Biography
Elizabeth C English. Ph.D. is currently Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Ontario. She was formerly Associate Professor – Research at the LSU Hurricane Center and has held Assistant and/or Visiting Professorships at Tulane University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and Rhode Island School of Design.
She holds an AB in Architecture and Urban Planning from Princeton University, an MS in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MS and PhD in Architectural Theory from the University of Pennsylvania.
Her areas of research include the study of wind loads on tall buildings, the aerodynamics of wind-borne debris, strategies for the mitigation of hurricane damage to buildings, and the origins of early 20th-c. Russian avant-garde architectural theory in 19th-c. mystical-religious slavophile philosophy.
In 2005, English was researching the impacts of wind-borne debris at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Hurricane Centre when Hurricane Katrina hit. She began working on amphibious housing after she witnessed first-hand the needless loss of life and how entire neighborhoods were torn apart by flooding.
When not in Canada she resides in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, where she continues her research on hurricane damage mitigation strategies with particular application to post-Katrina New Orleans. In Louisiana she is an active participant in the culture of SW Louisiana zydeco music and dance.