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Ronaldo Luna, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE

Professor of Civil Engineering

Courses Taught

CVNG 1010 - Freshman Engineering, CVNG 3090 - Geotechnical Engineering, CVNG 3010 - Geotechnical Engineering Lab, CVNG 4500 - Senior Capstone Course, CVNG 4030 - Foundation Engineering

Education

Ph.D. Civil Engineering (Geotechnical), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia
M.S.C.E Civil Engineering (Geotechnical), Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
B.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Research Interests

Luna’s research interests lie in the dynamic response of soils and liquefaction, geographic information systems in civil engineering, and advances in foundation and earthquake engineering.

Publications and Media Placements

Printed Archival Peer-Reviewed Journals

Wang, S., Luna, R., and Onyejekwe, S. (2016). “Effect of Initial Consolidations condition on Postcyclic Undrained Monotonic Shear Behavior of Mississippi River Valley Silt.” Journal of  Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 142(2), (DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001401, 04015075)

Wang, S., Luna, R., and Yang, J., (2015). “Reexamination of effect of plasticity on liquefaction resistance of low-plasticity fine-grained soils and its potential application.”  Acta Geotecnica, 10(4), pp.  (DOI: 10.1007/s11440-015-0394-8)

Wang, S., Luna, R., and Zhao, H., (2015). “Cyclic and post-cyclic shear behavior of low-plasticity silt with varying clay content.” Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 75, 112-120. (DOI: 10.1016/j.soildyn.2015.03.015)

Wang, S. and Luna, R., (2014). “Compressibility Characteristics of Low-Plasticity Silty before and after Liquefaction.” Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 26(6), 4014014-1 to 4014014-6,  (DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0000953)


Kershaw, K. and Luna, R., (2014). “Full-Scale Field Testing of Micropiles in Stiff Clay Subjected to Combined Axial and Lateral Loads.” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 140(1), 255-261. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000968

Wang, S., Luna, R., and Yang, J., (2013). “Postcyclic Behavior of Low-Plasticity Silt with Limited Excess Pore Pressures.” Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 54, 39-46. DOI: 10.1016/j.soildyn.2013.07.016

Wang, S. and Luna, R., (2012). “Monotonic Behavior of Mississippi River Valley Silt in Triaxial Compression.” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 138(4), 516-525. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000603

Iai, M. and Luna, R., (2011). “Direct Shear Tests on JSC-1A Lunar Soil Simulant.” Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 24(4), 433-441. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)AS.1943-5525.0000082

Bham, G.H., Cernusca, D., Luna, R., Manepalli, U.R., (2011). “A Longitudinal Evaluation of a GIS Laboratory in a Transportation Engineering Course.” Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education & Practice, 137(4), 258-266. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000064

Finn, M.P., Lewis, M., Bosch, D.D., Giraldo, M., Yamamoto, K., Sullivan, D.G., Kincaid, R., Luna, R. Allam, G.K., Kvien, C., Williams, M., (2011). “Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture Using Airborne Hyperspectral Data.” GIScience & Remote Sensing, 48(4), 522-540. DOI: 10.2747/1548-1603.48.4.1

Liu, W., Luna, R., Stephenson, R.W. and Wang, S., (2011). “Earthquake-Induced Deformation Analysis of a Bridge Approach Embankment in Missouri.” Geotechnical and Geological Engineering Journal, Springer, 29(5), 845-854. DOI: 10.1007/s10706-011-9421-1

Wang, S., Luna, R., and Stephenson, R.W., (2011). “A Slurry Consolidation Approach to Reconstitute Low-plasticity Silt Specimens for Laboratory Triaxial Testing.” Geotechnical Testing Journal, ASTM, 34(4), 288-296. DOI:10.1520/GTJ103529

Zheng, W. and Luna, R., (2011). “Nonlinear Site Response and Liquefaction Analysis in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.” Geotechnical and Geological Engineering Journal, Springer, 29(4), 463-475.

Luna, R., Balakrishnan, N., and Dagli, C.H., (2011). “Post Earthquake Recovery of Water Distribution System: Discrete Event Simulation Using Colored Petrinets.” Journal of Infrastructure Engineering, ASCE, 17(1), 25-34.

