Director

Sayanti Mukherjee, Ph.D.

I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. My research is highly multidisciplinary and focuses on quantitative modeling of various types of systemic impacts on the critical infrastructure systems and communities, conduct risk-informed decision analysis, and propose sustainable adaptation strategies to foster sustainability and resilience improvement of our built environment and communities.

Google Scholar
LinkedIn Profile
  1. Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Aug 2017)
    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
    Advisor: Dr. Makarand Hastak
    Dissertation: Towards a resilient grid: A risk-based decision analysis incorporating the impacts of severe weather-induced power outages
  2. M.S. in Economics (May 2016)
    Focus area: Econometrics
    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
  3. M.S. in Civil Engineering (Dec 2011)
    Iowa State University, Ames, IA
    Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Shane
    Thesis: Identification, assessment and proposing mitigation strategies for the risks involved in operations and maintenance activities on highways—crash data analysis and development of integrated risk management model
  4. B.S. in Construction Engineering and Management (Jun 2008)
    Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
  1. Assistant Professor (Aug 2018—Present)
    Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
    University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY
  2. Adjunct Assistant Professor (Aug 2023—Present)
    Department of Electrical Engineering
    University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY
  3. Affiliate Faculty (May 2024—Present)
    Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (IAD)
    University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY
  4. Visiting Assistant Professor (Jan 2018—Jul 2018)
    (joint appointment with Postdoctoral & Visiting Scholar position)
    School of Industrial Engineering
    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
  5. Postdoctoral Research Assistant (Aug 2017—Jul 2018)
    School of Civil Engineering (Division: Construction Engineering and Management)
    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Society Awards
Outstanding Young Investigator Award 2021
Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineering (IISE)
Energy Systems (ES) Division
Best Paper Awards
SRA Student Best Paper Award: 2nd place 2024
International Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
Engineering and Infrastructure Specialty Group (EISG)
Paper: Evaluating Impacts of Hurricane Fiona across Puerto Rico through a Hybrid Qualitative Approach Leveraging AI

SRA Student Best Paper Award 2023
International Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
Justice, Equity and Risk Specialty Group (JERSG)
Paper: Data-Driven Analysis of Equity in Wildfire Resource Allocation

SRA Student Best Paper Award 2023
International Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
Engineering and Infrastructure Systems Specialty Group (EISG)
Paper: Examining disparities in access to critical facilities using fine-grained human mobility network

IISE Work Systems Best Student Paper 2nd place 2023
Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineering (IISE)
Work Systems Division
Paper: Forecasting Spatial-temporal Variations in Emergency Shelter Demand Leveraging Human Mobility Data: A Data-Centric Multivariate Framework

IISE Work Systems Best Track Paper 2nd place 2023
Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineering (IISE)
Work Systems Division
Paper: Forecasting Spatial-temporal Variations in Emergency Shelter Demand Leveraging Human Mobility Data: A Data-Centric Multivariate Framework

IISE DAIS Best Student Paper Finalist 2022
Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineering (IISE)
Data Analytics & Information Systems (DAIS) Track
Paper: Mapping Human Mobility Variation and Identifying Critical Services During a Disaster Using Dynamic Mobility Network

SRA Student Best Paper Award 2021
International Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
Occupational Health and Safety Specialty Group (OHSSG)
Paper: Investigating Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among US Physicians during COVID-19: A Data-centric Approach Based on Survey Data

Risk Analysis Best Paper Award 2019
Risk Analysis Journal
Paper: A data-driven approach to assess supply inadequacy risks related to climate-sensitive electricity demand

IEEE Best Conference Paper 2017
Selected as one of the Best Conference Papers submitted to the 2017 IEEE PES General Meeting and presented at one of the four concurrent Best Conference Paper sessions
Paper: Estimating Climate—Demand Nexus to Support Long-term Adequacy Planning in the Energy Sector
Energy Sector
PMI Jury Best Paper Award 2017
PMI Project Management Research & Academic Conference, Delhi India
Paper: Optimal selection of transmission line rehabilitation strategies to minimize power transmission costs
My Academic Awards
1st Rank in B.S. Civil Engineering (2008)
Jadavpur University, Kolkata India

University Gold Medal (2008)
Jadavpur University, Kolkata India

Prabhat Kumar Memorial Gold Medal (2008)
Jadavpur University, Kolkata India

1st rank in the National Level Technical Paper Presentation (2008)
Hyderabad, India
Awards received by my students
Student Merit Award (Honorable Mention): Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)’s Engineering and Infrastructure Specialty Group (EISG) (2024)
Poulomee Roy, Ph.D. Student

