Dr. Mahmoud Khater, Chief Science and Technology Officer

Dr. Mahmoud Khater is Chief Science and Technology Officer at EQECAT, Inc. He joined EQECAT in 1990 and is responsible for technology and model developments worldwide.

Dr. Khater was one of the early innovators in using state-of-the-art probabilistic risk assessment techniques to develop catastrophe models that integrate knowledge from many fields such as engineering, seismology, meteorology, hydrology, mathematics, statistics, probabilities, insurance, and economics. These models provide rational engineering and science and technology-based solutions that provide effective risk management and can support innovative mitigation measures and risk-transfer options.

He has more than 20 years of engineering experience in risk quantification, risk management and reliability assessment in the insurance, power, industrial, and commercial sectors. His experience includes assessing the behavior of structures and lifelines systems under extreme hazard loading due to earthquakes, hurricanes, subtropical storms, flooding, industrial accidents, and man-made events.

Dr. Khater holds a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering with emphasis of probabilistic risk assessment from Cornell University and a B.S. in Structural Engineering from Cairo University. He is based in Oakland, CA.

Articles and Publications

September 2012
15^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering
A Consistent Cross-Border Seismic Hazard Model for Loss Estimation and Risk Management in Canada
(PDF 604 KB)
The white paper was published in the proceedings of the 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering held in Lisbon, Portugal in September of 2012.

A case study in the transformation of national seismic hazard models intended for building code applications in Canada and the US. Paul C. Thenhaus, Dr. Ken W. Campbell, Nitin Gupta, David F. Smith, and Dr. Mahmoud M. Khater authored the white paper.

August 2012
European Seismological Commission 33^rd General Assembly
A Consistent Cross-Border Seismic Hazard Model for Loss Estimation and Risk Management in Canada
(PDF 65 KB)
Case Study from the European Seismological Commission 33^rd General Assembly in Moscow, Russia

A case study in the transformation of national seismic hazard models intended for building code applications in Canada and the US. Paul C. Thenhaus, Dr. Ken W. Campbell, Nitin Gupta, David F. Smith, and Dr. Mahmoud M. Khater authored the white paper.

February 2012
EQECAT
Spatial and Temporal Earthquake Clustering: Part 2 - Earthquake Aftershocks
(PDF 534 KB)
Part 2 of a 3-part series of white papers on earthquake clustering.

The paper discusses aftershock properties and models, as well as ambiguities in identifying foreshock-mainshock-aftershock sequences.

October 2011
EQECAT
Spatial and Temporal Earthquake Clustering: Part 1 - Global Earthquakes
(PDF 2 MB)
Part 1 of a 3-part series of white papers on earthquake clustering.

Apparent global clustering of damaging earthquakes is raising concerns that our planet might experience even more catastrophic tremblors in the near future. EQECAT experts have been studying these events and published their insights and perspectives.

September 2011
Insurance Day
Insurance Day: Dealing with Uncertainty in Catastrophe Risk Management
(PDF 993 KB)
The Boardroom Briefing addresses the uncertainty in catastrophe risk management. Dr. Mahmoud Khater was a contributing editor. President of EQECAT, Bill Keogh, discusses correlation with Insurance Day's editor, Greg Dobie.

October 2008
Bermuda Re/Insurance
European Windstorm Risk Modelling
(PDF 312 KB)
Dr. Mahmoud Khater reviews EQECAT's European windstorm model and how catastrophe models can be used to assess and manage the financial consequences of this risk.

April 2008
Asian Catastrophe Insurance
Publication available for purchase from Risk Books
Dr. Mahmoud Khater contributed to Section 2: Modeling Asian Risk - Earthquake Property and Business Continuity Risk affecting Japanese Industries.

February 2008
Middle East Insurance Review
Assessing Natural Hazard Risks Using Probabilistic Catastrophe Loss Models
(PDF 194 KB)
Risk managers should consider last year's Cyclone Gonu as a wakeup call to risk in the region, say Dr. Mahmoud Khater, Senior Vice President of ABSG Consulting and Chief Technology Officer of EQECAT, and Mr. Gary Graham, Regional General Manager, Middle East, ABSG Consulting, as they use CAT models to assess the likely impact of natural catastrophes on the Middle East.

November 2007
Bermuda Re/Insurance
US Earthquake Risk
(PDF 876 KB)
Dr. Kenneth Campbell and Dr. Mahmoud Khater discuss seismic risk in the Pacific Northwest and Central US regions in the second of a series of articles concerning United States earthquake risk.

March 30 - April 1, 2011
EQECAT
Dr. Mahmoud Khater presented "Sources of Uncertainty, Statistical Quantification and the Impact on Results" at the 2011 US Cat Modeling Conference. He also co-presented "Use of NWP in Wind Modeling - What EQECAT has done with Eurowind and Possible Introduction into US Wind" at the same conference.