With the generous financial support of Louise Manoogian Simone, then Executive Vice President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), together with academic and administrative guidance provided by the UC, and the support of the Armenian government, the American University of Armenia came to life and opened its doors on September 21, 1991, the same day that the Armenian Parliament declared independence. Stepan Karamardian, Dean of Business at UC Riverside, joined the team. Agbabian developed a proposal to establish an American-style university in Armenia as the diaspora’s long-term assistance to the homeland. With the improved relations between the US and the Soviet Union, it occurred to me that the political situation was right for setting up an American university here, in Armenia,” noted Dr. I immediately pictured in my mind the American University of Beirut. “I thought that the idea was not entirely impossible.
Yuri Sargsyan, then the Rector of the Polytechnic, suggested the idea of bringing American-style education to Armenia. At a breakfast gathering with a group of faculty from the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, Dr. Der Kiureghian was the delegate from the United States.
Der Kiureghian.Ībout two months later, the Soviet Union had organized an international conference where representatives of different countries came together to discuss the post-earthquake reconstruction and relief efforts in the North of Armenia. Our first idea was to select a group of young Armenian students and give them scholarships to study earthquake engineering in the United States, so they could be of service to their country upon their return,” said Dr. “Mihran and I were very much affected by what we saw. Had the engineers and builders of those structures followed the principles taught in that book, there would not have been so much destruction and damage, they thought. A textbook that had educated generations of Soviet engineers on the resistance of materials now raised questions on the reasons why the earthquake of 1988 had caused so much destruction. Feodosev in the rubble of the Polytechnic University. Agbabian noticed the Russian textbook “Strength of Materials” by V. There were many personal items scattered all around.” Even the part of the Gyumri branch of Polytechnic University that was under construction had partially collapsed. We tried to understand why there was so much damage. Der Kiureghian, recalls: “As earthquake engineers, Mihran and I went into the damaged buildings. Armen Der Kiureghian of the University of California (UC), Berkeley, was commissioned by the US National Academy of Sciences to travel to Soviet Armenia to assess the effects of the disastrous earthquake that shook the North of Armenia on December 7, 1988. Mihran Agbabian of the University of Southern California and Dr. Thirty years ago a team of scientists and engineers, including American-Armenian professors of earthquake engineering Dr. News, University Recollections of the ‘88 Earthquake: A Book Found in the Rubble Triggers the Start of a New Journey 4 min read
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