Dr. Taflanidis is a Professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. He obtained his Bachelor (2002) and Masters (2003) degrees in Civil Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), and his Ph.D (2008) in Civil Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 2008. His research focuses on probabilistic modeling and computational statistics for natural hazard risk assessment/mitigation. He also works on the domain of engineering for international development. He is a fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Pulte Institute for Global Development and the Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate.