Saeed Nozhati

Saeed Nozhati Sr. Modeler, Everest Ph.D. Colorado State University M.S. Marquette University and Sharif University of Technology B.S. Iran University of Science and Technology

---

Dr. Saeed Nozhati is an expert in resilience, risk analysis, and loss assessment, with a focus on dynamic optimization, natural hazards, and machine learning. As the senior modeler at Everest, he spearheads the development of catastrophe models and frameworks for managing hazards. Previously, Dr. Nozhati served as a research scientist at Chubb and the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). During his time at UCLA, he led various projects, including the development of methodologies for wildfire risk assessment and management, as well as uncertainty propagation in Bayesian Networks.

Dr. Nozhati holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from Colorado State University, complemented by an M.S. in Computational Sciences from Marquette University, Wisconsin, and an M.S. in Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran. His doctoral research focused on developing a decision-making framework using Dynamic Programming techniques to aid policymakers in community recovery management during disasters.

Hassan Masoomi

Hassan Masoomi

Sr. Vice President, Gallagher Re

Ph.D. Colorado State University
M.S. Sharif University of Technology
B.S. Iran University of Science and Technology

---

Dr. Hassan Masoomi, Senior Vice President at Gallagher Re's Global Analytics R&D, brings over a decade of expertise in probabilistic risk assessment and developing data-driven models for extreme natural hazards. Collaborating across diverse disciplines, he focuses on creating actionable analytical tools for various natural hazards worldwide, aiding clients in implementing effective risk management and underwriting solutions.

Prior to joining Gallagher Re in 2019, Hassan served as a risk scientist at the Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). During this time, his research centered on developing simulation models and tools to assess and enhance the resilience of complex systems. Hassan earned his Ph.D. from Colorado State University, specializing in the risk-based design of the built environment to achieve resilient and sustainable communities.

Ephraim Suhir

Ephraim Suhir Depts. of Mech.,Mat., Elect., and Comp. Engineering, Portland State University Ph.D. Moscow State University M.S. Institute of Maritime Engineers

---

Dr. Ephraim Suhir is on the faculty of the Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA, and Bordeaux Univ., France.  He is also CEO of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) ERS Co. in Los Altos, CA, USA, is Foreign Full Member of the National Academy of Engineering, Ukraine (he was born in that country); Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Optical Engineers (SPIE), and the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS);  Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the Institute of Physics (IoP), UK, and the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE); and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Dr. Suhir has authored  500+ publications, presented numerous plenary, keynote, invited and contributed talks and taught continued education courses worldwide. He received many professional awards, including 1996 Bell Labs. Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) Award (for developing effective methods for predicting the reliability of complex structures used in AT&T and Lucent Technologies products), and 2004 ASME Worcester Read Warner Medal (for outstanding contributions to the permanent literature of engineering and laying the foundation of a new discipline “Structural Analysis of Electronic Systems”). He is the third “Russian American”, after S. Timoshenko and I. Sikorsky, who received this prestigious award. Ephraim's most recent awards are 2023 SHEN International Research Award on Science, Health and Engineering" for the paper "Probabilistic Fitts' Law and the Likelihod of the Tunguska Type of Event",  Journal of Space Safety Engineering, 10(1), March 2023";  2019 IEEE Electronic Packaging Society (EPS) Field award (for seminal contributions to mechanical reliability engineering and modeling of electronic and photonic packages and systems);  2019 IMAPS Lifetime Achievement award (for making exceptional, visible, and sustained impact on the microelectronics packaging industry and technology) and 2022 IEEE SCV Section Outstanding Engineer award (for seminal contributions to several critical IEEE fields, including probabilistic design-for-reliability of microelectronic and photonic materials, devices and systems, and the role of the human factor).

Enrico Zio

Enrico Zio Professor at the Centre for Research on Risk and Cruises (CRC) of Ecole de Mines, ParisTech, PSL University Ph.D. Politecnico di Milano and MIT M.S. UCLA and Politecnico di Milano

---

Dr. Enrico Zio received the MSc degree in nuclear engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 1991 and in mechanical engineering from UCLA in 1995, and the Ph.D. degree in nuclear engineering from Politecnico di Milano and in probabilistic risk assessment at MIT in 1996 and 1998, respectively. He is currently full professor at the Centre for research on Risk and Crises (CRC) of Ecole de Mines, ParisTech, PSL University, France, full professor and President of the Alumni Association at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, distinguished guest professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, adjunct professor at City University of Hong Kong, Beihang University and Wuhan University, China and Co-Director of the Center for REliability and Safety of Critical Infrastructures (CRESCI) and the sino-french laboratory of Risk Science and Engineering (RISE), at Beihang University, Beijing, China.

