modelling for future events". A video can be found here.
14/03/2020: Congratulations to Chris de la Torre, whose paper was named 'Editor's choice paper' in this month's Earthquake Spectra issue. You can see the paper here.
8/03/2020: There is a current open position for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Waveform tomography, crustal velocity modelling, and ground motion simulation (closing date 3rd May 2020). More information here.
5/01/2020: Several new PhD opportunities have become available within the research group on "Spatial variation in ground motion" and "Full-waveform tomography". Further details can be found on the Research Opportunities page.
10/12/2019: Brendon Bradley delivered a public lecture as part of the Royal Society's "Marsden 25" series on the Alpine Fault. More information can be found here.
9/10/2019: Brendon Bradley delivered a talk at the NZSOLD workshop on "Resilient Dams in an Earthquake Environment" in Auckland, NZ.
10/09/2019: Brendon Bradley, Robin Lee, Sarah Neill, and Andrei Nguyen attended the SCEC Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, CA. Brendon delivered a plenary talk, and we collectively presented 4 posters which can be found here.
5/09/2019: Many members of the research group attended the 4th QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting in Nelson, New Zealand. Sarah Neill delivered a lightning talk, and many posters were presented.
21/06/2019: Chris de la Torre attended the OpenSees Days Eurasia in Hong Kong and presented a paper on 3D site response analysis that can be found here.
20/06/2019: Brendon Bradley and Karim Tarbali attended the 7th International Conference on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering in Rome. Karim's paper received a best-paper Honourable Mention. Publications presented can be found here.
31/05/2019: Congratulations to Xavier Bellagambda for completing his PhD thesis entitled "Machine learning-supported and data-driven enhancements of distributed infrastructure seismic resilience".
07/04/2019: Brendon Bradley, Robin Lee, Sarah Neill, and Vahid Loghman attended the Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Auckland. Publications presented can be found here.
15/09/2018: Brendon Bradley, Robin Lee, and Ethan Thomson attended the SCEC Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, CA. Publications can be found here.
27/11/2018: Brendon Bradley delivered an invited lecture, and Karim Tarbali moderated a session at the 1st NZ-Japan Joint Symposium on Structural and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering in Christchurch, NZ.
15/06/2018: Brendon Bradley, Robin Lee, and Chris de la Torre attended the 5th Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics (GEESDV) conference in Austin, Texas. Publications can be found here.
23/04/2018: Brendon Bradley delivered a plenary presentation in Suva, Fiji at the International Engineering Symposium - Sustainable Infrastructure Successful Economy. The presentation can be found here.
16/04/2018: Several members of the group attended the 2018 NZSEE Annual Conference. Robin Lee and Karim Tarbali gave oral presentations and Brendon Bradley delivered a plenary presentation. Publications can be found here.
14/2/2018: Brendon Bradley, Sung Bae, Daniel Lagrava, and Jason Motha attended the 2018 eResearch conference in Queenstown.
1/12/2017: Vahid Loghman joined the research group as a PhD student. Other research group members can be seen here.
25/10/2017: Brendon Bradley presented a keynote lecture at the 2017 Australian Earthquake Engineering Society (AEES) Annual Conference in Canberra, Australia, a pdf is available in the presentation section.
25/10/2017: Robin Lee was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand Rutherford Foundation Postdoc Fellowship - one of only five awarded across all disciplines!
25/09/2017: Jagdish Vyas joined the research team as a postdoc fellow. Jagdish obtained his PhD from KAUST under the supervision of Martin Mai and will work on ground motion simulation including plasticity and multi-segment rupture.
10/09/2017: A large contingent of the research team attended the QuakeCoRE and SCEC Annual Meetings over the past few weeks. Presented posters can be found here.
26/08/2017: Congratulations to group members, Robin Lee and Karim Tarbali, both of whom passed their PhD examinations in the last month. Both Robin and Karim are continuing as post-doc fellows.
20/06/2017: Brendon Bradley and Chris de la Torre attended the 3rd International Conference on Performance-based Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering, with Brendon delivering an invited theme lecture. You can see presentations here.
30/05/2017: Brendon Bradley delivered a seminar on the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake as part of the USGS Earthquake Science Center Seminar Series. You can see a YouTube video of the presentation here.
25/05/2017: Brendon Bradley visited UCLA, Virgina Tech, and Cornell over the past few weeks and interacted with Jon Stewart, Scott Brandenberg, Adrian Rodriguez-Marek, Russell Green, and Tom O'Rourke, as well as giving seminars on the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake.
20/04/2017: Hoby Razafindrakoto and Brendon Bradley attended the SSA Annual Meeting. You can see the presented oral and poster presentations on the group publications page here.
21/03/2017: Brendon Bradley was awarded the Prime Minister's MacDairmid Emerging Scientist Prize. (my personal) thanks to many great collaborators! A summary of some remarks made during the ceremony are here.
16/02/2017: Ground motion simulations of possible great earthquakes on the Alpine Fault, that were used in the 'Project AF8' emergency preparedness exercise have been accepted for publication in NZJGG. You can preview the paper in the Publications page, or watch an animation of the simulation here.
13/02/2017: A summary paper of our ground motion simulations performed in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake has been accepted for publication in earthquake spectra. You can preview the paper in the Publications page, or watch an animation of the simulation here.