LSU’s World-Renowned Hurricane Experts Available to Media

LSU is home to one of the largest groups of hurricane experts in the nation. These experts will be available to the media for expert comment or analysis throughout the potentially active 2005 season. LSU’s researchers are studying all aspects of hurricanes and tropical storms as part of a comprehensive research effort that will benefit the citizens of Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast region. These experts are specialists in a variety of fields, and their areas of expertise include hurricane forecasting and tracking; evacuation and emergency preparation; waves, wind and storm surge; water and environmental issues, including coastal land loss; and the history and societal effects of hurricanes.

Find experts in the following LSU departments:

• LSU Hurricane Center
• Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes
• LSU School of the Coast and Environment and Natural Systems Modeling Laboratory
• LSU Coastal Studies Institute and Earth Scan Laboratory
• LSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute
• LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology
• Southern Regional Climate Center
• LSU Department of Environmental Studies
• Louisiana Geological Survey
• LSU School of Landscape Architecture
• LSU Department of Mechanical Engineering
• LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy
• LSUHSC School of Public Health, New Orleans
• LSU Department of Sociology

LSU Hurricane Center

Web site: http://www.hurricane.lsu.edu

• Marc Levitan, associate professor, civil and environmental engineering
  225/578-4445, levitan@hurricane.lsu.edu
  Levitan is the Charles P. Siess Jr. Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Director of the LSU Hurricane Center, and president of the American Association for Wind Engineering. He studies the effects of hurricane-force winds on structures, conducting wind-tunnel experiments to determine what types of buildings make the best hurricane shelters and to develop and improve construction techniques. Levitan chairs the committee developing a national standard for the design and construction of storm shelters. He also examines the ability of chemical plants to withstand hurricanes.
• Elizabeth C. English, associate professor-research, civil and environmental engineering
  225/578-6019, english@hurricane.lsu.edu
  With a background in both architecture and civil engineering, English works with the LSU Hurricane Center specializing in wind effects on tall buildings, particularly the interference effects caused by building adjacencies. Her recent research involves wind-tunnel studies of the aerodynamics of wind-borne debris.

Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes

Web site: http://www.publichealth.hurricane.lsu.edu/

• Ivor van Heerden, associate professor, civil and environmental engineering
  225/578-5974, ivor@hurricane.lsu.edu
  In addition to his role as deputy director of the LSU Hurricane Center, van Heerden serves as director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes (CSPHIH). He is currently the lead principal investigator on a research team studying the public health impacts of major hurricanes and flooding in New Orleans, where his primary research focus is on storm-surge effects and natural hazards preparation and response. Other continuing research areas include coastal and river basin processes and sedimentation, delta building strategies, fault processes and environmental restoration and management.
• Hassan Mashriqui, assistant professor-research, LSU Hurricane Center
  225/578-9386, cemash@lsu.edu
  Mashriqui is a licensed professional engineer and civil/water resources engineer. He is currently developing coastal hydrologic/hydraulic modeling capabilities for the LSU CSPHIH utilizing storm surge forecasting. His research interests include coastal and inland flooding due to hurricanes; hydrodynamic and sediment transport modeling; wetland restoration; river management; GIS and LIDAR technology-based environmental modeling. He is actively involved with the Natural Systems Modeling Group and Laboratory at the LSU School of the Coast and Environment in support of numerous coastal restoration research efforts.

LSU School of the Coast and Environment and Natural Systems Modeling Laboratory

Web site: http://www.cceer.lsu.edu

• G. Paul Kemp, associate professor, research/special programs
  225/578-2734, gpkemp@lsu.edu
  Kemp is director of the Natural Systems Modeling Laboratory and principal investigator for flood modeling within the CSPHIH. Kemp researches the interface between hydrodynamics modeling (developed for engineering purposes) and ecological forecasting. He is currently using a two-dimensional, finite-element hydrodynamics model to predict ecosystem trajectories in three Louisiana estuaries for which Mississippi River diversions have been proposed. His work focuses on long-term issues of water quality and sedimentation.

