Ben Mason

Ben is a research civil engineer at the USGS’s Geologic Hazards Science Center as well as an associate professor at Oregon State University’s College of Engineering. Ben’s primary field of research interest is natural hazards engineering. Within this broad field, he has interests in geotechnical earthquake engineering, including soil-structure interaction and residual soil liquefaction as well as coastal geotechnical engineering, including fluid-soil-structure interaction, momentary soil liquefaction, and tsunami-induced scour. He has a particular interest in how a combined earthquake and tsunami event affects coastal soil instability and ultimately the stability of coastal buildings and infrastructure. He uses physical modeling techniques coupled with numerical and analytical modeling to investigate his aforementioned research interests. He participates in post-earthquake reconnaissance events to motivate and strengthen his research and teaching interests.

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