NCEER Names Soong Interim Deputy Director

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Tsu-Teh Soong, Ph.D., Samuel Capen Professor of Engineering Science and professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, has been named interim deputy director of the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.

Ian Buckle, who was deputy director of NCEER, left earlier this year to take an administrative post at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

A national search to identify his successor is under way.

Soong, a leading researcher in engineering structural dynamics, reliability and control, has recently focused his work on passive- and active-control systems for protecting structures against potential damage resulting from earthquakes, strong winds and waves. His research has been applied to structures in the U.S., Japan and China.

In addition to support from NCEER, his research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, The 3M Company, IBM Corp., MTS Systems Corp., Takenaka Corp. and Samsung Corp., among others.

Soong has authored six books and approximately 250 technical publications.

He twice was awarded the Humboldt Foundation Senior U.S. Scientist Award.

A UB faculty member since 1963, Soong previously held positions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology and at Purdue University.

A graduate of the University of Dayton, he earned master's and doctoral degrees in engineering science from Purdue University.

He is a resident of East Amherst.