Meet our speakers!
Bilal M. Ayyub, PE, PhD, Dist.M.ASCE, Hon.M.ASME, F.SNAME, F.SRA, F.SEI
Dr. Ayyub is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of Center for Technology and Systems Management at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Co-Director, International Joint Research Center for Resilient Infrastructure, Tongji University, China. He is affiliate of Center for Risk and Reliability; Disaster Resilience Center; Maryland Robotics Center; Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation Program; and Institute of Systems Engineering. He was a visiting fellow at the National Security Analysis Department of the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University (201516). He was a chair professor at Tongji University (2016-18). He received the ASEE Fellowships ONRfunded for sabbatical leaves at U. S. Navy (USN) from 1993, 2000 and 2007, and was also a USN consulting professor during this period. He is the president of BMA Engineering, Inc., and angel investor and entrepreneur, and served on the board of several startup companies. Professor Ayyub is a distinguished member of ASCE and an honorary member of ASME. He is also a fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), and the Society for Risk Analysis (2017-18 Treasurer), and a senior member of IEEE.
Dr. Ayyub completed his doctorate degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1983. Dr. Ayyub’s main research interests and work are in probabilistic risk analysis, resilience, sustainability, uncertainty and decision analysis, applied to civil, infrastructure, energy including renewables, defense and maritime fields, climate/hazard-resilient infrastructure, natural infrastructure, environmental/ecological concerns, and risk finance. Dr. Ayyub completed research and development projects for governmental and private entities including NSF, DOD, DOT, NIST, DHS, and leading insurance and multinational corporations worldwide including Chevron, United Technology, Ford, Bechtel, Hartford, Hyundai, etc.
Dr. Ayyub is the recipient of several awards, most recently the 2018 ASCE Alfredo Ang Award on risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure, 2019 ASCE President Medal for many efforts to bring adaptive design to the profession to help address a changing climate, 2019 ASCE Le Val Lund Award for contributions to resilience enhancement and risk reduction for lifeline-networked systems through measurement science and associated economics toward informing policy and decision-making practices, 2018 ENR Newsmaker award for passionate effort to give engineers their first formal guidance when designing infrastructure to be more resilient to weather extremes, and 2016 ASNE Solberg Award significant engineering research and development accomplishments in the field of ship survivability. He is the author and coauthor of more than 650 publications, and the founding editor-in-chief of the ASCE-ASME Journal on Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems.
Daniel Barrie, Ph.D.
Dan is a Lecturer, Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, and program manager in the Climate Program Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where he manages a climate modeling program as well as a program that supports the National Climate Assessment (NCA). He was on the Federal Steering Committee for NCA4, released in 2017 and 2018, and will serve in the same role for NCA5. He was part of a team that won the 2019 Department of Commerce Silver Award for the Assessment.
Dan’s background is in Physics (BA, Colgate University) and Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (PhD, University of Maryland). Dan’s interests are in drought and hydroclimate, energy systems-climate interactions, climate model development and analysis, and variability and change in marine ecosystems.
Maria Lehman
Maria Lehman has more than 40 years of diverse experience in transportation and buildings from planning through decommissioning, with capital expenditures to $3.9 billion. Currently, Lehman leads the U.S. infrastructure business at GHD, focusing on federal and New York State (NYS) government relations programs and provides strategic expertise for markets and specific pursuits. She was the Acting Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the NYS Thruway Authority; VP for Infrastructure in the Northeast for Parsons Corporation; and Commissioner of Public Works for Erie County, NY, among other roles. In October 2022, Lehman will start her term as President for the American Society of Civil Engineers, a professional society with 150,000 members in 177 countries. She was also recently appointed to the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council. Lehman received her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo (magna cum laude) and is a licensed professional engineer in several states.
Thomas "Tom" W. Smith, ENV SP, CAE, F.ASCE
A dedicated member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for more than 25 years and a civil engineer by training, Tom Smith served as the association's deputy executive director and general counsel before becoming the executive director and secretary in January 2015. Smith also serves as a director on the board of the ASCE Foundation. Responsible for the day-to-day management of the Society, Smith leads a staff of over 200 and an active volunteer workforce of over 10,000, facilitating ASCE's tradition of providing high-quality products and services to more than 150,000 members in 177 countries, in all civil engineering disciplines and at all points of their career paths.
Before joining ASCE, Smith practiced law in Northern Virginia with the firm of Hazel & Thomas, P.C., now combined with Reed Smith, LLP. While in this position, Smith focused on commercial, construction and land use litigation in federal and state courts, and land use applications for commercial, industrial and residential development.
In addition to his master's degree in structural engineering and bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Virginia, Smith holds a law degree from Washington & Lee University. He is admitted to the bar in Virginia and the District of Columbia. He is also a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP).
Outside of ASCE, Smith serves as a trustee on the board of the United Engineering Foundation (UEF), where he serves on the Grants Committee and as chair of the Nominating Committee. He is a member of the American Society of Association Executives’ (ASAE) Key Professional Activities and Key Global Activities Committees, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100, Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society, and Order of the Engineer.
Actively involved in his community, Smith serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Park Trust, where he also serves on the Land and Park Preservation Committee, and he is a member of the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals. He previously chaired bar association committees providing legal services to local homeless shelters as well as coordinating national moot court competitions. Smith has published articles on engineering ethics and legal issues and is a frequent speaker on association and civil engineering subjects.
In 2020, Smith received the University of Virginia Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award, and in 2011, he received the ASCE William H. Wisely American Civil Engineer Award.