The Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster Center, or SSPEED, will organize universities, researchers, emergency managers and private and public entities to better address severe storm impacts from New Orleans and Baton Rouge to Houston, Galveston and Brownsville. Center Director Dr. Philip Bedient, Herman Brown Professor of Engineering at Rice and one of the nation's foremost experts on urban flooding, will be joined by a distinguished panel of experts to discuss systems currently being developed to improve lead-time and accuracy of storm predictions, and to deliver information in real time to emergency managers for improved evacuations and sheltering in place. Panelists include Dr. John Pardue and Dr. Brian Wolshan of Lousiana State University and Dr. Hanadi Rifai of the University of Houston.

Biography of Philip B Bedient:
DR. PHILIP B. BEDIENT is Herman Brown Professor of Engineering at Rice University and one of the nation’s foremost experts on urban flooding. He is actively involved in hydrologic analysis for flood prediction and warning, and recently developed a real-time flood alert system for the Texas Medical Center based on the use of NEXRAD radar data.

Biography of John Pardue:
DR. JOHN PARDUE is Elizabeth Howell Steward Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at LSU and Director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute. He has been involved in a wide range of environmental sampling and analysis efforts post-Katrina and published the first peer-reviewed scientific paper on the hurricane

Biography of Brian Wolshan:
DR. JOHN PARDUE is Elizabeth Howell Steward Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at LSU and Director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute. He has been involved in a wide range of environmental sampling and analysis efforts post-Katrina and published the first peer-reviewed scientific paper on the hurricane.

Biography of Hanadi Rifai:
DR. HANADI S. RIFAI is Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston. She is currently studying bacterial pollution of Houston bayous and dioxin and PCB contamination in the Houston Ship Channel.