About
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and an Emerging Investigator of QuakeCoRE: New Zealand’s Centre for Earthquake Resilience. My research lies at the intersection of geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. By integrating observations from past earthquakes, geotechnical and geophysical data, and numerical simulations, I aim to improve our understanding and ability to predict ground motion and the response of geotechnical systems during seismic events. Ultimately, this work seeks to enhance earthquake resilience through the advancement of performance-based earthquake engineering.
I hold a PhD in Earthquake Engineering from the University of Canterbury, completed in Brendon Bradley’s Research Group, and earned both my MSc and Civil Engineering degrees from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Valparaíso, Chile. I also hold a Postgraduate Diploma in Tunnels and Underground Spaces from the Universidad de Chile and have conducted research stays at Virginia Tech and the University of Arizona in the United States. Prior to starting my PhD, I worked as a Project Engineer at Ferrara in Santiago, Chile, gaining broad experience in geotechnical engineering through projects involving buildings, mining facilities, and renewable energy developments.
My research has been recognized with the 2025 Outstanding Paper Award from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and the PhD Distinction Award from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury. In 2023, I was the Lightning Talks Judges’ Award Winner at the QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting.
Featured by the New Zealand Natural Hazards Commission
My research has been highlighted by the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake, which has provided financial support for our work:
Researcher’s work predicts how quakes shake different parts of NZ (2025)
Soil and small earthquakes help pave way for more resilient buildings (2023)
News
15 June 2026 — Our paper “Methods to account for shallow site effects in hybrid broadband ground-motion simulations” has received the 2025 Outstanding Paper Award from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). The award recognizes authors of Earthquake Spectra papers judged to be outstanding contributions to earthquake hazard mitigation. It is presented annually to one or two papers published in the journal.
01 June 2026 — I became an Emerging Investigator of QuakeCoRE: New Zealand’s Centre for Earthquake Resilience.
24 Feb 2026 — Our paper “Validating VS30-based site amplification factors in hybrid broadband ground-motion simulation of small-magnitude earthquakes in New Zealand” has been published in Earthquake Spectra.
12 Dec 2025 — I received the QuakeCoRE Proposal Development Grant to support the project “Integration of High-Resolution Basin Modelling for Advancing Physics-Based Ground-Motion Prediction”.
15 Oct 2025 — Our paper “Validating alternative methods to account for shallow site effects in hybrid broadband ground-motion simulation of small-magnitude earthquakes in New Zealand” has been published in Earthquake Spectra.
7 Sept 2025 — I presented a poster titled “Toward a unified database of hybrid broadband ground-motion simulations for historical Mw 3.5-7.8 crustal and subduction earthquakes in New Zealand” at the 2025 Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Annual Meeting.
25 Aug 2025 — I received the PhD Distinction Award, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury, in recognition of outstanding doctoral research.