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The Science Behind Disaster Safety


Many communities are becoming increasingly concerned about their vulnerabilities to hazards like wind, wildfire, hail and rain. The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) is at the forefront of some very exciting, innovative home and business safety research.


Headquartered in South Carolins, the IBHS Research Center is developing a range of resources and product information to help all of us mitigate for various hazards, and become more resilient as a result.


In this episode, we speak with Dr. Ian Giammanco who is the Senior Director of Product Design & Lead Meteorologist at the Center. His responsibilities include providing leadership in instrumentation design and data collection, wind-flow characterization and multi-hazard testing including and wildfire, field programs, and provides guidance on weather and climate issues within the public policy program. He is also serving a 3-year term on the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Weather and Climate Financial Risk Management. Dr. Giammanco has more than a decade of meteorological field research experience, serving as the field coordinator for the IBHS Characteristics of Hail Field Program, which began in 2012, the Texas Tech University Hurricane Research Team, and has participated in numerous severe thunderstorm and tornado research projects, including VORTEX 2. His research interests include boundary layer wind flow characteristics in a variety of conditions, severe convective storms, tropical cyclones, and measurement and instrumentation systems.

Dr. Giammanco received a bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Louisiana, a master’s degree in Atmospheric Science, as well as a PhD in Wind Science and Engineering both from Texas Tech University. He also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Texas Tech University examining the wind flow characteristics of tropical cyclones. During his doctoral studies he was appointed as a National Science Foundation – Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Fellow, and served as an intern at NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division in Miami. In addition to his position at IBHS, he is currently appointed as an Adjunct Faculty Research Associate at Texas Tech University.

Watch this episode to find out more about the science (and fun) behind disaster safety research.


To view this video again: https://youtu.be/ph6FHiSryzU


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