Canterbury engineer receives prestigious engineering award
June 9, 2014
A University of Canterbury engineer, Dr Brendon Bradley, is the first New Zealander and the youngest researcher to
receive a prestigious internationally-renowned award.
Dr Bradley has won the Shamsher Prakash Foundation Research Award, given annually to an engineer, scientist or
researcher from all over the world under the age of 40. Candidates are specialists in geotechnical engineering or
geotechnical earthquake engineering and have significant independent contributions to show excellence in research.
A panel of international experts from Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and United States judged the award. Dr
Bradley specialises in earthquake engineering with an emphasis in seismic hazard analysis, ground motion prediction,
seismic performance and loss estimation of geotechnical and structural systems. At 28, he is the youngest recipient of
the award in its 24 year history.
Dr Bradley last year received $800,000 of Rutherford Discovery Fellowship funding to investigate the mysteries of
unresolved ground motion and geotechnical case histories from the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. His research will have a
national and international impact in the assessment and mitigation of earthquake hazards in major cities.
Dr Bradley has covered a wide range of earthquake engineering issues relating to ground shaking, analysis of structures
and geotechnical systems, and methods for assessing seismic performance.
He has been heavily involved in numerous aspects of the earthquakes, as well as investigating the impacts of the 2011
Tohoku, Japan, earthquake and the 2009 Samoan tsunami.
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