Paola Passalacqua is a professor in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She graduated from the University of Genoa, Italy, with a BS (2002) in environmental engineering, and received a MS (2005) and a PhD (2009) in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on transport processes along river and delta networks, with particular focus on flooding, river-floodplain connectivity, and coastal resilience. Passalacqua is the lead principal investigator of the Southeast Texas Urban Integrated Field Lab, a U.S. Department of Energy funded Urban Integrated Field Laboratory that focuses on the compounding effects of flooding and air pollution on southeast Texas communities. Additionally, she is the chair of Planet Texas 2050, a Grand Challenge initiative at the University of Texas to advance interdisciplinary research on resilience and co-design adaptative strategies with stakeholders and frontline communities in Texas.