Deb Niemeier

Deb Niemeier is the Clark Distinguished Chair in Energy and Sustainability at the University of Maryland, College Park and serves as a professor in the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research is aimed at understanding environmental health disparities and the effects on vulnerable populations. Her current research includes collaborations with sociologists, planners, geographers, veterinary medicine and education faculty to study such topics as formal and informal governance processes in urban landscapes and how to characterize risk associated with outcomes in the intersection of finance, housing and infrastructure and environmental hazards. Her international development work is aimed at agricultural sustainability and her current education research is focused on data science in engineering and the operational challenges of K-12 infrastructure. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for “distinguished contributions to energy and environmental science study and policy development;” a Guggenheim Fellow for foundational work on pro bono service in engineering and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.