Vol. 17, No. 7	Oct. 16, 1997

Disaster Center to play role in national earthquake study

The National Science Foundation announced earlier this month that the UD Disaster Research Center (DRC) will participate in a $30 million, five-year effort to minimize earthquake-related losses nationwide.

DRC is part of a consortium headed by the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER) at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Two other research consortia were funded-the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center in California and the Mid-America Earthquake Center in Illinois. Each of the three centers will receive $10 million from NSF and matching support from their state governments and other sources.

Kathleen J. Tierney and Joanna M. Nigg are co-directors of the DRC. Tierney will act as a co-principal investigator, and Nigg will serve on the consortium's research committee.

Tierney and Nigg will take a lead role in the social science research component that helps determine what impact new and emerging technologies-like high-performance computing, remote sensing and newly developed methods of simulating real-time earthquake losses-will have on reducing loss of life and property damage.

In announcing the grant, William A. Anderson, NSF earthquake mitigation program director, said, "The knowledge gained through these research centers and shared with engineers, architects and planners will help reduce earthquake hazards and save lives."

For further information, call 831-6618.

-Barbara Garrison