Tornadoes are wild and unpredictable.  Despite major advances in technology over the past several years, the ability to predict a tornado is still very elusive.  Thus it is not surprising that much of tornado research today is centered around trying to predict when and where tornadoes will strike.  Other than essentially advanced weather forecasting, tornado research falls under a larger branch of air funnel and vortex research and is not the main focus of much theoretical research.