He is member and vice-president of the Board of Directors of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano.

He is IEEE and Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer.

In 2020, he has been awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany (https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/home.html), one the world's most prestigious research awards across all scientific disciplines. The Award is given to outstandingly qualified researchers and future leaders from science-related fields (but very seldom awarded to engineers!). The Award is granted in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements to date, to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future. Professor Zio has been selected for the Award in light of being a World leading scientist in Risk and Resilience Assessment, Safety Analysis and Reliability Engineering of complex systems and infrastructures, in particular for energy applications. He has been one of the pioneers in using artificial intelligence (such as neural networks) and genetic algorithms in reliability engineering and risk assessment, solving key problems related to the safety and reliability of critical systems such as those used in the nuclear, oil and gas, transportation industries. He has promoted the use of computational modeling within various international initiatives.

His Google Scholar H-index is 101 and he is in the top 2% of the World scientists, according to Stanford ranking.

In 2021, he has been appointed as:

• Member of the Board Committee of the International Joint Research Center for Resilient Infrastructure (ICRI) 2021-2026

• 4TU.Resilience Ambassador by the 4TU Centre for Resilience Engineering and its backbone – the 4TU-programme DeSIRE (Designing Systems for informed Resilience Engineering), a strategic capacity building research programme of the four Dutch Technical Universities

• Fellow of the of the Prognostics & Health Management Society a world recognized scientist in the area of reliability centered, condition based and predictive maintenance.

In 2023, he has been appointed as Scientific Director of Research and Development of Datrix AI Solutions group.

In 2023 he has been elevated to the status of IEEE fellow for “for contributions to safety and reliability engineering”.

In 2023 he has been elected fellow of Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association as “the top scientist with outstanding achievements in the area of reliability engineering and risk assessment”.

Dr. Zio’s research focuses on the modeling of the failure-repair-maintenance behavior of components and complex systems, for the analysis of their reliability, maintainability, prognostics, safety, vulnerability, resilience and security characteristics, and on the development and use of Monte Carlo simulation methods, artificial intelligence techniques and optimization heuristics. He is author and co-author of seven books and more than 500 papers on international journals, Chairman and Co-Chairman of several international Conferences, associate editor of several international journals and referee of more than 20.

Obi K. Ndu

Obi K. Ndu Chief Information Officer, DLCP Ph.D. University of Maryland College Park M.A. Morgan State University M.S./B.S. University of Maryland College Park

Dr. Ndu is a technolgy executive, with experience leading digital transformation and developing analytics solutions for public and private sector organizations. With over 22 years of experience, Dr. Ndu brings a wealth of expertise and a diverse skill set to his role as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP).

As the founder and managing partner of Alpha Angle Group, Dr. Ndu drives the growth of the consultancy, overseeing client engagements and building strategic partnerships with industry and academia. Dr. Ndu previously served as Principal, Data Science at Boston Consulting Group (BCG X), where he played pivotal a role in advising federal agency clients on the integration of computer systems software and hardware for enhanced analytics capabilities. He led the development and deployment of decision support optimization engines, transforming the resource allocation processes for a federal department of defense client. As a Director at KPMG, his work included providing strategic plans for enterprise-wide analytics capabilities and leading internal research efforts to build deep learning models for identifying high-probability contract opportunities.

Prior to KPMG, Dr. Ndu worked at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) where he utilized advanced analytics methods in developing probabilistic, physics-based models for evaluating the reliability of aerospace systems. His achievements at APL include developing a risk-informed decision-making framework for NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) program, which enabled characterization of the risk profile of candidate dynamic power converters, establishing the technical framework for risk-informed service life evaluation of the US Navy’s Standard Missile, and advancing the use of Bayesian inference methods in probabilistic risk analysis of aerospace systems. Dr. Ndu also has aerospace engineering experience from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation and consulting experience with Booz Allen Hamilton and ManTech-SRS serving government clients including NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Missile Defense Agency.

Dr. Ndu earned a PhD in Reliability Engineering, a Masters in Systems Engineering and a Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Additionally he holds an M.Arch in Architecture from Morgan State University. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his outstanding contributions to various projects, including a Research and Development Advisory Board Award from the Federal Aviation Administration, Outstanding Performance Awards from Booz Allen Hamilton and JHU/APL, and Group Achievement Awards from NASA. His thought leadership in modeling and analytics is evident through published articles, conference speaking engagements, and participation in industry panels demonstrating his commitment to advancing technology and driving innovation positions.

