Full Name
Sissy Nikolaou
Job Title
Earthquake Engineering Group Leader
Organization
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Speaking At
Sissy Nikolaou's lecture hosted by University of Nebraska
Sissy Nikolaou's lecture hosted by University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Sissy Nikolaou's lecture hosted by University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Speaker Bio
Dr. Sissy Nikolaou is the Earthquake Engineering Group Leader of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Prior to joining NIST, she served as Assistant Vice President and Principal in the Technical Excellence Center of WSP’s Geotechnical & Tunneling with almost 25 years of experience, and capabilities of geotechnical & structural engineering, with emphasis on performance-based design, soil-structure interaction, seismic hazard analysis, liquefaction evaluation and mitigation, and risk assessment of critical facilities. She oversaw WSP’s geotechnical earthquake engineering practice and led the firm’s multi-hazard resilience TEC initiative.
Dr. Nikolaou holds a civil engineering Diploma from NTUA, and Masters & PhD degrees from the U. Buffalo. She has held board positions in EERI and ATC, and she is a Governor and the Treasurer of the Geo-Institute of ASCE and an advisory member of GEER. She has co-led reconnaissance missions after disasters including Hurricane Sandy in NYC, and Mineral-VA, Cephalonia-Greece, Muisne-Ecuador and Puebla-Morelos Mexico earthquakes. She is active in codes development and has been the chair for the seismic committee for the NYC Building Code since 2014. A dedicated EERI member, she has been instrumental in creating the Study Program for younger professionals offered by the Learning from Earthquakes (LFE) program.
Her consulting experience includes tall building developments using performance-based criteria in dense urban environments such as in Mexico and New York Cities, major infrastructure and transportation design and retrofit projects, and emergency and action preparedness planning for communities globally. Dr. Nikolaou is recognized as ASCE Fellow, Board-Certified Geotechnical Engineer by the Academy of Geo-Professionals, WSP Fellow of Earthquake Engineering, NYC ACEC Principal of the Year, Prakash Prize recipient for Excellence in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Practice.
Dr. Nikolaou holds a civil engineering Diploma from NTUA, and Masters & PhD degrees from the U. Buffalo. She has held board positions in EERI and ATC, and she is a Governor and the Treasurer of the Geo-Institute of ASCE and an advisory member of GEER. She has co-led reconnaissance missions after disasters including Hurricane Sandy in NYC, and Mineral-VA, Cephalonia-Greece, Muisne-Ecuador and Puebla-Morelos Mexico earthquakes. She is active in codes development and has been the chair for the seismic committee for the NYC Building Code since 2014. A dedicated EERI member, she has been instrumental in creating the Study Program for younger professionals offered by the Learning from Earthquakes (LFE) program.
Her consulting experience includes tall building developments using performance-based criteria in dense urban environments such as in Mexico and New York Cities, major infrastructure and transportation design and retrofit projects, and emergency and action preparedness planning for communities globally. Dr. Nikolaou is recognized as ASCE Fellow, Board-Certified Geotechnical Engineer by the Academy of Geo-Professionals, WSP Fellow of Earthquake Engineering, NYC ACEC Principal of the Year, Prakash Prize recipient for Excellence in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Practice.
