44th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop

Since 1975, the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado has hosted the Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. Today the Workshop brings together over 500 international, federal, state, and local mitigation and emergency management officials; representatives of nonprofit, private sector, and humanitarian organizations; hazards and disaster researchers; and others dedicated to alleviating the impacts of disasters.

The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship

The Natural Hazards Center is currently soliciting applications for the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship to attend the workshop. Applications will be accepted until March 15 from individuals residing outside North America and the Caribbean. Details are available here.

The scholarship provides transportation, registration, food and lodging to attend the Hazards Workshop, which this year will be held July 14-17 in Broomfield, Colorado.

Convergence: Coming Together to Improve Hazards and Disaster Research, Practice, and Policy

This year, the Workshop will be organized around the theme of 'Convergence', which refers to the process of people joining forces to respond to pressing challenges and enduring problems. These connections often require the crossing of boundaries, whether they be disciplinary, organizational, geographic, cultural, political, or otherwise. This work can be challenging, but it is also where fundamental breakthroughs in science and application are most likely to occur.

Members of the hazards and disaster field have long converged to conduct research and improve practice. Examples of convergence, as it is defined here, can involve diverse teams of researchers working together to design and carry out transformative studies. It captures the way practitioners partner with community groups to spur action and overcome longstanding barriers to natural hazards mitigation. When disasters drive emergency management groups to reach out and partner with unfamiliar agencies and organizations, convergence is the process that makes these collaborations possible. And advocacy groups, non-profit organizations, researchers, and others have often formed coalitions designed to craft more equitable recovery policies for individuals and communities affected by disaster.