Dr. Robert Gilbert earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin that same year. In 1996, he won a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Gilbert researches risk management in applications ranging from foundations and slopes to landfills and groundwater remediation systems. He has studied mudflows and mudslides during Hurricane Ivan and assessed the performance of fixed offshore platforms during Hurricanes Ivan, Andrew and Lili. More recently, Gilbert joined an American Society of Civil Engineers? review panel to help analyze the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers? technical findings, performance and reconstruction of the New Orleans hurricane protection system.