I’m happy to share an important milestone in my life: I successfully passed my Ph.D. defense on November 21! My dissertation is titled “Hurricane Risk Assessment of Power Transmission Systems: From Physics-Based Surrogates to Parameterized Fragility Models.“
It’s been quite a journey—full of challenges, endurance, and sacrifice—and I’m grateful that I made it through thanks to the caring and supportive people around me.
I am forever indebted to my research advisor, Dr. Paolo Bocchini, for his unwavering love and support throughout this journey. He is truly the bee’s knees! 🐝 His rigor, dedication, wisdom, and kindness will continue to inspire me in my future career and life. I am also grateful to my committee—Dr. Richard Sause (Chair), Dr. Farrah Moazeni, Dr. Ethan Yang, Ph.D., GISP, and Dr. Jamie Padgett—for their valuable support and suggestions at different stages and in various forms.
My heartfelt thanks also go to the faculty, staff, and friends at CEE department, ATLSS center, and Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience. At the end of the day, it’s the people I will remember most, and it’s the kindness that truly matters. I’m grateful to have met so many wonderful individuals during my time at Lehigh.
Going forward, I’m excited to share that I will be joining Dr. Carmine Galasso’s research group as a Research Fellow at University College London. I look forward to contributing to impactful projects and collaborating with brilliant researchers at UCL and around the world. Thank you to everyone who has supported and cheered me on throughout this process. Moving across continents and entering a new unknown is a bit scary—but I’ve spent my Ph.D. studying uncertainty, so bring it on!
And finally, for those who attended my defense—you know I promised to create a “masterpiece” to complete the circle of the drawing I made after passing my Ph.D. proposal (left). You can now find that masterpiece to the right.
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