I research how to make infrastructure and community more resilient.
Diako Abbasi’s interest in civil engineering dates back to an incident from his childhood in Iran. A major earthquake hit the country in 2003, leaving a high death toll. The tragedy left Diako wondering why buildings weren’t built better to help protect people, and this sparked his interest in structural and disaster resilience engineering. He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, and his M.Sc. at Sharif University of Technology. One of his professors suggested he look at options abroad when applying to doctoral programs, so that he could find more options in disaster resilience. This led him to UMD, where he started pursuing his PhD in 2022. He is now doing disaster resilience research with his faculty advisor, Dr. Allison Reilly.
Diako loves research; he is currently working on five or six different projects, with Dr. Reilly and other faculty members at UMD and across the country. The common denominator of these projects is “looking at how natural disaster impacts community” and “making infrastructure and community more resilient,” he says. One of these projects examines how hurricanes affect prolonged school closures and the social and environmental factors that influence recovery times, as well as whether climate change will lead to increased school closures in future. Another of his projects involves studying how floods and hurricanes impact electric vehicle infrastructure.
Diako appreciates the environment of the department, in which it is easy to get to know people. The Graduate Student Council has events often, so “you don’t feel isolated,” he says. He also observes that many of the faculty, including Dr. Bensi and Dr. Niemeier, have been willing to help him with his research.
Diako is the Chair of Membership NSF NHERI Graduate Student Council. He is also Treasurer for the Iranian Graduate Student Foundation (IGSF) and is Secretary and Treasurer of the Engineering and infrastructure Specialty Group (EISG) of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). Last year, he also served as a UMD Senator, which he says allowed him to see university issues from multiple perspectives and work to solve them. In his spare time, Diako enjoys sports, board games, and outdoor activities.
Diako hopes to graduate in Summer or Fall of 2026. He may continue on in academia, or work in the research side of industry. “I really like research,” he says, because he enjoys finding solutions to problems. This desire to find solutions is what has driven him from childhood through his time at the Clark School, and will continue to motivate him moving forward.
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