Carnegie Mellon University

Costa Samaras (left) and Royce A. Francis (right)

August 05, 2020

CEE Professor Samaras and Alum Francis Named to NASEM Committee

Associate Professor Costa Samaras and CEE alum Royce A. Francis (MS '06, PhD '09) have been selected to serve as provisional members for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committee on Advancing a Systems Approach to Studying the Earth: A Strategy for the National Science Foundation.

This committee will develop a compelling vision for a systems approach to studying the Earth and identify facilities, infrastructure, coordinating mechanisms, computing, and workforce development needed to support that vision. With input from virtual and in-person workshops and lessons learned from previous and current approaches to integrated research at NSF, the committee also will provide advice on how NSF can support the research community in meeting the vision and identifying overarching capabilities needed to support a systems approach to studying the Earth.

Members of the committee were selected for their scientific expertise, as well as their experiences working in integrated research and in taking a systems approach to Earth science

Professor Samaras’s research spans energy, climate change, automation, and defense analysis, and he directs the Center for Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation. He assesses how technology, policy, and infrastructure system designs affect energy use, system resilience to climate change impacts, economic and equity outcomes, and life cycle environmental emissions and other externalities under uncertainty.

He currently serves as the Chair of the ASCE Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate. Samaras is also an adjunct senior researcher at the RAND Corporation. From 2009 to 2014, he was a researcher at the RAND Corporation, and from 1999-2004 was a megaprojects engineer in New York.

He has previously served on the National Academies Review of the U.S. DRIVE Research Program–Phase 4 Committee, and on the Committee on Enhancing Air Mobility--A National Blueprint.

Professor Francis is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at George Washington University. His overall research vision is to conduct research, teaching, and service that facilitates sustainable habitation of the built environment. He unifies these multi-disciplinary interests under the Earth Systems Engineering and Management (ESEM) paradigm for civil/environmental systems design and analysis.