SUMMER 2024 | 27 has been introduced along with a certificate program. The first students in those programs are starting in the Fall 2024 semester. “This problem requires multiple kinds of expertise to answer it well,” said Brian Davison, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who is also one of the founding members of the center. “The insurance industry and finance industry have their areas of expertise, but they might not know how to plan for and repair certain kinds of infrastructure,” Davison said. “I would argue it’s necessary for catastrophe modeling to be interdisciplinary because we’re going to miss something pretty significant if we are not considering the human aspects.” Davison and his colleagues at the center say they are in a unique position to bring government and private industry together. Yang said government agencies have their attention divided by issues such as inflation and housing prices, while the insurance companies are for-profit corporations and need to worry about their finances and their competitive edge. Those in academia don’t have such constraints. “We are in a good spot and can serve as a neutral venue that brings everyone together,” he said. LEHIGH LAUNCHES ITS UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTERS The development of University Research Centers marks an impor- tant milestone in Lehigh’s strategic plan to invest in interdisciplinary research. University leaders have been seeking and developing ideas for the formation of research centers. The goal is to create multiple centers of national and international prominence in the next five to 10 years. The process began with the strategic planning effort during Fall 2022 when the “Research for Impact” working group solicited creative ideas from across campus, which helped inform and create the notion of interdisciplinary research centers in three areas: assessing and improving health by working outside of health care settings; interdisciplinary research and creative work to understand conflict and change; innovation for sustainable and resilient infrastructure and communities. In August 2023, university leaders solicited proposals for University Research Centers. They received 17 letters of intent and 12 white papers, each of which presented A worker sanitizes a theater in New Delhi, India, on Oct. 14, 2020. “I saw students get immediately excited when I pitched this type of application, because we are dealing with the biggest threats to our society.” —PAOLO BOCCHINI, professor of civil and environmental engineering ideas with potential for further development. Each proposal was reviewed by experts, including Lehigh faculty, staff, deans, content experts from academia and industry, and experts in federal research priorities. Lehigh hopes to designate more University Research Centers in the near future, including in the areas of assessing and improving health by working outside of health care settings, and interdisciplinary research and creative work to understand conflict and change. “We identified a set of themes, areas where it seems like we have existing strengths and it would be good to grow,” Packer said. A location for the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience is still being determined, though Packer believes it will likely be on the Mountaintop Campus. “I think our perspective is that this is a really important and exciting area of research thatis only going to grow in importance,” Packer said. Read more at catmodeling.org L
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