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Résumé

Academic Degrees

  • B.Sc. (Earth Sciences) École Normale Supérieure / Université Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris, 2001
  • M.Sc. (Geophysics) Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris / École Normale Supérieure, 2003
  • Ph.D. (Geophysics) Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Tectonics Department, 2006

Professional Positions

RMS - Risk Management Solutions (London, UK)

  • 2006-2009: Catastrophe Risk Modeler, Science & Technology Research
  • 2009-2010: Senior Catastrophe Risk Modeler, Model Development & Capital Markets Support

ETH - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zürich, Switzerland)

  • 2010-present: Senior Researcher, Swiss Seismological Service

Principal Research Activities

  • Seismology: Earthquake physics | Statistical seismology | Pattern recognition | Earthquake predictability | Seismotectonics | Geodesy
  • Catastrophe risk: Probabilistic hazard assessment | Probabilistic risk assessment | Multi-risk | Extremes | Insurance portfolio & catastrophe bond risk analysis | Decision support

Experience

  • Scientific achievements: Author and co-author of 14 peer-reviewed publications (since 2006) including 2 book chapters and an invited review article (h-index = 6) | Renowned expert of the Accelerating Seismic Release hypothesis to earthquake prediction (proposed the non-critical PAST, a theory to explain most claimed seismic precursors to large earthquakes) | Expert in earthquake catalogue quality control (proposed innovative methods to compute the completeness magnitude based on Bayes’ theory) | Expert in risk modeling strategies, including multi-risk and extremes (e.g., asteroid impact risk)
  • Ongoing projects: Work package leader in the EU FP7 MATRIX project (New Multi-Hazard and Multi-Risk Assessment Methods for Europe) | PI in the CSEP China project (Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability)
  • Past projects: Earthquake clustering framework for the RMS Simulation Platform, a proprietary tool for (re)insurance strategies (PI) | RMS Paradex – Earthquake & Fire Following Earthquake, a proprietary tool for Catastrophe bond management (PI) | Decision support strategies for medium-term earthquake forecasts (PI)
  • Teaching: 101 Earthquake risk modeling class (given at RMS in 2010 to new PhD-level recruits)
  • Communication: Co-organizer of the RMS I-Wall Symposium on Advances in Earthquake Forecasting (New York City, January 2008) | Invited seminars in a number of institutions and universities in Europe, U.S.A, Canada and China
  • IT: Programming languages R, IDL, SQL, DHTML | Scientific softwares RMS RiskLink (proprietary catastrophe loss engine), JPL ROI_PAC (InSAR data processing)

Selected Publications

[14] Mignan, A., M. J. Werner, S. Wiemer, C.-C. Chen and Y.-M. Wu (2011), Bayesian Estimation of the Spatially Varying Completeness Magnitude of Earthquake Catalogs, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 101, doi: 10.1785/0120100223

[13] Mignan, A. (2011), Retrospective on the Accelerating Seismic Release (ASR) Hypothesis: Controversy and New Horizons (invited review paper), Tectonophys., 505, doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2011.03.010

[6] Mignan, A. and R. Di Giovambattista (2008), Relationship between accelerating seismicity and quiescence, two precursors to large earthquakes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L15306, doi: 10.1029/2008GL035024

[3] Mignan, A., G. C. P. King and D. D. Bowman (2007), A mathematical formulation of accelerating moment release based on the stress accumulation model, J. Geophys. Res., 112, B07308, doi: 10.1029/2006JB004671

[1] Mignan, A., G. C. P. King, D. D. Bowman, R. Lacassin and R. Dmowska (2006), Seismic activity in the Sumatra-Java region prior to the December 26, 2004 (Mw=9.0-9.3) and March 28, 2005 (Mw=8.7) earthquakes, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 244, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2006.01.058

Other

Owner and curator of The Tricottet Collection, a collection of historic natural history items (i.e. objects relating to the field of natural history, which are associated with individuals, institutions or events in history) | Recipient of a 2012 Harvey award for meteorite research and preservation.