David Lallemant

David Lallemant heads the Disaster Analytics for Society Lab (DASL) at Nanyang Technological University and the Earth Observatory of Singapore. His research focuses on climate and disaster risk analysis, and in particular on urban risk and resilience, gender and socially-equitable risk analysis methods, nature-based solutions, and other topics. He uses hazard modeling, engineering analysis, machine learning, and spatial statistics to understand and quantify the impacts of natural hazards on communities today and in the future. Prior to joining NTU, David was a research engineer at Stanford University, where he also founded the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative, whose mission is to apply engineering analyses to broader questions of social impact and human behavior in the context of disasters and extreme events. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, a MSc from UC Berkeley and a BSc from MIT (2007). David was awarded the Nation Research Foundation Fellowship, the Nanyang Award for Humanitarian Work, the Data Innovation for Sustainable Development Award, and others.

Prof Lallemant’s research interests are in hazard, vulnerability and risk modeling for all natural hazards, with a particular focus on understanding the impact of disasters on cities. He is also interested in the modeling and communication of uncertainty as it relates to disaster risk, and the translation of science into policy. He uses tools and methods from structural engineering, probabilistic hazard analysis, predictive modeling, geostatistics and other statistical methods to attempt novel and impactful research to promote resilient societies. He also works on the use of novel technologies for post-disaster damage assessment aimed at informing rapid, effective and equitable response and recovery. The multi-disciplinary and policy-oriented nature of his work has led him to build collaborations with the World Bank, the Red Cross, Google, USGS and others.

RESEARCH STATEMENT

Hazard, Vulnerability, Risk and Resilience Analysis – Topics of interest include:

• Gender and social equity in climate and disaster risk analysis
• Nature-based solutions for risk reduction
• Time-dependent risk modeling.
• Risk analysis at the urban and regional scale.
• Disaster impacts beyond fatalities and financial loss.
• Novel methods of fragility modeling.

Post-Disaster Impacts and Recovery – Topics of interest include:

• Remote sensing for post-disaster assessment.
• Crowd-sourcing for post-disaster assessment.
• Multi-data integration and geostatistics for post-disaster assessment.
• Resilient disaster recovery.

Equity in climate and disaster risk
Nature-based solutions

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Stanford University (2011 — 2015)
• Masters University of California, Berkeley (2008 — 2009)
• Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003 — 2007)