Ph.D., GeoSystems Engineering, Class of 2026
Geoengineering Graduate Student Association Board Member
2025–2026 Jane Lewis Fellowship Recipient
“My research is focused on improving risk mitigation, infrastructure resilience, and evidence-based policymaking.”
Compiled by Pooja Nerkar
GeoSystems Ph.D. candidate Mirna Kassem, working with CEE Professor Dimitrios Zekkos, has been awarded the 2025–2026 Jane Lewis Fellowship. This prestigious and highly competitive award supports cutting-edge research in mining engineering and related fields, recognizing Mirna’s outstanding contributions to landslide hazard assessment and risk reduction.
As part of the fellowship, Mirna is developing a 3D predictive model for rainfall-induced landslides to enhance Landslide Early Warning Systems (LAWS). Her research aims to strengthen the resilience of both existing mines vulnerable to long-term failure and newly excavated sites at risk of immediate instability.
“My research is focused on regional-scale predictive modeling of rainfall-induced and co-seismic landslides,” she explains. “The goal is to improve risk mitigation, infrastructure resilience, and evidence-based policymaking.”
At the core of her work is a mechanistic, data-driven framework for assessing landslide susceptibility. She leverages high-performance computing (HPC), parallel processing, and advanced data analytics to conduct high-resolution, large-scale simulations of landslide hazards across complex terrain.
Her interdisciplinary approach bridges geotechnical engineering, hydrology, geomorphology, remote sensing, and machine learning, equipping her to tackle some of today’s most urgent natural hazard challenges. She also examines how climate change and land-use dynamics influence slope stability over time.
Mirna’s overarching goal is to build more resilient and adaptive communities by reducing the societal and economic impacts of landslides. Through her research, she’s helping lay the foundation for a safer and more sustainable future, both for civil infrastructure and the mining industry.