Wrap up: 44th Annual Distinguished Lecture Series, including the Juan Pestana Memorial Session and Celebration of Graduates and Alumni

The 44th Annual Distinguished Lecture Series, including the Juan Pestana Memorial Session and Celebration of Graduates and Alumni was held on May 8, 2026, at the Clark Kerr Campus. It was attended by 175 people, including Juan Pestana’s former students and immediate family, graduating students, and 80 alumni including 27 from the Classes of ‘6s: 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016!

The morning opened with the Juan Pestana Memorial Session with presentations by Juan Pestana’s doctoral adviser as well as six of his former students, who provided their recollections of Professor Pestana as well as their recent research:

• “One model to unify them all” - Andrew Whittle (MIT)
• “30 years as teacher and consultant” - Chris Hunt (Geosyntec)
• “Multi-directional response of soils in simple shear” - Giovanna Biscontin (NSF)
• “Prof. Pestana’s legacy from Berkeley and beyond” - Juan Mayoral (UNAM)
• “Soil Behavior: the difference between stability and failure” - Juan Perri (Exponent)
• “Modeling what matters: soil behavior and seismic response” - Brian Carlton (NGI)
• “The story of a clay” - Xavier Ver-Grunauer (Geo Group Ecuador)

The afternoon session was the SFGI-UC Berkeley Geosystems Distinguished Lecture series, featuring cutting-edge research presentations by leading scholars:

• “Development of vertical design ground motions using the conditional ground-motion model approach” - Dr. Norman Abrahamson (UC Berkeley)
• “Chemistry-driven transport of colloids: small particles with big impacts on geotechnical infrastructure” - Prof. Susan Burns (Georgia Tech)
• “Christchurch liquefaction: insights & implications” - Prof. Misko Cubrinovski (Canterbury)

A reception was followed by a dinner banquet and a celebration of this year’s Master and Doctoral Degree candidates.

The Tor Brekke Award was presented to Nicklas Schmidt-Bailey. The award honors “the student who has most contributed to the overall spirit of learning, teamwork, cohesiveness, and success of the group.”

The H.B. Seed Award was presented to Henry Nagle, the top student in the M.S. program in Geotechnical Engineering.

The event was supported by generous donations from:

• Alan Kropp & Associates
• BAGG Engineers
• Cotton Shires & Associates
•  
• ENGEO
• Delve Underground
• Langan
• Rockridge Geotechnical
• Slate Geotechnical Consultants
• Terra Engineers

Donors to the Juan Pestana Fund, established to support graduate students, are gratefully acknowledged. Contributions to the fund can be made at https://give.berkeley.edu/funddrive/394.

We look forward to next year’s Distinguished Lecture Series event, which will include an alumni reunion for the Classes of ‘7s!