British Columbia is playing the odds. The province faces a one‑in‑five chance of experiencing a very strong earthquake in the next 50 years. A 2024 report warns that a magnitude 7.2 event could heavily damage more than 6,000 buildings and severely injure or kill over 1,350 people.

To address this threat, UBC Okanagan engineer Dr. Lisa Tobber is developing technologies to make mid‑rise buildings safer and greener. In 2025 she became one of the two inaugural recipients of the $1‑million Wall Fellowship, which funds her research on seismically safe, climate‑resilient and affordable housing and supports collaborations with Indigenous partners.

Dr. Tobber describes herself as “a structural engineer and earthquakes are at the heart of everything I do.”

Even when the goal is sustainability or cost, she insists designers must first make sure a building can survive a quake.

“If you want more sustainable buildings, or climate‑resilient buildings, or more cost‑effective buildings, you still need to make sure it’s safe for earthquakes.”

Her passion for prefabricated concrete—components cast in factories and assembled on-site—stems from its speed and precision.

“Pre‑fab is very popular right now … we have this massive program on trying to figure out how these materials behave under cyclic loading,” she says.

Because building codes were written for traditional structures, engineers still lack data on how precast systems perform in seismic zones. At UBC’s Advanced Structural Simulation and Experimentation Testing (ASSET) group, Dr. Tobber and her students subject full‑scale walls and beams to twisting, pulling and shaking to simulate earthquakes. The lab buzzes as bath‑tub‑sized precast beams are loaded into industrial crushers. By letting components crack and deform, her team designs systems that absorb energy without collapsing.

“It can be quite exciting, especially when something breaks … you’ll hear a loud pop and I have many students who yelp,” she laughs.

Dr. Tobber’s mission also goes beyond engineering. She aims to balance seismic resilience, climate resilience, sustainability and affordability, yet knows innovation can falter without collaboration.

“The industry is very risk‑averse … they try to reduce the risk as much as possible by doing things the same way they’ve always done them,” she notes.

To change that, she works with politicians, industry partners and fellow academics to develop standards and, as a member of the National Model Codes Committee on seismic design, helps translate research into updated building codes.

History tells us that the coast last experienced a megathrust earthquake over three centuries ago, and events of that size recur every 300–500 years. Dr. Tobber and her students are racing against the clock so that when, not if, another quake hits, communities can endure the shaking and recover quickly. She’s optimistic for the future.

“There’s enormous potential to make housing more equitable and more resilient—and to ensure the next generation of buildings in BC is ready for the earthquakes we know will come.”

The Wall Fellowships are UBC’s most significant research awards and are intended to support scholarly work that has the potential to transform the future of this province and our global community. These awards, valued at a total of approximately $4 million annually, are made possible and supported by the groundbreaking $150 million+ Peter Wall Legacy Fund.