Her research is in the area of natural disaster risk modeling, with a focus on civil infrastructure systems. It involves developing new methods to better characterize the impact of future natural disasters, and to use that understanding to support decisions to help reduce future losses. Davidson’s research builds on her background in structural engineering and risk analysis, and uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and many systems engineering concepts and methods, such as simulation, optimization, and statistics. Her research has been supported by six awards from the NSF, including a Career award, and has appeared in journals such as Risk Analysis, Journal of Infrastructure Systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Earthquake Spectra, and Reliability Engineering and System Safety. Dr. Davidson holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Stanford University.