About

Jeffrey Berman is a Professor at the University of Washington Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. His research areas include infrastructure and smart cities, structural engineering, and mechanics, with a focus on seismic load resisting systems and earthquake engineering. His work involves developing innovative solutions for structural and earthquake engineering challenges, contributing to the advancement of resilient infrastructure systems.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Political Science
• Data science
• Geography
• Environmental resource management
• Systems engineering
• Structural engineering
• Engineering management
• Acoustics
• Mechanical engineering

Selected publications

• Key-informant interviews, in Social Science and Public Health Perspectives on Post-Disaster Reconnaissance Data

  Texas Advanced Computing Center · 2026-04-10

  datasetOpen access

  This dataset is the product of 16 interviews with 18 participants, to capture perspectives on research needs, data relevance, and opportunities for integrating reconnaissance datasets into social and public health studies of wildfire impacts. Interviews explored participants’ disciplinary backgrounds, active or planned research related to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and other extreme events, as well as their assessments of how RAPID-collected aerial, street view, multispectral, and hyperspectral imagery could inform their work. Participants were recruited through wildfire coordination meetings, professional networks, and snowball sampling, and interviews were conducted via Zoom with informed consent. Interview recordings were transcribed and reviewed for accuracy. An interview summary document was used to capture key domains from each interview. These interview summaries were sent to interviewees to check for accuracy. This data publication includes the interview summaries, which contain summarized, de-identified data from the individual interviews. The key informant interview guide has also been shared, along with the documentation of the University of Washington’s Human Subjects Division exempt determination. Interview transcripts have not been made public because complete de-identification is not possible.

  PublisherDOI

• A Framework for Modeling Liquefaction-Induced Road Disruptions After Earthquakes: Implications for Emergency Response and Access in the Cascadia Region of North America

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-03-16

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Large earthquakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) are expected to trigger widespread soil liquefaction that could disrupt transportation systems across the U.S. Pacific Northwest. However, past regional assessments have relied on simple geologic screening methods and binomial shaking thresholds that are only loosely informed by liquefaction science. This study introduces a mechanics-informed, data-driven framework for estimating liquefaction-induced road closures and service reductions, and the framework is applied to a magnitude-9 CSZ earthquake. Predicted liquefaction severity is translated into segment-level probabilities of closure and reduced service using empirically derived fragility relationships. These probabilities are mapped at 90-m resolution and propagated through the National Highway System using a spatially correlated Monte Carlo simulation to estimate link-level disruption. Results show that impacts are concentrated in low-lying coastal zones, river valleys, and urban waterfronts, with major disruptions expected along critical routes including U.S. Route 101. Local mobility is further examined in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties, Washington, where limited network redundancy, strong shaking, and high liquefaction susceptibility lead to elevated probabilities of isolation and loss of hospital access. Socioeconomic analysis reveals modest but statistically significant associations between road impacts and demographic indicators, suggesting that liquefaction impacts may compound with existing social vulnerabilities. While not a substitute for site-specific analysis, the results provide a regional baseline for emergency planning, risk communication, and prioritization of more advanced geotechnical sampling and analysis. Moreover, the methodology proposed here is not specific to the CSZ, but rather, could be applied to analogous studies of road impacts elsewhere.

  PublisherDOI

• A Framework for Modeling Liquefaction-Induced Road Disruptions After Earthquakes: Implications for Emergency Response and Access in the Cascadia Region of North America

  ArXiv.org · 2026-03-16

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Large earthquakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) are expected to trigger widespread soil liquefaction that could disrupt transportation systems across the U.S. Pacific Northwest. However, past regional assessments have relied on simple geologic screening methods and binomial shaking thresholds that are only loosely informed by liquefaction science. This study introduces a mechanics-informed, data-driven framework for estimating liquefaction-induced road closures and service reductions, and the framework is applied to a magnitude-9 CSZ earthquake. Predicted liquefaction severity is translated into segment-level probabilities of closure and reduced service using empirically derived fragility relationships. These probabilities are mapped at 90-m resolution and propagated through the National Highway System using a spatially correlated Monte Carlo simulation to estimate link-level disruption. Results show that impacts are concentrated in low-lying coastal zones, river valleys, and urban waterfronts, with major disruptions expected along critical routes including U.S. Route 101. Local mobility is further examined in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties, Washington, where limited network redundancy, strong shaking, and high liquefaction susceptibility lead to elevated probabilities of isolation and loss of hospital access. Socioeconomic analysis reveals modest but statistically significant associations between road impacts and demographic indicators, suggesting that liquefaction impacts may compound with existing social vulnerabilities. While not a substitute for site-specific analysis, the results provide a regional baseline for emergency planning, risk communication, and prioritization of more advanced geotechnical sampling and analysis. Moreover, the methodology proposed here is not specific to the CSZ, but rather, could be applied to analogous studies of road impacts elsewhere.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Liquefaction-Induced Road Disruptions After a Magnitude-9 Rupture of the Cascadia Subduction Zone

