Executive Director’s Message

Professor Tso-Chien Pan
Founding Executive Director, ICRM

The Institute of Catastrophe Risk Management (ICRM) was officially launched on 21 January 2010 and will be the first multi-disciplinary and leading catastrophe risk management research institute of its kind in Asia. ICRM has its focus on Asia because Asia has traditionally suffered the most in terms of human fatalities and economic loss from natural catastrophes, while being the least prepared region of the world to mitigate such risks. The Institute aims to help the regional and international communities better understand the characteristics of risks related to natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, droughts, as well as non-traditional risks which include infectious diseases and terrorism.

Through ICRM, NTU faculty and researchers will work on integrated risk assessment and management of natural hazards as well as man-made threats. Such work will be conducted in collaboration with research organisations worldwide in the risk management domain as well as insurers, reinsurers and risk modellers of the finance industry, and insurance/reinsurance industry and associations. ICRM aims to develop Asian catastrophe risk models and build up industry benchmarks and indices to reflect the uniqueness of Asian catastrophe risks.

ICRM is envisioned to be a key player in Singapore’s effort to further strengthen its position as a major international finance hub, especially in the insurance and re-insurance areas. The models and tools developed by ICRM will allow governments, public organisations and the industry to analyse potential losses, and thus develop risk-management strategies.

Decision makers in Asia in particular will be able to utilise such tools to identify vulnerabilities, prepare for a range of possibilities and allocate resources. ICRM will undertake the state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary research work which leads to better understanding, communicating and managing of major disasters, both natural and non-traditional, and thereby provides major positive impacts on the society.