Dr. Maryia Markhvida is a disaster researcher, educator, and practitioner. Her research and international development work investigate the impact of future disasters and climate on society to design equitable policies and risk reduction investments. Maryia graduated with a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from Stanford University, where she developed methods for multi-scale disaster simulations and regional recovery analysis and was one of the founding members of the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative. Maryia is also a New York-based artist and a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her artwork merges performance art, motion sensing, projection and generative artificial intelligence and is rooted in academic and embodied research.