UH and Tohoku University collaborate for disaster sciences

During a September 2016 forum, UH and Tohoku share the latest disaster science and brought leading national and international experts together. Credit: UH News.

A partnership between the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Tohoku University, one of Japan’s top research universities is redefining disaster science. The collaboration began shortly after the March 2011 disaster events that struck Japan, including the powerful earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami. The UH Mānoa College of Social Sciences and the School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology’s Hawaiʻi Sea Grant program have been working with Tohoku ever since.

“This research collaboration has been amazing,” said Denise Eby Konan, dean of the College of Social Sciences. “We’ve been able to take the science but also the human aspect of disasters, elevate our understanding of that to new and higher levels.”

“The partnership that we’ve with the College of Social Sciences and now, of course, with Tohoku University is a really great example of the need to bring together the physical, natural and social sciences to solve these problems,” said Darren Lerner, Hawaiʻi Sea Grant director.

During the September 2016 forum on the Mānoa campus, UH and Tohoku shared the latest disaster science and brought leading national and international experts together. They focused on communicating disaster science and covered the latest research, risk reduction, community preparedness—including changes in the way Hawaiʻi prepares for natural disasters—and the human dimension in responding and recovering.

Read more and watch the video at UH News.