Idriss was born in Qarah, a small village in Syria. When he was two years old his family moved to Damascus until he was 16, at which time he moved to Beirut, Lebanon to complete high school. In 1954 he moved to the United States to attend university.
In 1960 he joined Dames & Moore at their New York Office and worked there until 1962, when returned to California begin his PhD at UC Berkeley. After earning his PhD, he was a member of the teaching and research staff of the geotechnical engineering group at the University of California, Berkeley (1967-1975). He began his work with Woodward-Clyde Consultants in 1969 while still at UC Berkeley, and continued working in Woodward-Clyde's San Francisco, Santa Ana and Oakland offices until 1989. In 1989, he joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Davis, where he was also Director of the Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM) (1989–1996). He retired from UC Davis in 2004.
Election to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (1989) for "For major contributions to the understanding of soil behavior during earthquakes and for the application of these contributions in engineering practice."
Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award[14] from the University of California, Davis (1999)
Elected an honorary member of the Japanese Geotechnical Society (2005)
Presented the 2nd Kenji Ishihara Lecture at the 4th International Conference on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, which was held in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2007[15]
Presented the 2016 Nabor Carrillo Lecture. Selected by the Mexican Society of Geotechnical Engineering
Recipient of the George W. Housner Medal[18] from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (2018) "in recognition of extraordinary and lasting contributions to public safety through his research, teaching and practice in earthquake geotechnical engineering that led to major advancements in the understanding of site response, liquefaction and seismic performance of embankment dams, and his advising of public policymakers on prudent earthquake safety practices and policies over the course of many decades."
Presented the 2019 Karl Terzaghi Lecture.[19] Selected by the Geo-Institute of ASCE.
Elected an honorary member of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) in 2024.
^Seed, H. B.; Idriss, I. M. (1970). A Simplified Procedure for Evaluating Soil Liquefaction Potential. Report No. EERC 70-9. Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley.
^Seed, H. B.; Idriss, I. M.; Dezfulian, H. (1970). Relationship between Soil Conditions and Building Damage in the Caracas Earthquake of July 29, 1967. Report No. EERC 70-2. Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley.
^Seed, H. B.; Whitman, R. V.; Dezfulian, H.; Dobry, R.; Idriss, I. M. (1974). "Relationships between Soil Conditions and Building Damage in the 1967 Caracas Earthquake". Journal of Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division. 98 (8): 787–806. doi:10.1061/JSFEAQ.000176 (inactive 17 November 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
^Idriss, I. M. (1990). Response of Soft Soil Sites during Earthquakes. Proceedings, Memorial Symposium to honor Professor Harry Bolton Seed. Vol. II. Berkeley, California. pp. 273–289.
^Idriss, I. M. (1993). Assessment of site response analysis procedures. Report No. NIST GCR 95–667. Structures Division Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), issued by the Center for Geotechnical Modeling Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of California, Davis.
