Felipe Kuncar García

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. My research lies at the intersection of geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology, aiming to advance our understanding and predictive capability of earthquake-induced ground motion and deformation. By integrating geotechnical data, observations from past earthquakes, and state-of-the-art numerical simulations, I seek to develop next-generation models and tools that improve seismic hazard analysis and earthquake design, ultimately enhancing the resilience of the built environment to future events.

I hold a PhD in Earthquake Engineering from the University of Canterbury, supervised by Prof. Brendon Bradley, and earned both my Master of Science and Professional Civil Engineering degrees from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Valparaíso, Chile). I also hold a Postgraduate Diploma in Tunnels and Underground Spaces from the Universidad de Chile (Santiago, Chile), and have conducted research stays at Virginia Tech and the University of Arizona in the United States.

Prior to starting my PhD, I was a Project Engineer at Ferrara in Santiago, Chile, where I contributed to a wide range of geotechnical engineering projects nationwide, for buildings, industrial facilities, and renewable energy plants. My work involved leading site investigations, preparing geotechnical reports, assessing soil liquefaction potential, and designing deep foundations, ground improvement techniques, and support systems for deep excavations.

In 2025, I received the PhD Distinction Award (top 10% theses) from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury. In 2023, I was the Judges’ Choice Award winner at the QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting Lightning Talk competition, following a Runner-Up placement in 2022.