Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh is a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a 2013 Minner Faculty Fellow in Engineering Ethics and Social/Professional Responsibility in the College of Engineering. He is the winner of the 1998 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award of the American Institute of Steel Construction, the most prestigious award in his field. He is a licensed civil engineering Professional Engineer (P.E.) in California. Dr. Astaneh is currently a structural engineering and bridge engineering consultant, an expert witness in several court cases, continues his research and publication and gives lectures and seminars in structural engineering, earthquake engineering, and engineering ethics. He has published more than 300 journal papers, conference proceedings papers, technical reports, book chapters and has had hundreds of press interviews on technical aspects of subjects in his areas of interest.

His research and expertise are in structural analysis, design, earthquake engineering of steel, steel-concrete, concrete and wood buildings and bridges, failure analysis of buildings, bridges and other structures, blast protection of structures, and protection of buildings, bridges, and other structures against terrorist attacks. He has designed, constructed, and done extensive research and studies of buildings and bridges for 52 years, including buildings of up to 73 stories and long-span bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. Dr. Astaneh has performed the failure analysis of several collapsed structures, including the World Trade Center Towers and the Florida Pedestrian Bridge. Both cases involved engineers not abiding by the first canon of engineering ethics that is “engineers should hold safety paramount.”