FORECASTING, FORMATION AND TRACKING*Mark Bourassa, associate professor of meteorology, (850) 644-6923 or 645-4788; [email protected]Bourassa’s expertise is in the transfer of energy and momentum between the ocean and the atmosphere and remote sensing, particularly of surface winds. He also is interested in surface water waves and the identification of tropical disturbances, a possible precursor to tropical cyclones. He can address the impact that a tropical storm or hurricane could have on the path of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
*Carol Anne Clayson, associate professor of meteorology and director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, (850) 644-5595; [email protected]Clayson’s hurricane research focuses on understanding and modeling storm surge and the upper-ocean cooling associated with hurricanes.
*Dmitry Dukhovskoy, assistant research scientist at the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), (850) 644-1168; [email protected]Dukhovskoy studies currents in the Gulf of Mexico, surges and coastal inundation during hurricanes. He currently is developing computer models of storm surge and ocean currents to predict the potential impact a hurricane could have on driving the oil spill in the Gulf onto beaches or wetlands. He can also discuss the physics and dynamics of the Gulf and the North Atlantic.
*James Elsner, professor of geography, (850) 877-4039; [email protected]Elsner is an expert on hurricanes and statistical models for long-range prediction. His research is on developing the science and technology for modeling the risk of a catastrophic storm along the nation’s coastline. He studies the relationship of hurricanes to climate factors including El Niño and global warming. His recent work compares hurricane activity along the Gulf Coast measured from historical and geological records and he has recently developed a model for predicting the likelihood of economic losses.
*T.N. Krishnamurti, emeritus Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Meteorology, (850) 644-2210; [email protected]Krishnamurti is an international expert in computer modeling in tropical meteorology and numerical weather prediction. He developed the Super Ensemble technique that collects forecasts made by a world community of models and yields a best consensus long-range track, landfall and intensity forecast.
*Tim LaRow, associate research scientist at the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), (850) 644-6926; [email protected]LaRow and his colleagues at COAPS have developed a new computer model that has predicted with unprecedented accuracy how many hurricanes will occur in a given season. The model is one of only a handful of numerical models in the world being used to study seasonal hurricane activity. Numerical models use high performance computers to synthesize massive amounts of information, including atmospheric, ocean and land data.
*Steven Morey, associate research scientist at the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), (850) 644-0345; [email protected]Morey’s research focuses on studying physical processes and circulation within the Gulf of Mexico. He conducts studies of estuarine systems and their connectivity to the offshore environment, the ocean response to hurricanes and deepwater processes over steep topography. He is currently working with a team at COAPS developing computer models of storm surge and ocean currents to predict the potential impact a hurricane could have on driving the oil spill in the Gulf onto beaches or wetlands.
*James J. O’Brien, emeritus Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography and former director of the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, (850) 644-4581 or (850) 459-1938; [email protected]An internationally known expert on El Niño and related weather phenomena, O’Brien also is the past state climatologist of Florida. He believes that global climate change is not causing an increase in the intensity or number of hurricanes, and he can discuss the influence of climate variability on hurricanes.
*Paul Ruscher, associate professor of meteorology, (850) 644-2752; [email protected]Ruscher studies coastal and boundary layer meteorology and measures, monitors, and studies coastal and offshore wind patterns in particular. During the past few years, many new high-density data sets and improved numerical models have become available that allow scientists to study complex coastal flow regimes, items of critical importance in situations of adverse or severe weather, pollution events, such as oil spills, and ocean response to high winds. He can address questions about the models used to forecast winds, waves and currents and the relative uncertainty related to the forecasts.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY*Todd L. Walton Jr., director of FSU’s Beaches and Shores Resource Center, (850) 644-2847; [email protected]Walton is an expert on storm-related coastal erosion. Under his leadership, the Beaches and Shores Resource Center gives technical guidance to the state for the Coastal Construction Control Line Program, which provides protection for Florida’s beaches and dunes while assuring the reasonable use of private property. In addition, the center has provided research to improve the accuracy of estimations regarding the storm tide return period, dune erosion and beach nourishment performance.
PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY*Earl J. “Jay” Baker, associate professor of geography, (850) 893-8993; [email protected]Baker is an expert on how people respond to warnings and evacuation orders and how emergency managers use forecasts to implement evacuation plans. Baker has researched vulnerability perceptions and hurricane preparedness of people in most areas of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts. He recently completed a survey of Florida residents to be used in updating the state’s evacuation plans. This year, Baker will be conducting real-time interviews with households as a hurricane threatens in order to better understand the information residents receive and how they use that information in deciding how to respond.
*Robert Deyle, professor of urban and regional planning, (850) 644-8512; [email protected]Deyle has expertise in hurricane hazard mitigation and disaster recovery planning. He can discuss the effectiveness of local growth management policies in reducing community vulnerability to hurricane flooding and the impact of growth in coastal communities on hurricane evacuation clearance times.
*Charles McClure, Francis Eppes Professor and director of the Information Institute at the FSU College of Communication and Information, (850) 645-5683; [email protected]McClure can discuss the vital role public libraries have in helping communities prepare for and recover from hurricanes and other severe storms, including serving as information hubs, safe havens and FEMA-designated Disaster Recovery Centers. He is coordinating a project that brings together Florida’s public libraries, the State Library and Archives of Florida, the Lyrasis library network and emergency response agencies to help libraries better demonstrate the range of services they can provide during disasters. Visit www.ii.fsu.edu/hurricanes.
RISK AND INSURANCE*Randy E. Dumm, associate professor of risk and insurance, (850) 644-7880;[email protected]Dumm is an expert on the impact of hurricane losses on insurance prices and availability in Florida and how modeling is used to determine the pricing of the hurricane component of residential property insurance. He is chairman of the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology and can discuss the commission’s goals, objectives and purpose.
*Patrick F. Maroney, the Kathryn Magee Kip Professor and director of the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center, (850) 644-8217; [email protected]Housed in the FSU College of Business, the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center engages in research and promotes collaboration with state and federal agencies and other universities in areas such as storm forecasting, building construction, disaster mitigation and risk management. Maroney can discuss property and casualty insurance and insurance regulation.
STRESS, TRAUMA AND GRIEF*Wayne A. Hochwarter, the Jim Moran Professor of Management, (850) 644-7849; [email protected]Hochwarter has studied the long-term effects of stress on employees as they return to the workplace following a hurricane. Such effects include increased rates of depression and anxiety, higher incidences of interpersonal conflict at work, higher levels of organizational cynicism and increased rates of employee burnout. The ramifications for employers include higher rates of employee turnover, more absenteeism and reduced productivity.
TOURISM*Mark Bonn, the Robert H. Dedman Professor in Services Management, (850) 644-8244; [email protected]Bonn is a tourism industry expert and the only academic ever elected to the Florida Tourism Hall of Fame. He has conducted hundreds of research projects addressing the importance of tourism to Florida and its economy through visitor spending. His expertise includes consumer behavior market research, strategic planning, ecotourism and sustainability, coastal zone management, economic value and forecasting. He can discuss the economic impact that hurricanes could have on a Gulf region tourism industry that is already struggling in the wake of the continued oil spill.
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