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2020 Hurricane Season: º£½ÇÉçÇø Hurricane Experts Available


HurricaneUpdated 05/29/2020
BATON ROUGE – º£½ÇÉçÇø has a number of experts available to discuss topics related to storm preparedness, climate, economic impacts, recovery efforts and more during the 2020 hurricane season. Please check here as this list will be updated.

To schedule interviews, contact 225-578-5685/eballa1@lsu.edu or 225-578-3870/asatake@lsu.edu.

 

Climatology and Meteorology

Alaric Haag, º£½ÇÉçÇø Earth Scan Laboratory operational manager and º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences and Coastal Studies Institute information technology staff
Areas of Expertise: Satellite image processing of atmospheric and oceanic phenomenon; data analysis and visualization in support of emergency response, faculty research and graduate education.
haag@lsu.edu
Visit  for satellite imagery and animations.

, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Geography & Anthropology Richard J. Russell Professor and Louisiana State Climatologist
Areas of Expertise: Climate extremes including heavy rainfall and hurricanes; detection of climate change and its impacts; statistical analysis of extremes and Probable Maximum Precipitation.
225-578-6170
keim@lsu.edu

Kam-biu Liu, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, professor and chair, George W. Barineau III Professor
Areas of Expertise: Hurricanes and typhoons, paleotempestology, coastal paleoecology, global environmental change, palynology and lake-sediments in the U.S. Gulf coast and Atlantic coast, Caribbean region and Central America, South America (Andes and Amazon Basin), Tibetan Plateau, China
225-578-8203
kliu1@lsu.edu 

Paul Miller, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Hazardous weather impacts; coastal meteorology; thunderstorms and land-atmosphere interactions. Conducted new research on how hurricanes can affect weather after landfall
225-578-6458
pmiller1@lsu.edu

Robert Rohli, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences professor
Areas of Expertise: Coastal weather and climate, atmospheric circulation variability, atmospheric hazards, tropical cyclone dynamics, surface-atmosphere interactions, synoptic meteorology and climatology.
225-578-6346
rohli@lsu.edu

Jill Trepanier, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Geography & Anthropology associate professor
Areas of Expertise: extreme climatic and weather phenomena including tropical cyclones; applies statistics to analyze these events.
225-578-6192
jtrepa3@lsu.edu

Nan Walker, º£½ÇÉçÇø Earth Scan Laboratory director and the º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences J. P. Morgan Distinguished Professor in Coastal Studies
Areas of Expertise: Satellite remote sensing and real-time surveillance of hurricanes, tropical storms and the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current and associated ocean eddies to predict and understand hurricane intensity changes, generation of strong currents and upwelling of cool waters; impacts of storms on coastal circulation and coastal erosion.
nwalker@lsu.edu
Visit for satellite imagery and animations.


Human Impacts

Craig Colten, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Geography & Anthropology Carl O. Sauer Professor
Areas of Expertise: Historical and social geography of hazards. Wrote The Conversation article, "" and the 2009 book "."
225-578-6180
ccolten@lsu.edu

Michael Pasquier, º£½ÇÉçÇø religious studies and history associate professor
Areas of Expertise: history and culture of a fishing community outside the levee-protected system of coastal Louisiana; coastal Louisiana oral histories; and the history of religion in the Mississippi River Delta from the colonial period to the present.
225-578-2271
mpasquier@lsu.edu

Tim Slack, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Sociology professor
Areas of Expertise: Community vulnerability and resiliency; disparities in impacts across social groups; social stratification and social demography.
225-578-1116
slack@lsu.edu

 

Disaster Recovery and Resilience

Aly-Mousaad Aly, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Wind impact on the build environment; innovative mitigation strategies to build more resilient communities; large-scale wind testing at high Reynolds number under realistic turbulence.
225-578-6654
aly@lsu.edu

Traci Birch, º£½ÇÉçÇø Coastal Sustainability Studio interim managing director and School of Architecture assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Resiliency in community design and planning and coastal community development.
225-578-4990
tbirch@lsu.edu

Carol Friedland, º£½ÇÉçÇø Bert S. Turner Department of Construction Management Cajun Constructors and Performance Contractors Associate Professor
Areas of Expertise: Hazard-resistant construction and mitigation; performance of housing and other built infrastructure subjected to natural hazards; combined wind and flood interactions on structures; post-event data acquisition; remote sensing of building damage; hazard-resistant and sustainable construction; integration of Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, in hazards research; hazard mitigation planning and mitigation decision-making; and loss estimation.
225-578-1155
friedland@lsu.edu

