Newswise — Hurricane season begins June 1 and experts from Florida State University and its renowned meteorology program and other departments are available to answer media questions and give perspective to news stories as the season unfolds. Among the experts:
* Robert Deyle, professor of urban and regional planning, has expertise in mitigation planning and disaster recovery planning. Deyle helped develop a tax model that spreads the costs of emergency planning, response and recovery efforts for hurricanes more equitably by requiring those at greatest risk to pay the biggest share. He and a colleague also developed a gaming simulation for training local officials about hurricane recovery planning, operations and decision making. Workshops using the gaming simulation are offered by the Florida Department of Community Affairs. Current research concerns the effectiveness of local growth management policies in reducing community vulnerability to hurricane flooding.
* James Elsner, professor of geography, is an expert on hurricanes and long-range predictability. His current research is on determining the likelihood of catastrophic hurricane damage along our nation's coastline during the next 10 years. He studies the relationship of hurricanes to climate factors including the El Nino and global warming. His research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
* Earl J. "Jay" Baker, associate professor of geography and a founding member of the National Hurricane Conference, is an expert on human response to hurricanes. Baker studies how people respond to warnings and evacuation orders and how emergency managers use forecasts to implement evacuation plans. Baker has studied evacuation behavior in more than 20 different hurricanes, including Gloria, Andrew, Opal, Floyd and Isabel. He also has studied vulnerability perceptions and hurricane preparedness of people in most areas of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts and is extending that work to the Mid-Atlantic states and New York City. He recently conducted a study of response to hurricanes in the 2004 season in Florida.
* James J. O'Brien, a professor of meteorology and oceanography, is the director of the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies. An internationally known expert on El Niño and related weather phenomena, O'Brien also is the state climatologist of Florida and is a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Letters and Science.
* Richard L. Pfeffer, the Rossby Professor of Meteorology and Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, is an expert on hurricane formation. He conducts diagnostic studies and computer laboratory modeling of atmospheric processes pertaining to the global atmospheric circulation and hurricane formation.
*Paul Reasor, assistant professor of meteorology, is working on issues related to the genesis of hurricanes and the interaction of hurricanes with their surrounding flow. Reasor, a former research associate at NOAA's Hurricane Research Division in Miami, uses airborne Doppler radar data acquired during research flights through hurricanes to document and understand hurricane structure and evolution. Other work includes the use of satellite measurements of surface wind over the ocean to understand the transition of tropical disturbances into tropical cyclones. Reasor's observational work is done in conjunction with theoretical and computer simulation studies.
* Paul Ruscher, associate professor of meteorology, is working with graduate students and scientists from NOAA's Hurricane Research Division in Miami on issues related to hurricane intensification changes at landfall. During the past few years, many new high-frequency data sets have become available that allow scientists to study the transition as a hurricane makes landfall. In addition, Ruscher directs the K-12 activities of the department of meteorology. Through the EXPLORES! program, the department provides an up-to-date Web site for teachers and the general public on the status of storms in the Atlantic basin. Visit http://www.met.fsu.edu/explores/tropical.html.
*Robert H. Bosselman, chairman of the Dedman School of Hospitality in the FSU College of Business, is an expert on the effects that hurricanes have on the tourism industry in Florida. He also is recognized as one of the most influential authors in hospitality management education, having written more than 70 academic papers. He was recently elected the 2005-06 vice president of the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (ICHRIE), a global organization representing hospitality and tourism education worldwide.
*Randy E. Dumm, associate professor of risk and insurance, has expertise on the following topics related to hurricanes: the impact of hurricane losses on insurance prices and availability in Florida; how modeling is used to determine the pricing of the hurricane component of residential property insurance; and the workings, goals, objectives and purpose of the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology, of which he is a member.
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