CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Egor P. Popov Stanley Scott Interviewer vi Untitled-4 6 29/09/2005, 6:59 CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Egor P. Popov Untitled-4 1 29/09/2005, 6:59 vi Untitled-4 6 29/09/2005, 6:59 CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Egor P. Popov Stanley Scott, Interviewer Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Untitled-4 3 29/09/2005, 6:59 Editor: Gail H. Shea, Albany, California Cover and book design: Laura H. Moger, Moorpark, California Copyright 2001 by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the Regents of the University of California All rights reserved. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. No part may be reproduced, quoted, or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the executive director of the Earthquake Engi- neering Research Institute or the Director of the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the oral history subject and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute or the University of California. Published by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute 499 14th Street, Suite 320 Oakland, CA 94612-1934 Tel: (510) 451-0905 Fax: (510) 451-5411 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.eeri.org EERI Publication Number: OHS-9 ISBN (pbk.): 0-943198-12-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Popov, E. P. (Egor Paul), 1913- Egor P. Popov / Stanley Scott, editor. p. cm. -- (Connections: the EERI oral history series ; 9) Includes index. ISBN 0-943198-12-7 (alk. paper) 1. Popov, E. P. (Egor Paul), 1913--Interviews. 2. Civil engineers--California--Interviews. 3. Earthquake engineering—California--History. I. Scott, Stanley, 1921- II. Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. III. Title. IV. Series. TA 140.P65 A5 2001 624.1'762'092--dc21 2001054499 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 iv Untitled-4 4 29/09/2005, 6:59 Acknowledgments The help, encouragement, and editorial feedback of EERI Executive Director Susan K. Tubbesing and the EERI Board of Directors were instrumental in both establishing Connections: The EERI Oral History Series and in bringing this volume to publication. EERI also gratefully acknowledges partial funding of this project by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The editor would also like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of two people: Gary Varum of Telesis Engineers for his help with all things Russian; and Ms. Jan Ambrosini, Associate Director, Engineering Public Affairs, University of California at Berkeley for her help with historical data and photographs. Special thanks are also due to the Popov family for sharing family photographs and for their generous contribution toward the publication of this volume. v Untitled-4 5 29/09/2005, 6:59 vi Untitled-4 6 29/09/2005, 6:59 Table of Contents Acknowledgments v The EERI Oral History Series ix Foreword, by Stanley Scott xi Personal Introduction, by Karl S. Pister xiii Notes on My Interviews and Life, by Egor P. Popov xvii Chapter 1 Origins In Russia 1 Chapter 2 World War I and the Russian Revolution 9 Chapter 3 Living in Manchuria, 1921-1927 13 Chapter 4 Popov Family Settles in San Francisco 23 Chapter 5 Undergraduate Years at the University of California at Berkeley 29 Chapter 6 Graduate Studies at MIT and Caltech 37 Chapter 7 Working as a Practicing Engineer, 1937-1945 41 Chapter 8 Early Career at U.C. Berkeley, 1946-1970 47 Chapter 9 Thirty Years of Research in Seismic Design, 1970-2000 57 Chapter 10 Reflections 75 Photographs 77 Appendices Major Awards and Medals 89 Other Significant Awards 90 Books by E.P. Popov and Their Translations 91 Doctoral Students of Professor Egor P. Popov 92 Index 93 vii Untitled-4 7 29/09/2005, 6:59 viii Untitled-4 8 29/09/2005, 6:59 The EERI Oral History Series This is the ninth volume in Connections: The EERI Oral History Series. The Earthquake Engi- neering Research Institute initiated this series to preserve the recollections of some of those who have pioneered in earthquake engineering and seismic design. The field of earthquake engineering has undergone significant, even revolutionary, changes since individuals first began thinking about how to design structures that would survive earthquakes. The engineers who led in making these changes and shaped seismic design theory and practice have fascinating stories. Connections: The EERI Oral History Series is a vehicle for transmitting their impressions and experiences, their reflections on the events and individu- als that influenced their thinking, their ideas and theories, and their recollections of the ways in which they went about solving problems that advanced the practice of earthquake