Deb Niemeier, the Clark Distinguished Chair of Energy and Sustainability at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, was awarded the 2023 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Founded in 1824, the Franklin Institute is a science museum and education center with more than 400,000 square feet of exhibit space. Dr. Niemeier will be honored at the Franklin Institute on April 27.
The Bower Award, which comes with a $250,000 cash prize, honors Professor Niemeier for “pioneering the advancement and application of knowledge at the intersections among infrastructure, environment, public health, and equity through groundbreaking research on transportation systems and climate-related hazards.”
Throughout her career, Professor Niemeier has conducted research on vehicle emissions, air quality, affordable housing, and infrastructure funding, both nationally and internationally. More recently, she has focused on aspects of the built environment that give rise to structural inequality, particularly within the context of climate change.
“Much of the STEM culture at universities is focused on entrepreneurship, so the societal contributions faculty make on ways to repair and strengthen communities can be underappreciated,” Dr. Niemeier said. “This award reflects an understanding of the value of useful knowledge, in Franklin’s perspective, for making lives better. I am very honored to have been chosen.”
Dr. Niemeier joined the University of Maryland faculty in 2019 after teaching at the University of California, Davis. In 2022, she became director of the Center for Disaster Resilience, an interdisciplinary research hub based in the department of civil and environmental engineering that specializes in better understanding and addressing the risks posed by natural hazards, including extreme weather.
Professor Niemeier is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in civil engineering. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.