Dr. Stephanie E. Chang

Stephanie E. Chang is a professor at the University of British Columbia, jointly appointed in the School of Community and Regional Planning and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. Her work aims to bridge the gap between engineering, natural sciences, and social sciences in addressing complex issues of disaster risk and resilience. Her research has ranged from empirical investigation of economic impacts in major urban disasters to computer modeling of disaster risk and analysis of risk reduction strategies. She is particularly interested in issues of disaster recovery and resilience, urban risk dynamics, infrastructure systems, and coastal cities.

Dr. Chang has held a Canada Research Chair in Disaster Management and Urban Sustainability (Tier 2, 2004~2013). She was awarded the 2001 Shah Family Innovation Prize by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), was EERI’s 2011 Distinguished Lecturer, and received the 2018 Distinguished Research Award from the Integrated Disaster Risk Management Society (IDRiM). She has served on the editorial boards of Earthquake Spectra, Environmental Hazards, and Natural Hazards. She was also on the U.S. National Research Council’s Committee on Disaster Research in the Social Sciences and its Committee on Earthquake Resilience, and recently served on the Council of Canadian Academies’ expert panel on Disaster Resilience in a Changing Climate. She received her BSE in Civil Engineering from Princeton University and MSc and PhD in Regional Science from Cornell University.

On the BRIDGE project, Dr. Chang serves as principal investigator, as well as lead for the UBC group working on the Vancouver, Calgary, and Seoul case studies.

Contact Dr. Chang: stephanie.chang@ubc.ca