SOM Foundation Announces Jury for the 2025 Structural Engineering Fellowship

Christopher Cerino is a Vice President and the National Technical Director of Structural Engineering, Urbanism, and Planning for STV’s Buildings Group. Cerino has almost thirty years of experience, overseeing the design of large-scale, complex projects for transportation, educational, healthcare, and commercial facilities, and infrastructure. He has managed the structural design of major capital programs in the New York metropolitan area, including the new Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport, and he is skilled in coordinating technical efforts among various disciplines and leading teams to successfully prepare and deliver plans on schedule. He has deep expertise in the design of high-performance flood-resisting structures to mitigate long-term damage and improve community resilience, and he has led flood mitigation efforts at major facilities including the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in Newark and the Coney Island Yard rail complex in Brooklyn. Following the events of Superstorm Sandy, Cerino emerged as a leader in the performance design of urban infrastructure for enhanced community resilience. He is a contributing author for the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) Manual of Practice 140, “Climate-Resilient Infrastructure: Adaptive Design and Risk Management” and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Report GCR 23-037 “Resilience for Critical Facilities” and an advising practitioner on the Applied Technology Council (ATC) 149 “Coastal Inundation in Developed Regions.” Cerino is the President of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (NCSEA), a past president of the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY), a Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute (ASCE/SEI), former chair of the SEAoNY resilience committee, and a voting member of the ASCE 24-24 and ASCE 7-28 Flood Load Technical Committees.

Negar Elhami-Khorasani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at the University at Buffalo. She earned her PhD degree from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University in 2015. Before attending Princeton, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Toronto in Canada. Her research focuses on structural fire engineering, resilience of communities facing extreme hazards such as wildfires and earthquakes, characterization of multi-hazard events, and their impacts on structures and communities. She has led and participated in several interdisciplinary teams, collaborating with experts across engineering, architecture, and social sciences, as well as engaging with stakeholders to address complex challenges in hazard resilience. The outcomes of her research contribute to enhancing public safety through the development of codes and guidelines, while reducing societal and economic losses by optimizing mitigation, preparedness, and response strategies. She has been recognized with the AISC Early Career Faculty Award and the Fire Protection Research Foundation Medal for her contributions to advancing knowledge and practice in the field.

Yunlu Shen (Chair) is an Associate Principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Her engineering work encompasses a broad range of structures, including super-tall towers, museums and cultural centers, renovations, and pedestrian bridges. Notable recent projects include Two Manhattan West, Highline Moynihan Connector, National Museum of the US Army, and 510 Fifth Avenue renovation. She received her Bachelor of Engineering from McGill University in Montreal and her Master of Applied Science from the University of Toronto. Shen is an active member of the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) and was president of the association in 2023–2024.

Alexis Taylor is Vice President of Climate Resilience for NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), where she is responsible for leading a portfolio of resilience and waterfront projects, which include neighborhood-scale resilience projects like the Financial-District & Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan; resilient waterfront greenway planning and design; and climate risk assessment tools to understand multi-hazard climate impacts across NYCEDC assets and inform future planning priorities. Prior to her time at EDC, she worked for the Bureau of Flood Resilience, Engineering and Construction at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and was a Senior Project Manager with Rebuild by Design, where she worked to catalyze innovative design solutions that address the potential impacts from climate change on the Sandy-affected areas of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. She graduated with her B.A. from University of Pennsylvania and went on to earn a Master of City Planning (MCP) degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).