Abigail L. Beck

Abigail L. Beck is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Houston in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, transitioning to Assistant Professor in September 2025. Her work bridges civil engineering with social systems, focusing on probabilistic infrastructure analysis and equity-driven disaster recovery.

• Education:
  • Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2024)
  • M.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2020)
  • B.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin (2019)

Her research develops models connecting infrastructure failures to socioeconomic impacts, emphasizing equity in decision-making. She specializes in probabilistic analysis, community stakeholder engagement, and critical infrastructure prioritization, particularly for post-disaster scenarios.

Recent publications analyze socially-aware retrofit strategies for power networks (2023) and probabilistic frameworks for quantifying social impacts of infrastructure nodes (2022). Themes include equity, resilience, and stakeholder-driven mitigation planning.

• Scientific Awards:
  • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2020-2023)
  • Student Best Paper/Poster Awards (ICOSSAR 2022, Natural Hazards Summit 2024)
  • Mavis Future Faculty Fellowship (2023-2024)

Her outreach includes game-based education tools like "Cookout Community" (2023) and NSF-funded travel awards for international conference participation. She’s advised by Dr. Eun Joo Cha in her research.