Peter FAJFAR

Prof. Fajfar works at the University of Ljubljana in the field of earthquake engineering. He focuses his research on the impact of earthquakes on the behaviour of buildings and civil engineering structures. Methods that he developed with his colleagues to analyze building structures have been implemented in the European standard Eurocode 8 and have become one of the essential tools in research and practice of earthquake-resistant design and assessment worldwide. He is one of the most cited researchers in earthquake engineering and a member of two national academies in Slovenia, the European Academy of Sciences (Belgium), and the US National Academy of Engineering. For 13 years, he was one of three editors of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, the journal with the highest impact factor in earthquake engineering. Together with Prof. Helmut Krawinkler from Stanford University, he organized three highly successful international workshops in Bled, where the most prominent researchers and practitioners set the directions for improvements in seismic design.

After earthquakes, it is necessary to study their impact on building structures and identify the reasons for the observed behavior of individual buildings. To this end, Fajfar visited several areas affected by strong earthquakes. The photo shows a collapsed high-rise building after the earthquake in Chile in 2010.

1943 Born in Ljubljana

1966 Degree in civil engineering, Univ. of Ljubljana (UL)

1967 Joins construction firm SGP Grosuplje

1969-2018 Employed at Faculty of civil and geodetic engineering (FGG UL)

1972, 1974 MSc, PhD (FGG UL)

1985–1987 Dean (FGG UL)

1994, 1995, 2006, 2009 Visiting professor Mc Master Univ. Hamilton, Stanford Univ., Bristol Univ., Canterbury Univ. Christchurch

2003 Editor Earthquake Engineering Structural Dynamics (Wiley)

Important Works

Fajfar P (1976) EAVEK (program za elastično analizo večetažnih konstrukcij), FAGG, Univerza v Ljubljani.

Fajfar P (1999) Capacity spectrum method based on inelastic demand spectra. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 28(9): 979-993.

Fajfar P (2000) A nonlinear analysis method for performance-based seismic design. Earthquake Spectra 16(3): 573-592.

Izbrane nagrade | Selected Awards

1989, 1993 Associate, full member, Slovenian Acad. of Sciences and Arts

1995 Republic of Slovenia award for academic work

2013 Award for lifetime achievements, Chamber of engineers of Slovenia

2015 Zois Award for lifetime achievements

2018 Ambraseys lecture

2018 Foreign member, US National Academy. of Engineering