Redefining the Computation-Mechanics Nexus in Large-Scale 6-DOF Shake-Table Testing

Friday, June 5, 2026 | 1:00-2:00 pm

Joel P. Conte, Ph.D., P.E., F. EMI, F. ASCE
Distinguished Professor
Eric and Johanna Reissner Endowed Chair 
Department of Structural Engineering
University of California 
 

Biosketch:  Joel Conte received his Civil Engineering Diploma in 1985 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his M.S. (1986) and Ph.D. (1990) in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, where he holds the Eric and Johanna Reissner Chair in Applied Mechanics and Structural Engineering. Before joining UC San Diego in 2001, he served on the faculty at Rice University (1990–1997) and UCLA (1998–2001). He is a Fellow of the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute (class of 2018) and a Fellow of ASCE (class of 2025). He is also a Fulbright scholar (class of 2006). Professor Conte's primary research interests include structural modeling and analysis; earthquake engineering and structural dynamics; random vibrations; structural reliability and risk analysis; probabilistic performance-based analysis and design; shake table dynamics and control; experimental-analytical correlation studies; structural identification; Bayesian inference and calibration of mechanics-based structural models; and structural health monitoring. He has published over 300 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.

Professor Conte was a member of the design team for the Large High-Performance Outdoor Shake Table (LHPOST) at UC San Diego, developed as part of the NSF George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). He served as Principal Investigator for the NSF-funded project to upgrade the LHPOST to six degrees of freedom (2018–2022) and was Director of the UC San Diego Englekirk Structural Engineering Center (2011–2023), which houses the NSF Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) LHPOST6 shake table experimental facility.