Mark Abkowitz
Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor of Engineering Management
Director, Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Intellectual Neighborhoods
Research Focus
Risk management, risk assessment, infrastructure resilience, freight transportation, spatial analysis, disaster preparedness
Biography
Mark Abkowitz holds an appointment as Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Professor of Engineering Management at Vanderbilt University, and serves as Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies (VCEMS). Dr. Abkowitz received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. 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 well over one hundred publications on these topics, and has appeared on National Public Radio, Fox National News and CNBC to discuss issues of national importance. Dr. Abkowitz has served as a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, appointed to this position by President George W. Bush in June 2002. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the National Academy of Sciences for his leadership role with the Transportation Research Board. He is also the recipient of Charles H. Hochman Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to hazardous materials transportation research, and has been inducted into the American Academy of Environmental Engineers as a Board Certified Member.
Dr. Abkowitz has served as a researcher and consultant to a wide variety of businesses and government agencies, and is the founder and former chairman of Visual Risk Technologies. He is the author of Operational Risk Management - A Case Study Approach to Effective Planning and Response, published by John Wiley & Sons.