Associate Professor

Affiliated Faculty, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Dr Ieronymaki is an Associate Professor of Geotechnical Engineering and a Research Affiliate at MIT, in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She holds Bachelor and Master degrees from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and Master and PhD degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research deals primarily with data analysis, and mathematical and numerical modeling for predicting the soil and structure response to tunneling and deep excavations. During her PhD, she collaborated closely with the Crossrail construction consortium (BAM-Ferrovial-Kier) and she performed part of her research on the construction site in England. Dr. Ieronymaki is a licensed professional engineer in EU and member of the Technical Chamber of Greece since 2007, an Associate Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), member of the ASCE/Geo-Institute Underground Engineering and Construction committee, and Future Leader of the American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA). 

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • PhD in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
  • SM in Civil and Environmental Engineering
National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)
  • MSc in Analysis and Design of Earthquake Resistant Structures
  • BSc and MEng in Civil Engineering 

Courses Taught

CIVG 797: Advanced Soil Mechanics

CIVL 410: Applications of Geotechnical Engineering

CIVL 310: Introduction to Geomechanics

CIVL 311: Soil Mechanics Laboratory

ENGS 230: Introduction to Solid Mechanics

  • Research
    • Tunneling
      Prediction of ground surface movements due to mechanized tunneling, using mathematical modeling.
      Building a database with information on various tunneling projects around the word. Prediction of TBM advancement rates and development of an algorithm to predict the ground surface movements using information about the soil and the TBM operational parameters. 
    • Soil behavior
      Numerical modeling of soil behavior and response to tunneling.
      Calibration of advanced soil models, such as MIT-S1, for describing the soil behavior of the different units of London Clay and its response to tunneling. Applications on Crossrail, Jubillee-Line Extension and Heathrow Express tunnel cases. 
    • Deep Excavations
      Numerical modeling and prediction of ground lateral movements in braced excavations.
      Development of a method for accurate prediction of the lateral movements of a corner-braced secant pile wall with simple commercial 2D FE models and soil properties from basic in-situ tests. 
    • Soil-Structure Interaction
      Analytical and numerical modeling of structural response to tunnel-induced ground movements. 
      New method for analytically predicting the response of continuous pipelines to tunnel-induced ground movements.
      New method for simulating numerically flexible buildings and predicting their response to tunnel-induced ground movements. 
    • Subway Dwell Time
      Mathematical modeling for predicting the subway station dwell time including the effects of user-induced delays. 
      Investigating the effects of human mobility and behavior on subway train delays, by collecting data from the New York City subway trains. 
    • Engineering Education
      Introduction of new teaching modules to classic Civil Engineering undergraduate courses.
      Development of innovative and alternative deductive methods for teaching Soil Mechanics and Foundations to undergraduate students.
    • Concrete Foundations
      Investigation of concrete foundation deterioration with increasing salinity in ground-water after hurricane events because of climate change.
      Measuring the rate and the extension of concrete deterioration, under certain extreme environmental conditions, using ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) technique.
  • Professional Experience and Memberships

    Memberships

    • Chair of the 53rd US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium by the American Rock Mechanics Association, New York, 2019
    • Associate Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 
    • Member of the American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA)
    • Committee Member of the ASCE G-I Technical Committee of Underground Engineering and Construction
    • Committee Member of the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Project Information Management Systems
    • Committee Member of the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Tunneling and Underground Systems
    • Committee Member of the ASCE Met Section Diversity and Inclusion Committee
    • Member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society
    • Member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers (BSCE) 
    • Member of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE)
  • Honors, Awards, and Grants
    Honors and Awards
    • NSF sub-award 'GeoTechnical Women Faculty' grant recipient with co-PI Dr. Hochstein, January 2020
    • Future Leader of the American Rock Mechanics Association, June 2019
    • Nominee for the 2019 G-I Outstanding Young Geotechs. Nominated by the G-I Committee of Underground Engineering and Construction 
    • Nominee for the 2018 ASCE Norman Medal. Nominated by the G-I Committee of Underground Engineering and Construction 
    • Deep Foundations Institute, Women in Deep Foundations Award, 2017

    • Gerondelis Foundation Fellowship, 2013 
    • Edward Linde Presidential Fellowship MIT, 2008 -2009
    • Kontodimos  prize  for  excellence  in  the 4th  academic  year  of  NTUA, 2006
    • Hatzopoulos  prize for best student of the year in Advanced Geometry, NTUA, 2004
    • IKY Fellowship for excellence in the 2nd academic year of NTUA, 2003