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Preventing Another Haitian Crisis: Preparedness and Mitigation as Aid

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Event Date

2/2/2010 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Please arrive early for registration

Location

World Affairs Council Auditorium

Address

312 Sutter Street
Second Floor
San Francisco, California 94108

Brian Tucker, Founder and President of GeoHazards International

Brian Tucker's work focuses on preventing avoidable earthquake disasters in the world's poorest countries by using affordable civil engineering practices. Since its founding in 1991, GHI has improved earthquake safety in more than twenty countries. Brian holds a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, an M.A. in Public Policy from The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.A. in Physics from Pomona College. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Seismological Society of America. In 2000, Brian was honored for his service to the people of Nepal by the King of Nepal, and, in 2002, was named a MacArthur Fellow. In 2007, he received the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation's George Brown Award for International Science and Technology Cooperation and was elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. He was recently named one of UC San Diego's 100 Influential Alumni.

Since January 12th, our televisions and computers have been flooded with pictures of horrific destruction and human suffering wrought by the earthquake in Haiti. What makes the images all the more heart-wrenching is the knowledge that most of the devastation could have been prevented by modern building codes and disaster preparedness techniques. The World Affairs Council of Northern California in cooperation with The Pacific Council’s Equitable Globalization Member Committee welcome Dr. Brian Tucker, President and Founder of GeoHazards International. With decades of work in the field, Dr. Tucker is an expert on incorporating better building practices into disaster risk management programs and international development efforts. He will describe how his organization is attempting to prevent earthquakes and tsunamis from having disastrous effects in developing countries, and will outline some of the possible steps needed in Haiti to ensure that the next earthquake that strikes does not cause the havoc we are witnessing now. The discussion will offer insights into the challenge of instituting disaster preparedness programs in the developing world – how political, social, technical and economic barriers can be overcome to protect people in the world’s most vulnerable regions from the devastating effects of natural disasters.

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