Professor Ambraseys Passes Away in England

Professor Nicolas Neocles Ambraseys was born in 1929, in Greece and passed away on Dec. 28, 2012 in England. He was a Greek Engineering Seismologist, Professor and later Professor Emeritus of Engineering Seismology and Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London.

Professor Ambraseys studied Rural and Surveying Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens from where he received his diploma in 1952, and then Civil Engineering at the Imperial College specializing in Soil Mechanics and Engineering Seismology. His PHD thesis title was The seismic stability of earth dams.

In 1968 he established the Engineering Seismology Section (ESEE), now part of the Geotechnics Section, in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Imperial College and served as its first Head from 1971 to 1994, until he retired and was reappointed as Senior Research Investigator. He founded and became the first chairman of the British National Committee of Earthquake Engineering.

He was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering , the European Academy, the Academy of  Athens and medalist of a number of UK and European learned societies. Professor Ambraseys was invited in 2004 to deliver the 44th Rankine Lecture of the British Geotechnical Society, titled Engineering, seismology and soil mechanics.

He was an editorial board member of six technical journals, published 310 projects in scientific journals, and wrote six books.