People

Debra Murphy has provided earthquake engineering studies for new and existing buildings, critical infrastructure, and dams at sites throughout the United States and abroad. Her expertise includes seismic hazard analyses, including characterization of site-specific design ground motions using probabilistic and deterministic methods. She has worked with various regulatory agencies, performing assessments of earthquake-related geotechnical and geologic hazards (e.g., surface fault rupture, liquefaction and related phenomena, slope instability) and geotechnical foundation evaluations. Ms. Murphy performs seismic hazard assessments, develops acceleration time histories, and conducts site response analyses for the dynamic analysis of structures.

Ms. Murphy’s responsibilities also include managing geotechnical evaluations, overseeing construction activities, conducting performance assessments of existing large buildings, performing subsurface explorations using standard penetration test (SPT) and cone penetration test (CPT) methods, providing geotechnical engineering analyses, preparing project documentation, supporting litigation, and performing peer reviews. Her experience on geotechnical studies includes literature reviews, subsurface investigations, geotechnical laboratory testing and soil sample analyses, geotechnical engineering analyses, and project documentation.