Robert Kayen is a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

, and Professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in the Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering Academic discipline, discipline related to environmental science. It encompasses broad Science, scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiolo ...

. He is a leading international expert in the fields of earthquake engineering, seismic

soil liquefaction Soil liquefaction occurs when a cohesionless saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses Shear strength (soil), strength and stiffness in response to an applied Shear stress, stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other s ...

, and seismic displacement analysis of ground failures. Kayen's research focuses on

geotechnical engineering Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...

, engineering characterization of

natural hazards A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides - including submarin ...

and extreme events, and

earth science Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

aspects of

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

. His works have been applied in earthquake engineering design of improved ground, building foundations, bridge abutments, lifeline, and environmental systems.

Education and academia

Robert Kayen was born in

New York, NY New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

, United States in 1959. He earned his B.S. in civil engineering and geology in 1981 from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

, M.S. degree in geology in 1988, and Ph.D. in engineering under the supervision of James K. Mitchell at the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in 1993. From 1991-2023, he has worked as a research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...

. Kayen joined the faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

in 2007, and the University of California, Berkeley in 2018. He previously served as a visiting professor at

Kobe University , also known in the Kansai region as , is a public research university located in Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan. The university was established in 1949, but the academic origins of Kobe University trace back to the establishment of Kobe Higher Commercia ...

, Japan. Kayen has authored over four hundred journal articles, conference papers, and published studies in the fields of earthquake engineering,

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...

geomatics Geomatics is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as the "discipline concerned with the collection, distribution, storage, analysis, processing, presentation of geographic data or geographic information". Under another definition, it ...

InSAR Interferometric synthetic aperture radar, abbreviated InSAR (or deprecated IfSAR), is a radar technique used in geodesy and remote sensing. This geodetic method uses two or more synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to generate maps of surface defo ...

persistent scatterer-synthetic aperture radar interferometry, engineering

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

methane hydrate Methane clathrate (CH4·5.75H2O) or (4CH4·23H2O), also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large am ...

disassociation, and marine-engineering geology and marine-

geotechnics Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...

Honors

Kayen received the Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. For contributions as a court-appointed expert to the scientific studies supporting

United States vs. Montrose Chemical Corp. et al. The Montrose Chemical Corporation of California was a chemical corporation that was the largest producer of the insecticide DDT in the United States from 1947 until it stopped production in 1982. The president of Montrose was Pincus Rothberg bef ...

, he received a Commendation awarded by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

. He received the NASA Ames Honor Award from the

NASA Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

for applications of the spectral analysis of surface waves and ground-penetrating RADAR. Kayen has served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering of the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

(ASCE). In 2017, he was the ASCE GeoInstitute - UC Berkeley Distinguished Lecturer in Civil Engineering.

Rock climbing and ski mountaineering

Robert Kayen is an American rock climber who completed the first solo ascent of

El Capitan El Capitan (; ) is a vertical Rock formations in the United States, rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The El Capitan Granite, granite monolith is about from base to summit alo ...

's West Buttress in

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The p ...

in 1982. The eleven-day solo ascent followed the original route on the West Buttress, first climbed by

Layton Kor Layton Kor (June 11, 1938 – April 21, 2013) was an American rock climber active in the 1960s, whose first ascents and drive for climbing are well known in the climbing world. His routes included many climbs in Eldorado Canyon, near Boulder ...

and

Steve Roper Steve Roper is a noted climber and historian of the Sierra Nevada in the United States. He along with Allen Steck are the founding editors of the Sierra Club journal ''Ascent''. Roper is the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P. Farquhar M ...

.American Alpine Journal, Vol. 25, 57, 1983, p. 162-163. . Kayen completed the first winter traverse of the

Sierra Nevada mountains The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

along from

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'' or ''Too-man-go-yah'') is a mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, and the highest point in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of . It lies in East–Central Califor ...

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

in 1984 and 1985, skiing via the

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, Kings Canyon National Park, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park, Se ...

and the high-elevation portions of the

Tahoe–Yosemite Trail The Tahoe–Yosemite Trail (TYT) is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. The trail courses from Meeks Bay at Lake Tahoe to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. The trail is a foot a ...

References

External links

Googe Scholar Sitations

Science Direct

National Academies Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kayen, Robert Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni Tufts University School of Engineering alumni Living people 1959 births American rock climbers