Navid Jafari, assistant professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Areas of Expertise: Part of Hurricane Resilience Research Institute; Exploring new ways to get real-time data during severe weather events by deploying sensors using unmanned aerial vehicles in hard-to-reach areas.
225-578-8475
njafari@lsu.edu 

, assistant professor, School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences
Areas of Expertise: Landscape preparation and storm damage recovery
225-578-2110
hkirkballard@agcenter.lsu.edu 

Nina Lam, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Environmental Sciences professor
Areas of Expertise: Flooding in inland communities across the U.S. and resilience to natural disasters. Wrote The Conversation article: "."
225-578-6197
nlam@lsu.edu

Brant Mitchell, º£½ÇÉçÇø Stephenson Disaster Management Institute director
Areas of Expertise: Disaster response and evacuations.
225-578-5939
bmitch9@lsu.edu

Claudette Hanks Reichel, º£½ÇÉçÇø AgCenter LaHouse Resource Center director, professor and extension housing specialist 
Areas of Expertise: Sustainable, resilient housing; residential building science; energy management; indoor air quality; disaster mitigation and restoration; universal design. LaHouse Resource Center is an educational sustainable housing demonstration facility:
225-202-6593 (cell)
225-578-4440
creichel@agcenter.lsu.edu

, º£½ÇÉçÇø Law Center Climate Change Law and Policy Project director and professor
Areas of Expertise: Flood insurance plans; flood maps; land use issues, extreme weather, coastal restoration, and climate change. His publications include:, 43 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 427 (2016); (2018); and , 18 Hous. J. Health L. & Pol'y 131 (2018). He maintains the Climate Change Law and Policy Project Blog.
richards@lsu.edu

Chao Sun, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Coastal hazards characterization and mitigation with a focus on power transmission and distribution systems during severe storms.
225-578-8511
csun@lsu.edu


Children & Family

Anna Long, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Psychology associate professor
Areas of Expertise: Child and school psychology. She wrote the tip sheet: Helping Kids Cope with Traumatic Events and is a licensed psychologist in the state of Louisiana.
225-578-7605
along@lsu.edu


Economic Impact

David E. Dismukes, º£½ÇÉçÇø Center for Energy Studies director and College of the Coast & Environment professor
Areas of Expertise: economic impacts of tropical storms and hurricanes on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas infrastructure, production and transport; power and utilities infrastructure.
dismukes@lsu.edu

James Richardson, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Economics and Department of Public Administration professor
Areas of Expertise: Ports; regional and energy economics; state and local taxation; forecasting; public policy.
225-578-6745
parich@lsu.edu

Dek Terrell, º£½ÇÉçÇø E. J. Ourso College of Business Freeport-McMoRan Endowed Chair of Economics 
Areas of Expertise: Regional and statewide economics; applied econometric and environmental-related studies.
225-578-3785
mdterre@lsu.edu

 

Evacuations

Brant Mitchell, º£½ÇÉçÇø Stephenson Disaster Management Institute director
Areas of Expertise: Disaster response and evacuations.
225-578-5939
bmitch9@lsu.edu 

Brian Wolshon, Edward A. and Karen Wax Schmitt Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and director of the Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency
Areas of Expertise: Hurricane evacuations and major event traffic scenarios. His recent projects have included the testing and evaluation of intelligent transportation systems and traffic-flow analysis, with particular emphasis in application for hurricane evacuation. For more on the Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency, visit . 
225-578-5247
brian@rsip.lsu.edu    


Food Safety

, º£½ÇÉçÇø AgCenter assistant professor
Area of Expertise: Natural disaster food safety 
302-229-8499 (cell)
225-578-3997
wenqing.xu@agcenter.lsu.edu

 

Floods, Rivers and Storm Surge

Scott C. Hagen, º£½ÇÉçÇø Center for Coastal Resiliency director, Louisiana Sea Grant Laborde Chair and º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering professor
Areas of Expertise: Tide, wind-wave and hurricane storm surge modeling; digital elevation model development; flood-plain analysis; coastal dynamics of sea level rise and biogeophysical modeling.
225-578-4303
shagen@lsu.edu

, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: How the movement of water, sediment and nutrients in river deltas, estuaries and wetlands affects the environment; deltas and wetlands; environmental fluid dynamics; flooding and water level fluctuations.
225-578-6092
mhiatt1@lsu.edu

