Title: Professor
Country/Region: USA
Period: 2026/4/6- 2026/7/2
Theme: Seismic Design and Performance Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Buildings
Host: Koichi KUSUNOKI
Introduction: John W. Wallace is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He joined UCLA in 1996 and has authored or co-authored over 115 peer-reviewed technical papers. He started his academic career at Clarkson University in 1989.
John has been a voting member of ACI Committee 318 since 2014 and 318 Subcommittee H – Seismic Provisions since 1995; he was the Chair of 318H for the 2025 code cycle. He is also a voting member of ACI Committee 374 – Performance-Based Seismic Design of Buildings and ACI Committee 369 – Seismic Repair and Rehabilitation and 369S – Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit Code.
He is an ACI Fellow (2000) and he received the ACI Authur J. Boase Award in 2020, the ACI Mete A. Sozen Award for Excellence in Structural Research in 2025, and the ACI Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award in 2026. He is also a Fellow (2015) and Life Member (2025) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
His research contributions focus on assessing the behavior of structures subjected to earthquake and wind loading, laboratory and field testing of structural components and systems, and developing and validating models for structural analysis and design. His research accomplishments address both design of new bridges and buildings, evaluation, retrofit, and repair of existing buildings, and use of sensor networks on existing buildings. He is member and Past-President of the Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council.
Dr. Wallace received a BS Magna Cum Laude (1982) in Civil Engineering from the University of Vermont and MS (1984) and PhD (1989) in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of UC Berkeley Civil Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
Research Report:
Topic: Seismic Design and Performance Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Buildings
John W. Wallace, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
Koichi Kusunoki, Professor (host), Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo
Research Report:
During my almost three-month research visit to the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) in Tokyo, I focused on several key areas:
(1) Research Meetings
I regularly attended the weekly research meetings of Kusunoki-Maida Research Group to listen to student progress reports and to provide input on their research projects. I met separately with several of the students to provide additional feedback, including providing papers and reports that student researchers could use on their projects related to reliability assessment. Unfortunately, I was unable to schedule a convenient time to present a lecture in Professor Maida’s class.
(2) Databases
One of the primary goals of my visit was to initiate collaboration on reinforced concrete component databases, where work in Japan and the US, as well as other countries is advancing. This topic also included discussions with another visiting researcher, Lucas Hogan from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
I gave an ERI seminar (June 25) on database developments in the US and identified opportunities for continued (and future) collaboration with Japanese researchers (at ERI and at other institutions). This effort concluded with a meeting with Building Research Institute researchers on June 29 to discuss ways to enhance databases in Japan and US through collaboration. Professor Kusunoki was involved with the planning of this meeting, but he could not attend in-person. These databases should provide numerous opportunities to enhance future ERI research in earthquake building safety.
These discussions include use of the FEMA P-2335 Visual Damage State Databases, which can be used for post-earthquake assessments of damaged reinforced concrete buildings.
(3) Performance-Based Design of Tall Buildings
We did not make as much progress as we hoped on this topic; however, we have laid out a foundation for future collaboration, particularly on performance-based wind design (PBWD). PBWD is a very new area that has received little attention in Japan up to now. Professor Kusunoki and I discussed opportunities for me to participate in future AIJ/JCI meetings to present an A to Z background on US research and applications on this topic, which may help speed up potential adoption in Japan.
I also visiting the Kobori Research Complex to present a seminar on this topic so that the Japanese research community is aware of recent US developments on this topic.
(4) Functional Recovery Design and Assessment of Existing Buildings
One of my PhD students, Miki Mori, is continuing to collaborate with ERI students on her studies related to Functional Recovery Design (FRD) of reinforced concrete buildings. Again, this is a fairly new development, with new US provisions about to be published in ASCE 7-26. Kusunoki-Maida Research Group efforts related to use of structural health monitoring, including recent earthquakes in Japan, should provide opportunities to advance FRD in both the US and Japan.
John W. Wallace, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
Koichi Kusunoki, Professor (host), Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo
Research Report:
During my almost three-month research visit to the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) in Tokyo, I focused on several key areas:
(1) Research Meetings
I regularly attended the weekly research meetings of Kusunoki-Maida Research Group to listen to student progress reports and to provide input on their research projects. I met separately with several of the students to provide additional feedback, including providing papers and reports that student researchers could use on their projects related to reliability assessment. Unfortunately, I was unable to schedule a convenient time to present a lecture in Professor Maida’s class.
(2) Databases
One of the primary goals of my visit was to initiate collaboration on reinforced concrete component databases, where work in Japan and the US, as well as other countries is advancing. This topic also included discussions with another visiting researcher, Lucas Hogan from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
I gave an ERI seminar (June 25) on database developments in the US and identified opportunities for continued (and future) collaboration with Japanese researchers (at ERI and at other institutions). This effort concluded with a meeting with Building Research Institute researchers on June 29 to discuss ways to enhance databases in Japan and US through collaboration. Professor Kusunoki was involved with the planning of this meeting, but he could not attend in-person. These databases should provide numerous opportunities to enhance future ERI research in earthquake building safety.
These discussions include use of the FEMA P-2335 Visual Damage State Databases, which can be used for post-earthquake assessments of damaged reinforced concrete buildings.
(3) Performance-Based Design of Tall Buildings
We did not make as much progress as we hoped on this topic; however, we have laid out a foundation for future collaboration, particularly on performance-based wind design (PBWD). PBWD is a very new area that has received little attention in Japan up to now. Professor Kusunoki and I discussed opportunities for me to participate in future AIJ/JCI meetings to present an A to Z background on US research and applications on this topic, which may help speed up potential adoption in Japan.
I also visiting the Kobori Research Complex to present a seminar on this topic so that the Japanese research community is aware of recent US developments on this topic.
(4) Functional Recovery Design and Assessment of Existing Buildings
One of my PhD students, Miki Mori, is continuing to collaborate with ERI students on her studies related to Functional Recovery Design (FRD) of reinforced concrete buildings. Again, this is a fairly new development, with new US provisions about to be published in ASCE 7-26. Kusunoki-Maida Research Group efforts related to use of structural health monitoring, including recent earthquakes in Japan, should provide opportunities to advance FRD in both the US and Japan.