Academic Credentials
  • M.S., Engineering Mechanics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1989
  • Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1988
  • M.S., Civil Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1984
  • B.S., Civil Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1982
Licenses & Certifications
  • Professional Engineer Civil, California, #47585
  • Professional Structural Engineer, California, #4330
  • Professional Engineer, Georgia, #PE039137
  • Professional Structural Engineer, Georgia, #SE001832
  • Professional Engineer, Hawaii, #PE-12310
  • Professional Engineer, Michigan, #6201313612
  • Professional Structural Engineer, Nevada, #21563
  • Professional Engineer, Oregon, #81321PE
  • Professional Structural Engineer, Oregon, #81321PE
  • Professional Structural Engineer, Utah, #11650885-2203
  • Professional Engineer Civil and Structural, Washington, #37689
  • Professional Engineer, Wisconsin, #35893-6
Academic Appointments
  • Former Adjunct Professor and current Adjunct Lecturer, Stanford University
Professional Honors
  • Chair of the Nonductile Concrete Subcommittee for the Structural Engineers Association of California
Professional Affiliations
  • Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers
  • Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (member #270581)
  • Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (Member SE, past Chair of the Existing Buildings Committee, past Chair of the Research Committee, past Chair of Nonductile Concrete Subcommittee)
  • American Concrete Institute (member #00121237)
  • American Institute of Steel Construction (member #064972)
  • Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (member ID 8096)

Brian McDonald, Ph.D., S.E., F.ASCE, is a corporate vice president, principal engineer, and director of Exponent's Civil & Structural Engineering practice. He has more than 35 years of experience in forensic structural engineering, quantitative risk assessment, and nuclear facility consulting. He advises utilities, transportation authorities, energy developers, and legal counsel on structural failure investigations, risk-informed design, and international construction disputes, with particular depth in the causes of structural failures, overhead power line risk, and risk-informed design of advanced nuclear structures.

Forensic Structural Failure

Dr. McDonald investigates the causes of structural failures across a broad range of building types, infrastructure systems, and utility assets, helping clients understand what went wrong, who bears responsibility, and how to help prevent recurrence. His forensic engineering work spans structures damaged by earthquakes, wind, snow, fire, explosion, flooding, construction defects, and material decay. He has assessed hundreds of structures following major seismic events including Loma Prieta, Northridge, San Simeon, and the 2006 Hawaii earthquake, evaluating wood-frame, concrete, masonry, and steel construction against applicable codes and standards including ASCE 7, ASCE 41, and IBC. His analytical toolkit includes nonlinear and dynamic structural simulation, finite element analysis (FEA), fracture and plasticity modeling, and laboratory material testing, methods that produce rigorous, defensible conclusions for litigation, insurance, and regulatory proceedings. Dr. McDonald has served as an expert witness in construction litigation, premises liability, personal injury, and international arbitration proceedings, having testified over 60 times in depositions, trials, and arbitral hearings.

Quantitative Risk Assessment

Dr. McDonald provides quantitative risk assessments (QRA) for electric utilities, power plants, industrial facilities, and nuclear structures, translating complex physical hazard data into actionable risk metrics that support asset management, capital planning, and regulatory compliance. His risk assessment work addresses seismic hazard, extreme wind, flooding, wildfire ignition from overhead power lines, and cold-weather grid reliability.

Dr. McDonald has developed probabilistic loss estimation models and fragility curves for residential and commercial structures, transmission line assets, and safety-critical nuclear facilities. This work directly informs retrofit prioritization, insurance underwriting, and risk-informed decisions about the operation and maintenance of overhead power line portfolios for utilities navigating wildfire liability and climate-driven hazard intensification. He has published on wildfire risk mitigation for electrical transmission structures, cold-weather grid reliability, and fragility curves for physical climate risk in the electric power sector, providing utilities with the technical foundation needed to satisfy regulators, insurers, and investors in an era of escalating climate-driven grid risk.

International Arbitration & Disputes

Dr. McDonald advises legal counsel and project owners in complex construction and engineering disputes before international arbitration tribunals and courts in the United Kingdom, Middle East, Pakistan, Israel, Vietnam, and across Asia. His technical expert work in these proceedings addresses structural design adequacy, construction defect causation, contract performance, and damage quantification, providing the rigorous engineering analysis that arbitrators and judges require to resolve high-stakes infrastructure disputes.

Dr. McDonald has published on themes in design/build disputes from a technical expert witness perspective, and his experience spans both claimant and respondent engagements across the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), and other international arbitration venues. Dr. McDonald's combination of licensed structural engineering credentials, forensic investigation experience, and familiarity with international construction standards makes him a credible and effective expert in cross-border proceedings.

Advanced Nuclear Structures

Dr. McDonald consults on the structural design, safety assessment, and regulatory compliance of nuclear power plant structures, including advanced reactor concepts and small modular reactors (SMRs). He applies Risk-Informed, Performance-Based (RIPB) engineering principles, consistent with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulatory guidance and ASCE/SEI standards, to evaluate the seismic and external hazard performance of safety-critical nuclear structures.

Dr. McDonald chairs the American Society of Civil Engineers committee responsible for developing and maintaining design standards for nuclear structures and serves on the American Nuclear Society's technical committees 2.26 and 2.30 covering standards for design of nuclear structures for seismic and wind hazards, respectively. His work as a design peer reviewer includes independent seismic performance assessments for nuclear facilities at national laboratories, and he has contributed to the design of seismically isolated nuclear power plant structures intended to achieve uniform risk across standardized plant configurations, a methodology directly applicable to next-generation SMR licensing.