Dr. Grace Yan, a Missouri S&T faculty member with expertise in structural engineering, was recently elected a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

“This recognition represents a significant milestone in my career, and I am grateful to be counted among the distinguished individuals who have received this honor,” Yan says. “Being named an ASCE Fellow is special to me because it acknowledges not only my technical contributions but also my dedication to leadership, mentorship and service within the civil engineering profession.” 
 
Yan, who has been a member of the Missouri S&T faculty since 2014, is director of the university’s Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience and Wind Hazard Mitigation Laboratory. Currently an associate professor in S&T’s civil, architectural and environmental engineering department, Yan will be promoted to the rank of professor this fall. 

At S&T, she has built small- and larger-scale tornado simulators to mimic tornado vortices and their interaction with human-made structures and environments to improve tornado-resistant design specifications for ASCE’s building standards. 

Yan regularly speaks at national and international conferences and has published hundreds of journal articles, conference papers and technical papers focused on structural engineering and hazard mitigation issues. 

In May 2025, she will chair the Americas Conference on Wind Engineering in St. Louis. She is also chair of the North American Alliance for Hazards and Disaster Research Institutes’ board of directors. 
 
Before coming to S&T, Yan held faculty positions at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Western Sydney in Australia. She also held postdoctoral research positions at Purdue University, Washington University in St. Louis and Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy. 
 
She earned a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics and a master’s degree in structural engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology in China, as well as a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Harbin Commerce University. 
 
For more information about Missouri S&T’s civil engineering programs, visit care.mst.edu. 

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.