Who we are
Marios Panagiotou, PhD, PE
Founder and Managing Partner
Marios Panagiotou (PhD, PE) is the Advanced Earthquake Engineering Leader at Nabih Youssef & Associates in Los Angeles, founder of Adstran and of the Online School of Earthquake Resilient Design. His engineering practice work focuses on the advanced nonlinear seismic analysis and design of large, complex, earthquake resilient, and seismically isolated structures. As an Assistant Professor of Structural Engineering at UC Berkeley (UCB), 2008 – 2015, he conducted research on the seismic analysis, design, and experimental testing of RC and earthquake resilient buildings and bridges that use seismic isolation and low-damage rocking components. His PhD studies, at UCSD, on the seismic analysis, design, and shake-table testing of a full-scale 7-story building received the 2012 ASCE Alfred Noble prize. As UCB faculty, he led a major Caltrans funded research project that included large scale shake table SSI testing of rocking foundations and he co-led large-scale testing programs of RC components for buildings and bridges. He has published 25 journal papers, and more than 70 conference papers and technical reports. He has taught graduate courses at UCB, UCLA, and USC. He was a member of the NIST-FEMA Functional Recovery Project and current member of 2026 NEHRP PUC IT-5 as well as of ASCE/SEI 7-28 seismic subcommittee. He is co-developer of the seismic analysis computational framework BTM in FE-MultiPhys for RC structures.
Rodolfo Alvarez, PhD
Founding External Collaborator
Dr. Rodolfo Alvarez has been a founding external collaborator with Adstran as an independent consultant. He has been the software designer and code developer of the BTM Component. During his PhD studies at the University of California San Diego, his research was focused on enhancing practicing engineering-oriented methodologies for the numerical verification of the seismic response of RC structural walls including softening. As a result of this research, he has been the primary author of several publications on the BTM analysis and the development of tools (graphic user interfaces and frameworks) for its application.
The main occupation of Dr. Alvarez is structural design. Since 2004, he has participated in the development of projects of dozens of commercial and industrial steel buildings constructed mainly in central and northern Mexico. Currently, he works as Design Manager for MM-Engineers in Mexicali B.C., where he has extended his expertise to the structural design of mid and high-rise buildings.
Dr. Alvarez was Adjunct Professor of Design of RC Structures at the University Autonomous of Baja California (UABC) between 2007 to 2014, and currently he teaches Design of Steel Structures at the same university. Also, he collaborates with the Mexican Society of Earthquake Engineering (SMIS) in the development of the Model Building Code for the Seismic Design, been part of the committee of Analysis Criteria.
Yannis (Ioannis) Koutromanos, PhD
External Collaborator
Yannis (Ioannis) Koutromanos, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is the creator of the finite element program FE-Multiphys, which is the basis of the BTM Component, and he has co-authored many of the BTM publications. His research primarily focuses on the analytical simulation of structural components and systems under extreme events, with an emphasis on reinforced concrete, masonry and steel structures under earthquake loading. He has authored and co-authored research papers and reports on finite element analysis (element formulations, constitutive models, solution algorithms, verification and validation of modeling schemes). He is also the author of the textbook “Fundamentals of Finite element Analysis – Linear Finite Element Analysis” (Wiley 2018). He is a voting member of the joint ACI/ASCE Committee 447, Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures.