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Neal Simon Kwong, PhD

I'm a Mendenhall research fellow in the Earthquake Hazards Program at the Geologic Hazards Science Center in Golden, Colorado who is currently working on projects related to seismic risk of critical infrastructure systems in the United States.

N. Simon Kwong received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Civil Engineering from The Cooper Union in 2009, the Master of Science degree in Structural Engineering from the University of California Berkeley in 2010, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree, also in Structural Engineering and from Berkeley, in 2015.

Prior to joining the Earthquake Hazards Program at USGS, Simon was an assistant professor in structural engineering at The Cooper Union from 2016 to 2019. During this time, he taught ten different semester-long courses on various topics in structural engineering, supervised four Master’s theses, and helped the department successfully renew its ABET accreditation.

He is passionate about problems related to probabilistic modeling of seismic hazards, selecting earthquake ground motions for nonlinear structural dynamic analyses, and assessing seismic risks of the built environment. Some of his awards include the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the UC Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, and the Cooper Union Full-tuition Scholarship. He also currently serves as a peer reviewer for several journals and textbooks.

As a Mendenhall at USGS, his research currently focuses on understanding, quantifying, and reducing seismic risk of critical infrastructure systems (e.g., natural gas pipelines) in the United States.

Research advisors: Dr. Kishor S. Jaiswal, Dr. Nico Luco, Dr. Kris A. Ludwig, Prof. Jack W. Baker

Student intern: Vasey J. Stephens

Science and Products

Selecting three components of ground motions from Conditional Spectra for multiple stripe analyses

For complex structures where the seismic response depends appreciably on the vertical (V) component of ground motion (GM) (e.g., base-isolated buildings, long-span bridges, dams, nuclear power plants), incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is commonly utilized to estimate seismic risk, where the V components of GM are selected and scaled based on the corresponding horizontal (H) components. The resul
By
Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

Earthquake risk of gas pipelines in the conterminous United States and its sources of uncertainty

Relatively little research has been conducted to systematically quantify the nationwide earthquake risk of gas pipelines in the US; simultaneously, national guidance is limited for operators across the country to consistently evaluate the earthquake risk of their assets. Furthermore, many challenges and uncertainties exist in a comprehensive seismic risk assessment of gas pipelines. As a first sta
By
Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

Assessing the long-term earthquake risk for the US National Bridge Inventory (NBI)

We estimate annualized earthquake loss associated with over 600,000 bridges located throughout the contiguous United States. Each year, the Federal Highway Administration, in partnership with State Departments of Transportation, undertake a massive exercise to update the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) by combining data from states, federal agencies, local jurisdictions, and tribal governments. Th
By
Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

Open-source resources help navigate new IM regulations

The revision of federal safety regulations for integrity management of gas transmission pipelines to require explicit consideration of seismicity increases the importance for operators to be actively identifying high-consequence areas (HCAs), evaluating seismic-related threats, and choosing a risk model to support risk management decisions. To ensure equal access to information by both operators a
By
Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

Pre-USGS Publications

Kwong NS and Chopra AK. (2019). “Selecting, scaling, and orienting three components of ground motions for intensity-based assessments at far-field sites.” Earthquake Spectra, DOI: 10.1177/8755293019899954.
Kwong NS and Chopra AK. The CMS-UHS Composite Spectrum for intensity-based assessments of tall buildings. Proceedings of the 11th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA, 2018.
Kwong NS. A method for selecting hazard-consistent ground motions and estimating seismic demand hazard curves. Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Chilean Association of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Santiago, Chile, 2017.
Kwong NS and Chopra AK. (2016). “A Generalized Conditional Mean Spectrum and its application for intensity-based assessments of seismic demands.” Earthquake Spectra, 33(1), 123–143; DOI: 10.1193/040416EQS050M
Kwong NS and Chopra AK. (2015). “Evaluation of the Exact Conditional Spectrum and Generalized Conditional Intensity Measure methods for ground motion selection.” Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 45(5), 757-777; DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2683.
Kwong NS, Chopra AK, McGuire RK. (2015). “Evaluation of ground motion selection and modification procedures using synthetic ground motions.” Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 44(11), 1841–1861; DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2558.
Kwong NS, Chopra AK, McGuire RK. (2014). “A framework for the evaluation of ground motion selection and modification procedures.” Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 44(5), 795–815; DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2502.
Kalkan E, and Kwong NS, (2013). “Pros and cons of rotating ground motion records to fault-normal/parallel directions for response history analysis of buildings.” ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 140(3), 04013062.
Kalkan E, and Kwong NS, (2012). “Assessment of Modal Pushover-based Scaling procedure for nonlinear response history analysis of ordinary standard bridges.” ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 17(2), 272–288.