Zhao, H., Ge, Y., and Luna, R., (2010). “Low Viscosity Pore Fluid to Manufacture Transparent Soil.” Geotechnical Testing Journal, ASTM, 33(6), 1-6. DOI: 10.1520/GTJ102607

Luna, R., Belarbi, A., Calderon, H., Rivera, O., Alonso-Lopez, L., and Rodriguez, R., A., Applegate, K., (2010). “Reporte del Sismo de Honduras del 28 De Mayo de 2009, Mw 7.3.” Revista Internacional de Desastres Naturales, Accidentes e Infraestructura Civil (Journal of Natural Disasters, Accidents, and Civil Infrastructure, ISSN 1535-0088), 10(1), 57-71.

Luna, R., Hall, R., Hilgers, M., and Ge, L. (2010). “A GIS Learning Tool for Civil Engineers.” Intl. Journal of Engineering Education, (ISSN: 0949-149X), 26(1), 52-58.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers
Loehr, J., Bowders, J., Rosenblad, B., Luna, R., Maerz, N., Stephenson, R., Likos, W., and Ge, L. (2013). “Implementation of LRFD Methods to Quantify Value of Characterization Activities, Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris.

Deng, M. and Luna, R. (2013). “Probability of failure for Slopes with Sensitivity Analysis.” ASCE GeoCongress 2013, GSP 231, San Diego, CA, 952-961. (ISBN: 978-0-7844-1278-7)

Rocco, N.T. and Luna, R. (2013). “Mixtures of Clay/EPS Particulates and Undrained Shear Strength.” ASCE GeoCongress 2013, GSP 231, San Diego, CA, 2066-2075. (ISBN: 978-0-7844-1278-7)

Wang, S. and Luna, R. (2011). “Liquefaction Resistance and Post-liquefaction Reconsolidation characteristics of Mississippi River Valley Silt.”, 24th ICTPA Annual Conf. & NACGEA Intnl. Symp. on GeoTrans, Paper No. S3-031, Los Angeles, CA, 8pp. (ISBN 978-0-615-42857-4)

Bham, G., Cernusca, H. D., Luna, R., and Manepalli, U.R. (2011). “Evaluation of a Transportation Engineering GIS Laboratory based on Assessment of Student Learning,” Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., Paper No. 11-3918.

Katerattanakul, N., Yu, W. Luna, R. (2010). “Using Text Mining to Examine the User Feedback of a Web-based Learning System”, Research abstract, The Decision Sciences Institute 41st Annual Conference, San Diego CA, Nov. 20-23.

Banerjee, P., Yu, W. Luna, R. (2010). “Quantifying the usage of multimedia on a web based e-learning module”, Research abstract, The Decision Sciences Institute 41st Annual Conference, San Diego CA, Nov. 20-23.

Bham, G., Cernusca, H. D., Manepalli, U.R., and Luna, R. (2010).”Student-Centered Evaluation of a GIS Laboratory in Transportation Engineering”, American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, Louisville, KY.

Dahal, S., Hall, R.H., Morrison, G., Lamble, S., and Luna, R., (2010). “A Web-Based Learning Module for Teaching GIS within the Context of Environmental Engineering.”, Proceedings of the American Association for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Louisville, KY.

Banaszek, A., Sheng, H., Hall, R.H., Luna, R., and Bham, G. (2010). “Evaluation of a Web-Based Learning Tool for Teaching GIS within the Context of Transportation Engineering.” Proceedings of the American Association for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Louisville, KY, 2010-1432.

Sukhavasi, A., Hall, R.H., Sheng., H., and Luna, R. (2010). “Longitudinal Evaluation of a Learning System for Teaching GIS within the Context of a Geotechnical Problem.” Proceedings of the American Association for Engineering Education Annual Conference. Louisville, KY, 2010-2216.

Luna, R., (2010). “Reconnaissance Report of the May 28, 2009 Honduras Earthquake, M 7.3”, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference in Recent Advances in geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, San Diego, CA., Paper No. EQ6, 13pp.

