James L. Beck
George W. Housner Professor of Engineering and Applied Science
Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

 
 
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My Research Interests

I became the George W. Housner Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology in 2017. Although I no longer run a research group, I am collaborating with other researchers at different institutions. I have also been pursuing research interests on my own, especially on the foundations of quantum mechanics.

My research is focused primarily on stochastic dynamics where I use Bayesian probability as a logic to handle the uncertainties involved in the modeling of physical systems and their excitation. I have a particular interest in the dynamics of structural systems, including stochastic response prediction under earthquakes, and using sensor data from monitoring structures for system identification and structural health monitoring. I have published on many research topics, including robust-to-modeling-uncertainty response prediction and performance reliability, structural health monitoring, seismic loss estimation, performance-based earthquake-resistant design, seismic early warning, stochastic robust structural control, Bayesian updating and model class selection using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation methods, Bayesian state and parameter estimation using particle filter methods, and sparse Bayesian learning.

Brief Bio (pdf)

Google Scholar Profile

Beck Symposium - Feb 3 & 4, 2017
"Making Rational Decisions Under Uncertainty and Model Complexity"

ICOSSAR Keynote Lecture - June 2013 (pdf)

 

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