Buckle to be deputy vice chancellor at Auckland university

Buckle, who has served as UB professor of civil engineering since 1989, has accepted the position of deputy vice chancellor for research at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

A native of New Zealand, Buckle received his bachelor's degree in engineering and his doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Auckland. For 14 years, he taught in the university's civil engineering department.

"UB is losing a great faculty member and the center is losing a great deputy director," said George C. Lee, director of NCEER, "but it's a terrific opportunity for Dr. Buckle. This is a new beginning for him."

Buckle is one of the world's leading experts in seismic-isolation technology and an authority on the seismic performance of highway bridges. However, a senior administrative post in academia has long been one of his goals.

He noted that one factor that attracted him to NCEER was the chance to learn more about academic administration by working alongside the late Robert Ketter, the former UB president, educator and administrator, who was the center's first director.

"Being at NCEER has provided me with a tremendous opportunity to improve my administrative skills by working with UB's president, vice presidents and other senior administrators, and in interacting at a senior level with leaders at other large, prestigious institutions in the center's research consortium," he said.

Lee noted that Buckle's administrative and research contributions to NCEER will be missed and he said he was pleased that Buckle will continue to work on NCEER's Federal Highway Administration grant.

Since 1992, Buckle has performed in a leadership role on the $14.2 million highway projects, which support studies on the vulnerability of federal-aid highways, bridges and tunnels to earthquakes and which provide for the development of new technologies and design requirements.

Buckle expressed pride in looking back on his tenure at NCEER. "NCEER has been a pioneer as a university-based center conducting problem-focused research," he said. "One of its major contributions has been to improve the seismic performance of lifelines. Before the center existed, very little work was done on lifelines; now it's a major area of activity for earthquake engineers." Lifelines are the network of systems that disperse energy and water and provide transportation and other critical services in population centers.

NCEER also has made major, technical innovations in protective systems for structures, Buckle said, noting that it is through these developments that the center has strengthened its collaborations with industrial partners such as IBM Corp., 3M Corp., Enidine Corp. and Taylor Devices, among others.

"The center also has established a very strong constituency in the earthquake community and has proven itself a model for conducting multidisciplinary research," he said. "We are one of the few centers that has bridged the gap between engineers and social scientists. We have successfully used teams of researchers involving seismologists, engineers, economists and social scientists to determine the economic and social impacts of earthquakes."

In addition to his administrative post, Buckle has been appointed professor of civil engineering at the University of Auckland.

For Buckle, an added attraction of returning to New Zealand is the proximity to his extended family; save for his immediate family, all of his relatives live in New Zealand.

Since 1984, he has lived and worked in the U.S., first as director of research and development at Computech Engineering Services and then as vice president of engineering for Dynamic Isolation Systems, both in Berkeley, Calif. He began working at NCEER in 1989.

Buckle is not the only member of the family that UB will miss. His wife, Shirley, has worked tirelessly on behalf of UB and Buffalo events as a member and past president of the UB Women's Club. She was instrumental in planning and executing a World University Games gala, as well as the club's Celebrate 50 event and a gala evening in conjunction with the Bernice Poss Memorial Concert, which raised more than $10,000 for the Center for the Arts.

"We will miss her dreadfully as a friend and as part of a team because she's been invaluable," said Janet Fedor, immediate past president of the Women's Club.

Both of the Buckles' children are UB students. Bronwyn will graduate this spring with a degree in political science. Her sister, Sarah, has just completed her freshman year in civil engineering at UB and will continue her education at the University of Auckland.