The shake map of the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake in Turkey. Image: U.S. Geological Survey
Pehlivan in a December 2017 interview with Civil + Structural Engineer magazine at The Georgian, Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle. Photo: ©Stefanie Felix
The shake map of the 2017 Central Mexico earthquake near Puebla. Image: U.S. Geological Survey
Along with the science and discovery — subsurface soils, infrastruc- ture performance, slope stability problems, and surface ground motions — Pehlivan also described the joy of working with a diverse group of peers, the majesty of seeing Mount Everest towering up from the Himalayas, and the heartbreak of watching a family vacate its home. A big world for a big mind, right where Pehlivan wants to be. For earthquake engineering to truly be effective, people outside the industry need to be aware of what it can do for society. Codes need to be regularly updated, implemented, and the greater public — from national officials to local permitting agencies — need to be educated about resiliency and its benefits. “We know more now than when the infrastructure was built,” Pehlivan said, referring to the difference between what was, and what can be. Doing her part for awareness, Pehlivan participated in the 2017 movie, “Dream Big: Engineering Our World” (https://csengineermag.com/ article/filmmakers-dream-big), which, among other things, is geared toward inspiring a new and diverse generation of engineers. Sponsored by Bechtel and the American Society of Civil Engineers, the film fea- tures Pehlivan and engineers Angelica Hernandez, Avery Bang, and Steve Burrows. In the promotional collateral associated with Dream Big, Pehlivan said, “The one thing I really love about the movie is that it encourages and inspires kids. … If we can do it, they can, too.”
So, if Pehlivan is now in the position to inspire dreams and to encour- age people to follow them, it begs the question: How did she get to where she is? As a turning point, the Kocaeli earthquake is an obvious signpost. But in 1999, Turkey had a population of about 62 million people, so what made Pehlivan, one of millions of teens alive at that time, different than the rest? What made her envision a career that many might have thought beyond her reach? And what gave her the strength to pursue it? According to her, it all started with family. Her mother, Ulku, was a positive and powerful influence, as was her grandfather, Osman, who always told her, “Whatever you want to be, you’ll be great.” She took it to heart, and once she made up her mind to be a civil engineer, nothing, as time has proved, could stop her. The larger political backdrop was that Pehlivan came of age in the modernized Republic of Turkey, a secular state established in the early 1920s and for many years led by Mustafa Kemal, honorifically known as Ataturk, who brought equal political and civil rights to women and who opened thousands of schools. “The Turkey I grew up in is not a lot different than what we have here [in the U.S.],” she said. “I did not feel disadvantaged. We were in a lucky generation. I was able to grow up in an environment with free speech, dressing how I wanted to dress and going where I wanted to go.” She has certainly brought that mindset to the U.S. An admitted “girly
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