Marilia Ramos

Marilia Ramos Business and Research Development Officer Ph.D. Federal University of Pernambuco M.S. Federal University of Parnambuco B.S. Federal University of Parnambuco

Dr. Marilia Ramos has expertise in Risk Analysis and Human Reliability with extensive experience leading and collaborating on projects for different industries, from the nuclear industry to autonomous cars and wildfire evacuation.  She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, and was a Postdoctoral fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and a Research Scientist at the Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at UCLA. She is currently a Business and Research Development Officer at the University of Toronto, where she forges collaborations between academia, industry, not-for-profit, and governmental agencies around cutting-edge research topics. She initiated and co-organizes the International Workshop on Autonomous Systems Safety (IWASS) and collaborates with the Garrick Institute on projects concerning the Phoenix Human Reliability Analysis methodology and autonomous systems' safety. 

Mohammad Pourgol

Mohammad Pourgol Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. University of Maryland M.S. University of Maryland B.S. University of Tabriz

Dr. Mohammad Pourgol is a safety/reliability analyst in multidisciplinary systems analysis with Teradyne and an Associate Professor (adj) of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland. He previously held the position of Associate Professor of Reliability Engineering at Sahand University of Technology (SUT).

With over 20 years of work experience, his career includes industrial application, research, and teaching in safety applications and reliability engineering at various institutions, including Teradyne Semiconductor, Johnson Controls, Sahand University of Technology, FM Global, Daikin Comforts, UMD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Pourgol is an IEEE Senior Member, an elected ASQ Fellow, and ASME Fellow. He also served as the ASME Safety Engineering and Risk/Reliability Analysis Division (SERAD) Chair from 2017 to 2022. Additionally, he is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Massachusetts and holds certifications as a reliability engineer (ASQ CRE), Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), and Manager of Quality/Organization Excellence (ASQ CMQ/OE).

Dr. Pourgol has authored over 160 papers in archival journals and peer-reviewed conferences on his research and has been an invited/Keynote Speaker at numerous conferences and webinars. He has also filed one US patent, and his efforts have been recognized with several awards. Currently, Dr. Pourgol serves as the Associate Editor for the ASME-ASCE Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, both Part A: Civil Engineering and Part B: Mechanical Engineering.

Farzin Zareian

Farzin Zareian Associate Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Stanford University M.S. Sharif University of Technology, Tehran B.S. Sharif University of Technology, Tehran

Dr. Zareian's research includes analytical and experimental studies in Structural and Earthquake Engineering with emphasis on Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering. His research interests also includes Collapse Analysis, Structural Reliability, and Structural Control.

Soroosh Sorooshian

Soroosh Sorooshian Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. University of California, Los Angeles B.S. Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

Soroosh Sorooshian is the Director of the Center for Hydrometeorology & Remote Sensing (CHRS) and Distinguished Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth System Science Departments at UC Irvine. Prior to 2003 he was a faculty at the University of Arizona for 20 years. His area of expertise is Hydrometeorology, water resources systems, climate studies and application of remote sensing to earth science problems with special focus on the hydrologic cycle and water resources issues of arid and semi-arid zones. He also consults on problems related to surface hydrology and urban flooding.

M. Saiid Saiidi

M. Saiid Saiidi Professor and Distinguished Researcher at GIRS Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. University of Illinois M.S. University of Illinois B.S. University of Tehran

Recipient of multimillion dollar research grants from National Science Foundation, Federal Highway Administration, California Department of Transportation, Nevada Department of Transportation, National Cooperative Highway Research Programs, and industry. Projects have been on earthquake engineering of structures, including large- scale model studies, retrofit method and repair development, design method development, and advanced material adaptation in structural engineering.

Thomas A. Sabol

Thomas A. Sabol Adjunct Professor Structural Engineering Ph.D. University of Southern California

My research interests include earthquake resistant design of structural steel buildings, the effect of earthquakes on existing structures, the development of seismic rehabilitation guidelines for existing structures, and the potential of performance-based design for seismic design of new structures and the rehabilitation of existing structures. Recent research includes testing of structural steel moment frame connections and the adaptation of that research into design guidelines for the structural engineering community.

