Mark Abkowitz
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, UNITED STATES
Expert in enterprise risk management, hazardous materials transportation, and impacts of extreme weather on infrastructure adaptation.
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Biography
Mark Abkowitz specializes in enterprise risk management, hazardous materials transportation safety and security, assessing the impacts of extreme weather on infrastructure adaptation, and spatial analysis of freight transportation systems. He has authored more than one hundred publications on these topics, and has appeared on National Public Radio, Fox National News and CNBC to discuss issues of national importance. He has served as a researcher and consultant to a wide variety of businesses and government agencies.
Areas of Expertise (10)
Extreme Weather and Infrastructure
Enterprise Risk Management
Spatial Analysis
Infrastructure Resilience
Risk Assessment
Risk Management
Risk Assessment and Management
Freight Transportation
Disaster Preparedness
Hazardous materials transportation
Accomplishments (3)
Appointed Member, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Appointed to this position by President George W. Bush in June 2002
Distinguished Service Award, National Academy of Sciences
Recipient of the 1996 Distinguished Service Award from the National Academy of Sciences for his leadership role with the Transportation Research Board
Charles H. Hochman Lifetime Achievement Award
Received for contributions to hazardous materials transportation research
Education (1)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Civil Engineering
Links (1)
Selected Media Appearances (5)
Of Note: Vanderbilt, Gresham Smith collaborate on campus safety study
Nashville Post online
2024-09-27
Nashville-based design firm Gresham Smith and Vanderbilt University have announced the results of a campus safety study that found six priority “hot spots” that need improvements. “During this pilot study, we learned that incorporating wearable technology with new tools like MPATH can really provide valuable insights into how people react to their surroundings,” Dr. Mark Abkowitz, Vanderbilt professor of civil and environmental engineering and co-author of the study, said in the release.
Climate adaptation is a necessity and no longer an option
The Hill online
2020-10-13
Wildfires, inland and coastal flooding, heat waves, droughts and other climate disasters have become seemingly daily occurrences, with no location on the planet immune to such threats. Many of these events have catastrophic consequences in terms of human casualties, property damage and environmental destruction. Beyond that, there are also indirect effects that can cripple an entire region, such as supply chain disruption, economic decline and loss of social connection.
It’s Hurricane Preparedness Week, and communities aren’t ready for both coronavirus and a disaster
The Conversation online
2020-05-05
Hurricane season is only weeks away, and many communities are only now considering how to handle a large-scale disaster on top of the coronavirus pandemic.
Can your community handle a natural disaster and coronavirus at the same time?
The Conversation online
2020-04-30
The tornadoes that swept across the Southeast this spring were a warning to communities nationwide: Disasters can happen at any time, and the coronavirus pandemic is making them more difficult to manage and potentially more dangerous.
TDOT knew of I-24 landslide threat years before weekend storm. Hundreds more sites are at risk.
Tennessean online
2019-02-25
“I think it certainly underscores it was a location you had to prioritize,” said Mark Abkowitz, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt and one of the study’s authors. “It looked like something that could happen, and it did.”
