As a member of the U.S. Coast Guard, Douglas Flessner spent his time quickly mobilizing emergency staff and supplies for disasters and major storms like Hurricane Idalia.

“I was doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes logistics to make sure all units had enough people, assets and resources to respond best,” said Flessner, who served as assistant to the logistical chief.

That intense experience a few years ago piqued Flessner’s interest in the science of why natural disasters occur, and how people and businesses can better protect themselves.

“I wanted to deepen my understanding of exposures and risk,” he added.

So after his service, Flessner pursued a master of professional science at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, in the Natural Hazards and Catastrophes track, one of 14 different paths in the program.

Through his coursework, Flessner has learned about the science behind a host of natural disasters, as well as how the latest forecast models and other software can be used to help companies and governments to estimate their risk.

Flessner applied the skills he learned by interning at Guy Carpenter, a reinsurance agency.

“I’ve now received a great scientific understanding of geohazards, like tropical cyclones, earthquakes, volcanoes, wildfires, as well as how climate change is impacting those events, and how they an become disasters, which is when these natural hazards affect people or property,” Flessner said.

Flessner, who graduated in December, received multiple job offers. “This track also helped me get my foot in the door for the catastrophe advisory team at Guy Carpenter, where I am now working part-time.”

The demand in the insurance and reinsurance fields for programs like this one is only rising.

“2025 will be the sixth year in a row that global insured losses have exceeded $100 billion, which has increased the industry focus on what is driving the uptick in losses,” said Kieran Bhatia, senior vice president and climate and sustainability lead for North America at Guy Carpenter, who earned his doctorate in atmospheric sciences from the Rosenstiel School.

“Evolving physical risk is part of it, but we also look at how population increases, the shifts in where wealth is concentrated, the rising cost of goods, and other factors to understand the recent loss behavior. Considering all these crucial details and blending this information with the latest climate science is critical for pricing risk in the insurance industry.”

Elliott Morrill, who graduated from the MPS program in 2016, is now a senior associate director of climate risk advisory at AON.

“Within the MPS program, there were many opportunities to build my knowledge about how we can analyze these naturally occurring events, and to bring analytics and statistics into my scientific training, but it also helped me grow into communicating and connecting with people,” Morrill said. “I think there are many opportunities for people with this training at insurance companies, as well as chances to move up too.”

Nascent beginnings

The Natural Hazards and Catastrophes track arose nine years ago, as meteorologists and ocean scientists across the Rosenstiel School observed rapid population increases and development near natural hazards such as oceans. With environmental risks facing people who live close to these hazards, the curriculum was designed to serve government agencies, nonprofits and insurance companies that want to understand these emerging risks.

“Anywhere you have natural hazards, you need people to estimate that impact on society,” said Tamay Ozgokmen, professor of ocean sciences who serves as coordinator of the track. “We could see this risk increasing, and we wanted to create a program where we would train students about how to do an environmental risk analysis for various clients.”

Through the program, students learn about coastal interaction and how to quantify and test hurricane force winds and storm surge at the Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. SUSTAIN Laboratory. They also learn to create visualizations of this data through ArcGIS mapping, and to navigate statistical software that help them craft analyses with the help of the latest catastrophe models.

Graduate students also learn about coastal engineering practices, which can include a primer on building codes as well, said Brian Haus, a professor of ocean sciences and a coastal engineer, who teaches some of the MPS classes.

“We try to get students to understand what the hazards are, and how can we quantify the risk from those natural hazards,” Haus said. “This program helps students to understand what tools are available to help establish the risk, and then how that information is brought into all of these catastrophe models, as well as how that information could be impacted.”

Ample career prospects

Morrill agreed that if more students are trained in how to combine a science background with catastrophe modeling, it would offer a more nuanced pool of knowledge for his field.

“The industry is constantly looking for the latest and greatest knowledge on all risks,” he added.

Bhatia added: “These programs that give you more applied and practical views of the science, and help you to develop these skills for a purpose — whether it’s in private industry or other sectors — is extremely valuable because you are preparing yourself for the questions and criteria of future employers, who may want to know how you are using the science for solutions.”

Rosenstiel School Dean Benjamin Kirtman sees this program as one that can help fill needed gaps in industries that would benefit from having employees with an earth science perspective.

“All of these tracks in the MPS curriculum have been thoughtfully designed to be extremely relevant to today’s societal needs and expertise in earth sciences,” Kirtman said.

The hazards and catastrophes track is just one of 15 Master in Professional Science tracks offered at the Rosenstiel School, for students who want more hands-on experience in a specific area. Most are 12 to 18 months long and combine internship experience with classes.

For more information on potential career tracks visit https://news.miami.edu/rosenstiel/stories/2026/02/using-science-to-help-...

Contact the author at jnt38@miami.edu