Deb Niemeier is the Clark Distinguished Chair and Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland. She partners with sociologists, planners, geographers, veterinary medicine and education faculty to study such topics as formal and informal governance processes in urban landscapes and how to characterize risk associated with outcomes in the intersection of finance, housing and infrastructure and environmental hazards. She was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for “distinguished contributions to energy and environmental science study and policy development.” She is a Guggenheim Fellow for foundational work on pro bono service in engineering and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.