Dr. Tanya Brown joined IBHS in August 2010 as a Research Engineer at the Research Center. Her responsibilities include providing engineering leadership on research projects related to the development, operation, and enhancement of the IBHS Research Center. Her research focus is on hailstone formation, hail impact testing, wind-flow characterization and testing, instrumentation, and field and damage assessment studies. Dr. Brown previously served as an engineering consultant for IBHS when she conducted research on the Witch Creek wildfire and development of the hail research agenda for the Research Center. She has also worked as an engineering consultant for LNSS & Associates.
Dr. Brown was a National Science Foundation – Integrative Graduate Education Training Fellow while completing her Ph.D. in Wind Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University. Her dissertation topic was “Development of a Statistical Relationship between Ground-Based and Remotely-Sensed Damage in Windstorms.” While at Texas Tech, she was an instrumental member of their field research teams, leading a team in thunderstorm and tornado intercepts during the VORTEX 2 project, and participating in hurricane intercepts with the Texas Tech University Hurricane Research Team. She was also involved in numerous post-disaster damage assessments. Dr. Brown also holds a master’s degree in Water Resources Science and a bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Kansas, and served as a teaching assistant and academic advisor while at KU. She is currently appointed as a Faculty Associate at Texas Tech University to continue serving with the Texas Tech University Hurricane Research Team.