What's New

25th May: Got invited as a guest in dream jobs podcast by Radio MANUU 90.0 FM

I discuss higher education opportunities outside India.

Invited podcast from Radio MANUU 90.0 FM

PHD Admission in USA | Part 1/2 | Mr. Rashid Shams | Dream Jobs I EP-09 | Radio MANUU

13th May: PhD Hooding Ceremony!!!

Officially completed my PhD Hooding ceremony at USC

Looking forward to defending my thesis in August 2026.

Also got featured on USC News, sharing my experience :

What It Means to Be a Trojan: USC Students React to Commencement 2026

9th May 2026: Moody's internship research work-based journal paper got accepted for publication in Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (Q1, IF 4.6)!!!

Shams R., Mitra Devjyoti, Nath Ritu (2026), Insights into Seismic Site Response in the San Francisco Bay Area: Data-Driven Basin Delineation and Bayesian Modelling of Basin Behaviour, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (Accepted)

1st May 2026: Presented a poster at SoCal CEERS at USC

Presented my research as a poster.

My mentee (Elizabeth Yoseph) presented our work on seismic site response for the lunar surface. She received 2nd prize for her poster.

21st April 2026: PhD Panellist in SoCal GPS

Panellist in SoCal GPS 2026 Conference

Joined as a panellist and answered questions/queries from prospective graduate students.

13-17th April 2026: Presented two oral talk at SSA AM 2026 in Pasadena

Two research oral talks at SSA 2026

8th April 2026: Received Viterbi VASE 2026 Outstanding Mentor Award

The award will be given in Viterbi Awards Ceremony taking place in May 2026.

3rd April 2026: Invited as a panelist for SoCal GPS Conference 2026

2nd April 2026: Gave a lightning talk at the Graduate Student Symposium in USC Hotel.

27th March 2026: Attended VASE Viterbi as a Peer Host for mentoring students for Research Opportunities

21st March 2026: Bayesian b-value paper got accepted for publication in Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (Q1, IF 4.1)!!!

Shams R., Gupta RK, Shamra ML, (2026), Towards Robust Seismcity Characterisation of Stable Continental Regions: A Bayesian Approach for b-values in Peninsular India, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (Accepted)

Got an full-time offer from Shannon and Wilson Inc. for Seismic Hazard Engineer (Professional Level IV) position!!!

Jan, 2026 : Presented a department talk at Dep of Earthquake Engg. at IIT-Roorkee

Presented an invited presentation at Department of Earthquake Engineering, IIT-Roorkee

Jan, 2026 : Delivered a Special Lecture at ICED, IIT-Roorkee

Presented a special lecture at ICED, IITR on Enhancement of Basin Depth Characterization for ground motion modeling

Jan, 2026 : Invited Talk at Dep. of Geology and Geophysics at IIT-KGP

Presented an invited presentation as a part of the SPARC Project at IIT-KGP.

31st Dec 2025 : Invited Talk at Civil Engineering Department, CBIT, Hyderabad

Presented an invited presentation on where science meets engineering at CBIT, Dep of Civil Engineering, Hyderabad.

19th Nov 2025: My first (first authored) paper based PhD work got accepted in Earthquake Spectra!!!

Shams, R., Nweke CC, Parker GA, (2025), Seismic Site Response Models based on Geometric Parameter for Southern California Sedimentary Basins, California, Earthquake Spectra (Accepted).

My 4th back to back journal paper in the prestigious Earthquake Spectra.

15th Nov 2025: SPARC Proposal got accepted for funding!!!

Our SPARC proposal, in collaboration with IIT-KGP, got accepted for funding by the Ministry of Education, India. We proposed to work on physics-informed basin effects modelling in the Brahmaputra Valley.

31st Oct 2025 : Conference Paper Alert!!!

My 3 first-authored and 2 collaborative papers are published online as part of ASCE Geo-Extreme 2025. Thanks to my advisor and collaborators. Link to papers can be found in publications sections of this website.

20th Oct 2025 : Received Sesimological Society of America (SSA) Travel Grant to present at AES 2026, India

Recived SSA's travel grant (1700 USD) to attend and present at AES, 2026 to be held in India (Jan, 2026). The grant is given to only 4 students in the USA.

30th Sep 2025 : Attended AndesNet workshop and presented a lignting talk, Santiago, Chile

Attended AndesNet workshop on subduction geo-hazards and presenetd a ligntning talk at Santiago, Chile

29th Sep 2025 : Seminar/Talk at Pontificial Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

Presented a research talk at PUC, Chile in Dep of Structural and Goetechnical Engg. Thanks to invitation by Prof. Ledezma.

