Research Interest
Dr. Dan Li joined Florida International University (FIU) in August 2026 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment and the Environmental Finance & Risk Management Program at the Institute of Environment.
Her research focuses on understanding how natural hazards, including hurricanes, flooding, droughts, and wildfires, propagate through engineered and financial systems, creating cascading risks and financial impacts. She develops quantitative tools to assess and manage these risks, with applications in catastrophe modeling, parametric insurance, and climate risk financing. The goal is to support resilience planning and risk-informed decision making for infrastructure systems, insurers, and communities.
Prior to joining FIU, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to her academic training, she also has industry experience in finance.
Her research expertise spans stochastic modeling, catastrophe risk modeling, environmental finance, and risk management. Her work is highly interdisciplinary and integrates methodologies from environmental modeling, engineering, economics, and finance. Her research has been supported by organizations including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Tampa Bay Water, and has collaborated with partners in the insurance, reinsurance, and financial sectors.
Education
Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, 2024
M.S., Macromolecular Science & Engineering, University of Michigan, 2017
B.S., Polymer Engineering, Sichuan University, 2015