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Katherine Johnson (Fed)
Social Scientist
Katherine J. Johnson (Jo) is a social scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Her research applies social science methods to improve engineering practice and reduce risk to the public from natural hazards.
Jo's work at NIST focuses on improving the performance and resilience of the built environment—buildings and essential infrastructure—to withstand the impacts of natural hazards. She's studied several disaster events in the field, including Hurricane Michael in Florida, the Cook Inlet Earthquake in Alaska, and the Maui wildfires in Hawaii. She is currently leading projects to:
- Advance emergency communications: Her team improves how people receive information during and after disasters by documenting lessons learned from Hurricane Maria’s impacts in Puerto Rico in 2017.
- Develop functional recovery performance objectives: She assists engineers in creating goals for future performance standards for how buildings can meet the recovery needs of occupants and owners after a disaster.
- Consider future needs for building codes/standards: Her work helps to identify areas of need for the development of future building codes and standards to better handle natural hazard pressures and extreme events.