This award provides support to the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) to organize programming at the 2020 National Earthquake Conference (NEC) in San Diego, California, held on March 2-6, 2020, to capture the lessons learned and future research directions resulting from the 2019 Ridgecrest, California Earthquake Sequence. This programming will bring together researchers, practitioners, emergency managers, policy makers, and federal, state and local experts to develop a cross-disciplinary research agenda by showcasing a very broad set of observations from this earthquake sequence in a single venue. The 2020 NEC, which will be held in San Diego, California, is in close proximity to the many post-earthquake investigators based in Los Angeles and is accessible for Ridgecrest officials engaged in response and recovery efforts. By engaging a wide range of participants, the programming will help facilitate that the lessons learned not only influence future research, but can also inform future mitigation actions that have the potential to save lives, reduce damage, and maintain critical post-event services, thus fostering national, state, and local health, welfare, and prosperity. Recommendations from the programming will be shared widely with the broader research and earthquake risk reduction community through a summary report to be posted on EERI's website (www.eeri.org) and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) website (www.DesignSafe-ci.org). This award supports the National Science Foundation's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).
The 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence presents a major learning opportunity for the U.S. research and practitioner community across many disciplines. The programming will include a plenary session, break-out sessions, and a poster session. The programming will cover a wide range of topics, including geotechnical and structural engineering, seismology, geology, ground motion, lifelines, public health, emergency management and response, and public policy. Through the participation of attendees from a wide range of disciplines and the integration of experts from academia and practice, the programming will also start important dialogues that promote future and continued knowledge transfer from research to practice and vice versa, thereby opening new areas for discovery and innovation. EERI will work with the NEHRP agencies to convene a multi-disciplinary organizing committee to plan the programming.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
