In 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma did $265 billion in damage, making them three of the five costliest hurricanes in United States history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Engineers are working on strategies to mitigate these losses, such as improved systems for insurance and retrofit, but it is challenging to integrate these strategies into effective policies.

On Monday, April 30, at 4 p.m. in the University of Delaware's Mitchell Hall, Linda K. Nozick, director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, will speak on a dynamic computational framework of tightly coupled integrated mathematical models that explicitly integrates the perspectives of homeowners, insurance carriers and the government to understand how different policies impact uninsured regional losses.

In her lecture, titled “Modeling to Support Regional Hurricane Risk Management Policy Design,” she will describe a detailed case study of residential eastern North Carolina.

A reception will precede the lecture at 3 p.m. in the lobby of DuPont Hall.

“We are very pleased to have Professor Linda Nozick deliver the 2018 Kerr lecture,” said Sue McNeil, chair of UD’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Professor Nozick’s work on the development of mathematical models for use in the management of complex systems is consistent with the late Professor Kerr’s commitment to the rigorous modeling of engineering problems. Furthermore, her work is applicable to a variety of interesting problems in transportation and civil infrastructure systems. Finally, her long-term collaboration with our colleague, Professor Rachel Davidson, means that she is already known to several of our graduate students.”

About the Arnold D. Kerr Lecture in Engineering Mechanics and Design

The Kerr Lecture Series honors Arnold D. Kerr, professor emeritus of civil engineering at the University of Delaware. The series brings distinguished scientists and engineers to UD each year to speak on topics in engineering mechanics and design. An endowment established in Kerr’s name upon his retirement in 2004 provides funds for the lectureship.

About Linda K. Nozick

Linda Nozick received a bachelor’s degree in Systems Analysis and Engineering from George Washington University in 1989 and a master’s degree and doctoral degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and 1992, respectively. In 1992 she joined the faculty at Cornell University in Civil and Environmental Engineering as an assistant professor. She is currently the director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. She is also the co-founder and director of the College Program in Systems Engineering, a program for which she served as director for about five years. From 1998 to 1999, Nozick was a visiting associate professor in the Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in California. Nozick has been the recipient of several professional honors including a career award from the National Science Foundation and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton. Nozick has also received recognition awards from Sandia National Laboratories and the National Nuclear Security Administration for the development of modeling tools for nuclear stockpile analysis, transportation of hazardous/sensitive materials, enterprise planning and budget analyses. She currently serves on the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), a position she was appointed to by President Obama in 2011. She has been an associate editor for Naval Research Logistics and a member of the editorial board of Transportation Research Part A.