Drury/Thomas Scholarship Recipient 2023-2024 (2024)
Poulomee Roy, M.S. Student

Winner of the UB ISE Poster Competition (2024)
Zhiyuan Wei, Ph.D. Student

Student Merit Award: SRA Justice, Equity and Risk Specialty Group (JERSG) (2023)
Fatima Umar, M.S. Student

Student Merit Award: Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)’s Engineering and Infrastructure Specialty Group (EISG) (2023)
Zhiyuan Wei, Ph.D. Student

ISE Graduate Student Research Award (2023)
Prasangsha Ganguly, Ph.D. Student

ISE Graduate Student Teaching Award (2023)
Zhiyuan Wei, Ph.D. Student

ISE Graduate Student Teaching Award – Honorable Mention (2022)
Zhiyuan Wei, Ph.D. Student

Student Merit Award: Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)’s Occupational Health and Safety Specialty Group (OHSSG) (2021)
Zhiyuan Wei, Ph.D. Student

 

    1. Consulting for Versar Inc.:
      Served as an external peer reviewer for the Climate Change Indicators Report, published
      by the U.S. EPA’s Climate Change Division (CCD) in the Office of Atmospheric Programs (OAP)
      in the U.S. [2020].

    1. Consulting for Customer Care Network, Inc. and New York Power Authority:
      Providing expert advice on energy demand forecasting models, assessing issues of the existing
      models used for energy pricing and energy management decision making, and conducting focus
      group meetings sharing the findings and recommendations [2018-2019].

  1. Project Engineer at M.N. Dastur & Company Consulting Firm:
    Worked on several civil engineering projects as a planning and scheduling engineer [2008-2010].



Professional Committees
  • Competition Judge for JUMP into STEM 2022-2023 Program –
    Program organized by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NREL,
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and U.S. Department of Energy
    (2022-2023)
  • Review Committee Member for the IISE Energy Systems Division
    Outstanding Young Investigator Award (2022)
  • Track Chair of the Data Analytics & Information Systems (DAIS)
    Track at the IISE Annual Conference & Expo (2022)
  • Chair of the Risk Science Committee, International Society for Risk Analysis
    (2021-Present)
  • Guest Editor on Special Issue of Socio-economic Planning Sciences Journal (Elsevier) –
    Data-driven Approaches in Modeling Climate Risk, Resilience and Sustainability of
    Food, Energy, Water, and Health (FEWH) Systems     (2022-2023)
  • Chair of the Engineering and Infrastructure Specialty Group, Society of Risk Analysis
    (2021-2022)
  • Vice Chair of the Engineering and Infrastructure Specialty Group,
    Society of Risk Analysis (2019–2020)
  • Reviewer Board Member of Climate Journal (MDPI) (2020-Present)
  • Editorial Board of Sustainable Infrastructures as Review Editor for
    Frontiers in Sustainable Cities (2020-Present)
  • Member of the Global Leadership Forum for Construction Engineering and
    Management Programs (GLF-CEM) Executive Committee (2020-2021)



Conference Leadership
  • Session Moderator, Department of Energy (DOE) Cybersecurity and
    Technology Innovation Conference –
    Next Generation Grid Use Cases: Risk Science for Grid Security and Resilience
    (2022)
  • Lead Organizer and Facilitator of an NSF-funded Workshop,
    Natural Hazards Conference 2024 –
    Add-On Meeting: Equitable Wildfire Emergency Management and Critical
    Infrastructure Systems     [Link] (July 2024)
  • Symposium Chair, Society for Risk Analysis General Meeting –
    Confronting the Wildfire Crisis Leveraging Risk-informed Wildfire Preparedness
    and Recovery Strategies     (December 2024)
  • Symposium Chair, Society for Risk Analysis General Meeting –
    Towards Enhancing Power Grid Resilience Under Climatic Extremes
    (December 2022)
  • Symposium Chair, Society for Risk Analysis General Meeting –
    Data-Centric Approaches for Efficient Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change
    Adaptation in the Digital Era     (December 2021)
  • Symposium Chair, Society for Risk Analysis General Meeting –
    Machine Learning and AI Towards Advancing Community and Infrastructure
    Risk and Resilience     (December 2021)
  • Symposium Chair, Society for Risk Analysis General Meeting –
    Big Data, Predictive Analytics and Risk Informed Decision Making in
    Healthcare System     (December 2020)
  • Judge, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Doctoral Student
    Colloquium (November 2020)
  • Symposium Chair, Society for Risk Analysis General Meeting –
    Data-driven Risk Modeling using Predictive Analytics Approach
    (December 2019)
  • Session Chair, INFORMS General Meeting –
    Sustainable and Resilient Energy Systems (October 2019)
  • Session Chair, INFORMS Healthcare Conference –
    Public Health and Health Policy (July 2019)
  • Session Chair, Construction Research Congress Conference (April 2018)
  • Session Chair, INFORMS Annual Meeting –
    Environmental Decision Analytics (November 2018)
  • Session Chair, INFORMS Annual Meeting –
    Risk and Decision Analytics (November 2018)



