Modeling a Safer, More Resilient Future for Insurers and Society

Bingming shares how his team’s innovations improve and advance earthquake modeling to help Verisk customers better understand and respond to the risks of catastrophic events. Learn how Verisk Extreme Events Solutions empower a safer tomorrow for insurers.

Bingming Shen-Tu, Vice President, Research, Verisk Extreme Event Solutions

My Role

I'm a director in the Research Department of Verisk Extreme Events Solutions.
I lead a group of scientists to develop earthquake hazard and risk assessment models to help companies manage catastrophic risks associated with natural and manmade earthquakes.
I plan and implement model development and update projects such as developing a new earthquake model for the Middle East or updating the Mexico earthquake model to incorporate new science and technology.
My team conceptualizes and designs new research and modeling projects to improve model development.
I conduct quality control for all earthquake models to align them with state-of-the-art science and technology.
I support internal and external clients to help them understand the strengths and limitations of our earthquake models.
I keep team members engaged in their work and help each to grow continuously.

How My Team Makes a Difference to Customers and Society

We develop powerful tools based on the latest science and technology to help risk managers better understand the risks earthquakes pose to companies and societies—and better prepare for uncertainty.
Through our solutions, insurance and reinsurance companies can more confidently write policies, which help protect society from catastrophic earthquakes while also protecting these companies from financial challenges posed by extreme events.
We help local governments better plan for extreme events and design effective risk mitigation plans.
International agencies such as the World Bank use our model to design financial products that help developing nations be more resilient and recover quickly from the impact of extreme earthquake events.
We provide real-time loss estimation for significant earthquakes through our ALERT service to help our customers better understand and prepare for the event.
We frequently author insightful articles to inform and educate our customers/prospects on new sciences and technologies in earthquake science—and how those advances can potentially impact model results.

How My Team Fosters Innovation at Verisk

I encourage team members to attack the most critical issues facing our customers and the communities they serve head-on—and to meet challenges through innovative problem-solving.
I bring in new expertise through hiring to complement and expand the team’s capabilities—e.g., by hiring tsunami scientists to enhance our ability to model earthquake-triggered tsunami risks, or experts in space geodetic data to map damage footprints after an earthquake or other natural catastrophic events.
I maintain an open mind towards new ideas and support my employees in further developing and implementing the innovations they bring to the table.

What Attracted Me to the Company

I’ve been interested in earthquake sciences since my undergraduate studies. I pursued this interest into my graduate career, where I studied paleoseismology, neotectonics, active fault mapping, and kinematic modeling of space geodetic data.
I briefly worked for the oil industry and also as a software engineer. But it was a no-brainer for me to work for the Extreme Events Solutions team when the opportunity arose. It was the ideal job to realize the value of what I’d learned through education and research.
The open-minded professionals and managers at all levels of the company have created a positive working environment that’s allowed me to continuously grow and be fully engaged in the work that’s interested me. I’ve always felt challenged!

A Typical Day

I get up early to catch a train to the office, which is located near the station, and grab some breakfast to start the day.
I check my emails for questions or client requests. If any cases need immediate attention, I’ll delegate the task. We receive many overnight or early morning questions from our international offices helping local clients. Providing exceptional support to our clients is always our top priority.
I work on any preparation needed for the day’s scheduled meetings or events. I like to schedule meetings on certain days of the week so I can have a few days with large blocks of time to work on projects. I resume the work from previous days or start a new task based on project priority.
I read scientific papers on a particular subject or region the team is working on and review results delivered by other team members. I also investigate issues other members have encountered in their work, including code debugging. I build or revise certain model components for a project. Some client responses or writeups require a significant amount of time.

Bingming shares the story of his career growth over time

My Career Growth Over Time

I started as an entry-level scientist, learning from my colleagues about the company’s work and how the team developed various components of the earthquake risk assessment model.

Through the years, I learned how to develop each individual component and became an experienced expert in various fields.
I’ve always accepted challenges to work on tasks that were completely new to me or not related to anything I’d learned before. In my third year, I was assigned to develop an industry exposure model from scratch for a region. It was the most challenging task I’d worked on and took me a year to finish.

Experiences like this have greatly expanded my knowledge of catastrophic modeling and helped me grow into a model developer with a unique set of skills and perspectives.
I then started managing model development projects. Managing a project requires one to learn details of the individual components of a complex model, plan, track the progress of those components' development, and organize and manage deliverable timelines. It requires close collaboration between multiple teams.
Transitioning from a project manager to a team manager has been a different experience. Since this role leaves me less time for research and development, I focus more on empowering other employees to deliver projects on time.

The Most Significant Advances in the Last Decade

Seismic hazard analysis has two key components: one to quantify the magnitude and frequency (or probability) of earthquake occurrence, and the other to predict ground motion intensity of an earthquake.

Significant increases in available data in earthquake monitoring, ground motion intensity recordings, and geological and space geodetic data have led to important advances (e.g., the recent release of ground motion intensity prediction equations for subduction zone earthquakes and stable continental earthquakes).
Significant progress has recently been made to account for earthquake source complexity and regional and local geological and geophysical complexities.
The release of the mosaic global earthquake hazard map in 2018 by GEM (Verisk Extreme Events Solutions is one of the sponsors) is one of the most significant accomplishments in global seismic hazard studies. It provides a good reference for seismic hazard and risk and a platform where different users can get or share seismic hazard modeling results.

Machine learning and other advances will help improve the earthquake modeling process

Where We're Going in the Next Decade

We’ll have more frequent model updates to better capture the changing environment and new sciences and data, the time-dependent nature of frequency variation, and the impact of unprecedented or unexpected extreme events.
We’ll have more powerful models with increasing details and capabilities and with higher spatial resolution that can help more users expand their business.
Emerging technologies such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning will become more embedded into the modeling process.

My Career Advice

Consider Verisk for its strong earthquake research team, including scientists and engineers from very diverse backgrounds. Our teams produce the most advanced earthquake models, covering various parts of the world, for catastrophic risk assessment.
There are many opportunities to learn, grow, and contribute to the advancement of earthquake modeling science and technology and the company’s growth.
Open-minded management at all levels in the company with respect to innovation and creativity empowers you to realize your full potential and add value to the company and society.

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