engi- neering. These reminiscences are themselves a vital contribution to our understanding of the development of seismic design and earthquake hazards reduction. The Earthquake Engi- neering Research Institute is proud to have part of that story be told in Connections. The oral history interviews on which Connections is based were initiated and are being carried out by Stanley Scott, formerly a research political scientist at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Scott has been active in and written on seismic safety policy and earthquake engineering for many years. A member of the Earth- quake Engineering Research Institute since 1973, Scott was a commissioner on the Califor- nia State Seismic Safety Commission for 18 years, from 1975 to 1993. In 1990, Scott received the Alfred E. Alquist Award from the Earthquake Safety Foundation. Recognizing the historical importance of the work of California’s earthquake engineers, Scott began recording oral history interviews with Henry Degenkolb in 1984. Their success let him to consider such interviews with other older engineers. He consulted Willa Baum, Directory of the University of California at Berkeley’s Regional Oral History Office, a division of the Bancroft Library. Since its inception in 1954, the Regional Oral History Office has carried out and otherwise promoted oral history interviews on a wide range of major subject areas in science and technology, natural resources and the environment, politics and government, law and jurisprudence, and in many other areas. Scott was encour- aged to proceed, and the Regional Oral History Office approved an unfounded interview project on earthquake engineering and seismic safety. All of Scott’s subsequent interviews were conducted while he was employed by the Institute of Governmental Studies at U.C. ix Untitled-4 9 29/09/2005, 6:59 Berkeley. Following his retirement from the University in 1989, Scott has continued to pursue the oral history project. For a time, some expenses were paid from a small grant from the National Science Foundation, but Scott has done most of the work pro bono. Scott has attempted to include a selection of senior earthquake engineers who have been active observers of and participants in the earthquake safety effort. In addition, he has included nonengineering professionals in related fields (geology and geophysics) who have made significant contributions to the body of knowledge in earthquake engineering. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute learned of Scott’s interview series, and reviewed of a number of the early interview transcripts. EERI’s interest in preserving these recollections led to publication of this Oral History Series. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute was established in 1949 as a membership organization to encourage research, investigate the effects of destructive earthquakes and the causes of building failures, and bring research scientists and practicing engineers together to solve challenging engineering problems through exchange of information, research results, and theories. In many ways, the development of seismic design is part of the history of EERI. EERI Oral History Series Henry J. Degenkolb 1994 John A. Blume 1994 Michael V. Pregnoff and John E. Rinne 1996 George W. Housner 1997 William W. Moore 1998 Robert E. Wallace 1999 Nicholas F. Forell 2000 Henry J. Brunnier and Charles De Maria 2001 Egor P. Popov 2001 Interviews completed or nearing completion include: Clarence R. Allen John F. (Jack) Meehan Earl Schwartz L. LeRoy Crandall Joseph P. Nicoletti George A. (Art) Sedgewick Roy G. Johnston Edward O'Connor James Stratta Ralph S. McLean Clarkson W. Pinkham William T. Wheeler x Untitled-4 10 29/09/2005, 6:59 Foreword The first two-thirds of Egor Popov's oral history is based on four face-to-face interviews conducted in 1996. After that, however, health problems forced me to stop interviewing, whereupon we dropped the project. Several years later he approached me again, asking for help in completing what he called his autobiogra- phy, but doing so without further recorded interviews. We agreed to cast the new material in the dialog format typical of recorded sessions, but in fact we worked separately. That is how the final third of the history was done—Popov would draft sections and send them to me for editorial review. I would edit and ask questions, to which he would respond. A good deal of the material covering his first 24 years on the University of California at Berkeley faculty was prepared or revised that way. All the subsequent portions of the oral history dealing mostly with his last 30 years in Berkeley were initially prepared by Popov, working alone, and then sent to me for editing and raising questions.