7th Sep 2025 : Ana (my summer intern) presented her research at SCEC Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, CA

Insights into Seismic Site Response in San Fernando and San Gabriel Basin using Geomorphometric Parameters

Link to her poster : SCEC2025 Poster #041: Insights into Seismic Site Response in San Fernando and San Gabriel Basin using Geomorphometric Parameters | Statewide California Earthquake Center

Aug 2025: Received SCEC Research Travel Award 2025!!!

To attend and present at SCEC Annual Meeting 2025 in Palm Springs, CA

August 2025: Our San Francisco Site Response Project Report is now online!!!

Jonathan P. Stewart, Shako Mohammed, Tristan E. Buckreis, Scott J. Brandenberg, Chukwuebuka C. Nweke, and Rashid, GIRS-2025-06: Sub-Regional Site Response of San Francisco Bay Area GIRS-2025-06: Sub-Regional Site Response of San Francisco Bay Area — The B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences

July 2025: Our Paper is now online!!!

Henry Burton; Sebastian Galicia Madero; Chenhao Wu; Rashid Shams; Chukwuebuka Nweke, Quantifying the Realized and Unrealized Benefits of Seismic Interventions using Causal Inference, Natural Hazards. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-025-07531-6

July 2025: Our Paper is now online!!!

Buckreis, Tristan; Nweke, Chukwuebuka; Wang, Pengfei; Brandenberg, Scott; Ramos-Sepulveda, Maria; Shams, Rashid; Shako, Mohammad, Pretell, Renmin; Mazzoni, Silvia; Zimmaro, Paolo; Stewart, Jonathan, (2025). A Global Application Programming Interface–Enabled Earthquake Ground Motion Relational Database for Engineering Applications. Earthquake Spectra. 2025;0(0). doi:10.1177/87552930251344978

25th June 2025 : Weclome Ana from UW Madison as an SCEC Intern working with me for summer of 2025

SCEC SOURCES- Supported Opportunities for Undergraduates and Researchers to Collaborate on Earthquake Science | Southern California Earthquake Center

Ana will present her work in SCEC Annual Meeitng in Sept 2025

2nd June 2025 : Joined Moody's RMS as an Intern in Earthquake Model Development Team

Attended the onborading event in NYC, 7 WTC office and joined Moody's Newark, SF Bay Area Office for the summer.

23rd May 2025: Presented in UCLA Geotech Group Meeting at UCLA Civil Department.

Presented our work on understanding spatial variability of site response in the LA Basin

1st May 2025: Presented at 7th Le Val Lund Symposium and attended Award Lecture at Caltech

Presented our work on improving z1 estimates in CA.

April, 2025: Paper Alert!!!

GMDB paper has been accepted in Earthquake Spectra

"A Global Application Programming Interface (API)-Enabled Earthquake Ground Motion Relational Database for Engineering Applications" , Earthquake Spectra.

Database can be accessed at GMDB

10-11th April 2025: Presented in SoCal Civil and Environmental Engineering Research Symposium CEERS 2025 at USC

Presented our work on the geometric parametrization of LA Basin

March 2025: Attended Southern California Graduate Pathways to STEM (SoCal GPS) as a Panellist.

Invited for the Roundtable discussion as a Panelist with PhD students on March 29th, 2025, at 11:30 AM at USC.

Attended and presented at 3rd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engg., Split, Croatia (19-22nd March 2025)

Presented our work on geometric parameters and also served as one of the judges for Student Shake Table Challenge at University of Split, Split, Croatia.

Attended and presented at Lunar Planetary Science Conference in Houston Texas (9-14th March 2025)

Presented two posters. Link to abstracts are below:

https://lnkd.in/gzcjE-ZN

https://lnkd.in/ggyh_yvA

Feb 2025: Recieved Das Travel Award (Jan Cycle) and LPSC Early Career Workshop Travel Award

To attend Lunar Planatery Science Conference 2025 (10-14th March 2025) in Houston, Texas

Attended and presented at NHERI Sim Center's Computational Symposium (6-7 Feb 2025) at UCLA, Los Angeles

Oral Presentation on "A Causal Perspective on Basin Effects " and a poster on Sub-Basins in LA

9th Jan, 2025 : Invited speaker at ICED and Earthquake Engg. department, IIT-Roorkee

Presented on " Ground Motions in Sedimentary Basins : A Multiscale perspective" in an invited talk organized by ICED, IIT-R.

3rd Jan, 2025 : Invited speaker at Civil Engg. department, IIT-Hyderabad

Presented on " Demystifying Basin Effects" in a invited talk organized by Civil dep and IGS-IITH

1-2 Jan, 2025 : Invited guest for Dream Jobs and Engineering Podcast Series.

By IMC, MANUU, Hyderabad.

Discussed about Earthquakes, recent advances, awareness, and mitigation strategies.

Also discussed about research/PhD opportunities abroad.

19th Dec, 2024 : Invited session at Seismology workshop at CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad, India.

