Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

More than 600 attendees (including 175 undergraduate students) enjoyed the 64th EERI Annual Meeting/National Earthquake Conference. They benefited from an inspiring multidisciplinary program with the theme “Learning from the Past to Protect the Future.” The backdrop of the meeting was the 200th anniversary of the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes and a sense of urgency based on the possibility of their recurrence. The first day’s sessions focused on learning from both recent and historical earthquakes in the areas of seismology, tsunamis, geotechnical aspects, the built environment, preparedness, response, recovery, and societal impacts. Tom O’Rourke set the stage for the second day with his 2012 EERI Distinguished Lecture on “The New Normal for Natural Disasters”. That day’s sessions delved into assessing the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure, the possibilities of cascading failures, and understanding and communicating risk. The third day underscored building resilience with sessions on how the central United States could benefit from earthquake scenarios as well as a concerted effort to rehabilitate and retrofit structures.