Biography

Dr. Jennifer Irish is a professor of coastal engineering at Virginia Tech. She is an expert in storm surge dynamics, coastal hazard assessment, and nature-based infrastructure for coastal hazard mitigation. Irish received her Bachelor's and Master's in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and her Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware. Since entering academia in 2006, as lead Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI, Irish received grants totaling $23.7 million ($3.8 million for Irish) from agencies including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Commission on Energy Policy, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant Program. Prior to joining academia in 2006, Irish served as Regional Technical Specialist in coastal engineering for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Irish has published more than 70 journal articles, and her work has been cited more than 5000 times (Google Scholar). These contributions advanced understanding in four areas within coastal engineering and science: airborne lidar bathymetry in the coastal zone, nature-based infrastructure for coastal hazard mitigation, physics of storm surge and related probabilistic hazard assessment, and impacts of sea level rise at the coast. For these contributions, Irish was honored with U.S. Fulbright’s Senior Scholar Fellowship and the Department of the Army’s Superior Civilian Service Award, among other awards. Established within the international and national engineering communities, Irish is an elected member of the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine, an elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and an elected member of ASCE’s Coastal Engineering Research Council (CERC). She currently serves as Vice Chair of ASCE’s CERC and previously served as Chair of ASCE’s standing Committee on Technical Advancement and as Secretary of ASCE’s Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute Board of Governors.