The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with the Every Page Foundation, announced the selection of their Ocean Decade Champions in September 2023. Joining the 30 other women scientists with this honor was Texas A&M University’s Dr. Maria Koliou, an associate professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
These scientists presented their work at the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona, Spain, which brings together women scientists working on some of the most innovative research in ocean and coastal science. As part of the United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the conference brought their community of experts together to highlight the success of the first four years and discuss the program’s future.
This first cohort of Ocean Decade Champions were selected as leaders in their respective ocean and coastal science fields and as advocates for women as both scientists and decision-makers in ocean research and management. Some of her fellow champions joined Koliou in a panel discussion during the conference to address not only their contributions to coastal resilience research but also their unique career paths and perspectives.
Koliou presented her research group's current projects with Texas coastal communities to help them identify optimal mitigation and resiliency strategies. By working with community leaders and their partners, they provide actionable products that are viable for each community's specific needs.
Koliou also spoke about her early life in Greece and the beginning of her engineering career. She provided her unique perspectives on improving equality in STEM fields.
Koliou hopes to encourage more women to pursue STEM. “My experiences were very different, and I would like to share those with students at an early age in order to inspire them and tackle this challenge with female underrepresentation in STEM in the US,” Koliou said. “If the same amount of students, male and female, go to the same school, they’re exposed to the same classes; it’s just how STEM careers are promoted to each student.”
“My point of view is a little different because I come from a country where women are not underrepresented in STEM,” Koliou continued. We were 50-50 male and female students in my year in college, and this has been the case, at least for those years.”
“Family plays a major role in supporting both male and female students in pursuing careers in STEM,” Koliou continued. “Teachers and mentors are crucial at the early stages of a student’s education in terms of promoting careers in STEM and, most importantly, not discouraging female students from pursuing careers in STEM.”
As an Ocean Decade Champion, Koliou will be funded to participate in the UN’s 10-year initiative under the NSF Coastlines and People Program, an endorsed Ocean Decade action. One of her recent journal publications in this area evaluated whether an elevated home slab retrofitting method could increase resiliency for residential coastal buildings under hurricane conditions.
In 2021, at the beginning of the Ocean Decade, Koliou, as a principal investigator, led the Focused Coastline and People Research Hub at Texas A&M, thanks to an over $4 million, five-year grant from the NSF. One focus of the research hub is a holistic approach that also includes the socio-economic impacts of coastal hazards on underrepresented communities in the Gulf region.