University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Extreme Events: Mitigation and Response

Core Focus of the Strategic Strength

• Critical Infrastructure and Lifelines

As human populations grow and become increasingly urbanized, we face growing risks from natural and human-caused hazards. These hazards include hurricanes and terrorist attacks, to name but two recent examples. The challenges posed by extreme events of this nature are diverse in character and resistant to simple solutions. This Strategic Strength focuses on mitigation and response to extreme events; that is, to events that pose grave risks to human populations and that occur as brief, abrupt episodes that are separated in time by intervals of relatively much longer duration. In addition, we propose to focus mitigation and response efforts on increasing the resiliency of communities to extreme events by reducing the effects these events have on critical facilities and lifelines.

This focus identifies a field of multi-hazard research that is a logical and natural extension of past UB activities and existing strengths. This approach will maximize our ability to make meaningful and lasting contributions to disaster prevention, to meet the evident need for planning to avoid hazards that can be avoided, and to reduce the effects of hazards that cannot be avoided.

This Strategic Strength brings together experts from a broad spectrum of departments at UB, including engineering, the natural and social sciences, management, and the Medical School. This Strategic Strength benefits from the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), unique state-of-the-art experimental facilities, experience in national, federally funded multi-campus and multi-disciplinary research management, and a demonstrated capability to bring research results into practice in a speedy manner. 

Committee Leadership

Coordinating Committee:

• Harvey Stenger (Coordinating Dean)
  Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• Arjang A. Assad
  Dean, School of Management
• Brian Carter
  Dean, School of Architecture and Planning
• Mary Gresham
  Dean, Graduate School of Education
• Lynn Kozlowski
  Dean, School of Public Health and Health Professions
• Bruce D. McCombe
  Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
• Nancy Smyth
  Dean, School of Social Work

Faculty Advisory Committee:

• Harvey Stenger (Acting Chair)
  Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• Lisa Butler
  Associate Professor, School of Social Work
• Michael Constantinou
  Professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
• Steven Dubovsky
  Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry
• Andre Filiatrault
  Director, MCEER; Professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
• Mark Frank
  Associate Professor, Department of Communication
• Michael Moskal
  Vice President of Information Exploitation Group, Calspan, CUBRC; Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• Christian Renschler
  Associate Professor, Department of Geography
• William Ruyechan
  Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
• Adel Sadek
  Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
• Natalie Simpson
  Associate Professor, Department of Management Science and Systems
• Tarunraj Singh
  Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Ernest Sternberg
  Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
• Greg Valentine
  Professor, Department of Geology