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Rachel A. Davidson
Ph.D, Stanford University
Associate Professor

Office: 360B DuPont Hall
Phone: (302) 831-4952
Fax: (302) 831-3640
Email: rdavidso@udel.edu
Curriculum Vitae:  pdf

[ Short Bio | Education | Awards | Select Publications | Courses ]

Short Bio

Rachel Davidson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a core faculty member in the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. After completing her B.S.E. from Princeton University and M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, she spent two years at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, then six years at Cornell University, both as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering. Following a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University, she joined the faculty at the University of Delaware and the Disaster Research Center in 2007.

Davidson conducts research on natural disaster risk modeling and civil infrastructure systems. Her work involves developing new engineering models to better characterize the impact of future natural disasters, and use that understanding to support decisions to help reduce future losses. It focuses particularly on lifelines (e.g., electric power, water supply) and risk from a regional perspective; on earthquakes and hurricanes. Problems in this field typically involve a great deal of uncertainty, a long time horizon, multiple and competing objectives, and sometimes numerous and conflicting constituencies. They are often spatial and dynamic, and the technical aspects must be understood in the social, economic, political, and cultural context in which they exist. She is currently a mentor for the NSF-funded "Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards and Disaster Researchers" program.



Education

1997: Ph.D, Stanford University
1994: Master, Stanford University
1993: Bachelor, Princeton University

Honors and Awards

Best paper award: Society for Risk Analysis, Risk Analysis journal (2007)
Best poster award: 9th International Association of Fire Safety Science Symposium (2008)
Nominated for Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize: American Society of Civil Engineers (2006)
Chosen as Most Influential Faculty Member by a Merrill Presidential Scholar: Cornell University (2005)
Dorothy Swanson Excellence in Teaching Award: Cornell University College of Engineering (2004)
Invited participant in the National Academy of Engineering Seventh Annual Symposium on Frontiers: Irvine, CA (3/02)
National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award: (7/00-6/04)
National Science Foundation Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education: (7/00-12/01)
National Science Foundation Three-Year Graduate Fellowship: (9/93-6/97)
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Student Paper Competition winner: 1997

Select Publications

Legg, M., Nozick, L., and Davidson, R. Optimizing the selection of hazard-consistent probabilistic scenarios for long-term regional hurricane loss estimation. Structural Safety, in press.
 
Lee, S., and Davidson, R. Application of a physics-based simulation model to examine post-earthquake fire spread. Journal of Earthquake Engineering, in press.
 
Lee, S., and Davidson, R. Physics-based simulation model of post-earthquake fire spread. Journal of Earthquake Engineering, in press.
 

Vaziri, P., Davidson, R., Nozick, L., and Hosseini, M. Resource allocation for regional earthquake risk mitigation: A case study of Tehran, Iran. Natural Hazards, in press.

 

Davidson, R. Modeling Post-earthquake fire ignitions using generalized linear (mixed) models. Journal of Infrastructure Systems, in press.

 

Tabucchi, T., Davidson, R., and Brink, S. Simulation of post-earthquake water supply system restoration. Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, in press.

 

Lee, S., Davidson, R., Scawthorn, C., and Ohnishi, N. 2008. Fire following earthquake- Review of the state-of-the-art modeling. Earthquake Spectra, 24(4), 1-35.

 

Han, S., Guikema, S., Quiring, S., Lee, K., Rosowsky, D., and Davidson, R. 2009. Estimating the spatial distribution of power outages during hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region. Reliability Engineering and System Safety 94(2), 199-210.

 

Liu, H., Davidson, R., and Apanasovich, T. 2008. Spatial generalized linear mixed models of electric power outages due to hurricanes and ice storms. Reliability Engineering and System Safety 93(6), 897-912.

 

Liu, H., Davidson, R., and Apanasovich, T. Statistical forecasting of electric power restoration times in hurricanes and ice storms. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 22(4), 2270-2279.

 

Cagnan, Z., and Davidson, R. 2007. Discrete event simulation of the post-earthquake restoration process for electric power systems. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 7(8), 1138-1156.

 

Xu, N., Guikema, S., Davidson, R., Nozick, L., Cagnan, Z., and Vaziri, K. 2007. Optimizing scheduling of post-earthquake electric power restoration tasks. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, Special Issue: Electric Power 36(2), 265-284.

 

Xu, N., Davidson, R., Nozick, L., and Dodo, A. 2007. The risk-return tradeoff in optimizing regional earthquake mitigation investment. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering 3(2), 133-146.

 

Jain, V., and Davidson, R. 2007. Application of a regional hurricane wind risk forecasting model for wood-frame houses. Risk Analysis 27(1), 45-58. Winner of Best Paper Award, Society for Risk Analysis.

 

Jain, V., and Davidson, R. 2007. Forecasting changes in the hurricane wind vulnerability of a building inventory. Journal of Infrastructure Systems 13(1), 1-12.

 

Dodo, A., Davidson, R., Xu, N., and Nozick, L. 2007. Application of regional earthquake mitigation optimization. Computers and Operations Research 34(8), 2478-2494.

 

Cagnan, Z., Davidson, R., and Guikema, S. 2006. Post-earthquake restoration planning for Los Angeles electric power. Earthquake Spectra 22(3), 1-20.

 

Guikema, S., Davidson, R., and Liu, H. 2006. Statistical models of the effects of tree trimming on power system reliability. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery 21(3), 1549-1557.

 

Davidson, R., Lembo, Jr., A., Ma, J., Nozick, L., and O'Rourke, T. 2006. Optimization of investments in natural gas distribution networks. Journal of Energy Engineering 132(2), 1-9.

 

Liu, H., Davidson, R. Rosowsky, D. and Stedinger, J. 2005. Negative binomial regression of electric power outages in hurricanes. Journal of Infrastructure Systems 11(4), 258-267.

 

Dodo, A., Xu, N. Davidson, R. and Nozick, L. 2005. Optimizing regional earthquake mitigation investment strategies. Earthquake Spectra 21(2), 305-327.

 

(Kumar) Jain, V., Davidson, R., and Rosowsky, D. 2005. Modeling changes in hurricane risk over time. Natural Hazards Review 6(2), 88-96.

Courses Taught

2009-2010
Fall CIEG 211 Statics
Spring CIEG 641 Risk Analysis


Highlights
Jack Puleo has won the NSF Early Career Development Award
Jack Puleo, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Delaware, has received a prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award to study swash zone sediment transport. The swash zone is the area near the shoreline where waves wash up and down the beach face.

The five-year $444,229 award is aimed at developing a broader understanding of the physics of coastal sediment transport in this area, thereby leading to significant improvement in the ability to predict such coastal phenomena as beach erosion and beach nourishment performance.

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