  Open MIND · 2026-03-10

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Large earthquakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) are expected to trigger widespread soil liquefaction that could severely disrupt transportation systems across the U.S. Pacific Northwest. This study introduces a mechanics-informed, data-driven framework for estimating liquefaction-induced road closures and service reductions, and the framework is applied to a magnitude-9 CSZ earthquake. Liquefaction hazard is mapped using the geospatial liquefaction model of Sanger et al. (2025). Predicted liquefaction severity is translated into segment-level probabilities of closure and reduced service using empirically derived fragility relationships of Geyin and Maurer (2020). These probabilities are mapped at 90-m resolution across Washington, Oregon, and California, and propagated through the National Highway System using a spatially correlated Monte Carlo simulation to estimate link-level disruption. Local mobility is further examined in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties, Washington, where limited network redundancy, strong shaking, and high liquefaction susceptibility lead to elevated probabilities of isolation and loss of hospital access. This report summarizes the delivery file structure of the data products which resulted from this analysis. Additional details regarding the data, methods, results, and discussion are provided in the referenced manuscript: Sanger, M.D., Smith, O.B., Maurer, B.W., Wotherspoon, L., Eberhard, M.O., & Berman, J.W. (In Review). A Framework for Modeling Liquefaction-Induced Road Disruptions After Earthquakes: Implications for Emergency Response and Access in the Cascadia Region of North America.

  OA PDFDOI

• RESILIENT SEISMIC DESIGN OF TALL MASS TIMBER BUILDINGS: COMPARISON OF TWO FULL-SCALE TRI-AXIAL SHAKE TABLE TESTS

  2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF A 10-STORY MASS TIMBER BUILDING

  2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Positivity with Long-Range Interactions

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2025-12-15

  preprintOpen access

  We introduce infrared finite, analytic, crossing symmetric, Regge behaved, and Lorentz invariant amplitudes $\mathcal{M}_{\mathcal {E}}$, labeled by the experimental energy resolution $\mathcal{E}$ for detecting soft photons and gravitons. For $\mathcal{E}$ exponentially smaller than any hard scale, they also satisfy unitarity and their associated cross sections reproduce the inclusive, infrared-finite cross sections of ordinary amplitudes. These properties make $\mathcal{M}_{\mathcal{E}}$ suitable for deriving infrared-safe positivity bounds on effective field theories in the presence of long-range forces even in $D=4$. As an illustration, we present explicit bounds in the low-energy theory of pions coupled to electromagnetism and gravity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Nonlinear Analysis of a 10-Story Building Shake Table Specimen with Mass Timber Rocking Walls

  Journal of Structural Engineering · 2025-08-23 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Mass timber buildings are becoming increasingly popular in the United States and around the world as they offer benefits such as fast construction, a desirable aesthetic, and the use of a sustainable building material. Using a post-tensioned mass timber rocking wall lateral system makes the construction of fully timber-based tall buildings in high seismic areas feasible and can help buildings achieve seismic performance objectives beyond those required by current building codes. This paper presents the three-dimensional nonlinear OpenSees numerical model used for the performance-based design of a full-scale 10-story mass timber building with a post-tensioned mass timber rocking wall lateral system for dynamic shake table testing. Model results demonstrate that the behavior of the building meets performance targets utilized in design processes similar to what is required for tall buildings in urban areas in the United States. The numerical model’s ability to replicate shake table test results provides confidence that future projects which aim to use post-tensioned mass timber rocking walls in tall buildings can use this robust modeling method to reliably predict seismic performance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Seismic design of midspan beam connection of chevron-configured special concentrically braced frames

  Thin-Walled Structures · 2024-12-27 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Bridging underrepresented disaster scholars and national science foundation-funded resources

  Natural Hazards · 2024-04-15

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: A Resilience-based Seismic Design Methodology for Tall Wood Buildings

  NSF · $302k · 2016–2024

• NEESR-SG: Smart and Resilient Steel Walls for Reducing Earthquake Impacts

  NSF · $1.6M · 2008–2014

• Collaborative Research: Structural Integrity of Steel Gravity Framing Systems

  NSF · $106k · 2010–2014

• NEESR Planning/Collaborative Research: Engineered Timber Structural Systems for Seismically Resilient Tall Buildings

  NSF · $70k · 2013–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Michel Bruneau

  54 shared

• Laura N. Lowes

  University of Washington

  37 shared

• Dawn E. Lehman

  University of Washington

  29 shared

• Ann Bostrom

  University of Washington

  22 shared

• Troy Tanner

  University of Florida

  22 shared

• Joseph Wartman

  Seattle University

  22 shared

• Shiling Pei

  Colorado School of Mines

  21 shared

• Andrew D. Sen

  21 shared

Awards & honors

• Service Award, 2013, George E. Brown Network for Earthquake…
• Distinguished Teaching Award, 2012, University of Washington
• Faculty Mentor of the Year, 2011, Department of Civil and En…
• Milek Fellowship, 4/2008, American Institute of Steel Constr…
• Dr. Sophokles E. Logiadis Award for Innovation in Seismic Is…