Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: Academic of Civil Construction wins award for best paper of the year in Earthquake Spectra magazine

Damage to non-structural elements, and especially partition walls, represents most of the economic losses due to seismic damage in the useful life of buildings in places with high seismicity such as California and, consequently, the development of strategies. To mitigate these effects, it has been of high worldwide interest in the scientific community related to earthquake resistant engineering and construction.

That is the theme that motivated the research of Professor Gerardo Araya from the UC School of Civil Construction. He, together with professors Eduardo Miranda and Gregory Deierlein from Stanford University, designed, built and experimentally evaluated a low-cost frictional / sliding device to improve the seismic performance of these walls , resulting in their outstanding paper: Development and Testing of a Friction / Sliding Connection to Improve the SeismicPerformance of Gypsum Partition Walls.


This research was considered for publication in the American magazine Earthquake Spectra , belonging to the Earthquake Engineering Reserch Institute (EERI) , and one of the most prestigious in the world in the area of seismic engineering . But this paper was for more, being the research led by Professor Araya, as the first author, selected as the best research published in this journal during 2019 among about 100 articles published by prestigious teams of researchers from around the world.

“I am very honored and at the same time surprised. I have had the privilege of being able to collaborate with excellent researchers from different parts of the world, such as Professor Eduardo Miranda and Professor Gregory Deierlein (both my advisors during my master’s and doctorate studies at Stanford), with whom we have been able to make several publications in the best magazines in the world in the respective areas. However, one thing is to publish in very high impact magazines, and quite another is to be awarded as the best article of the year of the magazine, given the large quantity and excellent quality of each of the articles published ”, said the professor. Araya, who acknowledges his pleasant surprise upon learning of this recognition, which he shares with his team.

“It is one thing to publish in very high impact journals, and quite another to be awarded as the best article of the year of the journal, given the large quantity and excellent quality of each of the articles published” – Gerardo Araya, UC academic