FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DesignSafe's Rathje Awarded Prestigious International Leader Fellowship at the University of Canterbury
Ellen Rathje, Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering, University of Texas at Austin; principal investigator, NSF-funded DesignSafe cyberinfrastructure, part of the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI)
Austin, TX, August 18, 2026 — Warm congratulations to Ellen Rathje, who has been honored with an International Leader Fellowship from the Royal Society Te Apārangi to collaborate with researchers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand.
Rathje holds the Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and is the principal investigator for the NSF-funded DesignSafe cyberinfrastructure, part of the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI).
“New Zealand is one of the most seismically active countries in the world and there are significant opportunities for research collaboration across engineering seismology, earthquake engineering, and the application of AI/ML and cyberinfrastructure to natural hazards,’ said Rathje.
Professor Rathje is one of the foremost international figures in geotechnical earthquake engineering and recognized as a global leader in cyberinfrastructure for big data and computing. She was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2025 and currently serves as President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). She is a former co-chair of the NSF-funded Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association.
The fellowship will bring Professor Rathje to New Zealand for extended visits over the next three years, hosted by University of Canterbury Professor Brendon Bradley, an internationally recognized researcher in earthquake engineering.
During her time in New Zealand, Professor Rathje will collaborate with University of Canterbury researchers and the wider earthquake engineering community – including QuakeCoRE, the New Zealand Centre for Earthquake Resilience – to advance seismic hazard assessment and cyberinfrastructure capabilities. The work will draw on New Zealand's world-class post-earthquake datasets and align with national priorities in artificial intelligence and earth observation.
This fellowship significantly strengthens the University of Canterbury's international profile in earthquake engineering and creates lasting research linkages between New Zealand and leading U.S. institutions. It will support high-impact research, capability building, and the translation of advanced methods into improved earthquake resilience for New Zealand.
About the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure, NHERI
Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NHERI is a national network of university-centered experimental facilities and resources. NHERI facilities are dedicated to reducing damage and loss-of-life due to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, windstorms, wildfires, tsunamis and storm surge. A vital resource, NHERI provides researchers in the natural hazards engineering and social science communities with state-of-the-art laboratories, data, cyberinfrastructure, equipment, and training needed to meet the research challenges of the 21st century. NHERI is supported by multiple grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation.