Alumni Profile
Richie Armstrong

Civil Engineering
Graduate Studies '09

Richie Armstrong’s path to Davis seems almost to have been written in the stars. While a graduate student at Stanford University, Armstrong was invited to a Thanksgiving dinner in Davis where he met the woman he would eventually marry.   When he enrolled in a civil engineering Ph.D. program in the UC Davis College of Engineering, he found that his advisor, Professor Ross Boulanger, is from Canada, just as he is.

All this helped Armstrong quickly feel at home in Davis, where his wife’s family also lives.  At the same time, he has found unique educational opportunities at UC Davis, such as the Center for Geotechnical Modeling where Armstrong gets more hands-on experience in earthquake research than he would find anywhere else.

Armstrong describes UC Davis as the perfect balance between research and academics. “The advisors are very personable, and unlike other places, they will help prepare you for the world of academia.” This is quite important to Armstrong, since he he hopes to someday be a professor.

Armstrong also enjoys the strong research environment on campus. He is currently working on centrifuge tests that simulate earthquakes, specifically on the problem of soil liquefaction in order to reduce the economic losses caused by earthquakes. Such simulations and the 100 plus instruments involved allow researchers to duplicate and observe what happens to soils during a real earthquake, information that is deeply interesting to Armstrong and useful information for society.

Armstrong hopes to design safe, resilient bridges and improve techniques for monitoring the health of levees.  Thinking globally, he hopes to play a role in transferring such knowledge to developing countries, as well, making it more accessible to communities world-wide. 

While Armstrong’s technical skills and interests set him on the road to a career in engineering, he says it is his desire to help others that keeps him on that path.