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.

[Read details on the workshop]

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.