The Earthquake Engineering Center for the Southeastern United States (ECSUS), was officially established at Virginia Tech in January, 2000. ECSUS currently consists of an interdisciplinary team of Virginia Tech researchers who have unique expertise and are actively involved in projects that address earthquake-related problems of critical importance to regional state governments, national research laboratories, and the private sector in the southeastern United States. The Center currently consist of faculty and student researchers from the Departments of Civil Engineering, Geological Sciences, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Science and Mechanics, and Architecture. Fields of expertise include geotechnical and structural earthquake engineering, earthquake seismology, strong ground motion modeling, seismic hazard assessment, GIS applications, and earthquake response planning and mitigation.

The mission of ECSUS is "to reduce human suffering from earthquake disasters through development, transfer, and application of engineering and seismological technology." In keeping with this philosophy, the current activities of ECSUS include: (1) research; (2) technology transfer; and, (3) workshops and seminars.