Elizabeth Casman

Carnegie Mellon University
Department of Engineering and Public Policy
Baker Hall 129
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Associate Research Professor, Engineering and Public Policy

B.S. Microbiology, Syracuse University
M.S. Microbiology, Northern Arizona University
Ph.D. Geography & Environmental Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University

Carnegie Mellon, 1997 -.

Dr. Casman is interested in the challenges presented by risk assessment under uncertainty. A major direction of her current research is evaluating the risk posed by nanomaterials in the environment. She is also interested in drinking water and health connections in developing countries, watershed management, and biotechnology policy.
Dr. Casman is the faculty sponsor of the EPP student journal club on security issues. Her recent and current security-related research projects include

• the potential of urban ecosystems to support rodent-borne plague epidemics,
• risk communication strategies for rapidly changing and complex bioterrorism scenarios,
• rapid detection of covert bio-attacks
• the economic impact of pandemic influenza, and
• the effect of the Patriot Act and the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act on the scientific community.

Professional affiliations

• Center for Environmental Implications of Nanomaterials http://www.ceint.duke.edu/
• CAMRA, the EPA/DHS Center for the Advancement of Microbial Risk Assessment. http://camra.msu.edu/index.html,
• The CMU Center for Risk Perception and Communication http://sds.hss.cmu.edu/risk/Home.htm,
• The Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research http://www.cmu.edu/environment/, and
• WaterQuest, http://www.ce.cmu.edu/~wquest/

M. B. Dias, L. Reyes-Gonzales, F. Veloso, and E. Casman, “Effect of Anti-Bioterrorism Legislation on Bacillus anthracis and Ebola Virus Research in the United States,” (submitted)

D.P. Durham and E. A. Casman, “Threshold Conditions for Bubonic Plague Persistence in Urban Rats,” (accepted)

M.R. Wiesner, G.V. Lowry, K.L. Jones, M.F. Hochella, Jr., R.T. Di Giulio, E. Casman, and E. S. Bernhardt (2009) “Decreasing Uncertainties in Assessing Environmental Exposure, Risk, and Ecological Implications of Nanomaterials,” Environmental Science & Technology, (in press).

S.T. Green, M. J. Small, E. A. Casman, (2009) “Determinants of National Diarrheal Disease Burden” Risk Analysis, 43(4): 993–999

E. Casman and B. Fischhoff, (2008) “Risk Communication Planning for the Aftermath of a Plague Bioattack,” Risk Analysis, 28(5):1327-1342.

J. Xu, P. Fischbeck, M. Small, J. VanBriesen, E. Casman, (2008) “Identifying sets of key nodes for placing sensors in dynamic water distribution networks” ASCE-Journal of Water Resources Planning & Management, 134(4) 378-385.

N. Elmieh, H. Dowlatabadi, and E. Casman (2006) “A probabilistic assessment of malathion spray exposures (PAMSE) for the prevention of West Nile virus,” Epidemiology, 17(6) Suppl. S: s443-s443.

K.M. Carley, D. Fridsma, E. Casman, A. Yahja, N. Altman, L.-C. Chen, B. Kaminsky, and D. Nave, (2006) “BioWar: Scalable Agent-based Model of Bioattacks”, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans, 36(2):252-65.

E. Casman and M. G. Morgan (2005) "Use of Expert Judgment to Bound Lung Cancer Risks," Environmental Science & Technology, 39(16): 5911-5920

Minh Ha-Duong, Elizabeth A. Casman, and M. Granger Morgan (2004) "Bounding Poorly Characterized Risks: a Lung Cancer Example," Risk Analysis, 24(5):1071-83.

Elizabeth Casman (2004) "The Potential of Next-Generation Microbiological Diagnostics to Improve Bioterrorism Detection Speed" Risk Analysis, 24(3):521-536.

E. A. Casman, M. J. Small, B. Fischhoff, H. Dowlatabadi, and M. G. Morgan (2001) "Climate Change and Cryptosporidiosis: A Thought Experiment Using an Influence Diagram", Climatic Change, 50(1/2):219-249.

E. A. Casman, B. Fischhoff, M. J. Small, C. Palmgren, and F. Wu (2000) "An Integrated Risk Model of a Drinking-Water-Borne Cryptosporidiosis Outbreak" Risk Analysis 20(4):493-509.

E. A. Casman, M. G. Morgan, and H. Dowlatabadi (1999) "Mixed Levels of Uncertainty in Complex Policy Models" Risk Analysis, 19(1):33-42.

E. Casman and H. Dowlatabadi, eds. (2002) The Contextual Determinants of Malaria, Resources for the Future Press, Washington, D.C.

F. Wu, D. Miller and E. Casman (2005) "Bt corn and Mycotoxin Reduction: an Economic Perspective," in Aflatoxin and Food Safety, Hamed K. Abbas, ed., CRC Press. NY, pages 459-82.

L.-C. Chen, B. Kaminsky, T. Tummino, K. M. Carley, E. Casman, D. Fridsma, A. Yahja (2004) “Aligning Simulation Models of Smallpox Outbreaks” (2004) Intelligence and Security Informatics, Proceedings, 3073:1-16.

Martin P. Krayer von Krauss, Elizabeth A. Casman, Mitchell J. Small (2004) "Elicitation of expert judgments of uncertainty in the risk assessment of herbicide tolerant oilseed crops," Risk Analysis, 24(6):1515-1527.

F. Wu, D. Miller and E. Casman (2004) "The Economic Impact of Bt Corn Resulting from Mycotoxin Reduction" Journal of Toxicology - Toxin Reviews, Aflatoxin and Food Safety Part II, 23(2/3): 397-424.

S. Farrow, B. Morel, F. Wu and E. Casman (2003) "Pesticide Resistance, the Precautionary Principle, and the Regulation of Bt Corn: Real and Rational Option Approaches to Decision-Making" In, Battling Resistance to Antibiotics and Pesticides - an Economic Approach, R.