Professor Ali Asgary

LA&PS Professor Ali Asgary writes about the catastrophic explosion of the OceanGate submersible for The Conversation, and reflects on the cost, ethics, and the capacity of resources involved in the Titan search and rescue mission.

Professor Asgary suggests how rescue efforts following the Titan informs “significant discussions around the public burden of private risks and risk-taking behaviours,” and how this event will “bring to the forefront questions about balancing acceptable risks with available emergency response capacities, including search-and-rescue.”

When considering this catastrophe, Professor Asgary discusses the operational outcomes and risk assessments that are necessary to determine the costs of such incidents for the public, especially when private companies determine their own risks. The full article can be found on The Conversation.  

Professor Asgary is an expert in disaster, emergency and business continuity management has been actively involved in research, teaching and professional activities in these fields since 1993. Since 2015 Dr. Asgary has been the executive director of York University's Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid-response Simulation (ADERSIM).

His research interests include post disaster recovery and reconstruction, business continuity and risk assessment, disaster and emergency simulations and modeling, applications of AI, VR, AR and MR, and geomatics in disaster and emergency management, and cost-benefit analysis and decision making under uncertainty.

He has led as a PI, Co-PI and collaborator in a large number of research projects funded by different agencies including NSERC, GEOIDE, SSHRC, PreCarn, CIHR, NFRF, ORF, Transport Canada, Public Safety Canada, Wellcome Trust, IDRC, CFI, and DRDC.  Professor Asgary can be contacted at asgary@yorku.ca.