Education in Civil Engineering

2024.01 - Present  : Ph.D. candidaete, CEE (Civil and Environmental Engineering) @ UC Berkeley

2024.01 - 2025.05 : M.S., CEE @ UC Berkeley

2023.09 - 2023.12 : PhD. student, Civil Engineering @ NYU (Transferred to UC Berkeley)

Education in Earth Science

2013.08 - 2015.10 : Ph.D. Candidate (ABD), Geological Science with seismology major @ Yonsei University

2011.08 - 2013.08 : M.S., Geological Science with seismology major @ Yonsei University

2006.03 - 2011.08 : B.S., Earth System Sciences @ Yonsei University

Employment

2024.01 - Present : Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) @ UC Berkeley

2026.01 - 2026.05 : AI for CEE education GSR @ UC Berkeley

2024.08 - 2024.12 : Graduate Student Instructor @ UC Berkeley (CE294: Disaster Risk Analysis for Infrastructure System)

2017.05 - 2023.08 : Seismic Hazard Analyist @ Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., - Central Research Institute (KHNP-CRI)

2015.10 - 2017.05 : Seismologist @ National Institute of Meteorological Sciences (NIMS)

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed papers

Houng, S.E., Ceferino, L. (2026). Scalable Scenario-based Earthquake Risk Modeling via Linearized Ground-Motion–Fragility Coupling and PPCA (submitted). [preprint] [code]

Houng, S.E., Ceferino, L., Abrahamson, N. (2026). Fast Propagation of Epistemic Uncertainty in Seismic Hazard via Adaptive Importance Sampling (accepted in Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 04/14/2026).  [preprint] [code]

Houng, S.E., Ceferino, L. (2025). Fast Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis through Adaptive Importance Sampling, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 115, 646-663 [link] [code]

Houng, S.E. (2018). Discrimination between natural earthquakes and explosions based on the azimuthal distribution of S/P amplitude ratios, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 108, 218-229. [link] [pdf]

Houng, S.E., Lee, J., and Hong, T.-K. (2016). Dynamic seismic response of a stable intraplate region to a megathrust earthquake, Tectonophysics 689, 67-78. [link] [pdf]

Hong, T.-K., Park, S., and Houng, S.E. (2016). Seismotectonic properties and zonation of the far-eastern Eurasian plate around the Korean Peninsula,  Pure and Applied Geophysics 173, 1175-1195. [link] [pdf]

Hong, T.-K., Lee, J., and Houng, S.E. (2015). Long-term evolution of intraplate seismicity in stress shadows after a megathrust, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 245, 59-70. [link] [pdf]

Hong, T.-K., Houng, S.E., and Jo, E. (2014). Temporal changes of medium properties during explosive volcanic eruption, Geophysical Research Letters 41, 1944-1950. [link] [pdf]

Houng, S.E., and Hong, T.-K. (2013). Probabilistic analysis of the Korean historical earthquake records, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 103, 2782-2796. [link] [pdf]

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Patents

[Pending] Houng, S., and Ceferino, L (2026). Computational framework for numerical probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). WO2026006061A1.

[Granted] Houng, S., Park, D., and Kim, H.-S. (2020). Method for Automatically Discriminating Earthquake Vibratory Motion from Errorneous Signal Record at Seismic System of Nuclear Power Plant, KR 10-2587912.

EXPERIENCES

Scholarship and Fellowship

Graduate Student Researcher, UC Berkeley Jan. 2024 - Present

UC Berkeley CEE SEMM Fellowship May 2025 - Aug 2025

Graduate Student Instructor (CE294 Disaster Risk Analysis), UC Berkeley Fall 2024

SOE (School of Engineering) Fellowship, New York University Sep. 2023 - Dec. 2023

Brain Korea 21 plus Scholarship, Yonsei University Sep. 2013 - Aug. 2015

Energy & Mineral Resources Development Association, Yonsei University Mar. 2013

Korea National Oil Corporation Scholarship, Yonsei University Aug. 2011

Brain Korea 21 Scholarship , Yonsei University Sep. 2011 - Aug. 2013

National Science & Technology Scholarship , Yonsei University Fall 2010

Invited Talks and Seminars

Scalable Scenario-based Earthquake Risk Modeling via Linearized Ground-Motion--Fragility Coupling and Probabilistic PCA, NHERI GSC RSR meeting (Feb. 2026)

Adaptive Importance Sampling (AIS) based PSHA computational framework, KHNP-CRI (Jul. 2025)

PSHA: Theory, Practice, and Numerical Computation, KIGAM (Apr. 2025)

Current State-of-the-Art PSHA for Korea's NPPs, KAERI (Jul. 8. 2020)

Synthesis of Strong Ground Motion using Empirical Green's Function , Korea Instite of Nuclear Safety (2018)

Synthesis of Strong Ground Motion using Empirical Green's Function , Korean Earthquake Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (Feb., 2018)

Review Activities

*Earthquake Spectra, Scientific Reports, Pure and Applied Geophysics, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, Geosciences Journal, International Journal of Data Science and Analytics

Contact

shoung [at] berkeley.edu