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Extreme events spark interest
Researchers meet in second retreat
By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
Contributing Editor
go to the UB2020 website
In a year in which the world watched in horror a devastating tsunami, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, major earthquakes and the possible unfolding of a deadly bird flu pandemic—in addition to various terrorist attacks—participants in Tuesday's UB 2020 meeting on "Extreme Events: Mitigation and Response" were keenly aware of the urgency surrounding their task.
Researchers from engineering, medicine, geology, geography, social work, psychiatry and architecture and planning met in the Center for Tomorrow to discuss and review a draft of its white paper.
They were told that this strategic strength has generated significant excitement throughout the university for opening up rich opportunities for UB to distinguish itself as an institution with a unique set of resources and specialties that can spur truly cross-disciplinary collaborations and attract increased extramural funding.
Michel Bruneau, director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, and leader of the group, said the purpose of the meeting was to identify any gaps in the white paper, discuss resources needed to accomplish the group's goals, review a timeline for accomplishing those goals and generate feedback that will be incorporated into the final version, which will be presented to the UB 2020 Academic Planning Committee and deans on Nov. 29.
Bruneau explained that extreme events, as defined by the group, are those that have a sudden onset, cause mass casualties and destruction, and have a major impact on facilities and lifelines.
Questions were raised regarding the definition of "sudden onset," explained in the white paper as those events that last up to two weeks.
Some participants felt that that definition was too narrow, citing events where the onset may be slow, but the effect is devastating, such as global warming, desertification in North Africa and the AIDS crisis. Bruneau said such events would not fall under the group's definition of extreme events because they do not have tie-ins to facilities and lifelines or infrastructure, such as transportation systems, power grids and other utilities.
The focus of the group builds on the expertise in hazard mitigation and response established at UB during the past decades through MCEER and the work of researchers in departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Social Work, the School of Public Health and Health Professions, and the School of Architecture and Planning.
While MCEER's focus originally was earthquake engineering, the center has been conducting extreme-events research since 9/11. Most recently, it sent UB researchers, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), to the Gulf Coast to investigate the structural and societal damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
Ultimately, UB extreme-events researchers will be guided by the goal of designing systems that are more resilient to extreme events.
The draft of the white paper identifies four priority areas: building systems and nonstructural systems, lifeline systems, health and medical systems, and decisions and planning.
The group was reminded that its work included not only response to extreme events, but mitigation, risk reduction and planning and prevention.
Discussion ensued concerning how long an affected population may be affected by an extreme event.
Maurizio Trevisan, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions, noted that a large body of evidence suggests that such events result in long-term health implications.
Steven L. Dubovsky, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, emphasized that this is the case particularly with psychiatric problems. For example, he said, years after the 1999 Columbine school shootings in Littleton, Colo., the number of school failures and suicides there continues to escalate.
Dubovsky added that faculty in his department have significant expertise in post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects individuals who have experienced an extreme event.
Participants also discussed the need to conduct research on first responders, who are vulnerable to both physical and mental-health consequences.
"SARS taught us that 30 percent of people who died from it are health-care workers," said Jerome J. Schentag, professor of pharmaceutics.
In breakout sessions, the researchers recommended that new UB faculty hires with expertise related to extreme events be individuals generally at the associate or full professor level and that they also must be willing to take a broad view of their work and its potential for collaboration.
Some universities, it was pointed out, may pick up half the salary of a new hire, while the department pays the other half, in order to accomplish major initiatives.
Additional funding was cited as necessary to providing the best methods of promoting collaborations and communication among group members.
It also was noted that such expertise as political science, social science and law is needed for a comprehensive approach to research on extreme events.
Educational opportunities discussed included development of a graduate program in disaster science and engineering; development of an Integrative Graduate Education Research and Training (IGERT) proposal to NSF; a national conference on extreme events to be held at UB; and outreach to other educational institutions.