Dr Benjamin Richard started his career a research engineer working at the French
Sustainable Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) since October 2011 up to July
2018 as a research engineer in earthquake engineering. He was interested in the numerical
prediction of the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete structures and sensitive SSCs
dedicated to either civil or nuclear industry. In 2018, he passed his accreditation to supervise
research (French HDR).
Then, he was the Head of the Structural Performance Analysis and Modeling Lab at the
Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Institute (IRSN). He was in charge of managing a
research team who carried out research programs to support the conclusions of technical
reviews (behavior modelling, tightness assessment, ageing, etc.). More specifically, he
managed two main research contracts: the first related to the again gathering French
academic institutions and the second gathering CEA, Framatome, EDF and IRSN dedicated
to the earthquake engineering.
Since 2024, Benjamin Richard is Head of the Mechanical Equipment Safety Review Unit at
the French Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ASNR). He is in charge of
managing a team who produces technical advice to enlighten the decision-making process.
Benjamin Richard has been a lecturer at Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris Saclay. He tought
the course entitled “seismic design of reinforced concrete and steel structures” to graduate
students for 13 years.
In 2025, Benjamin Richard was author or coauthor of more than 46 papers published in
international journals and more than 58 papers presented in international conferences.
Benjamin Richard was the Head of the Technical and Scientific Committee of the French
Association for Earthquake Engineering (AFPS) from 2020 to 2024. He is now a member of
the board of directors of the association. He was a member of OECD/NEA WIAGE Seismic
subgroup from 2013 to 2024, acting as the IRSN representative in this expert group.
Benjamin Richard has been active within the SMiRT community since 2013 by presenting
key results at the occasion of the SMiRT conferences.