Northeastern University in partnership with the Charles Pankow Foundation, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, and Klepper, Hahn & Hyatt
Principal Investigators
Prof. Jerome F. Hajjar - Northeastern University
Jerome Hajjar is the CDM Smith Professor and University Distinguishd Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University, where he served as Department Chair from 2010 to 2025. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Structural Testing of REsilient and Sustainable Systems (STReSS Laboratory) at Northeastern University. He received his BS in Engineering Mechanics from Yale University and his MS and PhD in Structural Engineering from Cornell University. He has also worked as an engineering consultant at Skidmore, Owings & Merill in New York and Chicago. He served as a Professor at the University of Minnesota from 1992 and 2005 and as a Professor and Narbey Khachaturian Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2005 to 2010. His research interests include experimental testing, computation simulation, steel and composite structures, structural stability, earthquake engineering analysis, and sustainable structures.
Mark D. Webster, PE and LEED AP BD+C, is a structural engineer in the Boston-area office of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. (SGH). Mr. Webster has nearly twenty-five years of experience in the design, analysis, and investigation of concrete, steel, masonry, and wood structures. His lifelong concern for the health of the natural environment has led him to investigate the intersection of sustainability and structural engineering practice. This work has made him a leading authority in the field. He has written and lectured on topics such as the practical measures structural engineers can take to improve the environmental performance of their designs and the life-cycle environmental impact of building structural systems. He is a founding member and Vice-Chair of the Structural Engineering Institute’s Sustainability Committee and former Chair of the USGBC Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group. He received a BA degree from Haverford College and BS and MS degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.
James A. D'Aloisio - Klepper, Hahn & Hyatt
James A. D’Aloisio, PE and LEED AP BD+C, is a Principal of the engineering firm Klepper, Hahn & Hyatt and was the firm’s first LEED Accredited Professional. In this emerging area of facilities design, Jim has been a project advisor or project principal for several “green projects” in the Central New York area, and has implemented green strategies, including the use of frost protected shallow foundations, structural insulated panels (SIPs), and insulated concrete forms (ICFs). He has developed and implemented schemes to minimize building energy loss caused by thermal steel bridging. Jim’s responsibilities and experience encompass a wide variety of project types, from the structural design of the SUNY Upstate Medical University East Tower Expansion for the Golisano Children’s Hospital, to building condition reviews, in-house design reviews, structural failure investigations and forensic analyses, and expert witness services. He is a trained Infrared Thermographer.
POSTDOCS
Kara
Peterman - Postdoctoral Research Associate - Northeastern
University
Graduate Students
Zachary Schultz - Graduate Research Assistant - Northeastern University
PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS
Sean O'Brien - Associate Principal, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.
James Parker - Senior Principal and Division Head, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.
Medhi Zarghamee - Senior Principal, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.