Altay Okyay is currently the chief executive officer of the RWTH Aachen University research center, CWE-Center for Wind and Earthquake Engineering. He is also the senior engineer of the Chair of Structural Analysis and Dynamics (LBB-Lehrstuhl für Baustatik und Baudynamik) in the Faculty of Civil Engineering at RWTH. Dr. Altay completed his diploma studies at the RWTH Aachen University and written his thesis in LBB researching the earthquake performance and structural control of highway bridges. After graduating from RWTH Aachen University in 2007, Dr. Altay started his carrier in a civil engineering research company in Vienna in the field of vibration control. There, he developed and developed damping systems for buildings, railway bridges and footbridges. During a research project, he also applied a tuned liquid column damper system for ropeway cars. In 2010, he returned to Aachen and started his academic carrier as a research assistant in LBB. In 2013, Dr. Altay finished his doctoral studies with distinction developing a semi-active tuned liquid column damper (S-TLCD), which is patented by RWTH. His current research interests include semi-active and active damping systems, and structural damping applications using smart materials, such as shape memory alloys and piezoelectric ceramic materials. He is lecturing at RWTH undergraduate and graduate students “Structural Dynamics”, “Structural Control and Health Monitoring” and “Dynamics”, and supervising dissertations in these fields.