Dr. Maria Koliou, an associate professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, is the invited speaker for the 2023-24 Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Texas A&M Arts and Sciences Outreach & Engagement and Women In Science and Engineering (WISE).
Koliou will present a public lecture, “Potential for Achieving Post-Disaster Functional Recovery for Existing Buildings,” at 1:50 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, in Room via Zoom 110 of the H.J. "Bill" and Reta Haynes Engineering Building. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is presented in conjunction with the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Construction, Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Seminar Series.
Koliou joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2017 and currently is a faculty fellow with the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center in the School of Architecture as well as a faculty affiliate with Texas Sea Grant's Community Resilience Collaborative. She earned her Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, in 2014 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado State University prior to coming to Texas A&M.
Koliou's research interests span the fields of structural dynamics and earthquake engineering as well as multi-hazard performance-based design for system functionality and community resilience. Her work focuses on developing sustainable structural systems and hazard-resistant communities accounting for economic and social aspects. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the well-being of communities by developing novel resilient structural designs and systems against various natural and man-made hazards and formulating fundamental mathematical frameworks to assess system functionality and community resilience under multiple hazards.
Koliou's research program has attracted more than $3 million in external funding from multiple state, federal and private sources, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Education, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Texas Department of Transportation. A 2021 NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award recipient, she recently was selected as an NSF and Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation Ocean Decade Champion.
Koliou is a member of the American Society of Engineering Education, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Concrete Institute, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI). Since 2018, she has served as associate engineering editor for the ASCE journal, National Hazards Review. In addition,
At the conclusion of Koliou's presentation, Texas A&M graduate students Kianna Arthur '21 (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences) and Hannah Justen '20 (Department of Biology) will be recognized as the 2023-24 recipients of the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Awards for Research, while postdoctoral research associate Dr. Eva Vitucci (Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health) will be honored with the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Award for Mentoring. Each will receive a $500 check, a memorial plaque and a certificate of recognition.
The awards are presented by WISE to highlight research and mentoring efforts by graduate students on the Texas A&M campus in honor and remembrance of Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui, a longtime faculty member in the Texas A&M Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Tsutsui was a founding member of WISE and cared deeply about the retention and recognition of women in the university’s graduate programs and nurturing their intellectual spirit. Both the awards and the event are sponsored by WISE, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation.
Women In Science and Engineering at Texas A&M is an organization of graduate students, staff and faculty from various science and engineering backgrounds. The group was created to address specific problems faced by women in nontraditional fields.
For more information about the lecture or other outreach events and women’s programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, please contact Texas A&M Arts and Sciences Outreach & Engagement at (979) 458-4450.