Rice professor brings attention, expertise to homeland’s plight

Rice professor brings attention, expertise to homeland’s plight

BY JESSICA JOHNS POOL
Rice News Staff

Not everyone takes the opportunity to make a genuine difference to an entire country, but Ahmad Durrani has.

DURRANI

A professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice and a native of Pakistan, Durrani was so moved by the plight of Pakistani victims after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that he organized a two-day workshop, Earthquake Risk Mitigation in Developing Countries, to be held July 29-30.

“This workshop will provide the basis for focusing future research, formulating policy, educating local populations and planning culturally appropriate relief in south Asian and other developing countries,” said Durrani. “Collaborations such as this workshop can make a huge difference in developing countries being prepared to minimize tragedy, receive aid and recover more quickly from earthquakes.”

So far about 25 earthquake disaster experts, including representatives from the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, FEMA, USGS, the Mid-America Earthquake Center and several leading universities, are scheduled to attend the workshop at the Renaissance Hotel, Greenway Plaza, in Houston.

Mujumdar Vilas, program director of the engineering research centers at the National Science Foundation, will give the keynote address. Case studies of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005 and the Indonesian Yogyakarta earthquake of 2006 will follow. Specialists in seismology, geotechnical and structural engineering, social science, public policy, and disaster management will then integrate recommendations designed to build sustainable mitigation capacity.

To learn more about the conference or to attend, e-mail Durrani at durrani@rice.edu or call 713-348-5607.