Natural Disasters

Leading researchers in the fields of earthquake and blast engineering, as well as social scientists with expertise in disaster response, are gathering in New York City today to examine the events of 9/11 and explore ways to make structures more resistant to terrorist attacks and reduce risk to inhabitants and emergency responders. During a two-day workshop, organized by the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, headquartered at the University at Buffalo, the researchers are discussing lessons learned from the September 11 attack and will offer recommendations for how government leaders, engineers, emergency personnel and private citizens might better prepare for future terrorist attacks.

Structural engineers from the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), headquartered at the University at Buffalo, will gather in New York City later this month to discuss how earthquake-engineering practices and blast-resistant designs can be used to create "terror-resistant" buildings.Their analysis will be part of a two-day workshop, "Lessons from the World Trade Center Terrorist Attack: Management of Complex Civil Emergencies & Terrorism-Resistant Civil Engineering Design," on June 24 and 25.

Though the damage was relatively minor, Saturday's earthquake in Au Sable Falls, N.Y., points out the need for upgrading structures throughout New York State so they are better able to withstand future earthquakes, says an earthquake-engineering researcher at the University at Buffalo.

The science of efficiently organizing and interpreting massive amounts of information -- a relatively new field called information fusion that originated from military applications -- is for the first time being applied to manmade and natural disasters by researchers at the University at Buffalo.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers are grappling with a question that a month ago would have been completely unthinkable: Can buildings be designed to withstand catastrophic blasts inflicted by terrorists? Ten days after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research headquartered at UB traveled to ground zero as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation.

The University at Buffalo's Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering has been awarded $16.5 million in federal and state funding to develop the world's most versatile earthquake engineering research facility designed to provide testing capabilities that will revolutionize the understanding of how even very large structures behave during earthquakes.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has chosen George C. Lee, Ph.D., Samuel P. Capen Professor of Engineering at the University at Buffalo and director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering (MCEER) at UB, to receive the prestigious Nathan M. Newmark Medal for 2000.

Mention New York State's Finger Lakes region or its Southern Tier, and most people don't automatically think of earthquake country. But these upstate areas may be about to gain a reputation for greater seismic potential, according to recent research by a team of University at Buffalo geologists.

A project led by a University at Buffalo geologist involving the topographic mapper being flown by the space shuttle Endeavour could help to develop a new and far more accurate way to map features of shorelines and aid scientists in determining past and future volcanic and seismic activity in an area.

It won't be apparent to passengers landing on today's (Thursday, Jan. 6) inaugural flight at Istanbul's brand new international airport, but the roof of the massive terminal building features a unique approach to seismically modernizing the structure following last summer's devastating quake.