Experts: Hurricanes

Born is currently the Midyette Eminent Scholar of Insurance in the Department of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies at Florida State University. She is a research associate in the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center as well as an advisor of the Risk Management doctoral program in the College of Business.

Her research interests include insurance market structure and performance, professional liability, health insurance, and the management of catastrophic risks.

Bourassa’s expertise is in the transfer of energy and momentum between the ocean and the atmosphere, surface water waves and the identification of tropical disturbances, and possible precursors to tropical cyclones. Recent work has involved remotely sensed estimates of the energy released in storms, as water vapor is converted to precipitation.

Dukhovskoy’s expertise focuses on modeling ocean dynamics, storm surges, air-sea interaction, waves and tides.

Elsner is an expert on climate and weather, and in developing statistical models for predicting severe weather activity such as hurricanes and tornadoes. He is a widely sought out by reporters during hurricane season to provide context to stories about large tropical storms. He has authored more than 150 research articles and three books.

Hart’s research focuses on hurricane predictability, both track and intensity; the role of hurricanes in climate; and the impact of hurricanes on the higher latitudes.

Hochwarter is the Melvin T. Stith Sr. Professor in Business Administration at Florida State University’s College of Business. He has published over 100 scientific and applied articles covering a wide range of topics including employee entitlement, worker engagement, job stress, layoffs, workplace politics, abusive work behaviors, personal accountability, optimism, and leadership-focused motivation strategies. In addition, his research has been the subject of discussions in major business/social publications, including Business Week, Inc., CIO, The Christian Science Monitor, Computerworld, HR Magazine, Workforce Week, Macleans, Psychology Today, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, Times of India, China Daily, Daily Mail – UK, and news/radio programs such as NPR, Minnesota Public Radio, MSNBC, ABC Evening News and WIOD AM/FM – Miami.

Misra studies climate variability and predictability. He and his colleagues at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies developed a new metric called Track Integrated Kinetic Energy (TIKE) to measure seasonal Atlantic tropical cyclone activity. The metric focuses on the size of storms in addition to the duration and intensity, a measure that may prove important when considering a hurricane’s potential for death and destruction. He also is developing novel modeling projection strategies specifically aimed at developing tropical storm forecasts for Florida.

Nyce is the Dr. William T. Hold Associate Professor of Risk Management & Insurance at Florida State University. He previously served as the Associate Director of the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center from 2009 through 2012. He joined the Center in 2009 after serving as Senior Director of Knowledge Resources for the American Institute for CPCU.

His main research area is catastrophic risk financing. He has authored numerous articles on a variety of risk management and insurance topics, including title insurance, IPOs, enterprise risk management, predictive analytics and natural hazards.

Eren Ozguven is an associate professor in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and director of the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center.  His research focus is on the relationships among different infrastructure networks in Florida and how that contributes to an area’s ability to be prepared for disasters, such as hurricanes. In collaboration with researchers from a variety of different disciplines, he has examined evacuation routes, special-need and pet friendly shelters and the role libraries play in communities following a hurricane.  In 2019, he authored a piece for The Conversation on how rural areas like the Florida Panhandle could become more hurricane-ready. He’s also been quoted in the Miami Herald, Tallahassee Democrat and other publications.