Farzad Naeim

Farzad Naeim Adjunct Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. University of Southern California M.S. University of Southern California B.S. University of Tehran

Dr. Naeim regularly manages and facilitates activities of internal teams of experts in research and development activities, special seismic studies, and the design of specialized computer applications. He has developed an international reputation for cutting edge engineering and computer technology, and was awarded grants by such diverse agencies as the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the County of Los Angeles, the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program, Applied Technology Council (ATC), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), for studying various damage characteristics of earthquakes and their impact on seismic design practice.

Elnaz Seylabi

Elnaz Seylabi Assistant Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. Sharif University of Technology B.S. Sharif University of Technology

Elnaz Esmaeilzadeh Seylabi joined the University of Nevada, Reno as an assistant professor in 2019. Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology (2017-2019). She holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering (2016) from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.S. in earthquake engineering (2009) and a B.S. in civil engineering (2007) from the Sharif University of Technology, Iran. Her honors include the Dissertation Year Fellowship Award (2015), the Martin Rubin Scholarship (2013) and Dr. Tavakoli's Award (2012) among others.

George Mylonakis

George Mylonakis Adjunct Professor Geotechnical Engineering Ph.D. State University of New York at Buffalo B.S. National Technical University

George Mylonakis specializes in geotechnical earthquake engineering, computational geomechanics, stress wave propagation, limit analysis and dynamic soil-structure interaction with emphasis on pile-supported structures. He holds a Diploma degree in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University, Athens (1993) and a Ph.D. degree from State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo (1996). He has held or is currently holding academic/reserch appointments at the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER) (1993-1997), City University of New York (1997-2004), University of Patras (2004-) and University of Bristol (2013-).

Naj Meshkati

Naj Meshkati Professor Systems Engineering Ph.D. Civil Engineering, University of Southern California M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Southern California B.S. National University of Iran and Sharif University Of Technology

Professor Meshkati is a recipient of the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. He is also Principal Investigator of a research grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He is a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE) and a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Patrick Joseph Lynett

Patrick Joseph Lynett Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Civil Engineering, Cornell University M.S. Civil Engineering, Cornell University B.S. Civil Engineering, Cornell University

Patrick Lynett was born in New York City on March 19th, 1975. He attended Cornell University from 1993-2002, where he received three degrees from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Immediately after completing his Ph.D. thesis, he started the position of Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University. Lynett was a member of the 2005 International Tsunami Survey Team to Sri Lanka, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Coastal Impacts Survey Team sponsored by ASCE, the post-tsunami survey team in American Samoa in 2009, and numerous surveys throughout the Pacific after the 2011 Japan tsunami.

Anne Lemnitzer

Anne Lemnitzer Associate Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. California State University, Long Beach

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Irvine. Born and raised in Germany, I completed my undergraduate education in structural engineering at the University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) Leipzig and continued my graduate education as Fulbright Scholar in the US. I received an MS in Geotechnical Engineering at CSULB and an MS and PhD degree in Structural and Earthquake Engineering at UCLA. 

Monica D. Kohler

Monica D. Kohler Research Professor Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering Ph.D. California Institute of Technology B.A. Harvard University

Monica Kohler is a research faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Her research in earthquake engineering and seismology takes advantage of recent rapid technological advances in sensor development to develop new observational techniques for detecting deformation and failure, from inside high-rise buildings to hundreds of kilometers below Earth’s surface. Her research group is driven by a vision of a future in which community-enabled sensing will make it possible to conduct robust, real-time monitoring of vibrations of the coupled ground motion-civil structure system over a city-wide region in order to detect damage and failure events. The overarching goal is to model the 3D structure and dynamic behavior of these systems through analysis of vibration data recorded by dense networks deployed in them. Techniques include tomographic inverse methods and forward dynamic computations applied to observed and simulated datasets comprising earthquake, ambient vibration, pressure wave, and tsunami waveforms. These studies provide frequent reminders of how dense sensor deployments enable the detection and measurement of new, often unanticipated, structural and dynamic behavior.

Erik A Johnson

Erik A. Johnson Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. University of Illinois M.S. University of Illinois B.S. University of Illinois

Dr. Erik A. Johnson is a professor of civil engineering at the University of Southern California. He earned B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988, 1993 and 1997, respectively, as well as a Certificate in Biblical Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1991. He was a visiting research assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame 1997-99.

Bahram Jalili

Bahram Jalili Professor Bioengineering Ph.D. Columbia University M.S. Columbia University B.S. Florida State University

Professor Jalili's research and teaching interests are: Silicon photonics and fiber optic communication, real-time streaming data acquisition and processing, biophotonics, rare cell detection, blood screening, nondestructive material testing and characterization, rogue wave phenomena.