Julio A. Ramirez is the Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of Civil Engineering in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering of Purdue University. Since 2016, he has been the Principal Investigator and Center Director of the Network Coordination Office of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure. Ramirez is a full voting member of the technical Joint Committee ACI-ASCE 445, Shear and Torsion; and ACI-ASCE Committee 408, Bond and Development of Reinforcement. He served as the chief officer for the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation during the period of October 2009 to September 2015. He has served as an associate editor for the Committee on Concrete and Masonry Structures Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Journal, and has been a member of several National Cooperative Highway Research Program research panels. Ramirez has served in NSF proposal review panels for several directorates. Ramirez is a distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, fellow of the American Concrete Institute, and the recipient of the 2000 Delmar Bloem Award and the 2006 Joe W. Kelly Award of the American Concrete Institute.
For the past 30 years Ramirez has been teaching and conducting research in structural engineering. His areas of expertise cover design, evaluation of performance and code development of reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges and buildings. Since 1994, Ramirez has been involved in eight-reconnaissance missions. His research in the area of bond of mild reinforcement and prestressing strand in high-strength concrete has been widely referenced and serves as the basis for the extension of the AASHTO LRFD Specifications on development of mild reinforcement and prestressing strand to higher strength concretes.