Bio
Joanne M. Nigg is a Professor of Sociology the former
Director of the Disaster Research Center at the University
of Delaware. Since 1975, she has been involved in research
on the societal response to natural, technological,
and environmental hazards and disasters. Currently,
she is a core faculty member of the Disaster Research
Center. Dr. Nigg has been a Principal or Co-Principal
Investigator on over 20 research projects, totaling
over $3.2 million, covering subjects such as: hazard/threat/risk
awareness and behavioral response by individuals and
organizations; attributions of responsibility for disaster
outcomes; factors related to the development of governmental
hazard reduction policies and actions; evaluations of
hazard and risk reduction programs; risk perceptions
and policy preferences among the public and key decisionmakers;
and disaster recovery of households, businesses and
communities. Dr. Nigg also headed a multidisciplinary
team that conducted a Congressionally-required public
risk assessment for the proposed high level nuclear
waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. She was
also a member of the Research Committee (which set the
cross-disciplinary research agendas ) for the NSF-funded
Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering
Research.
Dr. Nigg has been involved in several federal reviews
of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program
(NEHRP) and has twice given testimony before Congress
on the re-authorization of that program. She has served
on a variety of federal commissions and task forces
on disaster policies, and has been a member of the National
Research Council's Board on Natural Disasters as well
as the NRC's Committee on Earthquake Engineering. Dr.
Nigg was the first woman and social scientist to serve
as President of the Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute (EERI). She currently serves on the Division
Review Committee for the Environment and Energy Division
of Los Alamos National Laboratory and is in the process
of obtaining a Q clearance for her work with LANL.
With respect to the dissemination of
her research findings, Dr. Nigg is the author, co-author
or editor of seven books and over 100 articles, book
chapters, reports and papers on individual, organizational,
and governmental response to, preparation for, mitigation
of, and recovery from natural and technological threats
and disasters. Examples of her publications include:
“Predicting Earthquakes: Science, Pseudoscience,
and the Public Policy Paradox.” Pp. 135-156 in
Daniel Sarawitz, Roger A. Pielke, Jr., and Radford Byerly,
Jr. (eds.), Prediction: Science, Decision Making, and
the Future of Nature. Washington, DC: Island Press.
2000. "Risk Communication and Warning Systems."
Pages 369-382 in Tom Horlick-Jones, Aniello Amendola
and Riccardo Casale (eds.) Natural Risk and Civil Protection.
London, England: E & FN Spon. 1995. "Nevada
Urban Residents' Attitudes Toward a Nuclear Waste Repository"
co-authored with Alvin H. Mushkatel and K. David Pijawka.
Pages 239-262 in Riley E. Dunlap, Michael E. Kraft,
and Eugene A. Rosa (eds.), Public Reactions to Nuclear
Waste. Duke University Press. 1993. Prediction and Perception
of Natural Hazards, co-edited with J. Nemec and F. Sicardi.
Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
1993. Waiting for Disaster co-authored with Ralph H.
Turner and Denise H. Paz. Los Angeles: University of
California Press. 1986.
