About the Speakers

Ashwani (Ashi) Dhalwala, M.S.,S.E., Principal at AEC Solutions, specializes in Earthquake Engineering and Earthquake Dynamics of structures. He received his M.S.C.E. in 1969 from the Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics Division of UC Berkeley and started his seismic structural engineering career at T.Y. Lin & Associates. During his professional practice of more than 50 years, he has performed seismic design, seismic risk evaluations, vibration monitoring and retrofitting/updating/repair of several existing and new buildings in Southern California. After the Northridge Earthquake, he was appointed to the SEAOSC/L.A. City Task force advisory committees on Non-Ductile Reinforced Concrete Structures, Type V Construction and Non Structural Building Elements. His focus thruout his career has been to promote concepts which enhance the seismic performance of both existing and new buildings. For the past seven years he has been actively researching both the effects of Soil Period and advanced concepts of Soil Structure Interction (SSI) and develop practical solutions to address these very important issues in order to enhance the resiliency of Southern California considering the unique seismicity of the region. He currently chairs the SEAOSC Steel Committee.

Martin (Marty) Hudson, B.S., M.S., Ph.D. is the Director of Geotechnical Engineering for the Turner Engineering Group of Turner Construction Company. He has over 30 years of industry experience covering a variety of building types, sizes and market sectors. Dr. Hudson is a Licensed Civil and Geotechnical Engineer. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Hudson has worked as geotechnical engineer of record on some of the largest projects in California history, including the Wilshire Grand tower, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and New Century twin tower development. He has worked as one of the plan check reviewer on behalf of the City of Inglewood for the geotechnical aspects of the SoFi Rams Stadium. He has extensive experience with deep excavations, shoring, soil nailing, MSE walls, ground improvement, shallow and deep foundations including driven piles, drilled shafts, caissons, and micropiles. He also has extensive experience with ground motion studies on many high-rise buildings, reservoirs, subway stations and tunnels, and hospital buildings, including base-isolated and damped structures. He is an Honorary Member of the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC), and serves on the seismology and steel committees of SEAOSC. He has served on the Board of the American Society of Civil Engineers Los Angeles Branch Geo-Institute and on the Board of SEAOSC. He also teaches courses on foundation engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. He has dozens of publications on seismic and geotechnical engineering topics.