Sybil Derrible

Sybil Derrible (born 1983) is a French American engineer, educator, and author. He specializes in urban engineering, infrastructure sustainability, and system resilience. He is Director of the Complex and Sustainable Urban Networks (CSUN) Laboratory and Professor in the Department of Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. and the popular science book The Infrastructure Book: How Cities Work and Power Our Lives published by Prometheus Books in 2025.

He is Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Personal life and education

Derrible was born and raised in Saint Pierre, part of the France-owned archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, in Northern America. in Singapore before joining the University of Illinois Chicago in 2012. His main appointment is in the Department of Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering. and a courtesy appointment in the Department of Computer Science.

In 2019, Derrible spent six months in Vietnam during a sabbatical and was Visiting Professor at the University of Transport Technology in Hanoi. His main technical approach includes urban metabolism, artificial intelligence, and complexity science. He serves as an editor for ASCE’s Journal of Infrastructure Systems, Nature’s Scientific Reports, and Elsevier’s Cleaner Production Letters. Since 2023, he has been Chair of the Standing Committee AMR10 Critical Transportation Infrastructure Protection of the Transportation Research Board. He was Chair of the Sustainable Urban Systems (SUS) section of the International Society for Industrial Ecology from 2017 to 2020.

Books Derrible, S., 2025, The Infrastructure Book: How Cities Work and Power our Lives, Prometheus Books, The Globe Pequot Publishing Group. Essex, CT, 260 pages Derrible, S., & Chester, M., (Eds) 2020, Urban Infrastructure: Reflections for 2100, Independently published, 211 pages Derrible, S., 2019, Urban Engineering for Sustainability, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 656 pages

Selected Awards and Honors

Recognized in top 2% researcher in field for career and single-year impact since 2019 Elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2025 Received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2023 Received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2016 Received a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2011