Rebuilding for resilience: How science and engineering can inform Haiti’s reconstruction

Internationally renowned scientists and engineers will converge on the University of Miami campus March 22-23 for a workshop dedicated to rebuilding the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in ways that make it less vulnerable to damage from future earthquakes and other hazards.

Organized by the IRIS Consortium (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology), the workshop is co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and NASA.

The event will feature over 100 seismologists, geologists, engineers and policy makers drawn from government and non-governmental organizations, development agencies, the business, engineering and science communities, and academia. The goal of the workshop is to provide concrete recommendations to the March 31 U.N. International Donors’ Conference that will mobilize international support for the long-term development needs of Haiti.

Invited experts include; Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction; Dr. Reggie DesRoches, Professor of Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech University, leader of several engineering assessment teams to Haiti and Dr. Eric Calais, Professor of Geophysics, Purdue University, a leading researcher on Haiti’s earthquake hazards.