Newswise — Staff members from the Center for Community Earthquake Preparedness, housed in the University of Mississippi School of Engineering, are available to discuss earthquakes, disaster planning, damage mitigation techniques and other aspects of disaster preparedness.
They include:
Christopher L. Mullen is director of CCEP and associate professor of civil engineering at UM. His primary teaching interests are in structural mechanics and structural engineering. He earned his doctorate from Princeton University in 1996. He has been a practicing engineer for more than 10 years in the fields of offshore, automotive and bridge engineering, specializing in structural dynamics and fatigue analysis. He has been involved with structural integrity analyses of a 750-foot-deep offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, an engine for a Saturn automobile, three major steel suspension bridges over the East River in New York City and the Hagia Sophia basilica in Istanbul, Turkey. His dissertation and research interests relate to the seismic response analysis of three-dimensional structural systems, including both modern and historic bridges and building structures. He is especially interested in nonlinear computational techniques that are suitable for use in combination with field experiments that measure actual system response. He investigates multi-hazard performance structures, including seismic and blast loadings.
Charles T. Swann, staff geologist with the Mississippi Mineral Resources Institute and an investigator for CCEP, supervises onshore geologic investigations in support of institute research, especially as related to the occurrence and distribution of mineral resources. He organizes and supervises field and laboratory activities, oversees the preparation of geologic maps, prepares proposals for funding and identifies external funding sources, maintains liaison with state agencies and supervises undergraduate and graduate students. His research interests include the identification of potential seismotectonic sources in the central U.S. and Mississippi, and the evaluation of potential damage to Mississippi communities resulting from earthquakes. Swann also studies the characterization of radioactive materials from hydrocarbon production and is a registered professional geologist.
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