Personal


Biography

Alex H. Barbat was born in Brasov, Romania. He is Inginer Constructii Hidrotehnice (Civil Engineer) (1970) and Doctor Inginer (Doctor in Engineering), speciality Structural Dynamics (1978), by the Technical University of Iasi, Romania. After moving to Spain, he completed in 1986 the degree of Ingeniero de Caminos Canales y Puertos (Civil Engineer) at the Civil Engineering School of the Technical University of Catalonia, UPC-BarcelonaTech, and in 1989 he became Doctor Ingeniero de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (Ph.D. in Civil Engineering).

Between 1980 and 1985, he worked in different companies of Barcelona (INDUS, DPI and ESPES) as a professional engineer, mostly dedicated to consultancy in the field of earthquake engineering. During the same period he was part time Adjunct Professor at UPC teaching a course on Earthquake Engineering.

He was Researcher (1986-1996), Associate Professor (1996-1999) and Professor of Structural Mechanics and of Earthquake Engineering (1999-2017) at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (Civil Engineering School) of the UPC-BarcelonaTech. He is currently Emeritus Professor at the UPC.

He is Researche Professor at the International Center of Numerical Methods in Engineering, CIMNE, Barcelona, Spain,  and member of the Disaster Risk and Resilience Group, collaborating in research projects in the framework of RTD programs of the European Commission or funded by different Spanish Ministries as well as in consultancy contracts with Spanish and international companies or institutions.

He was the President of the Spanish Association of Earthquake Engineering between 2004 and 2016. He received three Honorary Doctorates (Doctor Honoris Causa): by the “Ovidius” University, Constantza, Romania (March 2011), by the Technical University “Gh. Asachi” of Iasi, Romania (November 2011) and by the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania (November 2013).

 

Current research fields

- Evaluation of the seismic behaviour of structures

- Evaluation of damage in reinforced/prestressed concrete structures

- Evaluation of seismic vulnerability and risk of structures

- Seismic risk evaluation at local, country and  regional level


Supervised doctoral theses

He directed or co-directed 39 doctoral theses. A complete list, together with the pdf files of these theses, can be found here. Many of his former doctoral students are currently professor in universities of different countries.

 

Activities related to monograph & journal edition

  • Editor of Monograph Series in Earthquake Engineering, published by the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering, CIMNE, Barcelona, since 1993.
  • Co-editor of Revista Internacional de Ingeniería de Estructuras, Quito, Ecuador, since 1996. 
  • Editor for Europe of the Revista Internacional de Desastres Naturales, Accidentes e Infraestructura Civil, Puerto Rico, since 2001. 
  • Vice Editor-in-Chief of Intersecţii/Intersections, Iasi, Romania, since 2008.