Dr. Joost R. Santos, an accomplished and multi-awarded academician, is currently an Associate Professor at the George Washington University (GWU) and currently a US Fulbright Scholar, seeking to develop infrastructure and economic resilience models for enhancing disaster risk management (DRM). A prolific highly cited researcher with over 65 journals, 40 conference proceedings, and 6 book authorships, Dr. Santos was included in the list as one of the world’s top 2% researchers according to a Stanford University study in 2020. His co-authored runway resilience study for the PDX airport that sought to estimate the present value and future losses avoided by constructing a seismically resilient runway, has been recently cited by no less than US President Joe Biden in a recent speech. 

He was received various recognitions such as the IEEE Best Paper Award in April 2022, the Severino and Paz Koh Award for Engineering: Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering (PAASE) in July 2020, Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in 2015, and Professor of the Year in GWU twice, both in 2013 and in 2020. He was also awarded with the Leontief Memorial Prize by the International Input-Output Association (IIOA) in 2009, the Louis T. Rader Award by the University of Virginia (UVA) in 2014, and Best Paper Award by the Society for Risk Analysis in 2002 and 2003. He has received several National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants for studies relating to the resilience of critical interdependent infrastructure systems and processes, multi-scale models of highway transportation systems, and natural hazard mitigation.

Dr. Santos is also a member and served as a panelist and editorial board of several organizations that include the PAASE, the National Institute for Building Sciences, the IIOA, Society for Risk Analysis, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), the NSF, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Journal of Environment, Systems and Decisions.

Dr. Santos served as a visiting professor in UP Diliman, De La Salle University, and Technological Institute of the Philippines and is a DOST Balik Scientist Awardee. He took his PhD in Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Virginia and both his Masters and Bachelor’s degrees in Industrial Engineering from the UP College of Engineering.

Interested in nominating fellow alumni to this ALUMNI ENGINEER ACHIEVER campaign? Nominations are welcome and may be sent to the UPAE Secretariat at secretariat@upae.org.