Rate My Professor Chris de la Torre

Christopher de la Torre is a Research Engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master’s of Engineering in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Washington, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Earthquake Engineering from the University of Canterbury. His research focuses on modelling seismic site effects, including numerical modelling of how earthquake ground motions are amplified by near-surface soil and rock layers, quantification of site effects from recordings, and incorporation of site-specific or non-ergodic effects into seismic hazard analysis. He specialises in modelling soil nonlinear behaviour and sedimentary basin effects for empirical ground motion models used in regional and national seismic hazard analyses, as well as the use of microtremor methods for site response modelling.

De la Torre contributed to the 2022 revision of the New Zealand National Seismic Hazard Model, particularly in quantifying site response in Wellington’s sedimentary basins. His additional research interests include multi-dimensional phenomena in site response analyses, combining physics-based ground motion simulations with site-specific analyses, and seismic site characterisation of New Zealand earthquake recording stations. Recent publications include analyses of site-response residuals from empirical ground-motion models for Wellington basin effects (2024), combining observed linear basin amplification factors with nonlinear site-response analyses for Wellington (2023), and studies on modelling soil heterogeneity in 2D site response analyses (2022). He has also published on nonlinear site effects in physics-based simulations of the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (2020).