Department of Disaster Mitigation for Structures (DDMS) was renamed in November 2018 from Research Institute of Structural Engineering and Disaster Reduction. The former Research Institute of Structural Engineering and Disaster Reduction were united by Shanghai Research Institute of Engineering Structures and Research Institute of Structural Theories at Tongji University in October, 1999, the former of which was the earliest established research institution in civil engineering in Shanghai founded in 1958 and the latter was established by Prof. Guohao Li (the former president of Tongji University) founded in 1963 and was officially approved in 1964. Now, DDMS along with other Departments, is affiliated to College of Civil Engineering at Tongji University. DDMS includes Division of Earthquake Resistance of Structures, Division of High-Performance Structures (HPS), Division of Smart and Sustainable Structures, Division of Fire Resistance of Structures, Division of Ground Motion and Structural Vibration Mitigation, Division of Wind Resistance and Vibration Control of Structures, Division of Impact and Blast Resistance Structures, Structural Laboratory, and Administration Office. In 2007, Research Center of Building Moving Technology of Tongji University was established. In 2010, collaborated with industry, Tongji Research Center for New Technology of Earthquake Resistance and Mitigation was founded and the administration office was set in DDMS. In 2011, approved by Shanghai Government, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Earthquake Energy Dissipation was jointly founded by DDMS and Shanghai Research Institute of Material Science. The International Joint Research Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering (ILEE) was established with seven world renowned earthquake engineering research centers, in July 2015, which was identified and approved by the Ministry of Education in December 2015 and April 2019, respectively. ILEE was also approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology as one of the National International Science and Technology Cooperation Bases in December 2016.

DDMS always pays attention to the international communication and cooperation with foreign countries and oversees regions. In the research and application of new technology of building structures, DDMS has built long-term cooperative relationships with over ten prestigious universities and institutes, such as University of California at Berkeley, University of British Columbia, Tokyo University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and European Union. Since 2007, every year DDMS hosts serial professional conferences such as International Conference on Advances in Experimental Structural Engineering (AESE) and Kwang-Hua Forum. DDMS is also actively pushing the overseas education plan for the “Cultivation of Elites”. Cultivation of graduate students between DDMS and Department of Civil Engineering, Taiwan Feng Chia University, has been performed on Major of Structural Engineering and Major of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Engineering. Generally, DDMS has formed a characteristic, multi-dimensional, and high-level international cooperation and education system.

DDMS started to recruit and cultivate graduate students since 1978. The majors include Structural Engineering, Disaster Prevention and Reduction Engineering, and Wind Engineering. Lots of doctoral and graduate students have graduated from DDMS and are playing important roles in the field of civil engineering at home and abroad. To meet the national and social requirements, the new major named “Engineering Disaster Prevention and Risk Assessment” for undergraduate students was inaugurated by DDMS in 2006. DDMS accumulates rich experiences in teaching and fostering doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students, and has scored great successes.

Structural Laboratory under DDMS is one of the important components of State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering and is composed of shaking table Division, Structural Static Testing Division, Teaching Testing Division, and Jiading Structural Testing Division. The laboratory area of the Center reaches to 4500m², with reaction walls (8mx8m; 8mx20m; 15mx30m) and strong floors. The testing facilities with permanent assets of RMB 50 million are 6 DOF shaking table testing system, multi-functional hydro-server pseudo-dynamic testing system, performance testing facilities for dampers, and various high performance testing machine system. The Laboratory is also equipped with many kinds of sensors, DASs, etc. Structural Laboratory of DDMS is well equipped to undertake experimental projects in civil engineering.

DDMS has 64 faculty and staff, in which there are 17 professors, 16 associate professors, 4 senior engineers, 2 distinguished research fellow, 15 lecturers and engineers, and 10 technicians and administrative assistants. In the past decades, DDMS insisted on the engineering application-oriented, experiment-based and theory-supported research route. DDMS has completed a lot of NSFC key projects and Shanghai Municipal key projects, and achieved many outstanding fruits. DDMS has published more than 1000 papers, gained 44 official awards, registered 26 computer software copyrights and patented 69 invention devices. DDMS undertakes over 280 research and consulting projects every year and makes great contribution to the momentous building construction of China.