Paul C. Jennings

Dr. Jennings received his B.S. degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, also in civil engineering, from the California Institute of Technology. After serving in the United States Air Force as a member of the faculty of the Air Force Academy, he joined the faculty of Caltech in 1966. He served as Chairman of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science from January 1985 to November 1989. He was Caltech’s Vice President and Provost from November 1989 to February 1995. Following that he became Acting Vice President for Business and Finance until September 1995; he held this post again in 1998-1999. From 2004 to 2007 he again became Caltech’s Provost.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a past President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, a past President of the Seismological Society of America, and a Fellow and past-chair of the California Council on Science and Technology. He now represents Caltech on the CCST Board of Directors. Professor Jennings is the author of numerous technical papers on earthquake engineering and dynamics of structures and has served as earthquake engineering consultant on the design of high-rise buildings, offshore drilling towers, nuclear power plants and other major projects. He was a member of the Board of Inquiry on the Loma Prieta earthquake appointed by California's Governor Deukmejian. He was the chair of Pasadena’s City Hall Restoration Oversight Committee and he has served on several committees of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council, including chairing the Draper Prize Committee, chairing the Committee on Natural Disasters, and chairing the Committee on Criteria for the Management of Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. He is currently the immediate past-chair of the Gordon Prize Committee.

His awards include the Newmark Medal and the Huber Prize of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Honor Alumnus and Achievement in Academia Awards from Colorado State University. He is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Association for the Advancement of Science.