Mishac K. Yegian

COE Distinguished Professor Emeritus,  Civil and Environmental Engineering

Contact

Social Media

Office

  • 401 Snell Engineering Center
  • 617.373.2448

Research Focus

Geotechnical earthquake engineering; soil dynamics; geosynthetics; seismic response of landfills; base isolation; liquefaction; bridge engineering; use of shaking table in earthquake engineering

Education

  • Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976
  • M.S., Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1973
  • B.S., Civil Engineering, American University of Beirut, 1971

Licensure

  • Professional Engineer: Massachusetts

Honors & Awards

  • 2014 ASCE Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award
  • 2011 “Students Speak” Teaching Award
  • Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers
  • Distinguished College of Engineering Professor, Northeastern University
  • 1998 Northeastern University, Teaching Excellence Award
  • 1991-1992 Northeastern University, Robert D. Klein Scholar

Professional Affiliations

  • American Society of Civil Engineers
  • American Society for Engineering Education
  • Boston Society of Civil Engineers
  • Chi Epsilon, Civil Engineering Honor Society
  • Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
  • Geotechnical Institute, ASCE, G-I
  • International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering
  • North American Geosynthetics Society
  • Seismological Society of America

Research Overview

Geotechnical earthquake engineering; soil dynamics; geosynthetics; seismic response of landfills; base isolation; liquefaction; bridge engineering; use of shaking table in earthquake engineering

Selected Research Projects

Selected Publications

  • E. Eseller-Bayat, S. Gokyer, M.K. Yegian, Earthquake Engineering Experimental Facility for Research and Public Outreach, Seismic Evaluation and Rehabilitation of Structures, 26, 2014, 379-387
  • E. Eseller-Bayat, S. Gokyer, M.K. Yegian, O. Deniz, A. Alshawabkeh, Bender Elements and Bending Disks for Measurement of Shear and Compression Wave Velocities in Large Fully and Partially Saturated Sand Specimens, ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal, 36(2), 2013, 1-8
  • E. Eseller-Bayat, S. Gokyer, M.K. Yegian, E. Ortakci, A. Alshawabkeh, Design and Application of Simple Shear Liquefaction Box, ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal, 36(3), 2013, 1-9
  • E. Eseller-Bayat, S. Gokyer, M.K. Yegian, A. Alshawabkeh, Liquefaction Response of Partially Saturated Sands: An Empirical Model, ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139(6), 2013, 872-879

Faculty

Apr 19, 2023

Mishac Yegian Retires After 47 Years of Meritorious Service and Leadership

After nearly five decades of service as a professor and researcher at Northeastern University, College of Engineering Distinguished Professor Mishac Yegian will be retiring in the summer of 2023. His tenure at Northeastern covered 47 years in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which he also led as Department Chair for a seventeen-year period.

Faculty

Feb 08, 2023

Devastating Earthquakes Demonstrate the Need for Old Infrastructure Retrofits

CEE Professors Jerome Hajjar, Mehrdad Sasani, and Mishac Yegian, who are experts in the field of earthquake engineering, advise that older structures should be retrofitted with modern standards to help prevent the devastating collapses that happened during the recent earthquakes in Turkey.

Students

Dec 09, 2016

The Way the Gingerbread Crumbles

ASCE students watched as CEE Professor Mishac Yegian put their gingerbread houses on the earthquake simulator during the annual Struc­turally Stable Gin­ger­bread House Com­pe­ti­tion.

Jul 07, 2016

Field Application of IPS for Liquefaction Mitigation

CEE Professors Mishac Yegian and Akram Alshawabkeh were awarded a $342K NSF grant for "Field Application of Induced Partial Saturation (IPS) for Liquefaction Mitigation".

May 23, 2012

Induced Partial Saturation Being Field Tested

CEE Professors Mishac Yegian and Akram Alshawabkeh were featured in ASCE Civil Engineering magazine for their upcoming field tests using Induced Partial Saturation (IPS) to prevent soil liquefaction during earthquakes.

Aug 16, 2011

Preventing Ground Failure Due to Earthquakes

CEE Professors Mishac Yegian and Akram Alshawabkeh were awarded a $1.2M NSF grant to use Induced Partial Saturation (IPS) to try and prevent ground liquefaction from occurring under structures during earthquakes.

Apr 11, 2011

Six Faculty Named 2010 Outstanding Teachers of the College of Engineering

Congratulations to the following faculty, who were identified by our students as Outstanding Teachers of the College of Engineering for 2010: Dionisio Bernal, Daniel Dulaski, Philip Larese-Casanova, Thomas Sheahan, Ming Wang, and Mishac Yegian.

Oct 31, 2009

Professor Yegian Protects Artwork

Prof. Mishac Yegian of Northeastern University in collaboration with Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has conducted research on evaluation of a mechanical isolator to protect four MFA sculptures against earthquakes in Nagoya Japan, where they will be displayed for four years.

Jun 17, 2009

Historical Brooklyn Bridge Built to Last

Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Mishac Yegian has determined that the Brooklyn Bridge could withstand an earthquake that registers a 6.5 on the Richter Scale without any damage to its foundation.

Feb 11, 2009

Prof Yegian's research on the Cover of Civil Engineering Magazine

Prof. Mishac Yegian's modeling of the Brooklyn Bridge evaluates its ability to withstand a 2,500-year seismic event.

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