About Me
I'm a civil engineer interested in solving problems at the intersection of infrastructure, climate change, and finance.
My primary area of expertise is flood risk quantification, specifically for rail rapid transit infrastructure (i.e., figuring out how tunnels flood and what gets damaged as a consequence). During my time as a member of the MIT Transit Lab working under Professor Andrew Whittle, I conducted interdisciplinary research developing climate adaptation planning tools for Boston's regional transit authority (MBTA). As a freshly minted PhD and DoD SMART Scholar, I'm currently a Civil Engineer in the Plan Formulation Branch at USACE NY District.
My work focuses on quantifying the costs of climate change to infrastructure systems, valuing climate adaptation projects for infrastructure, and developing decision support tools for prioritizing climate adaptation investments. Ultimately, I am to advance the state of engineering practice by providing innovative techniques and insights that remain approachable to practicing engineers, infrastructure managers, and planners.
Research Interests
Climate Resilience
Infrastructure Adaptation
Adaptation Valuation
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. Civil & Environmental Engineering (2023)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.M. Civil & Environmental Engineering (2020)
Manhattan College, B.S. Civil Engineering (2018)
Licenses and Certifications
Intern Engineer (EIT), New York State
Skills
Programming: JavaScript | ArcGIS JavaScript API | HTML | CSS | Python | MATLAB
Engineering Software: OptumG2 | Plaxis 2D | ArcMAP | EPA SWMM 5.1 | AutoCAD
Research Experience
MIT Transit Lab
Graduate Research Assistant
Directly collaborating with the MBTA's Department of Environmental Affairs to investigate the climate change vulnerability and resilience of the MBTA's rapid transit network.
Developing tools to quantify the costs of climate change to infrastructure systems, and methods of valuing climate change adaptation projects.
Developing decision support tools to prioritize adaptation investments given competing objective and an uncertain future.
Conceived, designed, and coded web-based planning and assessment tools including CRaVAT transit (Climate Resilience and Vulnerability Assessment Tool for transit) for evaluating projected impacts of coastal flood risk and sea level rise on the MBTA's rail rapid transit system.
MIT-IUAV Workshop (vene.re) 2019
Graduate Research Assistant
Led a research team of 4 MIT UROP students and 2 Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) graduate students investigating sustainable transport in Venice, Italy.
Professional Experience
USACE (United States Army Corps of Engineers)
DoD Smart Scholar, New York District
June 2022 - August 2022
Gained familiarity with USACE processes, planning guidance, and flood risk reduction valuation practices.
Investigated fragility of aboveground storage tanks within the New York and New Jersey Harbor Area Tributaries (NYNJ HATS) study area.
Conducted closure frequency analysis for NYNJ HATS alternatives, investigated discrepancies in coastal flood risk data.
Worked closely with plan formulators and planning division section chiefs to help prepare feasibility studies and draft reports.
MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority)
Climate Change Resiliency Intern
(June 2020 - Aug. 2020)
Continued to develop a web-based climate resilience and vulnerability assessment tool (CRaVAT transit) for evaluation of capital improvement projects.
Conducted a preliminary climate change vulnerability assessment for the MBTA's bus facilities.
Contributed to project meetings for ongoing climate change vulnerability assessment work conducted by contracted engineering design firms.
Collected relevant geospatial data in preparation for the MBTA's participation in the Resilient Mystic Collaborative’s Storm-resilient Infrastructure Assessment.
MRCE (Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers)
Geotechnical Engineering Intern
(June 2018 - Aug. 2018)
Worked closely with 8 engineers and 3 associates in the evaluation and analysis of problems pertaining to soil behavior, foundations, and underground structures.
Responsible for research aimed at predicting soil-pile interaction and comparing to pile load tests conducted by MRCE. Predicted pile settlements using various methods while also considering shear modulus degradation of soil under monotonic loading.
Cooperated with the MTA MOW division and assisted in deployment of vibration monitoring services for ongoing construction at the Hudson Yards development in Midtown, NYC.
Gained field experience monitoring geotechnical borings; generated boring logs, classified soil retrieved from SPT tests, and characterized rock coring samples.