About

President - Seth Stein

AGU member since 1976. Deering Professor of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

Volunteer experience includes AGU duties serving as JGR editor, Seismology program chair for the Fall Meeting, Seismology and Geodesy section committees for recommending AGU Fellows, and chairing the Bucher Medal and Excellence in Geophysical Education Award committees. I have served on medal committees for the EGU and GSA, panels for NSF, NASA, the European Science Foundation, German Science Foundation, and European Research Council, and on advisory committees for departments in the U.S. and abroad.

Much of my research explores how earthquakes result from tectonic processes at the boundaries of plates and within them, and how limitations in our understanding of these processes affect our ability to forecast earthquake hazards. Because similar challenges arise for other natural hazards, I am interested in general questions of estimating uncertainties in hazard forecasts, assessing how well they work, and developing mitigation strategies that make societal and economic sense, given limited resources and limited knowledge about what the earth will do.

President - Elect - Dalia Kirschbaum

AGU member since 2004. Research Scientist, NASA. Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. 

Volunteer experience: Dr Kirschbaum has actively engaged with AGU over the past 15 years, first serving on the Program Committee for 3 years for the Natural Hazards section and then participating as an executive committee member for the Natural Hazards and the Remote Sensing-Hydrology Focus Groups. She has organized landslide sessions each year as well as Union and Hydrology-focused sessions and served on the committee for selecting a new AGU Fall Meeting Program Committee Chair. 

Secretary - Suzana Camargo

AGU member since 2000. Lamont Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. Palisades, New York, USA. 

Volunteer experience: I am currently an editor of Geophysical Research Letters and an associate editor of Journal of Climate. I have also participated or led various national or international committees. For instance, I am currently a member of WMO Expert Team on Climate Change impacts on tropical cyclones, was one of the co-chairs of the US CLIVAR Hurricane Working Group and the coordinator of the WMO committee on seasonal tropical cyclone forecasts.  

Immediate Past President - Ramesh P. Singh

AGU member since 1983. Professor, Chapman University, Orange, Calif.

Volunteer experience includes member, AGU Committee on International Participation; vice chair (2004–2011) and honorary member (2013– present), International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) GeoRisk Executive; member, Electromagnetic Studies of Earthquakes and Volcanoes (EMSEV) Bureau (2011–present); organizer, 2010 EMSEV Workshop and the First IUGG GeoRisk Conference 2012 at Chapman University; chief editor, Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, and associate editor, International Journal of Remote Sensing, published by Taylor and Francis, U.K.

Early Career Scientist Committee Chair - Daniel Wright

Before joining the Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016, Dr. Wright was a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow in the Hydrological Sciences Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He grew up in and around Ann Arbor and holds bachelors and masters degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan with a focus in hydrology and hydraulics. Daniel served a Regional Sanitation Engineer with the Peace Corps in Bolivia from 2006-2008 and worked as a consulting hydropower engineer in Chile from 2008-2009 before earning his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering and Water Resources from Princeton University, where he studied urban rainfall and flood hydrometeorology from 2009 to 2013. He worked as a disaster risk management consultant at the World Bank from 2013-2014, focusing on flood and landslide risk management in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has been a member of AGU since 2010.

Outreach and Advocacy Committee Chair - AIZsAlik Ismail-Zadeh

Senior Research Fellow, Geophysikalisches Institut, Universität Karlsruhe, Germany;

Chief Scientist / Research Professor, International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;

Professor, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France;

Secretary-General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG);

Immediate Past President, IUGG Commission on Geophysical Risk and Sustainability (GeoRisk Commission);

Board of Directors, International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE);

Editor, Computational Seismology and Geodynamics (AGU book publications).PhD in Physics and Mathematics (1990) and D.Sc. in Geophysics (1997), both Russian Academy of Sciences.

Main interests: Computational seismology and geodynamics, seismic hazard, modeling of extreme seismic events, geophysical risks.

Program Committee Chair - Robert Weiss

Robert Weiss is an an associate professor of Natural Hazards at Virgina Tech. His research focuses on sedimentology, coastal engineering, and oceanography, with a specific focus on oceanic meteorite impacts and landslides as well as tsunami wave propagation and inundation generated by earthquakes. His research methodologies include field surveys and laboratory analyses, as well as numerical and analytical modeling. Weiss received his Ph.D. from Westfalische-Wihelms University in Munster, Germany in 2005, and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany.

