Nicholas de Toledo (Assoc)

Nico de Toledo is a wind and coastal hazards researcher in the Structures Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He focuses on analyzing tornado and hurricane impacts on critical facilities. His work, primarily geospatial analysis, data mining, and communication of results through writing and visuals, supports the development and adoption of improved building codes and standards with the goal of improving public safety.

Within the Hurricane Maria Program, Nico is examining the role of cell tower damage in the long-duration telecommunications outage in Puerto Rico and assisting with the Critical Buildings Project. Recently, he created a geoprocessing model to mine island-wide aerial imagery at hundreds of tower sites to assess them for damage. Other recent work in support of the Design for Tornadoes project has been focused on understanding and communicating tornado impacts on schools and fire/rescue/EMS stations to help make them safer in severe windstorms. He is currently managing a project to mine National Weather Service (NWS) data for tornado impacts on critical facilities and then publish a database of the impacts in a user-friendly web map format. Additionally, he supports the Hurricane Ian project team with geospatial analysis and writing. 

He also contributes to ensuring the consistent implementation of changes to the Enhanced Fujita (EF) tornado rating scale through the joint American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)/American Meteorological Society (AMS) Wind Speed Estimation Standards Committee. He has a background in geology and coastal erosion. He enjoys working at NIST because of the collaborative and purpose-driven atmosphere.