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Earthquake and Natural Disaster Tip Sheet
The following faculty members from The George Washington University are available to comment on earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters.
Earthquakes and Civil Engineering
Shahram Sarkani
Director of GW’s Laboratory for Infrastructure Safety and Reliability; Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
Author of more than 100 technical publications and presentations, Shahram Sarkani is a civil engineer who focuses his research on the study of how earthquakes and other natural forces affect buildings, bridges, and other human-made structures. Using a National Science Foundation grant, GW’s Laboratory for Infrastructure Safety and Reliability constructed an earthquake simulator in 2001 to study earthquake forces and their effects on buildings and other structures. From these studies, the laboratory develops cost-effective ways to protect people against the destructive power of earthquakes. Known simply as the “shake table,” this simulator moves with six degrees of freedom and is capable of producing every motion a building or structure may experience during an earthquake or severe vibration. The platform weights two tons and supports weights of up to 18 tons. Hydraulic power is used to move the table moves about 8 inches in each of the 6 directions.
Office: (202) 994-5450
E-mail: sarkani@gwu.edu
Majid Manzari
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Majid Manzari has served at GW since 1994. In addition to research in geomechanics, Professor Manzari has conducted research on active control of structures and soil-structure systems during earthquakes, constitutive modeling of ferroelectric ceramics with domain switching behavior, and behavior of mixed finite elements in hyperbolic heat conduction. From 1986 to 1990, Manzari held a faculty position in the School of Engineering of Tehran University. Professor Manzari received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Civil Engineering from Tehran University in Iran, and a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Davis. He has been a visiting researcher at Sandia National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.
Office: (202) 994-5970
E-mail: manzari@gwu.edu
Pedro F. Silva
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Pedro Silva’s areas of specialty include development of performance-based procedures for the seismic design and retrofit of civil structures; blast resistance of structures; use of fiber-reinforced polymers for the structural rehabilitation of structures. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego.
Office: (202) 994-7446
E-mail: silvap@gwu.edu
Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management
Jack Harrald
Director of The George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management; Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
Professor Harrald has been actively engaged in the fields of maritime safety, emergency management, and crisis management, as a researcher in his academic career and as a practitioner during his 22-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard. He has written and published in the fields of crisis management, management science, risk and vulnerability analysis, and maritime safety. Harrald is the co-coordinator of the Corporate Crisis Management Roundtable and is a founding member, director, and president of The International Emergency Management Society. He is also a director of the Disaster Recovery Institute. Harrald was the principle investigator for recent maritime risk studies in Prince William Sound, Alaska, the Port of New Orleans, and Washington State, and for earthquake vulnerability studies funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Red Cross. Funded by NSF quick response grants and Red Cross projects, he studied the responses to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Loma Prieta Earthquake, Hurricane Hugo, Hurricane Andrew, and the Northridge Earthquake. On Sept. 15, 2005, Harrald testified in front of the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform regarding lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina.
Office: (202) 994-7153
E-mail: jharrald@gwu.edu
Web: www.gwu.edu/~icdrm/
Joseph A. Barbera, M.D.
Co-Director of The George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management
Professor Barbera was the lead medical consultant for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the development of the National Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System, and participates as a medical officer for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance International Search & Rescue Program and the FEMA US&R Incident Support Team. He has participated in responses to hurricanes, mine disasters, earthquakes (Baguio City Philippines, Northridge California, Tou-Liu Taiwan), mass terrorism (the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 9-11 Pentagon and World Trade Center attacks), and biological terrorism. An M.D. by training, Barbera has completed multiple research projects focusing on health and medical systems in emergency preparedness and response.
Office: (202) 994-8424
E-mail: jbarbera@gwu.edu
Web: www.gwu.edu/~icdrm/
Christina Catlett, M.D.
Executive Director of the Center for Emergency Preparedness at GW Medical Center; Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Christina Catlett is the Executive Director of the Center for Emergency Preparedness at The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she leads the hospital’s preparedness efforts and serves as a disaster planning expert for the University and external stakeholders. She is also an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Currently, she is facilitating improvements in the George Washington University Hospital’s preparedness program. She has created detailed response strategies for hazmat events, contagious disease outbreaks, and mass casualty events requiring surge capacity. She has also led multiple disaster response teams for the Medical Center, including missions in the wakes of Hurricane Ivan, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Rita. Dr. Catlett is a board certified emergency physician who remains clinically active. She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed her residency in emergency medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She lives in Maryland with her husband.
Office: (202) 994-0297
E-mail: catlett@gwu.edu
Global Humanitarian Response and Nonprofit Involvement
Amitai Etzioni
GW University Professor
Professor Etzioni is the author of over thirty books, including The Monochrome Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), The Limits of Privacy (New York: Basic Books, 1999), The New Golden Rule (New York: Basic Books, 1996), which received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 1997 Tolerance Book Award, The Spirit of Community (New York: Crown Books, 1993), and The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics (New York: Free Press, 1988). Outside of academia, Etzioni's voice is frequently heard in the media. He appears often on radio and television programs, and is regularly consulted by print media as well.
Office: (202) 994-8190
E-mail: etzioni@gwu.edu
Web site: www.gwu.edu/~icps/
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