Senior Science Advisor & Director - Roger Pulwarty

Dr. Roger S. Pulwarty is the Senior Science Advisor for Climate, and the Director of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) at the NOAA Office of Oceans and Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Roger’s publications focus on climate and risk management in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean. Throughout his career he has helped develop and lead widely-recognized programs dealing with climate science and services, including the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments, NIDIS and the Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change project in the Caribbean. Roger is a lead author on the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Reports on Water Resources and on Extremes, and a convening lead author on the IPCC Working Group II Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Roger has served on advisory committees of the National Academy of Sciences, provided testimonies before the U.S. Congress, and acts as an advisor on climate risk management and services to the Western Governors Association, the Caribbean Economic Community, the Organization of American States, the UNDP, the UNEP and the InterAmerican and World Banks, among others. He chairs the WMO Commission on Climatology Climate Services Information System. Roger’s work has been featured in several media communications, including the New York Times and the BBC. Roger lectures at the University of Colorado and the University of the West Indies. He is a co-recipient of NOAA awards, Department of Commerce Gold and Silver Medals for integrating scientific research into decision-making, and the Gold Medal for Excellence in Applied Science and Technology from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

Program Manager - David Green

David Green is the Program Manager for Disaster response and risk reduction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters – Science Mission Directorate’s Applied Science Program. Dr. Green has been engaged in research and application of hazards and disaster science for over 25 years Dr. Green graduated from the University of Toronto with a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry and earned a Masters of International Science & Technology Management from the University of Maryland. He was on the Research Faculty of Stanford University and the University of Maryland, and conducted environmental sensor-based research with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In his current position, Dr. Green enables decision support and risk management science relevant to a range of natural hazards including volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods as well as man-made hazards such as oil spills. He creates and leverages partnerships among government, academic and industry researchers, both domestically and internationally, and with actors from disaster response, risk management, and capacity-building communities. Dr. Green manages issue-based research that exploits the capacities of NASA’s satellite and airborne assets, integrates related earth observation, and develops model and map-based information and data products. He had previously been with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service (NOAA/NWS) from 2003-2014. At NOAA/NWS he led integrated science and disaster programs, managed the transition and infusion of science results to operations, and established the tsunami early warning and mitigation system, supported the hurricane storm surge, air quality, health, and ecological hazards programs and contributed to water resource management activities. Dr. Green has served on many national and international committees and working groups related to natural disasters including those through the White House Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction, the Disaster Working Group of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, the Group on Earth Observations, and the World Meteorological Organization, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

Geophysicist - Kenneth Hudnut

Dr. Ken Hudnut has studied earthquakes as a geophysicist for the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Pasadena since 1992. He recently led team efforts to develop the HayWired Earthquake Scenario, and to obtain high-resolution topographic data using helicopter-mounted lidar to assess the Kilauea eruption. To help understand the San Andreas Fault system and the behavior of faults in general, he has studied earthquakes worldwide using satellite & airborne imagery along with field work to provide ground truth. Recently, he received awards for distinguished service and leadership from the American Geophysical Union and for meritorious service from the U.S. Department of the Interior. He is a Visiting Associate in Geophysics at Caltech and a Lecturer in Civil & Environmental Engineering at UCLA. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1989, and his A.B. (high honors) from Dartmouth in 1983.

Head of the Hydrology Section - Bruno Merz

Bruno Merz has been the Head of the Hydrology Section of Helmholtz Center Potsdam: GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences since 2002. His research interests include monitoring and simulation of hydrological and hydraulic processes, hydrological extremes, risk analysis, and floods. From 2007 to 2009 he was the Geoengineering Department Director at GFZ, and from 2009 to 2015 he was the Earth Surface Processes Department Director at GFZ. He served as the Secretary of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Committee for Disaster Mitigation from 1996 to 2000. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Potsdam in 2005.

Natural Hazards Earth Career Scientist Committee
The Early Career Scientist Committee advocates for and supports early career researchers in the Natural Hazards section. In general, early career is defined as within 10 years of terminal degree, but we would naturally appreciate insight from those at any career stage who are interested in supporting early career researchers. The committee is made up of: 

- Sophia Tsang (Chair), University of Auckland
- Daniel Wright, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Leah Salditch, Northwestern University
- Nicole Jackson, Sandia National Labs
- Kim-Anh Nguyen, National Central University (Taiwan)
- Robert Emberson, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center


AGU Sections Fellows Committee

The Fellows committee was reconstituted as a single committee for all the sections within AGU. Daniel Wright (danielb.wright@gmail.com) is the representative of the Natural Hazards Section. Please contact Daniel if you have questions regarding this committee.