Kirk Carr Ellison, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a distinguished expert in constitutive modeling, site response analysis, seismic soil-structure interaction (SSI), and structure-soil-structure interaction (SSSI) analysis, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Through his project work, presentations, involvement in code committees, and industry presentations, Ellison has worked to advance the state-of-practice for seismic SSSI in the built environment. In particular, he has been effective at harnessing the talents of geotechnical engineers, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, software engineers, and geo-seismic experts to develop nonlinear models of bedrock-propagating ground motions from "rupture to rafters" for projects of all sizes.
Ellison’s work with SSSI has involved collaboration with agencies such as San Francisco Public Works, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Transbay Joint Powers Authority, LA Metro, BART, and Caltrans to raise standards and expectations for the evaluation of impacts from new construction on the seismic performance of existing critical infrastructure. He continues to raise the bar with new innovations and validations for seismic SSI methodology, as highlighted by a multitude of presentations and papers.
Two of his SSSI projects won international awards in part due to the innovative SSSI analyses examining the impact of new high-rises on the seismic performance of an adjacent transit center, i.e., the Salesforce Tower (named 2019 Best Tall Building worldwide by CTBUH) and the 181 Fremont Tower (named 2018 Outstanding Project by DFI and 2019 Best Tall Building geotechnical engineering by CTBUH). Other project highlights include the BART to Silicon Valley CP2 tunnel in San Jose, the UCLA Station in Los Angeles, and the Lower Alemany Stormwater Improvement project in San Francisco.
Ellison served four years on the board (and one year as president) of the ASCE Oregon Geo-Institute. He received his doctoral degree in 2012 from the University of Cambridge.
