In Focus
In Focus contributors are distinguished subject matter specialists from AIR's multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers, actuaries and statisticians, software developers and business analysts. Our internationally respected experts come from many different backgrounds, with a wide range of perspectives and experiences, but they are all innovative thinkers at the leading edge of their chosen professions.
Following are contributors for our blog:
 | Stephanie Hill is a Director in AIR’s Product Management group. Her responsibilities include gathering requirements, helping manage releases, and coordinating development and quality assurance activities. She is primarily focused on supporting AIR’s Touchstone platform, including all client issues and client enhancement requests. Stephanie has more than 10 years of product management experience. She was previously a Business Analyst/Project Manager at SunGard Workflow Solutions, providing front-line product support and managing multiple client projects. She received a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Western Ontario. |
 | Stuart Kyle joined AIR in 2014 and is a Manager in our Consulting and Client Services group. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from North Carolina State University. He previously worked as an actuarial analyst at Oliver Wyman. He has obtained the Certified Extreme Events Modeler (CEEM) designation from the AIR Institute. |
 | Suilou Huang joined AIR in 2013 as a Research Scientist/Statistician in our Research Department. Previously Suilou worked as an Associate Technical Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory where she was involved in epidemic disease modeling and responsible for analyzing test results. Prior to that, she was a Guest Investigator in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Suilou has earned a Master's degree in Physical Chemistry from Sun-Yatsen University, Master's degrees in Oceanography and Statistics from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island. |
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Suryanarayana Datla is a vice president and director for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team in Hyderabad. He is involved in the development of catastrophe models for various regions and perils and received his master's degree in engineering in structural dynamics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. |
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Susanne Diebel is a senior risk consultant for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. She works in in the Munich office, and previously worked for Guy Carpenter as a natural catastrophe analyst. Susanne earned a diploma in meteorology from the University of Munich. |
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Dr. Suz Tolwinski-Ward is a principal scientist and manager in the research and modeling group on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. She is a statistical climatologist with expertise in data-model fusion and uncertainty quantification and has been working on modeling tropical cyclones since she joined Verisk in 2013. She holds a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Arizona with a minor concentration in atmospheric sciences. |
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Dr. Sylvie Lorsolo is a principal scientist and senior manager in the research and modeling group. Her main responsibilities are leading a team of meteorologists in the development of Verisk’s tropical cyclone models, monitoring tropical cyclones in real time, model validation, and client support and training. She also assists with insurance-linked securities contracts. Dr. Lorsolo holds a PhD in geosciences from Texas Tech University and an MS in physics and application from the University of Toulouse, France, and a master’s in environment from the University of Toulon (France). |
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Dr. Tabrez Ali is a senior scientist and manager for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. He works for the earthquake hazards group in the areas of active tectonics, reservoir geomechanics, and satellite geodesy (InSAR). Previously Tabrez worked for the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an assistant scientist. He has a PhD in earth and atmospheric sciences from Purdue University. |
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Tammy Viggato joined AIR's Research and Modelling Department in 2013 and worked on the development of an updated wildfire spread algorithm to be implemented in the U.S. wildfire model. Tammy received her B.S. in Computer Science/Biology from Illinois Wesleyan University and her M.A. in Earth Sciences from Boston University. Prior to AIR, Tammy worked as an environmental scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Alaska – Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Tammy is no longer with AIR. |
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Dr. Tao Lai is a vice president in the research and modeling group on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. He has led the earthquake engineering team in the development and update of building vulnerability modules of Verisk’s earthquake risk models for more than 40 countries. He is also responsible for the development of earthquake liquefaction modules and for building and injury vulnerability to blast weapons. He holds a PhD in structural engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) and an ME in structural engineering from Tsinghua University (China). He conducted his post-doctoral research at the University of California, San Diego. Christchurch earthquakes. |
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Thananya Saksuriyongse is a senior scientist in the research group. Prior to working for Verisk, Thananya worked at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a teaching assistant/course instructor. Thananya earned her BS in mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. |
 | Dr. Tim Doggett is an Assistant Vice President and Senior Principal Scientist in AIR's Research and Modeling group. He manages AIR's tropical cyclone models for the U.S., Mexico, and Central America and the winter storm models for the U.S. and Canada, and he provides meteorological expertise on the severe thunderstorm models for the U.S. and Canada, and for AIR's agricultural risk models. Before joining AIR, Tim was a professor of Atmospheric Science at Texas Tech University. At Texas Tech, he worked as a member of the Wind Science and Engineering Program developing mesoscale-observing networks, leading mobile field observation of hurricanes, and producing state-of-the-art Doppler radar applications. (Note: Tim left AIR in 2015.) |