LSU Coastal Studies Institute and Earth Scan Laboratory

CSI Web site: http://www.csi.lsu.edu
ESL Web site: http://www.esl.lsu.edu

• Gregory Stone, professor
  225/578-6188, gagreg@lsu.edu
  Stone is James P. Morgan Distinguished Professor and director of the Coastal Studies Institute. He is also primarily responsible for the inception of WAVCIS (Wave-Current Information System, wavcis.csi.lsu.edu), a system of weather buoys in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana’s coast, which provide wave information (sea state) prior to and during storms. This information is analyzed and distributed to the National Weather Service, the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and the public. Stone also studies beach erosion following hurricanes and coastal morphodynamics.
• Shih-Ang Hsu, professor
  225/578-2962, sahsu@antares.esl.lsu.edu
  Hsu, the Texaco Distinguished Professor in Oceanography, researches coastal meteorology with a focus on cloud-top temperatures and water vapor characteristics, which can be used to determine hurricane track and intensity and to improve storm surge formulations.
• Oscar Huh, professor emeritus
  225/578-2952, oscar@antares.esl.lsu.edu
  (see below)
• Nan Walker, professor
  225/578-5331, nwalker@antares.esl.lsu.edu
  Walker, Exxon-Mobil Professor in Marine Geology, is the director of the LSU Earth Scan Laboratory, while Huh is the founder of the lab. This laboratory is a system of high-tech radio receivers, powerful computers, and advanced software and antennas which are used to receive, process and display data broadcast by a constellation of earth-orbiting environmental satellites. This information is particularly valuable in times of hurricane threat and for emergency disaster decision support. Louisiana is presently unequaled by any other state in this information-gathering technology, thanks to ESL’s acquisition of an X-band, 4.4m auto-tracking antenna. The environmental data provided on hurricanes includes locations, movement, changes in intensity, shape, entrained thunderheads and changes in size – all in real time, in a 15-30 minute cycle. Huh and Walker conduct research on the effects of hurricanes, tropical storms, winter storms and river diversions on coastal processes, coastal circulation, land loss and land building.
• DeWitt Braud, director, Academic Area
  225/578-6177, dbraud1@lsu.edu
  Braud is a remote sensing and GIS applications specialist.

LSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Web site: http://www.cee.lsu.edu

• Steve Cai, assistant professor
  225/578-8898, cscai@lsu.edu
  Cai conducts research on bridge and traffic safety issues related to hurricane and wind environments. One of the objectives of his research is to determine when to close highways and bridges, and to develop corresponding mitigation measures.
• Vijay Singh, professor
  225/578-6697, cesing@lsu.edu
  Singh, Arthur K. Barton Endowed Professor, received the prestigious Distinguished Research Master Award from LSU in 2002. He is regarded by some as the most outstanding scholar and researcher in hydrology today, recognized internationally for his publication record and research. Singh’s research interests include the hydrology of floods; rainfall-runoff modeling; flood-frequency analysis; mathematical and stochastic modeling; risk and reliability analysis; entropy theory; kinematic wave theory; solute transport; erosion modeling; infiltration modeling; evaporation modeling; urban hydrology; dam breach modeling; watershed modeling; river morphology; and social engineering.
• Brian Wolshon, associate professor
  225/578-5247, brian@rsip.lsu.edu
  Wolshon is a licensed professional engineer and a transportation engineer conducting research on issues related to hurricane evacuations and major-event traffic scenarios. His recent research projects have included the testing and evaluation of intelligent transportation systems and traffic flow analysis, with particular emphasis in application for hurricane evacuation. As part of his activities in the area of evacuation, Wolshon recently founded (and chairs) the Transportation Research Board Subcommittee on Emergency Evacuation.
• Chester Wilmot, associate professor
  225/578-4697, cewilm@eng.lsu.edu
  Wilmot is a transportation planner, with expertise in evacuation-travel demand estimation, including where people will go; times of the day they are more likely to travel; and human factors affecting evacuation travel planning.

Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute

Web site: http://www.lwrri.lsu.edu

• John Pardue, associate professor, civil and environmental engineering,
  225/578-8661, jpardue@lsu.edu
  Pardue is the Elizabeth Howell Stewart Endowed Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute. His research interests include the detection of levee flaws; the fate and transport of chemical contaminants during hurricanes; passively treating groundwater contaminated with chlorinated solvents in treatment wetlands; environmental impacts; and investigating the uptake of desorption-resistant organic contaminants by wetland plants.

LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology

Web site: http://www.ga.lsu.edu

• John Pine, professor
  225/578-1075, jpine@lsu.edu
  Pine is the interim chair of the Department of Geography and Anthropology and director of the Disaster Science and Management Program at LSU. He studies the potential impact of natural and man-made hazards including the vulnerability of social, economic, and environmental resources.
• Craig E. Colten, professor
  225/578-5942, ccolten@lsu.edu
  Colten, Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Professor of Geography, studies the historical aspects of hazards, including hurricanes. He has investigated the threat of hurricanes to historic districts and environmental justice issues related to coastal hazards. He has an interest in the long-term human dimension of preparation for and response to hurricanes.
• Barry Keim, assistant professor
  225/578-6170, keim@lsu.edu
  Keim serves as the State Climatologist and directs the Louisiana Office of State Climatology, housed in LSU’s Department of Geography and Anthropology. The Louisiana Office of State Climatology serves as the state's archive for weather and climate information. Keim is charged with fostering climatic research on Louisiana and the Southeast, educating the public on climate issues, providing data to the public, and monitoring the climate of the state. He has extensive experience in researching severe weather, including hurricanes and heavy rainfall events. Keim also serves as a regional climatologist in the Southern Regional Climate Center.
• Kam-biu Liu, professor
  225/578-6136, kliu1@lsu.edu
  Liu is the James J. Parsons Professor of Geography at Louisiana State University and a widely recognized pioneer and leader in paleotempestology, an emerging field that studies past hurricane activity by means of geological proxy techniques and historical documentary evidence. Liu takes sediment cores from coastal lakes and marshes and uses the overwash sand layers contained in these cores to reconstruct the chronological and spatial patterns of catastrophic hurricane strikes along the U.S. Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast during the last 5,000 years. He has studied the connection between hurricane strikes and coastal wildfires and is a leader in the use of documentary evidence to reconstruct the history of typhoon landfalls in China during the last 1,000 years. His broader research interests include the use of pollen, lake sediments, and ice cores to study the history of the Asian monsoon in the Tibetan Plateau, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation in the Andes, and biodiversity in the Amazon Basin. His research, which has been funded by numerous grants from the National Science Foundation and the Risk Prediction Initiative, has been featured in the New York Times, Science News, Science, The New Scientist, Fortune Magazine, The Economist, and on CNN.

