Coastline and People – Research Team

Meet the transdisciplinary team at Texas A&M leading the $4.2M CoPe project. Our experts combine archaeology, planning, and engineering to build coastal resilience.

A group shot focused on the Coastlines and Peoples project.

PI and CoPIs

Maria Koliou (Lead PI) 

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Associate Professor

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Texas A&M University

Dr. Koliou is an Associate Professor at the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Texas A&M University. She joined the department after having been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the NIST-funded Center of Excellence for Risk-based Community Resilience Planning at Colorado State University. She received her Diploma (2008) in Civil Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, while she holds Master’s (2010) and PhD (2014) degrees from the University at Buffalo. Her research contributions focus on developing Resilient and Sustainable Structures and Communities against extreme events to safely and functionally accommodate growing populations in urban areas. Her work includes system-level and community-level simulations that analyze the performance of structures and communities to extreme events. She is developing novel resilient structural designs and systems against various natural hazards and formulating fundamental mathematical frameworks to assess risk-based system functionality and community resilience. Dr. Koliou has received over $3 million in external research funding from federal, state, and private sources, and she is currently leading a multi-institution NSF project on the Gulf Resilience Coastlines and People Focused Research Hub focusing on the recovery of tribal communities in the Gulf region.  Dr. Koliou received the 2018 Structural Engineering Institute’s Young Professional Scholarship, 2021 Research Impact Award by the Department of CEE at Texas A&M, 2021 & 2024 Engineering Genesis Award for multi-disciplinary research by the Texas A&M College of Engineering, and the 2021 NSF CAREER award. She has recently been selected as one of the NSF and Every Page Foundation (EPF), formerly Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation, Ocean Decade Champions.

Petros Sideris (Co-PI)

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Associate Professor

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Texas A&M University

Dr. Sideris is an Associate Professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Sideris’ research focuses on the assessment of existing structures through advanced computational simulations and experimental methods. He also specializes in the development of new resilient structures through advanced construction methods, such 3D concrete printing and modular construction, and using new materials, such as cementitious and polymeric materials. His research approach integrates computational mechanics, performance-based engineering and large-scale experimentation. Dr. Sideris teaches courses on Advance Solid and Structural Mechanics, Structural Dynamics, Reinforced Concrete Design, Experimental Methods, Applied Mathematics and Numerical Methods, and Computer Programming.He is currently serving as Vice Chair of the ASCE/SEI Seismic Effects Committee, and as member of the ASCE/EMI Computational Mechanics Committee and the TRB Committee on Seismic Design and Performance of Bridges (AKB50). He is also an Associate Member of the ACI 564 Committee on 3D Printing with Cementitious Materials.

Anand Puppala (Co-PI)

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Professor

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Texas A&M University

Dr. Anand J. Puppala currently serves as A. P. Wiley and Florence Chair of Zachry Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and is an Interim Director of Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR) at Rellis Campus of TAMU. Dr. Puppala has been conducting research on stabilization of expansive soils, ground improvement works for mega projects, UAVs for infrastructure monitoring studies and asset management studies, dam safety and embankments slope studies, in situ intrusive methods for site characterization, infrastructure resilience and material characterization studies. Dr. Puppala has been a recipient of several major research grants totaling over 25+ Millions of dollars from federal, state and local government agencies. Dr. Puppala is the director of NSF’s Industry University Co-operative Research Center (IUCRC) site on Composites in Civil Infrastructure (CICI) at TAMU. He has been serving as a program director of TRANSET, a University Transportation Center (UTC) based in LSU. Dr. Puppala’s research scholarly record included 500+ publications including 220+ Journals and has edited seven special publications. Dr. Puppala is an editorial member for several major journals in Civil Engineering including ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE Journal of Materials, ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal and edited several books including seven ASCE Special Publications.

James Kaihatu (Co-PI)

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Professor

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Ocean Engineering

Texas A&M University

James Kaihatu is a Professor with the Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he has been since 2006. His primary expertise is in the theoretical analysis and numerical modeling of ocean surface gravity waves, including wind-wave generation, propagation over varying undersea topography, interaction with tidal currents, and dissipation along coastlines. In recent years he has expanded this modeling focus to include the prediction of hurricane-driven waves, surge and corresponding on-land sediment deposition and flooding; tsunami inundation; long-term impacts of the shamal and continued desalination activities in the Gulf region; modeling of urbaigation of tsunami interaction with coastal islands and the resulting impact on coastal inundation.  He has also participated in several field data collection campaigns, most notably post-hurricane structural damage and water level surveys (Galveston, TX post-Ike in 2008; Mexico Beach, FL post-Michael in 2018; and Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands post-Dorian in 2019).n flood events; and erosion of wetlands by passing weather fronts.His laboratory experience includes the investigation of tsunami interaction with coastal islands and the resulting impact on coastal inundation.  He has also participated in several field data collection campaigns, most notably post-hurricane structural damage and water level surveys (Galveston, TX post-Ike in 2008; Mexico Beach, FL post-Michael in 2018; and Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands post-Dorian in 2019).

Siyu Yu (Co-PI)

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Assistant Professor

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning

Texas A&M University

Siyu Yu is an assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and a core faculty with the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. Her experience spans land use, plan integration, and resilience issues in the United States and the Netherlands. Much of Dr. Yu’s current research focuses on the development, application, and extension of the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard TM (PIRS) evaluation methodology. The aim of this research is to better understand relationships among the network of land use and development plans and policies, and social and physical vulnerability to hazards and climate change. Her research has been published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Landscape and Urban Planning, and the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. Before arriving at Texas A&M, she worked as a senior urban planner at the Urban Planning and Design Institute of Shenzhen, China. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Science from Texas A&M University and is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Researchers

Jayur Mehta (Co-PI)

Stuart Nolan (Co-PI)

Haizhong Wang (Co-PI)

Andres Gonzalez (Co-PI)

Michelle Meyer (Senior Personnel)

Students and TAMU Partners

Center for Infrastructure Resilience

Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center

External Evaluators

The Rucks Group, LLC is a research and evaluation firm that measures the impact of initiatives to aid in the decision-making process. Located in Southwest Ohio, the firm’s mission is to provide applied social science and evaluation expertise to maximize the return of resources invested in initiatives for grants recipients and funding sources. The individuals from The Rucks Group, LLC  who work on this evaluation include:

  • Alyssa McKinney, Research Associate
  • Julia Siwierka, Ph.D., Director of Research and Evaluation Services
  • Christopher Cox, Ph.D., Senior Research and Evaluation Associate
  • Spencer Queen, Research Associate
  • Lana Rucks, Ph.D., Principal Consultant

External Advisory Panel