Ofodike Ezekoye

Ofodike Ezekoye Professor Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. University of California-Berkeley M.S. University of California-Berkeley B.S. University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Ofodike Ezekoye is an expert in combustion and heat transfer in high temperature and reacting systems such as combustion engines, furnaces, and structure fires. In recent years he has been a pi or co-pi on funded research from the Department of Commerce, AFOSR, and DOE.

J.R. DeShazo

J.R. DeShazo Associate Professor and Vice Chair Luskin School Of Public Affairs Ph.D. Harvard University M.S. Oxford University B.S. College of William and Mary

Dr. DeShazo is the Director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California at Los Angeles. He also is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Public Policy in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, where he is an expert in economics, public finance, and organizational governance.

Domniki Asimaki

Domniki Asimaki Professor Geotechnical Engineering Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology M.S. National Technical University of Athens

Professor Asimaki's research combines geotechnical engineering, computational mechanics and structural dynamics to study natural ground surface features and man-made geotechnical systems --such as ridges, valleys, dams, tunnels, building foundations and offshore structures.

Ilkay Altintas

Ilkay Altintas Professor Engineering and Computer Engineering Ph.D. University of Amsterdam M.S. Middle East Technical University B.S. Middle East Technical University

Ilkay Altintas is the Chief Data Science Officer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), UC San Diego, where she is also the Founder and Director for the Workflows for Data Science Center of Excellence. Since joining SDSC in 2001, she has worked on different aspects of scientific workflows as a principal investigator and in other leadership roles across a wide range of cross-disciplinary NSF, DOE, NIH and Moore Foundation projects.

Hamed Ebrahimian

Hamed Ebrahimian Assistant Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. University of California, San Diego M.S. Shiraz University B.S. Shiraz University

Hamed Ebrahimian joined the University of Nevada, Reno in July 2019 as an assistant professor. Prior to joining the University, he was  a senior professional engineer in industry from 2017 to 2019, during which his work was partly focused on developing a novel technology solution for monitoring and damage diagnosis of aging bridges.

For about two years before that, Hamed was working as a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he expanded the application of his research in geotechnical engineering and seismology fields. His Ph.D. is in structural engineering, from UC San Diego, and his two master’s degrees are in mechanical engineering (dynamic systems and control) and structural engineering. Before attending UC San Diego, he was serving as a structural engineering consultant and an academic lecturer since 2005.

Hamed’s technical background and expertise is in four fields:

1. Bayesian inference method for estimation, identification, and model updating,

2. Structural health monitoring and damage diagnosis,

3. Computational structural and geotechnical mechanics, and

4. Large-scale structural experiment and behavior study.

Hamed’s research is mainly focused on the integration of physics-based computational models with sensory data for monitoring, diagnosis, and prognosis of civil and mechanical systems in operational conditions and after extreme events. A numerical model trained with data is sometimes referred to as a digital twin of the real asset, which can be utilized in several industries to solve challenging remote diagnosis problems. Hamed’s research objective is to develop technology solutions to embed intelligence into operational management and disaster preparation, response, and recovery process for infrastructure systems and communities.

Jean Carlson

Jean Carlson Professor Physics

Jean Carlson Condensed Matter Theoretical Physics investigates robustnes, tradeoffs, and feedback in complex, highly connected systems, and develops multi-scale models to capture important small-scale details and predict large-scale behavior.

Gordan Abas Goodarzi

Gordon Abas Goodarzi Research Affiliate Ph.D. University of Missouri, Columbia M.S. University of Missouri, Columbia B.S. California State University, Sacramento

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Dr. Goodarzi is President, CEO of Magmotor Technologies, with over forty years of EV and HEV experience, Technology and Product Development for electric powertrain design and manufacturing for medium and heavy-duty commercial and military vehicles.  He is also a registered professional engineering since 1985.

Key Areas of Experience and Expertise

• Power Converters for Renewable Energy & Transportation

• Renewable Energy Management and protection Systems 

• System safety and protection

• Fuel Cell engines & Balance of Plant Components and control

Honors and Awards

• Winner of the 2021 IEEE PELS Vehicle and Transportation Systems Achievement Award "For contributions to the advancement of Electric Powertrains for Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles."

• Honored to be Plenary Speaker for Applied Power Electronic Conference “APEC” 2019, presenting electric Vehicular technologies and fuel cell engines.

