Bilal M. Ayyub, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, Dist.M.ASCE, has been honored by ASCE as a Class of 2017 Distinguished Member for his leading contributions in uncertainty and risk analysis for infrastructure resilience and sustainability in a changing climate with life-cycle economics.
Ayyub is one of the world’s leading researchers in risk methods for the protection of critical infrastructure and key resources. His inputs have led to changes in national codes and standards, international standards, professional practices, and innovations in many areas. His knowledge ranges from civil engineering to electrical, naval systems, statistical, economics, numerical, petroleum engineering, and risk analyses. He has worked at the invitation of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and was a critical reviewer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s work group SREX, among other contributions.
He is currently a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he has been involved since 1983. A founding member of ASCE’s Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate (CACC), Ayyub led CACC in recommending low-regret risk management practices and the practical observational method for dealing effectively and economically with the pertinent uncertainties. He also serves as editor in chief of the ASCE-ASME Journal on Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems and is the author or coauthor of 600-plus publications.
Ayyub has served as co-chair for the task force that developed the Critical Asset and Portfolio Risk Analysis (CAPRA) framework used by COE, ASME, and other agencies and industries, and has completed numerous well-funded projects. His 2011 paper on sea-level-rise impacts on Washington, DC, was carried by over 300 media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the Washington Post.
He is a Fellow of ASCE, ASME, and SRA & SNAME, a senior member of IEEE (having chaired several of their committees), a conference leader, and a visiting scholar. Among his plentiful awards and honors are the ASCE Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement, 1989, and the Society’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, 1997.
Ayyub earned his BSCE from the University of Kuwait in 1980 and his MSCE and Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology in, respectively, 1981 and 1983.
