Claudia Reis is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University. Dr. Reis teaches Coastal and Offshore Infrastructure Engineering, Structural Analysis I and Finite Element Method in Structural Engineering classes.
A structural engineer by training, Dr. Reis focuses most of her research on fluid-soil-structure interactions in the framework of coastal and offshore engineering and multi-risk management. She is conducting research on multi-scale and multi-physics domains to model critical infrastructure located in multi-hazard prone regions.
Dr. Reis joined the leadership of the NHERI Lehigh Experimental Facility as a Co-Co-Principal Investigator. She is teaming up with Dr. Ricles (PI) and Dr. Sause (co-PI) to lead the facility, located within the Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems Engineering Research Center (Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure & Energy, I-CPIE). She will oversee the development and implementation of fluid-structure interaction into multi-physics real-time hybrid simulation.
Dr. Reis is also the co-PI of a Transportation Systems Research Program project funded by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). The project with Topic 6 – Going beyond earthquakes is entitled “Cascading Seismic and Tsunami Loads for the Design of Open Wharves” and aims to conduct targeted multi-hazard assessments for US ports located in tsunami-prone regions and develop models of the fluid-soil-structure of port systems. A systematic identification of vulnerabilities will result in recommendations for the design of wharves with open typology to meet higher performance criteria under extreme events.
Previous work includes characterizing the structural performance of critical coastal infrastructure to cascading earthquake and tsunami multi-hazards. The numerical schemes and coupling techniques used to model the multi-scale, multi-physics domains have been adopted to conduct: (1) research on both the NSF-awarded Cascadia Coastlines and People Hazards Research (COPES) Hub, and NIST-awarded Center of Excellence for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning (CoE) projects, and (2) consultancy for designing critical systems to elevated levels of performance criteria.
Dr. Reis’ research in engineering and natural hazards has been recognized and published in leading peer-reviewed journals. She serves on the editorial board of scientific journals and is a reviewer for other journals as well. She has been part of conferences’ committees, convenor and chairperson.
Dr. Reis serves on evaluation panels for scientific projects proposed for funding on scientific axis related to Structural and Geotechnical Engineering and Climate and Earth System. She is part of national and international structural engineering and natural hazard committees, such as the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) and International Federation for Structural Concrete (FIB). At Lehigh, she has served as a member of the department search and examination committees.
As a Professional Engineer, Dr. Reis is a consultant providing design recommendations contributing to sustainable policies for industrial development. As part of previous consulting work, she was involved in the design and rehabilitation of critical infrastructure, and on software development and validation for academic and commercial entities.
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