Gilbert A. Hegemier

Professor and Chair, Structural Engineering

Earthquake engineering to retrofit bridges, roadways and buildings for improved public safetgy and structural performance

After witnessing the devastation caused by the 1971 San Fernando Valley earthquake and the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake, Professor Hegemier, then an aerospace engineer, decided to devote his research to developing systems to retrofit bridges, roadways and buildings. He helped assemble a team of experts at UCSD. Hegemier and his colleagues have succeeded in creating and testing full-scale models of bridge column retrofit systems, which have been applied by the California Department of Transportation. These systems stood the ultimate test in the 1994 earthquake that hit Los Angeles, when 114 retrofitted bridges received only minor damage from the quake while several bridges scheduled for retrofit failed. Today, Hegemier is working with industry partners to develop and use light-weight fiber reinforced composites to prevent earthquake damage and restore components of the nation's aging infrastructure. He is also working on blast mitigation techniques using fiber reinforced composites to protect critical structures such as embassies from terrorist attacks.

Capsule Bio:
Gilbert A. Hegemier received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1964. Prior to coming to UCSD, he was a mechanical engineer at TRW Systems Space Technology Lab, the National Engineering Science Company, and the Naval Ordinance Laboratory. Hegemier has two patents and is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute; and the California Universities for Research on Earthquake Engineering. He is a Fellow of the ASME, and in 1996, he received the Jacobs School's annual Teacher of the Year Award. Hegemier was named chair of the Department of Structural Engineering in 2007.

Institute Affiliation:
Charles Lee Powell Structural Research Laboratories »