Earthquake Engineering Professor Jonathan Stewart Named Inaugural Holder of Sabol-Scott Endowed Term Chair

Jonathan Stewart, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been named the inaugural holder of the Sabol-Scott Term Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. 

Established by a gift of $500,000 in 2021 from triple Bruin structural engineer Thomas Sabol M.S. ’82, Engr. ’84, Ph.D. ’85 and his wife Carrie Scott Sabol ’82, the endowed chair was matched with another $500,000 from the Samueli Foundation.

“I am grateful to Tom Sabol and Carrie Scott Sabol for their generous support in establishing a faculty chair,” said Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of Engineering. “Their decadeslong commitment to UCLA has advanced opportunities for students and faculty to achieve their dreams and build remarkable careers. Jonathan Stewart, one of the world’s preeminent geotechnical engineers and a highly respected teacher, will lead innovative research and education initiatives as the inaugural holder of the Sabol-Scott Term Chair.”

“Carrie and I wanted to do our share to promote the outstanding work of the civil and environmental engineering professors,” said Thomas Sabol. “We want to make sure they are well-equipped with funding and resources to continue their impactful research.”

Tom Sabol spent most of his career as a principal at Englekirk Structural Engineers, a Los Angeles-based structural engineering consulting firm that was acquired by WSP USA in 2021. He has also served as a longtime adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering at UCLA Samueli, where he regularly teaches an upper division course on the design and construction of tall buildings and a graduate-level course on steel structures. Sabol has also served on doctoral dissertation and master’s degree thesis committees.

Carrie Scott Sabol received her bachelor’s degree in English. She taught literature in secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and coached Academic Decathlon teams. The couple met while studying at UCLA. Tom’s late parents, Kathleen and Joseph, were also graduates of UCLA, receiving their bachelor’s degrees in 1953 and 1954, respectively.

“UCLA made it possible for me to attend graduate school debt-free and laid the foundation for my successful engineering career, so Carrie and I wanted to do our share to promote the outstanding work of the civil and environmental engineering professors,” Sabol said. “We want to make sure they are well-equipped with funding and resources to continue their impactful research.”

Stewart’s primary research interests are in geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. In particular, he focuses on seismic soil-structure interaction, earthquake ground motion characterization, seismic performance of levees and other embankments, and seismic ground failure. He is widely recognized as an expert in earthquake preparedness and mitigation. Research findings from his group are used by government agencies and industry organizations worldwide, including in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) guidelines for designing new structures and retrofitting existing ones.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of ASCE and an honorary member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Stewart has received ASCE’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize and EERI’s Bruce Bolt Medal and William B. Joyner Lecture Award. Among his other honors are a Fulbright Scholarship, the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award and the UCLA Engineering Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award. 

Stewart is a former chief editor of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering and Earthquake Spectra. He currently serves on the UC Office of the President Seismic Advisory Board and chairs the Steering Committee for the U.S. Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Model. He joined the UCLA faculty in 1996 and previously served as chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department from 2012 to 2018.