UCLA faculty experts advisory: Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster
An 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan March 11, triggering a tsunami that has caused major destruction in coastal areas. UCLA has experts on earthquakes, tsunamis, Japanese architecture, the psychological effects of natural disasters and the health effects of radiation exposure.
Updated March 18, 2011
NUCLEAR REACTORS & RADIATION
William H. McBride, professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, is an expert on the health effects of exposure to nuclear radiation. He is principal investigator of a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop countermeasures that will help treat damage caused by radiological or nuclear attack.
Media contact:
Kim Irwin | Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center | 310-206-2805
Kei Iwamoto is a radiation biologist and an associate professor of radiation oncology at UCLA who studies the effects of radiation on the human body. He spent seven years on the 1990s studying radiation effects at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation of Hiroshima, a joint venture between Japan and the United States.
Media contact:
Kim Irwin | Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center | 310-206-2805
Ivan Catton, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is an expert on nuclear energy and nuclear reactors. Catton has served on the U.S. Advisory Committee on Nuclear Safety and as a consultant to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, the Electrical Power Research Institute, the Idaho National Laboratory and the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Media contact:
Wileen Wong Kromhout | 310-206-0540 | wwkromhout@support.ucla.edu
JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE AND SOCIETY
Hitoshi Abe, chair of the Department of Architecture and Urban Design and director of the UCLA Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, is an authority on Japanese architecture, urban design and building codes. He has an active international design practice based in Sendai, an appointment as a visiting professor at Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) and has designed and built many buildings in the area impacted by the earthquake and tsunami.
Media contact:
Shilo Munk | 310-825-6540
EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS
Anthony Orme, professor of geography and a member of the UCLA Institute of the Environment, is an authority on plate tectonics, coastal geomorphology and sea-level change.
Media contact:
Meg Sullivan | 310-825-1046 | msullivan@support.ucla.edu
Jonathan Stewart, professor and vice chair of the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is an earthquake engineering expert with extensive experience documenting the effects of major quakes in California, Turkey, Taiwan, India and Greece.
Media contact:
Wileen Wong Kromhout | 310-206-0540 | wwkromhout@support.ucla.edu
John Wallace, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is an expert in earthquake engineering whose research focuses on the performance and behavior of reinforced concrete structures.
Media contact:
Wileen Wong Kromhout | 310-206-0540 | wwkromhout@support.ucla.edu
David Jackson, professor of Earth and space sciences, is a geophysicist and an authority on seismology.
Media contact:
Stuart Wolpert | 310-206-0511 | swolpert@support.ucla.edu
Jian Zhang, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, specializes in earthquake engineering and structural dynamics and mechanics.
Media contact:
Wileen Wong Kromhout | 310-206-0540 | wwkromhout@support.ucla.edu
Ertugrul Taciroglu, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is an authority on earthquake engineering and structural mechanics.
Media contact:
Wileen Wong Kromhout | 310-206-0540 | wwkromhout@support.ucla.edu
Scott Brandenberg, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, specializes in geotechnical earthquake engineering.
Media contact:
Wileen Wong Kromhout | 206-0540 | wwkromhout@support.ucla.edu
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKES
Emanuel Maidenberg, a psychologist at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, is an expert on the stress and anxiety caused by natural disasters.
Media contact:
Mark Wheeler | 310-794-2265 | mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu
Melissa Brymer, director of terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, focuses on the ways in which children deal with stress following disasters.
Media contact:
Mark Wheeler | 310-794-2265 | mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu
Vickie Mays, professor of psychology, is a clinical psychologist with expertise on the impact of disasters. She has been leading a research project on disaster preparedness and recovery in New Orleans since 2006 and is a trained member of the Los Angeles Community Emergency Response Team.
Contact:
mays@ucla.edu or 310-206-5159