Lori Graham-Brady

Lori Graham-Brady is a professor of civil and systems engineering and serves as the Whiting School of Engineering’s vice dean for faculty. She is the current director of the JHU Center on AI for Materials in Extreme Environments(CAIMEE). She was the former director of the Center for Materials in Extreme Dynamic Environments, a collaborative program funded by—and in partnership with—the Army Research Labs for implementing multiscale modeling and design of materials for extreme dynamic environments, in particular designing ceramics and composites for armor applications. She was also the founding director of the Center on High-throughput Materials for Extremes (HT-MAX) and the founding associate director of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI) from 2012 to 2024.

Graham-Brady’s research on stochastic mechanics and multiscale materials modeling provides a fundamental understanding of the connections between material-scale uncertainties and the performance and reliability of structures. Her most recent work leverages machine learning tools to solve complex mechanics problems. She led the development of a new facility related to AI for Materials Design (AIMD), an automated and autonomous capability that focuses on the design of materials for high-strain and temperature-rate environments.

Her innovations in furthering engineering education include a seven-year study for the National Science Foundation’s flagship program, Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, or IGERT, on modeling complex systems and developing the scientific basis of coupling multiscale multiphysics models. From 2008 to 2016, Graham-Brady directed the JHU Modeling Complex Systems IGERT for 25 PhD JHU students from six departments, with nearly 50% participation by women, first-generation college students, or members of STEM underrepresented minorities. She initiated new professional development courses, a technical course related to modeling, and the program’s foundational peer interaction—a student-run colloquium series. From 2015 to 2021, Graham-Brady served as chair of the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering and helped lead the transformation of the Department of Civil Engineering into the expanded and refocused Department of Civil and Systems Engineering in 2019.

She holds secondary appointments in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Ceramic Society, and Society of Women Engineers. Her extensive leadership of the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute includes serving on the EMI board of governors from 2011 to 2014, chairing its Probabilistic Methods Committee, and serving on the ASCE EMI awards and nominating committees.

Her awards include the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the International Association for Structural Safety and Reliability Junior Research Prize, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, and the William H. Huggins Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is a Fellow of ASCE EMI and the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics.

A sought-after reviewer of more than 200 papers for structures and mechanics journals, Graham-Brady is an associate editor for the ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics and also serves on the editorial boards of Structural Safety, Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics, and Mechanics of Materials.

She received her bachelor’s in engineering sciences from Dartmouth College, a master’s in civil engineering, and her PhD in civil engineering and operations research from Princeton University.