Dr Hiba Baroud

Profile

Dr Hiba Baroud is an associate professor and the associate chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She holds secondary appointments in Computer Science and Earth and Environmental Science. Hiba serves as the deputy director of the Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy, and Climate. 

With a background in actuarial science and systems engineering, she conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of data analytics and risk and resilience modelling. Her group develops and applies methods founded in statistical learning, network models, and financial analysis to inform resilience and adaptation strategies. She is particularly interested in uncertain and dynamic interdependencies across complex network systems including the built, social, and natural environments. The aim of her research is to 1) determine future costs and cascading effects of climate risks, and 2) evaluate investment strategies to mitigate such risks and improve the response and recovery of critical infrastructure and communities under uncertain scenarios. Her work supports decision making for climate adaptation and resilient infrastructure planning, with applications spanning smart cities, developing communities, and Arctic nations. 

Hiba is the recipient of the 2019 Global Voices Fellowship, the 2020 National Science Foundation Early CAREER award, and the 2022 National Academy of Sciences Arab-American Frontiers Fellowship. She was selected as a member of the Global Young Academy in 2023 and named a Fellow of the International Science Council in 2024.