2026 NSF NHERI GSC August General Meeting

In August, NHERI GSC welcomed Dr. Omar Nofal, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Florida International University (FIU), for a distinguished research seminar focused on advancing community resilience to natural hazards. Dr. Nofal's research lies at the intersection of natural hazards and the built environment, with expertise in community resilience planning, multi-hazard hurricane and flood risk modeling, probabilistic vulnerability assessment, and the integration of artificial intelligence, digital twins, and high-fidelity computational methods to evaluate infrastructure performance under extreme events. In this presentation, "From Multi-Hazard Risk to Post-Hazard Functionality: An Integrated Socio-Physical Community Resilience Framework for Coastal and Inland Communities," Dr. Nofal discussed innovative approaches for assessing and enhancing community resilience by bridging physical infrastructure systems with social and functional recovery dynamics. This seminar was hosted by the NSF NHERI Graduate Student Council (GSC) as part of its ongoing efforts to connect students and researchers with leading experts in natural hazards engineering and community resilience.