Willis, one of the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance brokers, has developed the Willis Research Network (www.willisresearchnetwork.com), the world’s largest collaboration between insurance and academia undertaking research to evaluate the frequency, severity and impact of extreme events and develop private and public sector risk financing to share the costs of these events across populations. In collaboration with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and with various other scientific institutions world-wide, it strives to develop a common framework to derive suitable vulnerability functions for cargoes and for cargo containers at port holding areas which are subject to natural hazards such as earthquakes, extreme winds and flood. It also aims to develop a process to quantify risk to marine portfolios, primarily marine cargo and port facilities, from natural and man-made catastrophes, and to develop a marine risk catastrophe modelling platform.

The fundamental purpose of the research is to evaluate the effect of natural catastrophes on marine cargo. The research will investigate the structural vulnerability of containers and of warehouses and consequent effects on various cargo types – coordinating with the parallel NTU/WRN project into exposure, and with the various marine cargo (and other) research and development initiatives which are on-going within the WRN and within Willis. The initial peril to be investigated is earthquake, with flood, typhoon and others to follow.
The Willis Research Fellow will need to contribute to the design of the project, to research the history of cargo vulnerability, to carry out the actual structural engineering investigation, to write and present analytical reports, research and industry papers and conference presentations, working in conjunction with WRN and Willis partners and others in collaborative and multidisciplinary research projects.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 21 February 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application