Guirong (Grace) Yan, Ph.D., F.ASCE, a professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering of Missouri University of Science and Technology, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Yan is director of the Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience, in which 35 faculty members from 12 departments are affiliated. She is also the director of Wind Hazard Mitigation (WHAM) Laboratory, home to the Sinquefield Missouri Tornado Simulator Twins. She has been leading interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research teams in enhancing tornado resilience, coastal resilience, and climate change adaptation. She has published 150 refereed journal and conference papers and has secured 38 research grants, with a total amount of $26 million, from NSF, NOAA, DOT, NASA, and other agencies.
From an engineering perspective, Yan simulates different natural hazards (tornadoes, hurricanes, storm surge and floods, etc.) numerically and experimentally, investigating their actions on the built environment, and studies vulnerability of communities to natural hazards; she also develops innovative approaches to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts. She promotes convergence in the scientific/engineering research and community as well as encouragement toward the enhancement of national community resilience through collaboration among the fields of wind engineering, climatology, geoscience, urban planning, social science, psychology, economics, and finance. She also promotes international collaboration to address global warming and climate change faced by the entire earth.
Yan is chair of the Board of Directors of the North American Alliance for Hazards and Disaster Research Institutes (NAAHDRI). She will chair the 15th Americas Conference for Wind Engineering, in St. Louis in 2025, is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Wind Engineers, and is co-chair of ASCE’s Technical Committee on Future Weather and Climate Extremes.
