Location
Olsson Hall 102D
151 Engineer's Way
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Google Scholar Quinn Research Group

About

As a longtime math geek and nature lover, I was excited to learn I could make a career as an environmental systems engineer, applying concepts of mathematics to improve the management of environmental systems. My research specifically focuses on advancing optimization and simulation methods used to inform the design and management of water resources systems with the goals of protecting people from nature (floods and droughts), and nature from people (pollution and consumption). I view this as an iterative process beginning with risk and uncertainty analysis to discover which sectors and populations are most vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic hazards, followed by multi-objective optimization of the system to reduce these multi-sectoral vulnerabilities. I am particularly interested in how advanced sensing and forecasting techniques can be used to inform this optimization.

Education

B.S. Columbia University, 2011

Ph.D. Cornell University, 2017

Research Interests

Water resources management
Multi-objective control
Stochastic hydrology
Risk analysis
Uncertainty analysis

Selected Publications

Advancing reservoir operations in the SWAT to reduce socio-ecological tradeoffs. Jordan, S.M., Quinn, J.D., Zaniolo, M., Giuliani, M. And Castelletti, A. (2022). Environmental Modelling & Software, 157, 105527.
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Guidance on evaluating parametric model uncertainty at decision-relevant scales. Smith, J.D., Quinn, J.D. And Band, l.E. (2022). Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 26, 2519-2539.
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Profitability of climate-smart soil fertility investment varies widely across sub-Saharan Africa. McCullough, E.B., Quinn, J.D. And Simons, A.M. (2022). Nature Food, 3(4), 275-285.
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Can exploratory modeling of water scarcity vulnerabilities and robustness be scenario neutral? Quinn, J.D., Hadjimichael, A., Reed, P.M. And Steinschneider, S. (2020). Earth’s Future, 8(11), E2020ef001650.
Abs
What is controlling our control rules? Opening the black box of multireservoir operating policies using time-varying sensitivity analysis. Quinn, J.D., Reed, P.M., Giuliani, M. And Castelletti, A. (2019). Water Resources Research, 55(7), 5962-5984.
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Courses Taught

SYS 4021: Linear Statistical Models
CE 6280: Stochastic Hydrology

Featured Grants & Projects

Coordinating Water Markets and Critical Infrastructure Management to Build Community Resilience to Extreme Drought PI: Julianne Quinn, Co-PIs: Peter Debaere, Paul Block, Mesfin Mekonnen The goal of this project is to evaluate the potential gains of better coordinated, forecast-informed drought management of water systems and their institutional and physical infrastructure to simultaneously reduce community impacts of drought and facilitate sustainable economic growth. The work focuses on the Colorado River Basin.
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