Associate Professor, Civil Engineering
Professor Kaklamanos specializes in geotechnical engineering, which concerns the behavior of earth materials and their effects on the built environment. His primary area of research focuses on the prediction of earthquake-induced ground motion, an important component of any seismic hazard analysis. With improved methods of assessing earthquake hazards, engineers will be better able to design earthquake-resistant structures, and ultimately reduce the loss of life and property during earthquakes. Professor Kaklamanos’ projects have involved statistical and theoretical modeling in site response analyses and ground-motion prediction equations, requiring a balance between data-driven statistics and attention to the underlying physics of the models. He served as the lead guest editor for a special section on Advances in Site Response Estimation in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America published in 2021, and is a member of a working group through the U.S. Geological Society tasked with improving the National Seismic Hazard Model in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. For more information on Professor Kaklamanos’ research projects, please visit his research website.
Journal articles
Papers in conference proceedings and edited books
Professor Kaklamanos joined the faculty of the Department of Civil Engineering at Merrimack College in fall 2012, after obtaining his degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Tufts University (BSCE 2008, M.S. 2010, Ph.D. 2012). He specializes in geotechnical engineering, and his research focuses in the area of geotechnical earthquake engineering, specifically on the improvement of models for predicting earthquake-induced ground motions.
At Merrimack College, Professor Kaklamanos has taught courses in geotechnical engineering, foundation engineering, earth retaining structures, earthquake engineering, engineering mechanics, and engineering probability and statistics. He serves as the chief faculty advisor to Merrimack’s newly established chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society. At the local and national levels, he has been involved in the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Seismological Society of America, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, and the United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research. Professor Kaklamanos has provided his expertise in seismic consulting for several high-level infrastructure projects throughout the United States. For more information, please visit Professor Kaklamanos’ research website.
Dylon Grzenda M’24 is expected to graduate this spring from Merrimack’s athletic training graduate program.