The following five Keynote Lectures are foreseen:

Julian J. Bommer
Imperial College London, UK
Lecture day: Monday July 1^st
Lecture title: Seismic hazard assessment for natural and induced earthquakes: Mmin, Mmax, and everything in between

Ellen M. Rathje
University of Texas, Austin, USA
Lecture day: Tuesday July 2^nd
Lecture title: Regional-Scale Seismic Landslide Assessments for Distributed Infrastructure Systems

Xinzheng Lu
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Lecture day: Wednesday July 3^rd
Lecture title: From “Simulation-driven” urban disaster mitigation to “Generative AI-powered” seismic design

Judith Mitrani-Reiser
National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA
Lecture day: Thursday July 4^th
Lecture title: Taking Measure: How Earthquake Reconnaissance Has Evolved Over Fifty Years

Dimitrios Vamvatsikos
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Lecture day: Friday July 5^th
Lecture title: Criteria for selecting intensity measures in seismic risk assessment: What matters, what does not, and why

This is an initiative of the International Association of Earthquake Engineering (IAEE), deployed with the support of Computers & Structures Inc. (CSI), aimed at creating an opportunity for the younger generations of researchers and practitioners to meet in person illustrious representatives of the older generation of scholars in our field. At this link you may find the captivating Masters’ lectures that were delivered at the previous world conference.

In addition to the oral presentations included in the conference programme, it is also foreseen that (hard-copy) monographs prepared by each one of the four IAEE-invited distinguished scholars will be distributed to all participants of the conference. These volumes will feature overviews of the history of developments in a given technical area and/or discussion of significant past applications or milestone scientific advancements and/or an insight on future needs, challenges and opportunities.

The four Masters Lectures defined by IAEE for the WCEE2024 are:

Steve Kramer
University of Washington, USA
Lecture day: Monday July 1^st
Lecture title: The evolution of performance-based design in geotechnical earthquake engineering

Jack P. Moehle
University of California at Berkeley, USA
Lecture day: Tuesday July 2^nd
Lecture title: Five easy pieces (structural engineering)

Li Li Xie
Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration (CEA), China
Lecture day: Wednesday July 3^rd
Lecture title: Ranking of strong earthquake ground motion recordings based on degree of damage to structures caused by whole time-history

Michele Calvi
University School for Advanced Studies – IUSS Pavia, Italy
Lecture day: Thursday July 4^th
Lecture title: The art of seismic design

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) confers an annual Distinguished Lecture Award to recognize and encourage communication of outstanding professional contributions of major importance for earthquake hazard mitigation. The recipients of such award then prepare an address on the agreed topic for presentation at the EERI Annual Meeting and at a series of lectures typically delivered at different US venues.

In addition, and in cooperation with the Seismological Society of America (SSA), the William B. Joyner Memorial Lecture series is also awarded annually. Presented at the Annual Meetings of SSA and EERI, as well as at locations of the lecturer’s choosing, the lectures bring scientists and engineers together in an effort to make our world a safer one–just as Joyner himself did so brilliantly.

Thanks to the close collaboration between the WCEE2024 Organising Committee and EERI, this Conference will provide, for the first-time, a unique and exciting opportunity to render the 2024 edition of these two prestigious Annual Lectures available to a global audience.

Michael Olsen
Oregon State University, USA
Lecture day: Tuesday July 2^nd
Lecture title: Geospatial Technology – Saving the world’s past, present and future from natural hazards

Helen Crowley
Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation, Italy
Lecture day: Wednesday July 3^rd
Lecture title: Why seismic hazard modelling has become a risky business

160 Technical Sessions have been proposed by the scientific community, involving scholars from 68 different countries from around the World; this undoubtedly constitutes a success for which we should all be very proud of – it is unquestionable that a community-based conference programme is being shaped.

It is noted, nonetheless, that the current list of Technical Sessions is to be considered as preliminary, given that, as discussed in the Frequently Asked Questions, the final list/programme of parallel sessions will only be defined once the (pre-)registered contributors to each session will be known.

Technical Sessions comprise two parts; a plenary one where presentations will be delivered on stage and one at a time to all (seating) attendees of the technical session, and another where simultaneous presentations will be delivered and discussed with sub-groups of the session attendees that will be standing-up by the monitors where the presenter’s slides are being shown.

Working hard is important, but so too is having moments of relaxation and non-sedentary activity amongst friends and colleagues.

Conference participants will thus be able to make use of the table tennis and table football facilities that we will be rendering available at the venue.

And, because competition always renders physical activities even more fun, we are planning to organise two tournaments that will run in parallel throughout the event, with the top teams being then awarded at the Conference’s closing ceremony.

During the registration phase you will be asked to express your potential interest in taking part in the table tennis and/or table football championship, and then we will get back to you for further details on the tournament organisation.

You might want to start getting some training sessions in!

The Conference Party will be taking place at Milan’s fashionable events venue Superstudio Maxi, on the evening of Thursday, July 4^th. High-quality Italian buffet dinner will naturally be a feature of the event, as so will be live music, covering an as wide as possible range of musical eras. There is not a fixed deadline for registration at the party yet, however, on a later stage, a cut-off date will be set, so that the catering may be organized in proportion to the number of enrolled party attendees.

To get your ticket for the Conference Party:
– go to Conference participant platform
– select “Registration add-ons”
– indicate the number of tickets you wish to purchase
– payment is accepted by credit card only

References:
Superstudio Maxi https://www.superstudioevents.com/en/locations/superstudio-maxi/

Conference participants will be given the unique possibility to attend an exceptional evening at the famous “La Scala” theatre. The celebrated Turandot opera show will be performed in the evening of Monday, July 1^st.
There is no specific deadline for buying your tickets, however the Organisers’ suggestion is not to wait too long, given that the number of seats at this famous opera house is not limitless.

To get your ticket for the La Scala Theatre:
– go to Conference participant platform
– select “Registration add-ons”
– indicate the number of tickets you wish to purchase, in the desired seating section
– payment is accepted by credit card only

At a later stage, a tool for the selection of the booked seats will be made available by the Organising Secretariat.
Tickets are non refundable.

Further information and details on the show may be found at this page.

References:
Seating sections
La Scala Theatre https://www.teatroallascala.org/en/index.html
La Turandot  https://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/2023-2024/opera/turandot.html