Armen Der Kiureghian


Armen Der Kiureghian, is an Iranian-born Armenian-American academic, serving as the president of American University of Armenia, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of California, Member of the US National Academy of Engineering and Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Biography

Armen Der Kiureghian was born in Isfahan in the family of prominent Armenian painter Sumbat Der Kiureghian. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran, and his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975. In 1978 he joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley, where in 1978-1981 he was as Assistant Professor, and continued to be an Associate Professor, Professor, Vice Chair and Chair of the Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials Program and as Vice Chair for Instruction in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Since July 1999, he has held the Taisei Chair in Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley.
After the Spitak earthquake of 1988 in Armenia, Der Kiureghian played a leading role in establishing the American University of Armenia in Yerevan as an affiliate of the University of California. He served as the founding Dean of the College of Engineering and as Interim Provost of AUA concurrently with his position at Berkeley. He has also served as the founding Director of the Engineering Research Center of AUA, a has been founding member of the Board of Trustees of AUA.
Armen Der Kiureghian's teaching and research interests are in the areas of structural reliability, risk analysis, random vibrations and earthquake engineering. He has pioneered methods for safety and reliability assessment of complex structures and for stochastic seismic analysis of buildings, bridges, and critical equipment. He has more than 300 publications, including more than 110 in archival journals and book chapters.
Armen Der Kiureghian is a member of a number of societies and associations including:
Der Kiureghian has two children, Naira and Sebouh. He has been married to Nelly Ouzounian since 1983.

Painting as a hobby

Der Kiureghian's main hobby is painting watercolors which he learned from his father, Sumbat, who was a professional artist and watercolorist. He paints landscapes and still life.

Books