Natalie Coleman, an undergraduate student in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.
Coleman, who graduates in August with a bachelor’s degree and will enter the department's Ph.D. program in the fall, will continue her research on social inequalities and risk disparities associated with service disruptions caused by natural hazards. The fellowship provides three years of support for the graduate education of recipients, including a $34,000 annual stipend and a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance. Fellows have access to a wide range of professional development opportunities throughout their graduate careers.
“Given the interdisciplinary nature of the research, I can integrate the physical and social vulnerabilities to have a bigger picture of the hardships experienced by communities,” Coleman said. “I am passionate about incorporating a more human dimension into the civil engineering perspective to ensure that members of a community have access to infrastructure services during extreme events.”
For Coleman, her research is personal. She had friends and family who were impacted by Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Harvey and saw firsthand how their backgrounds affected their ability to withstand and recover from disasters.
Her work focuses on the societal impacts of infrastructure service disruptions on different social subpopulations in a community. It investigates whether the social characteristics of a community can influence the disaster experience.
“In my research, I have statistically analyzed information from empirical surveys, online sources and national databases. The findings created theoretical frameworks, spatial maps and models to potentially help emergency planners, community leaders and utility managers understand the social impacts of these service disruptions,” Coleman said. “This can bridge the gap between disaster research, policy and practice for infrastructure resilience. Using this information, infrastructure systems can be restored and prioritized based on the needs of the community.”
As a civil engineering student, Coleman strives to build and maintain communities by applying the lessons she's learned in the classroom to real-world problems. Infrastructure systems are vitally important to communities because residents continuously depend on the services from the systems.
"My interdisciplinary research has allowed me to combine my knowledge in civil engineering and social sciences to tackle grand challenges facing our society," she said. "Research has also allowed me to meet, collaborate with and mentor so many brilliant people working in infrastructure resilience.”
As an undergraduate student, Coleman participated in several research projects with the Urban Resilience Lab. She completed her undergraduate thesis on social inequalities and risk disparities in power, communication, water and transportation outages caused by Hurricane Harvey.
With the research grant, Coleman will continue her work in the Urban Resilience Lab and hopes to help other students find their passions for research.
"I hope to give back to the scientific community by mentoring the next generation of students," she said. "My undergraduate research experiences allow me to encourage students who would not have imagined themselves as researchers."
Coleman said as an undergraduate researcher she was fortunate to work with faculty advisor and associate professor Dr. Ali Mostafavi and her doctoral mentor, Amir Esmalian.
Each year, the NSF recognizes the work of the country's most outstanding graduate students across disciplines in science, engineering and mathematics.
Established in 1952, the fellowship program was designed to recognize and provide support to students in NSF-supported engineering, technology, science and mathematics disciplines, helping produce subject matter experts who can make significant contributions to teaching, research and innovations. It has funded more than 50,000 fellowships since its inception.