Bilal M. Ayyub is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the director of the Center for Technology and Systems Management in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, where he has been since 1983. He is a leading authority in risk analysis, uncertainty modeling, decision analysis, and systems engineering. Dr. Ayyub earned degrees from Kuwait University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a fellow of the ASCE, the ASME, and the SNAME, and a senior member of the IEEE. Dr. Ayyub has served on many national committees and investigation boards and completed numerous research and development projects for governmental and private entities, including the National Science Foundation; the U.S. Air Force, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, Navy, and Department of Homeland Security; and insurance and engineering firms. He has received multiple ASNE Jimmie Hamilton Awards for best papers in the Naval Engineers Journal, the ASCE Outstanding Research-Oriented Paper in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, the ASCE Edmund Friedman Award, the ASCE Walter Huber Research Prize, the K.S. Fu Award of NAFIPS, and the Department of the Army Public Service Award. Dr. Ayyub is the author/co-author of more than 550 publications in journals, conference proceedings, and reports, as well as 20 books, including Uncertainty Modeling and Analysis for Engineers and Scientists; Risk Analysis in Engineering and Economics; Elicitation of Expert Opinions for Uncertainty and Risks; Probability, Statistics and Reliability for Engineers and Scientists, Second Edition; and Numerical Methods for Engineers.

Richard H. McCuen is the Ben Dyer Professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland. Dr. McCuen earned degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. His primary research interests are statistical hydrology and stormwater management. He has received the Icko Iben Award from the American Water Resource Association and was co-recipient of the Outstanding Research Award from the ASCE Water Resources, Planning and Management Division. He is the author/co-author of over 250 professional papers and 21 books, including Fundamentals of Civil Engineering: An Introduction to the ASCE Body of Knowledge; Modeling Hydrologic Change; Hydrologic Analysis and Design, Third Edition; The Elements of Academic Research; Estimating Debris Volumes for Flood Control; and Dynamic Communication for Engineers.