Southern Regional Climate Center

Web site: http://www.srcc.lsu.edu/

• Kevin Robbins, director
  225/578-6870 or 225/578-1063, krobbins@srcc.lsu.edu
  Robbins is the director of the SRCC, assistant director for
  operations of the LSU Hurricane Center, associate professor in the LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology and an adjunct associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering. His research interests include agricultural climatology and network-integrated data management and delivery systems. The SRCC is a NOAA-sponsored facility and has extensive archives of real-time weather and historical climate information for the United States, with a focus on information for Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The SRCC has a staff of meteorologists, climatologists and information technology specialists that provide specialized weather and climate information to government agencies, corporations, individuals and researchers. During the hurricane season, the SRCC maintains a Web site that monitors Atlantic Basin tropical activity and provides text and graphical depictions of storm paths, forecasts and related information. This can be found at www.srcc.lsu.edu/tropical.

LSU Department of Environmental Studies

Web site: http://info.envs.lsu.edu

• Martin Hugh-Jones, professor emeritus
  225/578-5599
  Hugh-Jones is one of the foremost experts on anthrax. He studies the epidemiology of floods and the effects of disaster on displaced domestic animals and pets.

Louisiana Geological Survey

Web site: http://www.lgs.lsu.edu

• R. Hampton Peele, research associate
  225/578-3455, hampton@lsu.edu
  Peele is a specialist in mapping sciences, Geographical Information Systems technology, computer cartography, digital image processing of satellite imagery, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). He has compiled and digitized much of the pipeline data for the state of Louisiana, and has served as a lead GIS specialist on Louisiana oil spill contingency planning projects. One of his current projects involves the development of a Web-enabled GIS for the city of New Orleans for use in emergency planning and mitigation of hurricane and flood impacts.

LSU School of Landscape Architecture

Web site: http://www.landarch.lsu.edu/

• Dennis Abbey, associate professor
  225/578-1475, aainc@abbey-associates.com
  Abbey researches the design of hurricane resistant landscapes with plants and trees.
• Bruce Sharky, director and professor
  225/578-1471, bshark2@lsu.edu.
  Sharky studies designs for hazard-resistant communities in Louisiana, Mexico and Central America.

LSU Department of Mechanical Engineering

Web site: http://me.lsu.edu/

• Dimitris Nikitopoulos, professor
  225/578-5903, meniki@me.lsu.edu
  Nikitopoulos studies fluid-structure interaction and wind-tunnel measurement and testing techniques.

LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy

Web site: http://www.phys.lsu.edu

• Erno Sajo, associate professor
  225/578-2762, nserno@lsu.edu.
  Sajo researches the atmospheric dispersion of hazardous materials during normal and extreme wind events. Additional research areas include aerosol transport in confined spaces and radiation biophysics.

LSUHSC School of Public Health, New Orleans

Web site: http://publichealth.lsuhsc.edu/

• James Diaz, professor
  504/599-1067, jdiaz@lsuhsc.edu
  Dr. Diaz is a professor of public health and preventive medicine, a medical doctor, doctor of public health and program head of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the LSU Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans. His research interests include food, water-borne and vector-borne diseases, as well as tropical medicine, traveler’s health and medical toxicology. He is board certified in environmental and occupational medicine and in medical toxicology. He serves as the leading medical expert on the CSPHIH/New Orleans public health study of hurricanes and major floods.

LSU Department of Sociology

Web site: http://www.lsu.edu/sociology

• John Beggs, associate professor
  225/578-1119, jbeggs@lsu.edu
  (see below).
• Jeanne Hurlbert, professor
  225/578-5046, sohurl@lsu.edu
  Beggs and Hurlbert, a husband-and-wife team, study the effects of disasters, and particularly hurricanes, on people. Their studies explore why people do or do not evacuate, who the victims rely upon when they have nowhere else to turn, and how people react in the wake of a storm that has destroyed their property and communities. Their Web sites are: www.lapop.lsu.edu/beggs.html and www.lapop.lsu.edu/hurlbert.html.