Azer Arastunoglu Kasimzade is currently the Head of the Civil Engineering Department and head of the Earthquake Engineering Research facility of Ondokuz Mayis University in Samsun, Turkey. He received his PhD. and D.Sc. degrees in structural mechanics from Moscow Civil Engineering University in the Russian Federation respectively in 1983 and 1991. In 1991 he was a short-term visiting scholar at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and at Princeton University, Department of Civil Engineering & Operation Research, New Jersey, USA. In the period 1992-1995 he was a professor at the Civil Engineering University, Department of Structural Mechanics. From 1978 to 1995 Kasimzade worked as Engineer and Consulting Engineer on national and international projects related to the development, structural modelling, testing, analysis and design of offshore petrol-gas production platforms in the Soviet Union Main Research & Project Institute Gipromorneftegaz, Mingazprom. Since 1995, he is a professor at Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey, and is the Head of the Structural Mechanics group. In 2012-2013 he was appointed NATO project director for Science for Peace and Security Project, by the NATO Emerging Security Challenges Division. In 2014-2015 Kasimzade was visiting professor at the Department of Architecture, Kobe University, Japan. In October 2016 he was the chair of the "International Congress on Advanced Earthquake Resistant Structures-AERS2016".He is a member of several national and international professional societies and advisory committees, the author of monographs, books and more than 110 papers and reports on structural modelling, earthquake engineering, seismic isolation, modal testing and system identification. Since 2008 Erdal Safak has been Head of the Earthquake Engineering Department of Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute of Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. From 1984 to 2006 he was a Researcher and Section Head at the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Research Group in the United States, and held part-time Professorship positions at Stanford University in California, Colorado School of Mines in Colorado, and at George Washington University in Washington DC. In 1973 and 1975 he received his BS and MS degrees from Istanbul Technical University, and in 1980 a PhD. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US. He has published more than 40 refereed journal papers and more than 100 conference papers on subjects related to earthquake and wind induced response of structures, including seismic hazard and risk analysis, ground motion modeling, site amplification, structural instrumentation, data analysis, and system identification. Carlos Ventura is a Civil Engineer with specializations in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering. Since 1992, he has been a faculty member of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. He is currently the Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Facility (EERF) at UBC, and the author of more than 450 papers and reports on earthquake engineering, structural dynamics and modal testing. Dr. Ventura has conducted research on earthquakes and structural dynamics for more than thirty years. Two of his most significant contributions in recent years are the development and implementation of a seismic structural health monitoring program for bridges in BC - the BCSIMS project - and the first network-based earthquake early warning system for schools and public institutions in BC, the BC-EEWN project. These two projects have contributed in a very significant manner to the seismic risk reduction efforts in British Columbia. In addition to his academic activities, Dr. Ventura is a recognized international consultant on structural vibrations and safety of large Civil Engineering structures. He is a member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and Fellow of Engineers Canada. He is also a member of several national and international professional societies, advisory committees and several building and bridge code committees. Farzad Naeim is the President of Farzad Naeim, Inc. and CEO of Mehrain Naeim International, Inc., in Irvine, California. Prior to founding these firms, he was Technical Director at John A. Martin & Associates (JAMA) and its legal counsel. He regularly managed and facilitated activities of internal teams of experts in research and development activities, special seismic studies, and the design of specialized computer applications. For over 34 years Farzad's mission has been to take the best technology available and develop it into tailor-made computing facilities, design methodologies, analysis software, and earthquake-resistant design technologies. He developed aninternational reputation for cutting edge engineering and computer technology, and was awarded grants by such diverse agencies as the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the County of Los Angeles, the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program, Applied Technology Council (ATC), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), for studying various damage characteristics of earthquakes and their impact on seismic design practice. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Earthquake Spectra, President of EERI, inaugural Chair of the Governance Board of the U.S. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), and as Chair of the 10th U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering. He has also served as the President of the Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council (LATBSDC) and, since 2005, has chaired LATBSDC committee in charge of the development of performance-based design guidelines for seismic design oftall buildings. Yoichi Mukai graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Osaka University in 1991 and finished his master degree at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University in 1993. After completion of his master degree, he was appointed as a research associate at the Department of Architectural Engineering at Osaka University and as an associate professor in 2002. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering from Osaka University in 2001. His doctoral thesis focused on performance evaluation and application of active response control systems for building structures and it is a result of Dr. Mukai's strong research background on structural response control and control theory. Dr. Mukai was appointed as an associate professor at the Department of Residential Environment, Nara Women's University in 2005. He has been appointed as an associate professor at Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University since 2011 and he has been vice chair for research projects at theResilient Structure Research Center (ReSRC), Kobe University since 2016. In 2014, Dr. Mukai was a visiting scholar at the Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University in New York City. His research interests focus on the evaluation and monitoring of the structural dynamic mechanisms of actual constructions, as well as on the control of their anti-seismic properties and their protecting building properties against large earthquakes. He is currently working on operating various kinds of real-time hybrid tests on the shaking table to develop and investigate advanced response control systems for building structures.
