The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) has released a five-year science plan for research toward technical breakthroughs to improve the resilience and sustainability of existing and future civil infrastructure. Geosyntec's Lelio Mejia (California) participated in the Science Plan Task Group that developed the plan.

The plan provides the engineering community with a roadmap for research on mitigation of natural hazards using the NHERI facilities and equipment at the 10 academic institutions that are part of the program. More specifically, it outlines the grand challenges for research and the key questions that must be answered to improve the resiliency of the civil infrastructure that serves society. By describing the capabilities of the member research laboratories and current research ideas, the plan also aims at inspiring new ideas for high-impact, high-reward research in fields such as earthquake and wind engineering.

The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) is a distributed, multi-user, national facility that provides the natural hazards engineering community with state-of-the-art research infrastructure. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NHERI enables researchers to explore and test ground-breaking concepts to protect homes, businesses, and infrastructure lifelines from earthquakes and windstorms, including tsunamis, storm surges, and waves, enabling innovations to help prevent natural hazards from becoming societal disasters.

Lelio Mejia is a Senior Principal based in Oakland with more than 35 years of experience in geotechnical and earthquake engineering. For many years, he has focused on the challenges of dam and levee engineering and is a leading international authority in this field, with emphasis on the seismic design and performance of dam structures. Lelio leads Geosyntec's Western U.S. dams and levees practice and is a registered civil and geotechnical engineer.

More Information

For more information regarding the event, visit: NHERI Science Plan
For more information on resilience and sustainability of existing and future civil infrastructure, contact Lelio Mejia at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To learn more about Lelio see his profile at: https://www.geosyntec.com/people/lelio-mejia