Tornado impact expert presents Western Engineering public lecture

Kevin Simmons, internationally known for his work on the socioeconomic impact of natural hazards, will visit Western University next week to deliver a lecture about the death and destruction caused by tornadoes in North America in 2011. The infamous year ranks as the most damaging and deadly one since official records started in 1950.

Simmons, an economics professor at Austin College (Texas), will present his lecture, titled Blown Away: Monetary & Human Impacts of the 2011 Tornadoes, on Wednesday, January 22 at 4:30 p.m. in Conron Hall. 

Selected as a Fulbright Scholar for 2014, Simmons is set to collaborate with Western’s Faculty of Engineering and game-changing wind engineers like Gregory Kopp and Horia Hangan at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, the Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes, and Western’s Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

Simmons previously worked with the International Centre of Geohazards in Oslo, Norway. Currently, he holds the Clara R. and Leo F. Corrigan Chair of Economics at Austin College.

He is the co-author of Deadly Season: Analysis of the 2011 Tornado Outbreaks and The Economic and Societal Impacts of Tornados.

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