Andrew S. Whittaker, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., F.SEI, , Dist.M.ASCE, a SUNY distinguished professor in the department of civil, structural, and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo, has been honored with election by the American Society of Civil Engineers for its class of 2025 distinguished members. He is recognized for a career that has focused on protecting lives and mission-critical infrastructure by advancing the practice of earthquake, blast, impact, and performance-based engineering.
Whittaker is known worldwide for his publications, mentorship, innovative design consulting, and contributions to design standards for buildings and essential structures.
His body of work includes the development and deployment of seismic protective devices and systems, performance-based seismic design, soil-structure interaction, seismic hazard characterization, and fluid-structure interaction, as well as blast and impact analysis and design of infrastructure, reinforced concrete and steel-plate-concrete composite construction, fragility analysis, and seismic risk assessment.
Whittaker’s career is notable for his ability to combine rigorous theory with computational methods and experimental testing with an emphasis on advancing engineering practice. Early in his career, he led significant projects to address important questions regarding the fractures that occurred in steel-framed buildings during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Through a combination of studies, including tests of full-scale welded connections, his problem-focused research led to new connection design details that have been implemented in U.S. design practice.
His guidelines and standards-related work continues to this day and includes important contributions to ASCE/SEI 4, 7, 43, and 59.
He has made numerous contributions to fundamental standards and guidelines related to performance-based earthquake engineering of buildings through FEMA 273 and FEMA 274, which led to FEMA 356 and ASCE 41. He led the structural performance products sub-committee in the Applied Technology Council team that wrote FEMA P-58, Development of Next-Generation Performance-Based Seismic Design Procedures for New and Existing Buildings.
Whittaker served as vice president and president of the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering from 2003 to 2011 and on the Boards of Directors of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the World Seismic Safety Initiative from 2008 to 2011. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors for the NGO TerraPraxis. Other key assignments included the NAS/NRC Committee on Earthquake Resilience from 2009 to 2011, the External Advisory Committee for the Southern California Earthquake Center from 2010 to 2017, and the White House working group on Nuclear Project Management and Delivery in 2024.
Whittaker consults to federal agencies, regulators, consultancies, contractors, reactor developers, energy companies, and utilities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia on a wide range of topics. These areas include tunnels, dams, underground nuclear waste storage facilities, ultra-tall buildings, and long-span bridges as well as micro, small modular, and large-light-water reactors and other mission-critical structures such as giant telescopes.
Andrew Whittaker is a Fellow of SEI and ACI. His awards include the ASCE 2016 Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. Energy Award, 2017 Walter P. Moore Jr. Award, 2023 Nathan M. Newmark Medal, and the American Nuclear Society’s Untermyer & Cisler Reactor Technology Medal.
