Cooperative Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Developing Convective Storms

The National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration are supporting an initiative to research and address the challenges posed by severe convective storms. As part of the initiative, the Cooperative Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Convective Storms is proposed by Northern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with key industry members.

Stephen Bennett, Chief Scientist at Demex Group, a data and analytics company, will lead the Industry Advisory Board for the newly founded center. Bennett’s role at Demex includes creating the models that power the company’s parametric reinsurance products.

The center aims to promote cooperation among government organizations, academic institutions and business leaders in convective storm research to improve public safety and weather forecasting.

The objectives of the center include:

• Conducting comprehensive research exploring meteorological, climatic, socioeconomic and environmental aspects of convective storms.
• Development of state-of-the-art methodologies that assess risks and exposure to convective storms, including their potential for property damage, accidents, critical infrastructure disruptions and insured losses.
• Working with industry partners, governments and local communities to translate research findings into actionable strategies.
• Promoting technological innovation by leveraging emerging technologies such as advanced modeling, data analytics and remote sensing to create new forecasts, climate projections and sensing algorithms.
• Training future scientists and educating the public.