Proposal Reviewer / Panelist
  • Reviewer: University of Michigan’s Graham Sustainability Institute –
    FY23 Carbon Neutrality Acceleration Program (2022)
  • Panelist: National Science Foundation (NSF) – Humans, Disasters and Built
    Environment (HDBE) Program (2022)
  • Reviewer: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – The Swiss Programme
    for International Research by Scientific Investigation Teams (SPIRIT) Program
    (2022)
  • Panelist: National Science Foundation (NSF) – National Institute of Science and
    Technology (NSF-NIST) Disaster Resilience Research Grants (2021)
  • Reviewer: National Science Foundation – Decision, Risk, and Management
    Science Program (2019)



Academic Journal Reviewer
(Total articles reviewed till date: 60)
  • American Journal of Health Promotion
  • American Journal of Public Health
  • Applied Energy
  • ASCE-ASME: Journal of Risk and Uncertainties in Engineering
  • Built Environment Project and Asset Management
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Energy Systems
  • Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
  • IEEE Access
  • Nature Communications
  • OMEGA: The International Journal of Management Science
  • Reliability Engineering and System Safety
  • Risk Analysis
  • Safety Science
  • Science of Total Environment
  • Socio-Economic Planning Sciences
  • Sustainable Cities and Society



University at Buffalo (SUNY)
  • Student Retention Task Force: Member of the Data & Assessment Subcommittee
    and the Predictive Analytics Team (2020-2021)




University at Buffalo (SUNY): School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
  • Conferral Expert in Energy Systems from SEAS:
    “Help meet New York Power Authority (NYPA)’s ambitious renewable energy
    goals provided for in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
    (CLCPA)” (2023)
  • Junior Faculty Panelist: “Global Dexterity: Tips for Working in a Global
    Environment” Workshop (2018)




University at Buffalo (SUNY): Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
  • Founder and Faculty Adviser of Society for Risk Analysis UB Student Chapter
  • Graduate Affairs Committee (2021-Present)
  • Faculty Search Committee for hiring Assistant Professor for Teaching
  • Led INFORMS Student Chapter Workshop on Citation Management Software
    (2021)
  • Committee Member of the ISE 75th Anniversary Celebration
    (2020)
  • Offered guest lectures to new incoming ISE undergraduates on
    “How climate change impacts our communities” (2020-2021)
  • Led INFORMS Student Chapter Discussion Session on “The Transition
    from Ph.D. Student to Assistant Professor” (2019)
  • Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Club Faculty Co-Advisor
    (2019)
  • Faculty Search Committee for hiring Assistant Professor for Teaching (2019)
  • Faculty representative from the ISE department at the Accepted
    Graduate Student Reception (2019)
  • Committee member of ISE Strategic Planning Subcommittee on Infrastructure
    Development and Department Reputation and Pride (2018-2019)
  • ISE Department Seminar Coordinator
    • Invited Speaker of International Visitor Leadership Program
      2023
      – Hosted international visitors from Germany who came to Buffalo as part of the “Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience” project organized by the U.S. Department of State and the International Institute of Buffalo
    • Panelist for the Women in STEM Education (WiSE)
      2023
      – WiSE & Shine: Sustainability Month Event, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
    • Panelist for New Faculty Brownbag Panel Workshop
      2022
      – Surviving the First Year and Beyond, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
    • Workshop session chair at Tech Savvy Leadership Workshop
      2019
      – Science and math workshop for girls in 6-12 grades organized by American Association of University Women, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
    • Invited speaker: Middle school students’ research engagement
      2017
      – Workshop organized by Women in Engineering Program (WEP)’s I2R and the EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service), Purdue University
    • Mentoring new graduate students
      2015
      – Program conducted by the Graduate School, Purdue University
  • American Red Cross (ARC) Member
    2013
    – Actively participating in post-disaster relief operation; interviewed affected people in the community after an intensive tornado (DR 616 Indiana Tornadoes) hit Indiana

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

University at Buffalo, North Campus

The State University of New York

411 Bell Hall

Buffalo, NY 14261