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Dr. Tim Johnson joined Verisk in 2015 and is a senior engineer in the research and modeling group on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. Prior to working with Verisk, Tim worked as a vulnerability modeler/graduate research assistant for the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model as the lead engineer in the vulnerability model team. He holds PhD, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from Florida Institute of Technology. |
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Todd Keller is a senior risk consultant at Verisk. Previously he was a project engineer for Coler & Colantonio Inc. in Norwell, MA, where he was the principal municipal GIS engineer for the local government. Todd received his BS in earth and geological science from the University of Massachusetts. |
 | Tom Garner joined AIR as a Product Manager in AIR's London office. Tom lead the Technical Projects group in the AIR London office, providing technical solutions for clients in their use of AIR software. These included aspects such as reporting, data conversion, automation, integration and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). He holds an M.Sci. in Geography from the University of Bristol. Tom left AIR in 2017. |
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Dr. Tomas Girnius joined AIR in 2003 and is a Principal Scientist, Manager in the Research and Modeling department. His previous experience includes leading development of multi-tiered applications at Thomson Financial. He has also been a computer specialist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, where he received the NASA Group Achievement Award for work on the Chandra X-Ray Center. Tomas has also worked on statistical models for the Target Analysis Group. Tomas received his B.A. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard and a Ph.D. in the same field from the California Institute of Technology, with a thesis on Ray Tracing in Complex Three-Dimensional Earth Models. He was also a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University studying problems in the spatial instability of certain types of fluid flow. Tomas left AIR in 2018. |
 | Tristan Lloyd joined AIR's London team as a Research Associate in 2012. After completing his MEng in Civil Engineering at the University of Nottingham, he worked as a structural engineer for Halcrow (now CH2M Hill) on projects focussed on river and coastal engineering, waste management, and flood modelling. Following this, Tristan began his Ph.D. at University College London, during which time he participated in post-earthquake and tsunami field investigations with EEFIT and spent three months seconded to Arup to work on a tsunami mitigation scheme for a city in Chile. His Ph.D. thesis is about the forces on structures from tsunamis. Tristan left AIR in 2017. |
 | Verisk Maplecroft helps multinational organizations optimize and strengthen risk management processes and supply chains. Verisk Maplecroft's unique vault of global risk analytics and visualizations, situational data feeds and alerts, world-leading country risk reports, and interactive risk calculators empower clients to make risk-adjusted decisions that lead to strategic business advantage. |
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Vijay Padmanabhan is vice president of the marketing group on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. He oversees all aspects of the team’s marketing, including product marketing, marketing operations, and events. Vijay holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. |
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Vineeta Gabriel is a senior scientist for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. Prior to working with Verisk, Vineeta worked as an analyst intern for Larsen and Toubro, Mumbai, where she proposed architectures for specific networks and analyzed network traffic data. She earned her MS in engineering management in information systems from Northeastern University and her Bachelor of Engineering degree in electronics and communication from Anna University, India. |
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Virginia Foley, Senior Manager of Web Operations & Content, joined the AIR Marketing and Communications Team in 2008. Ginny previously worked as an Associate Director, Public Relations for Wiley-Blackwell. She holds a M.A. in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Ginny is no longer with AIR. |
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Dr. Yan Ge is a senior scientist in the research and modeling group on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. She focuses on modeling how natural hazards affect agriculture and crop insurance programs and is involved in developing and improving the Verisk Multiple Peril Crop Insurance models for Canada and China. Prior to Verisk, Yan worked for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a research assistant in climate change detection, impact assessment of climate change on crop yields, and analysis of climate extremes. She earned a PhD and an MS in environmental hydrology and hydraulic engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.paign. |
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Dr. Yasvant Das is a senior research engineer for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. His areas of research include tropical cyclones and monsoons, air-sea interactions, ocean currents, and sea surface elevation/surge. He also studies radiation/energy/water balances and the impact, adaptation, and vulnerability of Indian agriculture to global climate change. Prior to joining Verisk’s Hyderabad office, he was associated with IARI, New Delhi, as a research associate, and before that he was associated with RMSI, Noida as project lead. He has earned MSc, MPhil and PhD degrees from Berhampur University and received a Young Scientist (Fast-Track) Fellowship from the Ministry of Science and Technology, India. |
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Yen Chin was Director of Business Development in the AIR office in Singapore, responsible for building and managing client partnerships in the Singapore, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Prior to Singapore, Yen spent more than seven years at AIR's London office as a Business Development Executive. Yen has also worked for Ascot Underwriting in London and spent six years in Bermuda before that. Yen qualified as a Mechanical Engineering from Oxford Brookes University, with extensive experience in operations, design, data management and workflow. He is no longer with AIR. |
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Yiming Yu is a manager in Verisk's consulting and client services group in Singapore. Previously she worked for a reinsurance company and a catastrophe modeling company. She has an MSc in ecology and evolution from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. |