Presented a session at the ongoing Seismology workshop (17th-27th Dec) at NGRI, Hyderabad.

Seismology_Theory_practice_and_applications2024.pdf

Dec, 2024 : Das Family Travel Award 2024

Recieved Das Family travel award 2024 to attend and present at conference

Nov, 2024 : Delivered a talk at ICED (International Center for Excellence in Dams) at IIT Roorkee (Virtual)

Presented our completed and ongoing work Presentation Link

Nov, 2024 : Got sponsored by University of Zagreb to attend Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Split, Croatia (March, 2025)

Abstract accepted to present our work related to causal inference.

Nov, 2024 : Attended and Presented at COMOS Technical Session 2024 in Oakland, CA (14-15th Nov 2024)

Presented on our ongoing work related to sub-basins in Los Angeles

Link to the presentation: Presentation Link

7 Nov 2024 :

Attended Port Earthqauke Engineering Symposium at Hilton Long Beach in honor of Prof. Geoffrey R. Martin

Organised by ASCE COPRI

Oct 2024 : Abstracts accepted for NHERI CompSy 2025

"A Causal Perspective on Basin Effects" accepted for oral presentation in NHERI Computational Symposium at UCLA in Feb 2025.

Also received financial assistance from the NHERI SimCenter at UC Berkeley for the conference.

September, 2024: Paper Alert!!!

Our work on basin classification algorithms got accepted in Earthquake Spectra.

Nweke, Chukwuebuka; Shams, Rashid; Southern California Basin Classification Algorithm for Ground Motion Site Amplification Models, Earthquake Spectra.

September, 2024: Paper Alert!!!

Our work on basin classification algorithms got accepted in Earthquake Spectra.

Nweke, Chukwuebuka; Shams, Rashid; Southern California Basin Classification Algorithm for Ground Motion Site Amplification Models, Earthquake Spectra.

25th Sep, 2024 : Presented in STEM Bytes Seminar Series

Presented in STEM Bytes Seminar Series hosted by WISE USC. [UG/MS/PhD] INVITATION: Join us for WiSE STEM Bytes on September 25th at 11am on Zoom! - USC Viterbi | Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

Sep, 2024 : Attended and presented at SCEC Annual Meeting 2024 at Palm Springs CA

Find the poster at the following link : SCEC2024 Poster #167: Application for CVMs for NGA-West3 Project | Statewide California Earthquake Center

SCEC2024 Poster #171: Overview of the NGA-West3 Ground Motion Database | Statewide California Earthquake Center

Oct, 2024 : USGS Project Report is now online!

Our recently completed USGS (United States Geological Survey) funded project report is now online on the UCLA NHR3 GIRS website. Link below.

GIRS-2024-08: Geometric Parameterization of Sedimentary Basins in Southern California for Site Response Analysis and Modeling — The B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences

August, 2024 : USGS Earthquake Science Center Seminar Talk

Presented about my recent USGS project.

The recording of the talk can be found at the link below.

"Geometric Parametrization of Sedimentary Basins in Southern California for Site Response Analysis and Modelling"

Geometric Parametrization of Sedimentary Basins in Southern California for Site Response Analysis and Modelling | Earthquake Science Center Seminars (usgs.gov)

August, 2024: Paper Alert!!!

Our collaborative work got published in Earthquake Spectra.

Mohammed S, Shams R, Nweke CC, et al. Usability of Community Seismic Network recordings for ground-motion modeling. Earthquake Spectra. 2024;0(0). doi:10.1177/87552930241267749 Link

Summer 2024

HVSR deployments near USC with high school interns

April, 2024 : Attended and presented poster at EERI Annual Meeting 2024 in Seattle, WA

Find the poster at the following link :

Understanding Basin Effects and the Impact on Structural Response and Damage through Causal Lens, Geometric Parameters for Seismic Site Response in Sedimentary, Poster presented at EERI Annual Meeting, 9-12 April 2024, Seattle. (Poster) Link

Febraury, 2024: Conference Paper Alert!!!

Our work related to path-dependent site model presented at GeoCongress 2024 is available online.

Shams R and Nweke CC, Capturing the Path Dependency of Site Response in Basin and Non-Basin Southern California Locations, Geo Congress 2024, 25-28 February 2024, Vancouver, BC, https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784485316.043 Link

Oct, 2023 : Attended and presented poster at SSA Physics based Ground Motion Modeling Meeting 2023 in Vancouver, Canada

Find the poster at the following link :

Geometric Parameters for Seismic Site Response in Sedimentary, Poster presented at Physics-Based Ground Motion Modeling, SSA, 10-13 October 2023, Vancouver, BC (Poster) Link

Classification Algorithms for Sedimentary Basins in Southern California, Poster presented at Physics-Based Ground Motion Modeling, SSA, 10-13 October 2023, Vancouver, BC (Poster) Link

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