Catastrophe Modeling
Climate Science, Geology, Natural Hazards, Reinsurance
Natural hazards research is a fascinating and complex scientific problem, but more than that, it demands an understanding of the interplay between hazard, economic conditions, public policy, and the business world. The re/insurance field is at the forefront of societal risk management, but it faces a range of challenges, both near-term, with the expansion of wealth and population into high-risk metropolitan areas, and long-term, as climate change enhances the risk of extreme storm surges, floods, and heat waves.
A climate scientist and geologist by training, I am passionate about bridging the gaps between sources of new knowledge in the research world and end-users in the private sector. This is a two-way street, as my collaborations with researchers at Columbia University and NASA GISS have allowed me to highlight problems in the business world that opened up fruitful new avenues of academic research. My scientific specialty is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the largest driver of year-to-year climate variability, which is where changes in the ocean and atmosphere intersect most dramatically with short-term events like hurricanes and floods. However, my geology background and experience in the reinsurance sector allow me to be comfortable working with the full suite of natural perils.
I am excited to bring a flexible toolbox of stochastic modeling, geospatial analytics, machine learning, open source datasets, and social media to the field of catastrophe modeling.
Experience
Chubb
Corporate Catastrophe Solutions
Philadelphia, PA | 2018-Present
AVP, Senior Research Scientist
Catastrophe modeling research and model validation, specializing in climate change and emerging risks.
Chubb Tempest Re
Stamford, CT | 2012-2017
Formerly ACE Group, ACE Tempest Re
AVP, Senior Research Scientist
Catastrophe modeling research, specializing in El Niño-Southern Oscillation impacts and climate change.
Research Scientist / Analyst
Integrate catastrophe models from RMS and AIR with remote sensing data, environmental measurements, stochastic event models, and social media information to improve loss projections.
University of Texas - Austin
Austin, TX
Graduate Research Assistant | 2008-2012
Conducted research related to dissertation. Analyzed customer samples and performed regular maintenance on lab equipment.
Teaching Assistant | 2007-2011
Taught 5 semesters of lab courses - 3-4 sections of ~15 students per semester. Helped lead two field courses. Developed new climate lab curriculum.
Lab:
Climate: Past, Present, and Future
Sustaining a Planet
Physical Geology
Field:
Field Geology - Summer field camp
Honors Undergraduate Short Course - Florida Keys
Anadarko Petroleum
Denver, CO | 2008
Geology Intern
Assessed >900 well logs for coalbed methane potential. Utilized literature review and stratigraphic information from logs to propose a model constraining reservoir size and distribution. Collaborated with engineering team to estimate economic potential.
Carleton College
Northfield, MN | 2005-2007
Lab Assistant
Global Change Biology
Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Paleobiology
Introduction to Geology
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Alexandria, MN | 2005
Ecology Intern
Field assistant for prairie ecology study on Echinacea angustifolia.
Technical Skills
RMS
RiskLink
AIR
Touchstone, CATRADER
Python
Previously: Matlab, Java, C++
GIS
MS Access, SQL
Adobe Suite
Education
University of Texas - Austin
Ph.D., 2012
Geological Sciences - El Niño, Paleoclimate, Climate Change
Carleton College
B.A., 2007
Geology, Biology
Professional Society Memberships
AGU
American Geophysical Union
ISCM
International Society of Catastrophe Managers
Publications
The frequency and duration of US hurricane droughts
TM Hall and KA Hereid
2015
We estimate the mean wait time for the 2006-2014 US major hurricane landfall drought to be greater than 175 years, and find that this wait time is not dependent on drought duration.
Coral record of reduced El Niño activity in the early 15th to middle 17th centuries
KA Hereid, TM Quinn, FW Taylor, C-C Shen, RL Edwards, H Cheng
2013
Coral record of a century-scale period of low El Niño activity during the Little Ice Age. A switch between active and inactive El Niño states of this duration has not previously been recorded, and provides a new baseline for climate models and reconstructions.