• Keynote Speaker, Panelist, and speaker in various Electric Vehicle Symposium, IEE Vehicular, SAE, Green Truck, ACTExpo, CA Air quality Management, Cal Department of Transportation and electric vehicles industry, ARPA-e, TARDEC

• 1989: Outstanding performance Award, Hughes aircraft

• 1990: Superior Performance Award, Hughes aircraft

• 1991: Team Performance Award Hughes aircraft

• 1993: Superior Performance Award; Hughes aircraft

• Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, Various other team and individual achievement and recognition awards

Farid Ghahari

Farid Ghahari Research Affiliate Ph.D. Sharif University of Technology M.S. Sharif University of Technology B.S. Sharif University of Technology

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Dr. Farid Ghahari is a civil engineer currently working at the California Geological Survey, where he contributes his extensive expertise in earthquake and structural engineering. Dr. Ghahari's academic journey began at the Sharif University of Technology, where he earned his Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees in earthquake and structural engineering.

Dr. Ghahari joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2014, initially as a postdoctoral researcher and later as a research scientist. Throughout his work at UCLA, he has made significant contributions to the field of earthquake engineering and has been actively involved in cutting-edge research projects.

Dr. Ghahari's diverse range of expertise encompasses various areas, including earthquake engineering, structural health monitoring, and Bayesian inference. Dr. Ghahari has published over 70 journal articles, conference papers, and technical reports. As a dedicated professional in the field, Dr. Ghahari continues to push the boundaries of knowledge through his research and actively collaborates with other experts and organizations. His unwavering commitment to enhancing seismic safety and his relentless pursuit of innovative solutions make him an invaluable asset to the California Geological Survey and the broader earthquake engineering community.

Paolo Zimmaro

Paolo Zimmaro Research Affiliate Ph.D. University "Mediterranea" Reggio Calabria M.S. University of Calabria B.S. University of Calabria

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Dr. Zimmaro is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering at the University of Calabria (Italy) and a Visiting Project Scientist in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles.

His research interests are in geotechnical earthquake engineering, data analytics in civil engineering, and engineering seismology, with emphases on site-specific probabilistic seismic hazard and risk analysis, system reliability analysis of distributed infrastructure and lifelines, soil liquefaction and its effects on civil infrastructure, soil-structure interaction, post-disaster reconnaissance, and sensing and monitoring of geotechnical system with multidisciplinary approaches.

Dr. Zimmaro is a registered professional engineer in Italy and has significant experience as a consulting engineer. He worked for engineering firms and public agencies, assisting them with problems related to geotechnical and construction engineering.

Pengfei Wang

Pengfei Wang Research Affiliate Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. University of California, Los Angeles B.S. Tongji University

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Pengfei Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at Old Dominion University (ODU). His primary research interests include Geotechnical Engineering, Engineering Seismology, and Applied Statistics, emphasizing regional geo-hazard modeling and analysis, multi-hazards risk assessment, geospatial analysis, and statistical learning and modeling in civil engineering applications.

Marcelo Martins

Marcelo Martins Professor University of São Paulo

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Marcelo Ramos Martins is Associate Professor in the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department at University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil and Associate Editor for the Journal of Offshore, Mechanics and Arctic Engineering from ASME. Dr. Martins, as the leader researcher of the Analysis, Evaluation and Risk Management Laboratory (LabRisco) at USP, has conducted and coordinated research and development projects on risk analysis and system reliability, including human reliability, and has over 200 published papers in journals and proceedings of conferences.

Katrina Groth

Katrina Groth Research Affiliate Ph.D. University of Maryland M.S. University of Maryland B.S. University of Maryland

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Dr. Katrina Groth is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland. Dr. Groth is the associate director for research for UMD's Center for Risk and Reliability and the director of the Systems Risk and Reliability Analysis lab (SyRRA). Groth has published over 50 journal and conference papers, and 30 technical reports on the safety, risk, and reliability of complex engineering systems, ranging from hydrogen vehicle infrastructure, to aviation, to nuclear power plants. Groth’s research focuses on the development of model- and data- informed methods for system risk assessment, particularly through the use of Bayesian Network causal models to fuse sparse data, big data, and qualitative information from multiple sources into models that support decisions and prediction under deep uncertainty. Before joining UMD as faculty, she spent seven years as a researcher in the risk and reliability analysis department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. She holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering from the University of Maryland (’08, ’09), and a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from UMD (’04).