Luna, R., Barani, S., Cetin, K.O., Dakoulas, P., ElShamy, U., Kung, G., Perlea, M., and Zheng, W. (2010). “General Report – Session 4: (a) Liquefaction and Seismically-Induced Settlement, Ground Failures, and Seismic Studies on Recent Earthquakes; (b) Stability and Displacement Performance of Slopes, Landfills, and Earth Dams Under Earthquakes”, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference in Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, San Diego, CA, 27pp.

Smith, E.M., Kershaw, K., Luna, R., and, Holloway, M., (2009). “Value Engineering and Field Testing of Pre-Cast Concrete Piles for the KCIcon Project”, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, Deep Foundations Institute, Kansas City, Missouri, 9 pp.

Wilding, A. and Luna, R. (2009). “GIS-based geotechnical seismic hazard screening tool”. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, (DOI: 10.3233/978-1-60750-031-5-2675 ), Alexandria, Egypt, Vol. 1, 2675-78.

Wang, S., Luna, R., and Huang, D. (2009). “Long Term Stability of the South Fork Tolt River Dam”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Long Term Behavior of Dams, Graz, Austria, E-34, pp. 893-898.

Deardorff, D. and Luna, R., (2009). “LRFD for Helical Anchors: An Overview”, Proceedings of the International Foundations Conference, Geo-Institute ASCE, GSP 187, 480-487.

Books
Ventura, C., et al. with Luna, R. (2013). “The November 7, 2012 M7.4 Guatemala Earthquake and its Implications for Disaster Reduction and Mitigation.” A Joint Report of EERI and AGIES, EERI, Oakland, CA, 40pp.

Luna, R., Perlea, M., Zheng, W., El Shamy, U., Dakoulas, P., Kung, T.C., Çetin, K.O., and Barani, S., (2010), “Liquefaction and Seismically-Induced Settlement, Ground Failures, and Seismic Studies on Recent Earthquakes and Stability and Displacement Performance of Slopes, Landfills, and Earth Dams Under Earthquakes”, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference in Recent Advances in geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, (ISBN: 1-887009-15-9), San Diego, CA, 26pp.

Honors and Awards

  • Faculty Excellence Award Engineers Make a World of Difference Award (2008)
  • Society of American Military Engineers (2008)
  • Elected Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers, VA (2007)
  • ONR/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship NFESC Port Hueneme, CA (2007)
  • Outstanding Teaching Commendation Award, School of Extended Learning (2007)
  • Teaching Excellence Award, School of Engineering, University of Missouri – Rolla (2006)
  • Joseph H. Senne, Jr., Faculty Achievement Award, Academy of Civil Engineers (2006)
  • Outstanding Teaching Commendation Award, School of Extended Learning (2006 and 2005)
  • Fulbright Scholar, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholar Board, Department of State (2005)
  • Innovative Teaching Award, School of Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla (2005)
  • Commendation Teaching Award, School of Extended Learning, UMR (2004)
  • ADSC: International Foundation Drilling – Civil Engineering Faculty Workshop (2000)
  • NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship, J.C. Stennis Space Center (1998)
  • Lilly Endowment Teaching Fellowship, Tulane University (1996)

Professional Organizations and Associations

He is an active member at two NRC/TRB National Committees; Chair of the ASCE Geo-Institute Computer Applications Committee; Earthquake Engineering Research Institute; Geo Extreme Event Reconnaissance, Sigma Xi-The Scientific Research Society; Chi Epsilon-National Honor Society of Civil Engineering; International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering; and American Society of Engineering Education. He recently was elevated to the rank of Fellow at ASCE.

Community Work and Service

Ronaldo Luna joined Saint Louis University in 2014 as professor and chair of civil engineering. He was a professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, MO, for fifteen years. Previously he was an assistant professor at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.

He was Post–Doctoral Fellow in 1995 at Georgia Tech. Between his graduate degrees, he practiced as a geotechnical engineer in the states of California and Washington and internationally. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Missouri, California, and Washington. He has published over 150 technical publications.