College of Science Graduate Students Win Top STAR-TIDES Honors for Climate Resilience Research
Three graduate students from George Mason University’s College of Science earned top honors at the 2026 STAR-TIDES Student Poster Competition for research addressing climate-related community resilience.
The competition was held as part of the 19th annual STAR-TIDES Capabilities Demonstration and Conference, hosted in April 2026 at George Mason. This year’s theme, “Reimagining Resilience: Empowering Local Communities in a Time of Uncertain Federal Support,” focused on practical, science-informed approaches that help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptive events.
Geography and Geoinformation Science PhD candidate, Fatemeh Janatabadi, placed first for her poster, “Wildfire Risk Shrinks Access to Shelters in California.” Her research examines how wildfire conditions can reduce access to emergency shelters and leave some communities with fewer reachable options during evacuation and response. The work is part of the National Science Foundation-funded project “Snuff It Out: Extinguishing the Disparity of Access to Shelters for Disadvantaged Communities in Wildfire-Prone Areas,” which develops community-based, science-informed solutions to reduce the impacts of wildfire hazards on residents in high-risk areas.
“There is often an assumption that if shelters exist, communities can reach them when needed,” Janatabadi said. “Our work shows that wildfire risk can shrink practical access to shelters, leaving communities with fewer reliable refuge options.”
Geography and Geoinformation Science PhD students Cailin Leahy and Arfa Khalid tied for second place.
Leahy received second-place recognition for her poster, “Stakeholder Perspectives Inform Cascading Hazards Resilience.” Her work is part of the National Science Foundation-funded project “CHIRRP: Engagement and Mitigation for Building Resilience Against Cascading Events in Puerto Rico.” The project supports long-term collaboration with communities in Puerto Rico to understand how residents, local institutions, and decision-makers experience, interpret, and respond to cascading hazards. This work helps establish research questions and community partnerships that can inform more effective investment of federal and local resources.
“Cascading hazards are not only technical problems,” Leahy said. “They are experiences shaped by local knowledge, institutional capacity, and the ways communities make sense of connected risks over time.”
Khalid received second-place recognition for her poster, “Weather Alerts Reduce Bikeshare Trips but Not Equally Across Communities.” Her research is part of the National Science Foundation-funded project “Abating Mobility Equity Gaps Induced by Nuisance Flooding in Underserved Communities.” The study examines how weather alerts affect bikeshare trips across communities and shows that mobility behavior during disruptive weather is not uniform. The broader project aims to reduce community vulnerability to nuisance flooding by developing science-informed and community-based solutions in flood-prone areas.
“Travelers do not respond uniformly to weather risks,” Khalid said. “Behavioral responses to alerts differ across communities, and those differences can reveal unequal constraints on daily mobility.”
The students conducted their research under the supervision of Geography and Geoinformation Science Associate Professor Alireza Ermagun, whose work focuses on human mobility, urban resilience, and disaster risk reduction. “These students are doing rigorous research on problems that matter directly to communities,” Ermagun said. “Their work shows how spatial science, transport analysis, and community engagement can help identify where vulnerabilities emerge and how planning can respond. I am proud of their growth as researchers, their commitment to science with public impact, and their engagement with NSF-supported projects that aim to reduce community vulnerability.”
The award-winning projects align with George Mason’s Grand Challenge Initiative, which advances research addressing complex societal problems through interdisciplinary collaboration and public impact. By connecting climate hazards, mobility, infrastructure, and community resilience, the students’ work reflects the College of Science’s commitment to research that is analytically rigorous and relevant to real-world decision-making.
Linton Wells II, Executive Advisor to George Mason’s Center for Resilient, Adaptable, and Safe Communities, and one of the STAR-TIDES organizers, also highlighted the value of connecting research with community needs. “I was really impressed by the quality of the students’ work, their determination to produce excellent posters on a compressed timeline, and the effectiveness of their presentations. The fact that undergraduate efforts competed well with graduate projects was especially noteworthy.”
Kathryn Laskey, Professor Emerita of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason and a STAR-TIDES organizer, emphasized the importance of student research in advancing resilience practice. “Our students are our future. We designed the annual STAR-TIDES student poster contest to encourage and stimulate the next generation of resilience researchers. There were so many outstanding submissions that choosing the winners was a challenge. It is gratifying to see the fresh new ideas these students bring.”
The 2026 STAR-TIDES conference created a forum for translating research into practical knowledge for resilience planning. For the three College of Science graduate students, the poster awards recognized not only strong scientific work but also research designed to help communities better understand and manage hazards that affect daily life, safety, and access.
