About Us
Overview
Dr. Henry V. Burton is a registered structural engineer in the state of California. He has over fifteen years of experience in structural engineering practice, research and teaching, with a particular focus on performance‐based seismic design and evaluation and probabilistic risk assessment. CLICK HERE FOR CV!
Education
After receiving his BS in Civil Engineering from Morgan State University, he attended Stanford University where he obtained an MS in Civil Engineering with a focus on Structural Engineering and Geomechanics. After a stint as a structural engineering practitioner at Degenkolb Engineers (see below for details), Dr. Burton returned to Stanford to complete his PhD in Structural Engineering where his research focused on the development of new performance‐based earthquake engineering and seismic risk and resilience assessment methodologies.
Structural Engineering Practice
Dr. Burton spent six years in practice at Degenkolb Engineers, where he worked on numerous projects involving the seismic design of new buildings and evaluation and retrofit of existing buildings. Notable projects include
- The design of the new Kaiser acute care facility and medical office building in Oakland, California
- The design of the new Stanford Law School, William H. Neukom Building
- Renovation of the Life Sciences building at Diablo Valley College.
- Dr. Burton was part of the Degenkolb reconnaissance team that traveled to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
Research, Teaching and Consulting
Dr. Burton joined the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as a faculty in 2014 where, as an Associate Professor, he currently teaches classes in advanced structural analysis, nonlinear structural analysis and probability and statistics for civil engineers. He also performs research in the areas of performance‐based design and assessment, probabilistic risk analysis for natural hazards and urban resilience. His research group’s work has been presented at several noteworthy national and international conferences including the Annual Convention of the Structural Engineering Association of California (SEAOC), The American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Structural Congress and the U.S. National and World conferences on earthquake engineering. While at UCLA, Dr. Burton has remained active in structural engineering practice by providing consulting services including being a member of the structural peer review panel for the retrofit and residential conversion of a 13‐story steel building in Los Angeles California that is equipped with viscous dampers and providing soft‐story retrofit peer‐review for Harry E. Harrison (owner of Harrison Properties).
Professional Service and Leadership
Dr. Burton serves on numerous local and national committees focused on structural and earthquake engineering. He served as the co‐chair of the ASCE Infrastructure Resilience Division Risk and Resilience Measurement Committee. He contributed to the development of the Structural Engineering Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) design guidelines for seismic retrofit of wood frame soft‐story buildings. He currently serves as a board member of SEAOSC and is a member of the recently formed National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) committee of transportation infrastructure resilience.