Jonathan P. Stewart, professor and chair of the UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, has been named the 2016 William B. Joyner Memorial Lecturer. The honor was established by the Seismological Society of America (SSA), in cooperation with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI).

Stewart was selected for his research in the characterization of earthquake ground motions for engineering applications, with special emphasis on site response effects. He will deliver the lecture, “Site response uncertainty and its implications for seismic risk characterization,” in April at the SSA’s annual meeting in Reno, Nev., and at the EERI annual meeting to be held in San Francisco.

Stewart has worked extensively at the interface of traditional disciplines, including seismology-engineering and geotechnical-structural engineering. His research group has made significant contributions to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Seismic Hazard Maps; the Global Earthquake Model; building code documents; and state and national guidelines for existing structures, soil-structure interaction, and seismic landslide hazards. He is a former chief editor for the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering and is the current editor of Earthquake Spectra.

Stewart’s honors include the Huber Prize and Casagrande Awards from ASCE, a Fulbright Scholarship from the U.S. State Department, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the UCLA Academic Senate.

The annual Joyner Lecture honors Bill Joyner’s distinguished career at the U.S. Geological Survey and his abiding commitment to continuing communication and education at the interface between research findings of earthquake science and the practical realities of earthquake engineering. The purpose of the Joyner Lectures is to continue and generalize communication at this interface.