2020 Hurricane Season: LSU Hurricane Experts Available
Updated 05/29/2020BATON ROUGE – LSU 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, LSU Earth Scan Laboratory operational manager and LSU 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 www.esl.lsu.edu for satellite imagery and animations.
Barry Keim, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU Earth Scan Laboratory director and the LSU 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 www.esl.lsu.edu for satellite imagery and animations.
Human Impacts
Craig Colten, LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology Carl O. Sauer Professor
Areas of Expertise: Historical and social geography of hazards. Wrote The Conversation
article, "Hurricanes can cause enormous damage inland, but emergency plans focus on coasts" and the 2009 book "Perilous Place, Powerful Storms: Hurricane Protection in Coastal Louisiana."
225-578-6180
ccolten@lsu.edu
Michael Pasquier, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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
Heather Kirk-Ballard, 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, LSU 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: "Americans who live far from coasts should also be worried about flooding."
225-578-6197
nlam@lsu.edu
Brant Mitchell, LSU Stephenson Disaster Management Institute director
Areas of Expertise: Disaster response and evacuations.
225-578-5939
bmitch9@lsu.edu
Claudette Hanks Reichel, LSU 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: http://www.lsuagcenter.com/lahouse
225-202-6593 (cell)
225-578-4440
creichel@agcenter.lsu.edu
Edward Richards, LSU 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: Applying Life Insurance Principles to Coastal Property Insurance to Incentivize Adaptation
to Climate Change, 43 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 427 (2016); The Hurricane Katrina Litigation Against the Corps of Engineers: Is Denial of Geology
and Climate Change the Way to Save New Orleans? (2018); and The Societal Impacts of Climate Anomalies during the Past 50,000 Years and Their Implications
for Solastalgia and Adaptation to Future Climate Change, 18 Hous. J. Health L. & Pol'y 131 (2018). He maintains the Climate Change Law and
Policy Project Blog.
richards@lsu.edu
Chao Sun, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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 http://www.evaccenter.lsu.edu/.
225-578-5247
brian@rsip.lsu.edu
Food Safety
Wennie Xu, LSU 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, LSU Center for Coastal Resiliency director, Louisiana Sea Grant Laborde Chair and
LSU 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
Matthew Hiatt, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Mike N. Dooley P.E. Professor
and LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU 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, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine Zoological Medicine professor
Areas of Expertise: Alligators; Gulf Coast wildlife.
225-578-9657
jnevare@lsu.edu
Brandy Duhon, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine shelter medicine instructor
Areas of Expertise: Animal disaster response
225-578-9922
bduhon7@lsu.edu
Laura Riggs, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine associate professor of equine surgery
Areas of Expertise: Large animal disaster response
225-578-9922
lriggs@lsu.edu
Chance Armstrong, LSU 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: https://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2019/08/30docs_miller_weather.php
LSU AgCenter’s information on how to best prepare your home, family, pets and property:
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/family_home/hazards_and_threats/are_you_ready
LSU AgCenter’s Disaster Information Resources: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/disasterinfo
Tips for Pet Owners: http://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/vet_news/tips_for_pet_owners.php
Tips for Horse Owners: http://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/vet_news/tips_for_horse_owners.php
What to Do if You Encounter Wildlife: http://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/disaster_preparedness/wildlife.php
Disaster Preparedness: http://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/disaster_preparedness
In the News:
Sept. 11, 2020
How powerful hurricanes hasten the disappearance of Louisiana’s wetlands
National Geographic
Sept. 8, 2020
Imagine if We Listened to Scientists Before the Hurricane
New York Times
June 15, 2020
This Hurricane Season, the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Complicating Disaster Response
Plans
The Intercept
May 29, 2020
Hurricane season starts June 1; prepare now for potential storms
Franklin Sun
Hurricane season starts June 1; prepare now for potential storms
Monroe News Star