Assessing spatial variability in El Niño–Southern Oscillation event detection skill using coral geochemistry
KA Hereid, TM Quinn, YM Okumura
2013
Paleoclimate proxies do not always record El Niño and La Niña with equal skill due to the varying spatial structure of each event type. Coral records in the central Pacific have a balanced response toward ENSO events, but the Western Pacific Warm Pool favors El Niño expression, and the South Pacific Convergence Zone preferentially records La Niña events.
Media
NASA videos explaining hurricane droughts study (Hall and Hereid, 2015, GRL).
10 year gap in US major hurricane landfalls continues.
NASA video describing hurricane droughts study (Hall and Hereid, 2015, GRL).
See more commentary via NASA GISS feature here.
Featured Stories
The U.S. coast is in an unprecedented hurricane drought — why this is terrifying
More Press
The U.S. Enters a Historic 10-Year 'Hurricane Drought'
No major US hurricanes in 11 years. Odds of that? 1-in-2,300.
What’s driving our major hurricane landfall drought? Study says it’s just dumb luck.
Tons Of People Are Moving To The Coast Amid A Lull In Hurricanes
Experts warn against complacency as U.S. endures hurricane drought
US hurricane drought is 'basically dumb luck', scientists say
U.S.' Longest 'Hurricane Drought' Due to Sheer Luck, Study Finds
U.S. in longest 'hurricane drought' in recorded history
Major hurricane 'drought' for U.S.? Yes, researchers say
We've been in a hurricane drought for nine years
May the odds be ever in our favor
No major US hurricane landfalls in nine years
Here is The The Chance of A Major Hurricane Hitting The U.S. Coast this Year
Conferences
Industry Geoscientist Panel
M Bove, S Bowen, KA Hereid, K Roberts
Industry Geoscientist Panel
M Bove, S Bowen, KA Hereid, B Wood
Human-Induced Earthquakes Keep Oklahoma Rumbling
KA Hereid
An introduction to reinsurance for scientists
KA Hereid, Invited
RAA 2016
Why Does Oklahoma Have More Earthquakes than California? Emerging Human-Induced Earthquake Risk
KA Hereid
RAA 2015
El Niño: Impacts on global disaster risk
KA Hereid
EGU 2014
A multi-proxy perspective on climate variability in the tropical Pacific over the last millennium
TM Quinn, JW Partin, K Thirumalai, KA Hereid, CR Maupin, C-C Shen, FW Taylor
AGU 2011
ENSO variability at Vanuatu during the Medieval Climate Anomaly
KA Hereid, TM Quinn, FW Taylor, RL Edwards, H Cheng, C-C Shen
AGU 2010
ENSO variability during the Little Ice Age from the perspective of a long coral record from the Western Pacific Warm Pool
KA Hereid, TM Quinn, FW Taylor, C-C Shen, JL Banner
Outstanding Student Paper Award
Tales from the South (and West) Pacific in the Common Era: A Climate Proxy Perspective (Invited)
TM Quinn, FW Taylor, JW Partin, CR Maupin, KA Hereid, MK Gorman
AGU 2009
Interannual to multi-decadal scale climate variability in the Western Pacific Warm Pool recorded by the geochemistry of 16th-17th century corals from Papua New Guinea
KA Hereid, TM Quinn, FW Taylor, JL Banner
AAPG 2009
Modern isolated carbonate platform dimensional database collected from publicly available image catalogs
S Bachtel, R Phelps, KA Hereid, J El-Azzi, EM Dunn, D Helbert, P Cardona, R Caber, K Singh, B Kiel
AGU 2008
Sea surface temperature from the Western Pacific Warm Pool (Misima Island, Papua New Guinea) using the geochemistry of modern and pre-industrial corals
KA Hereid, TM Quinn, FW Taylor
Outreach
Guest speaker at CUNY CREST/NWS High School Summer Weather Camp
8/2016
Projects
Demo projects leveraging public datasets.
Allocate points with values based on where exposure is likely to be - based on nighttime lights data.
Calculate historical expected losses for hurricane, earthquake events that fall within shape defined by lat/lon, using a user-provided payout structure.
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