Tanya Brown-Giammanco
Director of Disaster and Failure Studies
Materials and Structural Systems - HQ
National Institute of Standards and Technology

As Disaster and Failure Studies (DFS) Director at NIST, Dr. Brown-Giammanco leads a multidisciplinary staff responsible for conducting fact-finding field investigations and studies focused on: building and infrastructure failures; successful building and infrastructure performance; evacuation and emergency response systems; and disaster recovery and community resilience; which can be carried out under four different statutory authorities at NIST. The results of these field investigations are intended to inform recommendations to improve codes, standards, and practice. Prior to joining NIST, Dr. Brown-Giammanco served as Managing Director of Research at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), where she led teams conducting full-scale laboratory and field studies on hail, wind, rain, wildfire, and roofing related projects. She has held a Faculty Associate appointment at Texas Tech since 2010. Dr. Brown-Giammanco earned a PhD in Wind Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University, and a master's degree in Water Resources Science and a bachelor's degree in Atmospheric Science, both from the University of Kansas. Dr. Brown-Giammanco's research has focused on natural hazards and their effects on buildings and roofing, the development of laboratory testing methodologies, and the development of tools, metrics, and statistical relationships to quantify and explain damage states, to advocate for better building practices and materials.