Richard Keim, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Renewable Natural Resources professor
Areas of Expertise: Hydrology of forested wetlands and watersheds; management of bottomland and coastal forests; hydrological interactions between forests, soils and the atmosphere; scaling of hydrological processes; dendrochronology.
225 578-4169
rkeim@lsu.edu 

John Pardue, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Elizabeth Howell Stewart Professor and Hazardous Substance Research Center director
Areas of Expertise: Fate and transport of chemical contaminants during hurricanes and floods, handling debris after disasters and impacts of storm surge on industrial facilities; Part of Hurricane Resilience Research Institute.
225-578-8661
jpardue@lsu.edu

Frank Tsai, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering professor
Areas of Expertise: Watershed and groundwater flow, fate and transport modeling in aquifer systems and surface water.
225-578-4246
ftsai@lsu.edu

Clint Willson, º£½ÇÉçÇø Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Mike N. Dooley P.E. Professor and º£½ÇÉçÇø Center for River Studies director
Areas of Expertise: Watershed hydrology; physical and numerical modeling of rivers
225-578-8672
cwillson@lsu.edu

 

Photo, Documents and Book Restoration

Ed Benoit, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Library & Information Science associate professor
Areas of Expertise: Recovering damaged photos and other items; documenting natural disasters, cultural heritage, archival process and audiovisual preservation.
225-578-1469 
414-336-4966 (cell) 
ebenoit@lsu.edu

Anne Edwards, º£½ÇÉçÇø Libraries Special Collections, facilities manager
Areas of Expertise: Disaster planning and management for cultural heritage materials and facilities. 
225-578-6548
alsmith@lsu.edu 

Caroline Ziegler, º£½ÇÉçÇø Libraries Special Collections, conservation coordinator
Areas of Expertise: Conservation of paper-based materials; Cultural heritage preservation best practices.   
225-578-6280
cziegler@lsu.edu 



Communication and Social Media 

Lance Porter, º£½ÇÉçÇø Manship School of Mass Communication Class of 1941 Alumni Professor and Social Media Analysis and Creation Lab director
Areas of Expertise: Social media effects and sharing in times of disaster and emergency. 
225-573-7485 
lporter@lsu.edu

Brenton Stewart, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Library & Information Science assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Everyday information needs, information behavior of underrepresented populations, and social media and digital culture studies including following disasters.
225-578-1467
brentonstewart@lsu.edu

Seungwon Yang, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Library & Information Science and the Center for Computation & Technology assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Crisis informatics, social media and machine or deep learning.
225-578-7411
seungwonyang@lsu.edu



Animal Welfare, Pets and Wildlife

Prosanta Chakrabarty, º£½ÇÉçÇø Museum of Natural Sciences curator of fishes and Department of Biological Sciences professor
Areas of Expertise: Deep sea fish in Gulf of Mexico and systematics of marine and freshwater fishes.
225-578-3079
prosanta@lsu.edu

Mustajab Mirza, DVM, DACVS, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Veterinary Medicine Equine Surgery associate professor
Areas of Expertise: Horses; equine surgery.
225-578-9575
kabooter@lsu.edu

Javier Nevarez, DVM, PhD, DACZM, DECZM, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Veterinary Medicine Zoological Medicine professor
Areas of Expertise: Alligators; Gulf Coast wildlife.
225-578-9657
jnevare@lsu.edu

Brandy Duhon, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Veterinary Medicine shelter medicine instructor
Areas of Expertise: Animal disaster response
225-578-9922
bduhon7@lsu.edu

Laura Riggs, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Veterinary Medicine associate professor of equine surgery
Areas of Expertise: Large animal disaster response
225-578-9922
lriggs@lsu.edu 

Chance Armstrong, º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Veterinary Medicine assistant professor of food animal medicine
Areas of Expertise: Large animal disaster response
225-578-9500
carmstrong@lsu.edu

 

 

Additional Links:
How Hurricanes Can Affect Weather after Landfall: /mediacenter/news/2019/08/30docs_miller_weather.php
º£½ÇÉçÇø AgCenter’s information on how to best prepare your home, family, pets and property: º£½ÇÉçÇø AgCenter’s Disaster Information Resources:
Tips for Pet Owners: 
Tips for Horse Owners: What to Do if You Encounter Wildlife: 
Disaster Preparedness: 

 

In the News:

Sept. 11, 2020

National Geographic

Sept. 8, 2020

New York Times

June 15, 2020

The Intercept

May 29, 2020

Franklin Sun


Monroe News Star