CAS Initiative Lecture: "Natural Hazards and Human Behavior: The Dangerous Dynamics of Megadisasters" by Susan Kieffer

• Event Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2014
• Time: 7:30 pm–9:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Talk

The Center for Advanced Study Interdisciplinary Initiatives offer campus the opportunity to engage in a yearlong and in-depth conversation about a topic relevant to our entire scholarly community. For the 15th-anniversary year of this prestigious program, the Center has invited back a few former CAS Resident Associates to reflect on the initiatives they helped organize and how their work has evolved since.

"Natural Hazards and Human Behavior: The Dangerous Dynamics of Megadisasters" Susan Kieffer Center for Advanced Study and Walgreen Professor Emerita of Geology and Physics, University of Illinois and Author, Dynamics of Disaster (2013)

Normally the earth slowly releases energy stored from its formation and from on-going radioactive decay, but sometimes the releases are very rapid. Such releases create disasters catastrophic to humans–landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts and floods. In this talk, she will describe some recent events and their causes and a possible way forward for coexisting with these natural processes.

This event is presented by the Center for Advanced Study and follows a previous CAS Initiative titled "Mega-Disasters: Science, Policy and Human Behavior".