The Catastrophe Modeling Center was established in 2021 at Lehigh University to provide an interdisciplinary home for the scientific and educational activities of a large number of scholars who have been working on catastrophe modeling and resilience applied to natural disasters and health related threats. [Read more]
NEWS
Workshop on Catastrophe Modeling and Data
The Catastrophe Modeling Center hosted its first outreach event: a workshop at the Millennium Downtown Hotel in New York. Stakeholders and experts from private sector, public sector, and academia participated, shared their experience, and exchanged ideas.
RESEARCH
Wildfire risk
Under strong wind and dry weather, power companies can enact Public Safety Power Shutoffs. How should they determine if a shutoff is warranted? We propose a mechanistic approach to assess the risk that power conductor cables oscillate, encroach vegetation, and trigger a wildfire.
Modeling epidemics
It is now clear to everyone that zoonoses (like COVID-19) are one of the major threats to our society. Several viruses are even more aggressive than COVID-19. The Center proposed a framework for predicting where and when an Ebola outbreak is likely to appear.
PRAISYS
Our interconnected world needs a holistic approach to resilience. PRAISys is an open-source, multi-sector, and multi-peril computational platform for resilience assessment that focuses on dependencies, interdependencies, and uncertainty quantification.
EDUCATION
Master's Degree
Lehigh University will soon open applications for a Master's Degree in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, the first of its kind.
Graduate Certificate
A Graduate Certificate in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience is a sequence of 4 courses that can be taken as a standalone degree or combined with any M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree.
Undergraduate Minor
Undergraduate students at Lehigh University can study to obtain a Minor in Actuarial Science.