The International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) is a non-profit organization that includes representation from the world's national earthquake engineering societies, each national society having a Delegate to the IAEE. The IAEE is responsible for selecting the venue and local organizing society for each of the World Conferences on Earthquake Engineering. It compiles and updates Regulations for Seismic Design: A World List, as well as other issue publications as necessary. Its flagship periodical, the journal titled Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, has been a leading publication in the field since 1972. The IAEE's fundamental goal is to help improve worldwide seismic safety.

Colleagues, Affiliate Members and Friends of IAEE,

As the president of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) I want to call upon all of us involved in earthquake risk reduction to come forward and help millions of people in the world who are exposed to seismic risk. IAEE's activities are intended to protect the lives of those millions of people. We do this by promoting international cooperation among scientists and engineers who are working in the field of earthquake engineering and earthquake risk reduction, through the exchange of technical knowledge, ideas, research results and hands-on field experiences. From the beginning of this association its scope has not been confined to one area of technology but has included various professional disciplines who are engaged with the many aspects of seismic risk, and who can help to mitigate losses due to earthquakes. These include engineering practitioners and researchers (civil, structural, mechanical, and geotechnical), architects and urban planners, earth scientists (geologists, geophysicists, seismologists), public officials, and, increasingly, social scientists.

IAEE celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2012. The conceptual ground for the organization was broken during the second world conference in Tokyo in 1960; two years later our charter was adopted, the central office began to function, and the first officers assumed their jobs. In the past fifty years, significant research and development in earthquake engineering has taken place, and advanced tools now exist to help us understand earthquakes and their effects. Yet, much remains to be done to actually reduce the risk associated with earthquakes, particularly for those of us living in developing countries with a very vulnerable building stock and infrastructure. As an association our target is earthquake, and now tsunami and risk mitigation. We recognize that this risk reduction cannot be accomplished by us as scientists and engineers, working only with each other, but requires the broad vision and societal consensus-building that policymakers and political leaders can bring to the problem. We need to broaden the discussion to include these other stakeholders and learn best how we can discuss earthquake safety in the context of many other pressing societal issues.

IAEE is now a not-for-profit society recognized in Tokyo, where our central office is situated in accordance to Japanese law. In addition to the organization of a world conference every four years, we have several other activities of note:

- We have placed the proceedings of all fifteen world conferences on earthquake engineering, many long out of print, on our web site for anyone to download and use free of charge.

- Our official journal, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, has maintained its leading position among similar peer-reviewed journals.

- We continue our partnership with the World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI), an undertaking of the Association, and a non-profit, non-governmental venture acting as a catalyst to help improve earthquake risk management strategies in the developing countries.

- We are partners with EERI in the development and management of the World Housing Encyclopedia, a practical tool for understanding the seismic vulnerability of many types of residential buildings worldwide.

The Fifteenth World Conference in Lisbon during September 24-28, 2012 was a masterful conference, organized by the Portuguese Association for Earthquake Engineering (SPES). They rightfully deserve our sincere thanks for the wonderfully executed program they offered us. And now we look towards Chile. In January 2017, we will travel to the wonderfully vibrant country that hosted the 4WCEE in 1969. I invite you all to attend. The World Conference is a unique opportunity to learn from each other, to convey to our peers our own knowledge, and to compare notes, build professional networks and socialize as we do all that. A World Conference on Earthquake Engineering is the showcase of the state of the art in the slow but inexorable push toward reducing global seismic risk.

On behalf of the family of national organizations that comprise IAEE I greet you with respect and look forward to working with you over the next six years.

- Sudhir K. Jain, President

The International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) was established in February 1963 with its Central Office in Tokyo. The IAEE aims to promote international cooperation among scientists and engineers in the field of earthquake engineering through interchange of knowledge, ideas, and results of research and practical experience.

The aim has been achieved mainly by holding the World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (WCEE) every four years. The most recent 15th WCEE was held in Lisbon, Portugal in 2012. The 15th WCEE attracted more than 3,000 participants from all over the world. And the 16th WCEE will be held in Santiago, Chile, in January, 2017.

I believe that this web site will increase visibility and recognition of the IAEE within the global engineering and scientific communities as well as within non-technical communities.

- Koichi Kusunoki, Secretary General, IAEE

The Maori god of earthquakes and volcanoes, Ruaumoko, is the symbol of the IAEE. When the Third World Conference on Earthquake Engineering was held in New Zealand in 1965, Karl Steinbrugge, the president of IAEE then, visited the national museum, Te Papa, in Wellington, and saw a wood carving of Ruaumoko. He sought out Chief Maori Carver Charles Tuarau, and had a replica made, which Steinbrugge gave to Professor Robert Park of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, to keep on behalf of the IAEE. The carving was then taken from its home at the University to each World Conference of Earthquake Engineering and formally presented at the conference opening. That statue went missing in Beijing in 2008, and subsequently a replacement was carved by Master Carver Clive Fugill in 2009.