EROUSCILLA JOSEPH: Volcanic activity under lockdown
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We’re a small agency operating in an under-resourced part of the world, and we were able to respond to this volcanic eruption quickly and before any lives were lost. It was a major success, and our achievement was recognized globally by the 2022 Volcanic Surveillance and Crisis Management Award presented by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior. Things can fall apart easily if there is no coordination between the teams, government and disaster organizations. But if you work together and rely on each other, you can push forward, even in an emergency situation.
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EMMANUEL RAJU: Stop blaming nature
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Another major challenge is breaking disciplinary silos of how disasters are studied. Much of my work at the Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research focuses on bringing together people from various disciplines. You cannot solve issues caused by disasters and climate change with just one discipline. You need different voices from around the world and from many disciplines, including law, economics, physics, social science and health services.
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RASHMIN GUNASEKERA: Restoring order after chaos
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Ultimately, progress can happen only when knowledge is taken up by governments, risk-and disaster-management agencies and academia. I’m still an academic at heart, so one of the most satisfying things to see is the impact of the knowledge you generate.
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EMILY CHAN: Linking human health to the climate
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Developing policies is another crucial part of what I do. I’m one of the co-chairs of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management research group. In 2020, I became a co-chair of the organization’s COVID-19 Social Science working group. When there are major infectious-disease crises globally, researchers and policymakers need to work together to look at the latest evidence and share it with governments so that they can work out what to do in regards to evacuation, lockdowns, isolation, the use of face masks and even ethical research policies.
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STERN KITA: An agrarian economy under threat
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For me, this work is exciting. You can see the results of your efforts and people becoming more resilient to disasters. We have crises almost every day in almost every country. We need to ensure that we provide as much information as we can to build resilience.
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