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Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue University
Since 1994, Prof. Ramirez has been involved in eight-reconnaissance missions following the earthquakes of Northridge CA, Manzanillo Mexico, Kobe Japan, Duzce-Bolu Turkey, Puebla Mexico, Armenia Colombia, and Bingol Turkey. The goal of these missions was to gather perishable data on the performance of reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges and buildings immediately following major earthquakes in what constitutes a major real-life and very costly test of the built environment in order to synthesize lessons that could help mitigate the impact of earthquakes on society. He was also engaged as project Co-PI in the recently completed NSF funded study “Mitigation of Collapse Risk in Vulnerable Concrete Buildings” aimed at identifying collapse triggers in non-ductile reinforced concrete buildings subjected to seismic actions. Dr. Ramirez has also led the training of personnel for the post-earthquake safety evaluation of bridges for the Indiana Department of Transportation, and the identification of emergency routes for the state. He has collaborated with the Indiana State Management Agency (SEMA) in efforts to establish of a volunteer coalition to assist the Indiana Department of Homeland Security in the condition assessment of buildings after a natural or man-made disaster. His research work in the area of bond of mild reinforcement and prestressing strand in high-strength concrete has been widely referenced and serves as the basis for the extension of the AASHTO LRFD Specifications on development of mild reinforcement and prestressing strand to higher strength concretes.
Dr. Julio A. Ramirez is the Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of Civil Engineering in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering of Purdue University. He is the Principal Investigator and Center Director of the Network Coordination Office (NCO) of the NSF funded Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). Dr. Ramirez is a voting member of the technical Joint Committee ACI-ASCE 445, Shear and Torsion; and ACI-ASCE Committee 408, Bond and Development of Reinforcement. He served as the chief officer for the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) during the period of October 2009 to September 2015. He has served as an Associate Editor for the Committee on Concrete and Masonry Structures (CCMS) Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Journal and has been a member of several National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) research panels. Prof. Ramirez has served in NSF proposal review panels for several directorates. Dr. Ramirez is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute and the recipient of the 2000 Delmar Bloem Award and the 2006 Joe W. Kelly Award of the American Concrete Institute.
For the past 30 years Prof. Ramirez has been teaching and conducting research in structural engineering. His areas of expertise cover design, evaluation of performance and code development of reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges and buildings.