Tracy Kijewski-Correa, professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, with a joint appointment in the Keough School of Global Affairs, was installed on January 9 as president-elect of the American Association for Wind Engineering (AAWE), the Americas division of the International Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE).
Kijewski-Correa’s research enhances the resilience and sustainability of hazard-exposed communities. Her team develops holistic responses to infrastructure vulnerabilities, using tools that enable diverse stakeholders to make science-informed decisions.
In her role as inaugural director of the National Science Foundation’s Structural Extreme Event Reconnaissance (StEER) network, she has helped mobilize hundreds of engineers globally to evaluate the impact of disasters using advances in data science. By leveraging open data sources, she leads the development of regional simulation tools for hurricane risk assessment through the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Computational Simulation Center (SimCenter).
“Wind and water are, simultaneously, two of our planet’s most generative yet potentially destructive phenomena,” said Kijewski-Correa. “While they have not always received the attention they deserve in the scientific community, that is starting to shift with concerns over climate change.
“Now, changes in the intensity and frequency of windstorms are colliding with migration patterns that put communities in areas of highest risk and vulnerabilities in our building and infrastructure systems. Windstorms are currently the top driver of insured losses in the U.S.—averaging $45 billion a year.”
Lake Charles, Louisiana, which experienced back-to-back hurricanes in 2020, and Haiti, the site of frequent natural disasters, have been key focus areas for Kijewski-Correa’s research.
In her statement to AAWE members outlining her platform as president-elect, Kijewski-Correa acknowledged current uncertainties in federal funding and emphasized her intention to position the organization as a steadying force. Her goals include clearly communicating the wind engineering community’s importance to key stakeholders in order to strengthen investment and collaboration. She also plans to examine workforce development needs to ensure the next generation of wind engineering professionals is prepared to meet the challenges ahead.
“I am honored to begin this leadership role within the premier organization in the Americas for advancing knowledge in the field of wind engineering and promoting international cooperation among scientists, engineers, and other professionals,” said Kijewski-Correa.
She will work to implement her goals in the next two years as president-elect. Then, in 2028 and 2029, she will assume the presidency of AAWE.
In 2023, Kijewski-Correa was selected as director of the Pulte Institute for Global Development within Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. Previously within the Keough School, she was founding co-director of the Integration Lab (i-Lab).
Previous AAWE presidents include Kijewski-Correa’s Notre Dame colleague, Ahsan Kareem, the Robert M. Moran Professor of Engineering, who was elected in 1994.
—Mary Hendriksen, Notre Dame Engineering