Nicholas Ambraseys#

Biography

Nicholas Ambraseys was born in Athens on 19 January 1929 and studied at the National Technical University of Athens. He then moved to Imperial College London, where he obtained a DIC (Diploma of the Imperial College, associated with a degree from the University of London) followed by a PhD.

After starting his career as a lecturer in civil engineering at Imperial (1958-62), Professor Ambraseys worked briefly in the US, as associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois, and in Greece, as professor of hydrodynamics at the National Technical University. He returned to Imperial, where he spent the rest of his career, serving as lecturer and then university reader in engineering seismology. He was named professor of engineering seismology in 1974.

He founded Imperial’s Engineering Seismology Section in 1968 and was its head from 1971 until he retired in 1994. After retirement, Professor Ambraseys became senior research investigator at the institution and continued to hold grants, supervise PhD students and publish papers right until the end.

Obituary, Imperial College London
Obituary, Roger Bilham, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences