About us

Background

The Catastrophe Modeling Center at Lehigh University was established in 2021 to provide an interdisciplinary home for the scientific and educational activities of a number of scholars who have been working on natural disasters and health related threats.

Lehigh identified catastrophe modeling as one of its strategic areas of growth and invested in the development of the Center.

What is Catastrophe Modeling?

“Catastrophe Modeling” (or “CatModeling”) is a science born in the insurance sector to indicate a rigorous probabilistic approach to study natural disasters and their consequences. When insuring against rare events, it is not possible to base premiums on statistics of historical claims, which is how traditional actuarial science operates. Instead, accurate physics-based and mechanistic models integrate the limited available data, while accounting for the uncertainties. Recent trends see CatModeling applied beyond natural disasters, to infrequent events like epidemics, financial crises, and political unrest. The insurance sector plays two crucial roles to support our communities.

The sector is experiencing strong growth, and our graduate students with competence in this field are aggressively pursued by the industry. Our team has worked on this topic since 2015, focusing on natural disasters and epidemics, and established a “Catastrophe Modeling Coordination Network” in 2021

The Catastrophe Modeling Coordination Network

While Lehigh has a critical mass of scholars interested in various aspects of this field, such a complex area of research can only be tackled by a broad team that includes top scholars from various institutions. The founding partners of the Coordination Network are Lehigh University, Florida Atlantic University, Rice University, and Stanford University. The core team members from these institutions are listed in the People page.

Goals of the Center

Interested in collaborations?

If you or your institution are interested in collaborating with the Center or the Coordination Network, do not hesitate to contact us. We are looking forward to expanding our network of partners and collaborators.