Ian Giammanco, PhD
Lead Research Meteorologist & Senior Director for Standards and Analytics
Dr. Ian Giammanco is the Senior Director for Standards & Data Analytics and a Lead Research Meteorologist at the IBHS Research Center in Richburg, South Carolina. Dr. Giammanco holds a B.S. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and an M.S. and PhD from Texas Tech University in Atmospheric Science and Wind Science and Engineering, respectively. Dr. Giammanco’ s responsibilities at IBHS include developing the new IBHS Standards and Data Analytics team and serving as a Lead Research Meteorologist helping guide applied research. From 2019–2022, Dr. Giammanco helped build and lead the IBHS Product Development team. He provides leadership in: disaster data analytics, science communication, applied meteorology research, and instrumentation design and data collection.
Dr. Giammanco has nearly two decades of meteorological field research experience. He currently serves as the principal investigator and field coordinator for the IBHS Characteristics of Hailstorms annual field research campaign. He has participated in numerous hurricane, severe thunderstorm, and tornado research projects over his career. He and the IBHS team became the first to publish results quantifying the strength of hailstones, pioneered the use of 3D laser scanning technology to create digital models of hailstones, and developed the IBHS hail impact test protocol and asphalt shingle impact ratings system.
In addition to his position at IBHS, he is currently appointed as an Adjunct Faculty Research Associate at the National Wind Institute at Texas Tech University. He was a charter member of the American Meteorological Society’s committee on Weather and Climate Financial Risk Management, served on the National Weather Association’s Publications committee, and currently is serving on the AMS Committee on Engineering Resilient Communities.