Science and Products

  • Publications

    Selecting three components of ground motions from Conditional Spectra for multiple stripe analyses

    For complex structures where the seismic response depends appreciably on the vertical (V) component of ground motion (GM) (e.g., base-isolated buildings, long-span bridges, dams, nuclear power plants), incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is commonly utilized to estimate seismic risk, where the V components of GM are selected and scaled based on the corresponding horizontal (H) components. The resul
    By
    Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

    Earthquake risk of gas pipelines in the conterminous United States and its sources of uncertainty

    Relatively little research has been conducted to systematically quantify the nationwide earthquake risk of gas pipelines in the US; simultaneously, national guidance is limited for operators across the country to consistently evaluate the earthquake risk of their assets. Furthermore, many challenges and uncertainties exist in a comprehensive seismic risk assessment of gas pipelines. As a first sta
    By
    Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

    Assessing the long-term earthquake risk for the US National Bridge Inventory (NBI)

    We estimate annualized earthquake loss associated with over 600,000 bridges located throughout the contiguous United States. Each year, the Federal Highway Administration, in partnership with State Departments of Transportation, undertake a massive exercise to update the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) by combining data from states, federal agencies, local jurisdictions, and tribal governments. Th
    By
    Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

    Open-source resources help navigate new IM regulations

    The revision of federal safety regulations for integrity management of gas transmission pipelines to require explicit consideration of seismicity increases the importance for operators to be actively identifying high-consequence areas (HCAs), evaluating seismic-related threats, and choosing a risk model to support risk management decisions. To ensure equal access to information by both operators a
    By
    Natural Hazards, Geologic Hazards Science Center

    Pre-USGS Publications

    Kwong NS and Chopra AK. (2019). “Selecting, scaling, and orienting three components of ground motions for intensity-based assessments at far-field sites.” Earthquake Spectra, DOI: 10.1177/8755293019899954.
    Kwong NS and Chopra AK. The CMS-UHS Composite Spectrum for intensity-based assessments of tall buildings. Proceedings of the 11th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA, 2018.
    Kwong NS. A method for selecting hazard-consistent ground motions and estimating seismic demand hazard curves. Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Chilean Association of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Santiago, Chile, 2017.
    Kwong NS and Chopra AK. (2016). “A Generalized Conditional Mean Spectrum and its application for intensity-based assessments of seismic demands.” Earthquake Spectra, 33(1), 123–143; DOI: 10.1193/040416EQS050M
    Kwong NS and Chopra AK. (2015). “Evaluation of the Exact Conditional Spectrum and Generalized Conditional Intensity Measure methods for ground motion selection.” Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 45(5), 757-777; DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2683.
    Kwong NS, Chopra AK, McGuire RK. (2015). “Evaluation of ground motion selection and modification procedures using synthetic ground motions.” Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 44(11), 1841–1861; DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2558.
    Kwong NS, Chopra AK, McGuire RK. (2014). “A framework for the evaluation of ground motion selection and modification procedures.” Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 44(5), 795–815; DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2502.
    Kalkan E, and Kwong NS, (2013). “Pros and cons of rotating ground motion records to fault-normal/parallel directions for response history analysis of buildings.” ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 140(3), 04013062.
    Kalkan E, and Kwong NS, (2012). “Assessment of Modal Pushover-based Scaling procedure for nonlinear response history analysis of ordinary standard bridges.” ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 17(2), 272–288.