Hannah R. Spero received her bachelor's degree in geology/hydrology/earth sciences in 2021 from Boise State University. Currently, she is a fifth-year PhD candidate in civil engineering at the University of Notre Dame, where she is researching coastal hazards — including storms and tsunamis. Over the course of multiple trips to Ireland, her role evolved into leading a team of researchers from Irish and U.S. universities in community outreach. In her future research program, she will combine fine-scale field measurements (such as LiDAR-based boulder scans) with numerical simulations, including 2D and smoothed-particle hydrodynamic modeling. She will work to better understand the thresholds and mechanics of storm-driven coastal transport, and she hopes to link fundamental geomorphic processes with engineering applications to advance hazard prediction, infrastructure planning, and coastal resilience initiatives. While at Notre Dame, Spero has served as professional development chair and president of the Graduate Society of Women Engineers, and she has shared her research with legislators at Indiana Science Communication Day. For the upcoming academic year, she was selected as one of two First-Year Engineering Teaching Apprentices. In this role, she will help integrate hands-on learning in areas like 3D printing, sensor applications and introductory coding while lead-teaching both semesters of a 70-person freshman class. As a professor, she will design courses that blend traditional lectures, fieldwork, and virtual modules to accommodate a wide range of learning styles and accessibility needs.

Research Interests

Coastal hazards