Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Judith Mitrani-Reiser (Fed)
Senior Research Scientist
Dr. Judith Mitrani-Reiser is a Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and has dedicated her career to reduction of losses from disasters and failures in our built environment. Judy previously served as the Associate Chief of the Materials and Structural Systems Division and the Director of the Disaster & Failure Studies Program of the Engineering Laboratory at NIST. Before switching to a career in public service, she served on the faculty of the Departments of Civil Engineering and of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. She has led research projects and transdisciplinary teams in multi-hazard impacts, community resilience, evacuation modeling, and performance of healthcare facilities.
Judy currently leads NIST's National Construction Safety Team (NCST) investigation of the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida. She also leads the mortality project of the NCST investigation of Hurricane Maria’s impacts on Puerto Rico. At NIST, she provides leadership for national hazards reduction programs, including the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP).
Judy received her Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2007, M.S. in Structural Engineering, Mechanics, and Materials from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001, and B.S. in Civil and Coastal Engineering from the University of Florida in 2000.
Judy currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE), and on the Executive Committee of CROSS-US (Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures – US). She previously served as the Vice President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) in 2021, on EERI’s Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021, and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), where she co-founded SEI’s Committee on Multi-Hazard Mitigation. Judy was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni at the University of California, Berkeley in 2021, and has received several NIST awards for her mentorship, dedication to a safe working environment, and her advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.