Chandrasekhar Putcha

Chandrasekhar Putcha Research Affiliate Ph.D. Indian Institute of Technology M.S. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India B.S. Banaras Hindu Universty

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Since 1981, Dr. Chandrasekhar Putcha has been a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at California State University, Fullerton. Before that, he was on the research faculty at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at University of Sherbrooke in Canada. His research areas of interest are –Reliability, Risk Analysis, Optimization and Mathematical Modeling. Because of his interdisciplinary areas of research, Dr. Putcha has published more than 175 research papers in various disciplines, such as Engineering, Business, Economics, Medicine, Kinesiology, Political Science and Sociology. He has done consulting work for several leading companies and received research grants from companies such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC), and from federal agencies, such as – NASA, Navy, Air Force, US Army Corps of Engineers. In 2007, Dr. Putcha received the campus-wide Outstanding Professor Award at California State University, Fullerton. He is the first recipient of this award from College of Engineering in 44 years, since this award was instituted in 1963. Also, Dr. Putcha is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and he was the Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) from 1996-2002.

Myron Hecht

Myron Hecht Senior Project Leader at The Aerospace Corporation J.D. University of California, Los Angeles M.B.A. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Hecht has a M.S. (Engineering), M.B.A, and J.D. degrees from UCLA, and has worked as a Sr Project Leader at The Aerospace Corporation. His areas of expertise include flight control, air traffic control, communications, and nuclear safety. 

Dongfeng Zhu

Dongfeng Zhu Director of Research and Development at ITEM Software Ph.D. University of Maryland

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Dr. Dongfeng Zhu received his Ph.D. from University of Maryland in Reliability Engineering in 2005 and continued as a Post Doctoral Researcher at the Center for Risk and Reliability until 2008. He currently serves as Director of Research and Development at ITEM Software. He has over 15 years of research, training, consulting, and software development experience in reliability engineering and risk analysis. Dr. Zhu’s research interests lie in the area of Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Bayesian Methods for Data Analysis, Software Reliability, and Human Reliability.

Clayton Smith

Clayton Smith Principle Professional Staff at JHU/APL Ph.D. University of Maryland M.S. University of Maryland B.S. University of Maryland

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Dr. Smith is a member of the Principle Professional Staff at JHU/APL with over 30 years of experience analyzing systems from risk, reliability, and safety perspectives. These systems included: NASA and DoD missions, payloads, ground communication systems, air traffic control systems, and missile systems. He is developing approaches to assess intentional threats against space assets using PRA and Game Theory techniques. He created and managed NASA’s International Space Station Program Probabilistic Risk Assessment specifically geared toward quantifying the safety risk during operations. Dr. Smith is currently the reliability engineering lead for APL’s Solar Probe Plus mission. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, M.S. in Engineering Management, and Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering all from the University of Maryland.

Masoud Pourali

Masoud Pourali President of KimiaPower PLLC Ph.D. University of Maryland

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Dr. Masoud Pourali received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in Reliability Engineering. His research interests are: System Health Monitoring, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), Bayesian Sensor Placement Optimization, Common Cause Failure (CCF) Analysis, and Application of Bayesian Techniques such as Bayesian Belief Networks in Risk and Reliability Analysis.

Mardy Kazarians

Mardy Kazarians Principal Consultant at Kazarians & Associates, Inc. Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles

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Mardy Kazarians is an independent consultant and owner of Kazarians & Associates, Inc. specializing in risk assessment and risk management program development and implementation of highly hazardous operations. As part of his Ph.D. dissertation at UCLA, he developed a methodology for the fire risk in nuclear power plants. He has since worked on a large number of risk assessment projects for nuclear plants in the U.S. and abroad. He has extended his knowledge of risk assessment to other industries such as petroleum refining, chemicals manufacturing as well as systems and operations handling highly hazardous materials.

David Johnson

David Johnson Research Affiliate

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Dr. Johnson has more than 35 years of experience in risk-based analysis for industry and government applications. His extensive experience and knowledge in all facets of nuclear reactor probabilistic risk assessments (PRA) and expertise include probabilistic modeling and investigation of impacts of industrial endeavors, the development of quantitative risk assessment methods and the practical application of these methods to support risk management.

Karl Fleming

Karl Fleming Independent Consultant M.S. Carnegie Mellon University B.S. Penn State University

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Karl Fleming received his B.S. in Physics from Penn State University, Cum Laude in 1969 and his M.S. in Nuclear Science and Engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1974. He has devoted his entire professional career of 45 years to the advancement and application of PRA technology in the nuclear, chemical, process, and aerospace industries. Following professional and executive level assignments at General Atomics, and Pickard Lowe and Garrick, and ERIN Engineering and Research he established an independent consulting firm in 2001 and continues to be active as an independent consultant.