Rachel Davidson, CHEER’s principal investigator, and A.R. Siders, the Hub’s practitioner engagement director and leader of the government thrust, showcased their research at the Disaster Research Center’s 60th anniversary workshop in May.

Davidson and Siders were among dozens of disaster science experts sharing their work over the weekend, but only a handful were invited to present to the entire group. Each gave a TED Talk-style presentation on their area of expertise for the event’s more than 200 attendees.

Davidson addressed a major challenge to progress in managing natural disaster risk: so much of what we have learned about how to prevent natural disasters has not been fully implemented. In her presentation, she described CHEER’s proposal for designing an effective, sustainable disaster risk management system that can help address this problem.

Siders – a self-proclaimed “climate geek” – rounded off the morning by discussing the need for creativity and play to advance the kind of innovative thinking and ambitious adaptation demanded by climate change. 

Recordings from the rest of the workshop’s presenters can be found here on the Disaster Research Center’s website. For a full recap of the weekend, see this story from UDaily.