News & Events

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our research consortium dedicated to advancing the fields of catastrophe modeling and resilience. This dynamic initiative led by Lehigh University and Rice University will build strong partnerships between leading university researchers and expert industry professionals. By uniting academic rigor with practical expertise, CERCat aims to tackle critical research challenges and collectively elevate the standards and capabilities within the catastrophe modeling sector. We eagerly anticipate the groundbreaking advancements

From May 27 - 30th, 2025, representatives from the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience (CAT), attended the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) 2025 Conference in Anaheim, CA. It was a busy few days and Ph.D. students Sena Mursel and Urinrin Otite represented our Center by presenting their research to attentive audiences. Urinrin presented on: “Multi-dimensional wind fragility curves for steel transmission monopoles under extreme wind events” While Sena spoke about: “Improving the accuracy of response

Representatives from the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience (CAT), and from the newly established Consortium for Enhancing Resilience and Catastrophe Modeling (CERCat)*, were pleased to attend the 15th Americas Conference on Wind Engineering (ACWE) in St. Louis, MO from May 19-22, 2025. CERCat faculty member, Dr. Grace Yan was the Chair for this year’s conference as it was hosted by the Center for Hazard Mitigation & Community Resilience (HMCR) and Missouri S&T. Dr. Yan

Dr. Ethan Yang, a faculty member in the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, and Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Lehigh University, attended the 2025 World Bosai Forum in Sendai City, Japan from March 7th to March 10th, 2025. "Bosai" is the Japanese word for disaster prevention and mitigation. Dr. Yang represented the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience and participated in a panel discussion co-hosted by NSF and

Our Center is attending the 2025 Cat Risk Management Conference hosted by the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) in Orlando, FL. Join us for our Breakout Session on February 27th from 9:30 - 10AM when Dr. Paolo Bocchini discusses Education and Academic Research in Cat Modeling: Opportunities for Collaboration

In October we hosted over 100 leading cat modeling experts from industry, government, and academia to work together towards establishing an NSF and NOAA funded Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) called: Climate, Equity, and Resilience in Catastrophe Modeling (CERCat). CERCat will bring together leaders in the field to steer research projects to address identified needs. Our Center will also build a broader ecosystem for recruiting, networking, and training.

The Department of Energy has awarded a Climate Resilience Center at Lehigh. Dr. Ethan Yang will serve as PI, and we are recruiting!

The National Science Foundation has awarded a planning grant to pursue an Industry University Cooperative Research Center in Catastrophe Modeling.

The leadership team of the Catastrophe Modeling Coordination Network met leaders from the private sector, public sector, and academia for a day long workshop at the Millennium Downtown Hotel, New York City on Friday, March 31 (2023) to formally launch the center.

Applications for our Master's Degree in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience and the associated Graduate Certificate are now open.

Lehigh University's Senate officially approved the new Master of Science in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, and the Graduate Certificate in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience. These programs are the first in the world! Applications will open very soon.

Dr. Bocchini presented the activities of the Catastrophe Modeling Center and Coordination Network at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the AASHTO’s Committee on Transportation System Security and Resilience.

Dr. McAndrew's team has been selected to participate in the 2023-24 Influenza Forecasting program with their proposal for the "Development of Forecasts and/or Scenario Projections for Influenza to Inform Public Health Decision-Making."

Functional Quantization is an excellent sampling strategy for many practical applications involving random processes and fields. At one of the most important international conferences in the field (ICASP 14 in Dublin, Ireland), Sena Mursel showed that Functional Quantization can be improved and tailored to optimize performance on the statistics we care the most about.

Dr. Jamie Padgett (Rice University), one of the leaders of our CatModeling Coordination Network, gave a broad-ranging and insightful keynote speech at ICASP 14 and listed our efforts among the many tackling risk, resilience, and extreme event research.

Ms. Xinyue Wang presents the work of the Center at the 2023 Conference of the Engineering Mechanics Institute in Atlanta. She is paving the way for class vulnerability curves for transmission towers.

Mohanad Khazaali, newly hooded doctor, keeps up the tradition of the center at Verisk - Extreme Event Solutions, certainly one of the most prominent CatModeling firms in the world.

The Geisinger School of Medicine organized the "Resilience Colloquium 2023: The Brilliance of Resilience." The research and educational programs of the Catastrophe Modeling Center were featured in one of the keynotes.