Preetish Kakoty
Preetish Kakoty

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow

University College London

Hi, Welcome to my cyber space!

I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London, based in the DE|RISC Lab with Professor Carmine Galasso. My fellowship project focuses on resilience enhancement through multi-hazard recovery analysis of earthquake and flood-affected infrastructure.

My work sits at the intersection of natural hazards simulation, structural engineering, risk quantification, and decision science. I use statistical and physics-based simulation tools to estimate disaster impacts and support risk-informed decision making for the built environment.

I am deeply interested in how societies shape disasters — and how disasters, in turn, reshape societies. You will find my musings on this theme here.

Please connect if anything here piques your interest!

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Education

  • PhD Structural & Earthquake Engineering, 2024

    University of British Columbia, Vancouver

  • MSE Systems Engineering, 2018

    Johns Hopkins University

  • MS Structural Engineering, 2017

    University of California, Irvine

  • BE Civil Engineering, 2015

    Assam Engineering College

Featured Publications
Collapse Risk of Tall Nonductile Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall Buildings
Spectral acceleration basin amplification factors for interface Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes in Canada’s 2020 national seismic hazard model
Recent Publications

For a detailed and updated list please visit Google Scholar

Preetish Kakoty, Carlos Molina Hutt, Kenneth J Elwood (2025). Collapse Risk of Tall Nonductile Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall Buildings. Journal of Structural Engineering.
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Preetish Kakoty, Carlos Molina Hutt, Hadi Ghofrani, Sheri Molnar (2023). Spectral acceleration basin amplification factors for interface Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes in Canada’s 2020 national seismic hazard model. Earthquake Spectra.
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Carlos Molina Hutt, Anne M Hulsey, Preetish Kakoty, Greg G Deierlein, Alireza Eksir Monfared, Yen Wen-Yi, John D Hooper (2021). Toward functional recovery performance in the seismic design of modern tall buildings. Earthquake Spectra.
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Alireza Eksir Monfared, Carlos Molina Hutt, Preetish Kakoty, Pouria Kourehpaz, Jose Centeno (2021). Effects of the Georgia Sedimentary Basin on the Response of Modern Tall RC Shear-Wall Buildings to M9 Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquakes. Journal of Structural Engineering.
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Preetish Kakoty, Sai Mithra Dyaga, Carlos Molina Hutt (2020). Impacts of simulated M9 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes considering amplifications due to the Georgia sedimentary basin on reinforced concrete shear wall buildings. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics.
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Recent Updates
Delivered a talk during People of CEGE at UCL on the 1897 Great Assam Earthquake
Delivered a talk during People of CEGE at UCL on the 1897 Great Assam Earthquake

I delivered a talk titled “Love Letter from Epicenter: The Story of the 1897 Great Assam Earthquake”, the following is the abstract of the talk. A related essay can be found in my blog.

Mar 18, 2026

Published an article in The Conversation
Published an article in The Conversation

I co-authored an article with Carlos Molina Hutt on the complexities of risk reduction for older tall buildings in Vancouver in The Conversation. You can read the article here.

Feb 25, 2026

Joined University College London to start Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship
Joined University College London to start Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship

I started my Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship on a project titled “Resilience Enhancement through Multi-Hazard Recovery Analysis of Earthquake and Flood-Affected Infrastructure”. I will be part of the DE|RISC lab at University College London working with Professor Carmine Galasso.

Jan 6, 2026

Participated in 2025 Taiwan-Japan-New Zealand Seismic Hazard Assessment Workshop in Yilan, Taiwan.
Participated in 2025 Taiwan-Japan-New Zealand Seismic Hazard Assessment Workshop in Yilan, Taiwan.

I participated in the 2025 Taiwan-Japan-New Zealand Seismic Hazard Assessment Workshop, where experts and leaders in the three countries and beyond shared updates on various aspects of modelling and application in respective national models.

Nov 7, 2025

Delivered a talk on "Peeling the Layers of Earthquake Risk - Hazards, Exposure, Vulnerability, and Tolerability".
Delivered a talk on "Peeling the Layers of Earthquake Risk - Hazards, Exposure, Vulnerability, and Tolerability".

I delivered a presentation titled “Peeling the Layers of Earthquake Risk: Hazards, Exposure, Vulnerability, and Tolerability” at IIT Bombay and IISc Bangalore during October, 2025. The presentation focused on how risk models often serve as heiristics to guide risk–reduction policy decisions, which makes it especially critical that risk modelers play a larger role in interpreting and communicating results.

Oct 10, 2025

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