Joseph Wieser
- Phone: (775) 682-7921
- Email: jwieser@unr.edu
- Building: SEM
- Room: 124H
- Mailstop: 0258
Joseph Wieser is a registered professional engineer in the the state of Nevada, who worked in the Structures Division of the Nevada Department of Transportation as a bridge design engineer before joining the faculty at University of Nevada, Reno as a lecturer. While at NDOT, Dr. Wieser worked to improve Nevada's transportation network by designing new bridges, performing seismic retrofit design of existing bridges, as well as diagnosing the origin and method of propagation of observed fatigue cracks in a steel tub girder bridge.
Dr. Wieser's academic background is focused primarily in structural and earthquake engineering. While completing his Ph.D. at University of Nevada, Reno, he conducted large-scale shake table experiments investigating the influence of bridge-abutment-interaction on the seismic response of curved bridges. His M.S. thesis presented a simplified approach to determining floor acceleration spectra for the design of nonstructural building components.
Dr. Wieser's teaching experience began in graduate school when he was a part of the University's NSF GK-12 E-Fellowship, which paired graduate students with middle and high school teachers to develop and implement engineering based lessons into their science classrooms. Later, while working for NDOT, Dr. Wieser taught CEE 480 and CEE 487 as an adjunct lecturer at University of Nevada, Reno.
- Ph.D., University of Nevada, Reno, 2014
- M.S., University of Nevada, Reno, 2011
- B.S., University of Nevada, Reno, 2008
Research interests
- Earthquake engineering of bridges and buildings
- Large-scale testing of bridge components
- Performance-based design
- Nonlinear analysis and simulation
- Engineering education
Selected publications
- Wieser, J., Pekcan, G., Zaghi, A. E., Itani, A., & Maragakis, M. (2013). Floor Acceleration in Yielding SMRF Structures. Earthquake Spectra, 29(3), 987-1002. doi: 10.1193/1.4000167.
- Wieser, J., Maragakis, M., & Buckle, I.G. (2015). Experimental and Analytical Investigation of Seismic Bridge-Abutment Interaction in a Curved Highway Bridge. CCEER Report No 15-05. Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research, University of Nevada, Reno.
- Wieser, J., Pekcan, G., Zaghi, A. E., Itani, A., & Maragakis, M. (2012). Assessment of Floor Accelerations in Yielding Buildings. MCEER-12-0008. Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, Buffalo, NY.
- Wieser, J., Maragakis, E.M., and Buckle, I.G. "Experimental Evaluation of Seismic Performance of Seat-Type Abutments in a Curved Bridge." Proceedings of the Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering. 10NCEE, Anchorage, AK.
- Wieser, J., and Maragakis, E.M. "Seismic Performance of Highway Bridges with Seat-Type Abutments Subjected to Near-Fault Ground Motions." Proceedings of the Structures Congress 2013. Structures Congress 2013, Pittsburgh, PA. ASCE. 827-838.
- Wieser, J., Zaghi, A.E., Maragakis, E.M, and Buckle, I.G. "Experimental Evaluation of Seismic Pounding at Seat-Type Abutments of Horizontally Curved Bridges." 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (15WCEE), Sep. 2012, Lisbon, Portugal.
- Sorooshian, S., Ryan, K., Maragakis, M., Wieser, J., Sato, E., Sasaki, T., Okazaki, T., Tedesco, L., Zaghi, A. E., Mosqueda, G., and Alvarez, D.,"NEES/E-Defense Tests: Seismic Performance of Ceiling / Sprinkler Piping Nonstructural Systems in Base Isolated and Fixed Base Building" 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (15WCEE), Sep. 2012, Lisbon, Portugal.
- Wieser, J., Zaghi, A.E., Maragakis, E.M, and Buckle, I.G. "A Methodology for the Experimental Evaluation of Seismic Pounding at Seat-Type Abutments of Horizontally Curved Bridges." Proceedings of the Structures Congress 2012. Structures Congress 2012, Chicago, IL. ASCE. 613-624.
- Maragakis, E. M., Zaghi, A. E., Itani, A.,Pekcan, G.,Soroushian, S. and Wieser, J., "Development of a Large-Scale Test Bed for the Simulation of the Seismic Performance of Nonstructural Systems," 8th International Conference on Urban Earthquake Engineering, Mar 2011, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan. 17.
- Zaghi, A. E., Soroushian, S., Wieser, J., Maragakis, E. M., Pekcan, G., Itani, M., "Seismic Analysis of Fire Sprinkler Systems," Eighth International Conference on Structural Dynamics EURODYN 2011, Jul 2011, Leuven, Belgium.
- Maragakis, E. M., Zaghi, A. E., Itani, A., Pekcan, G., Soroushian, S. and Wieser, J., "Simulation of the Seismic Performance of Nonstructural Systems: Development of a Large Scale Test-Bed Structure," NSF Engineering Research and Innovation Conference, Jan. 2011, Georgia, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Courses taught
- CEE 480 Reinforced Concrete Design I
- CEE 487 Reinforced Concrete Design II