This award supports ten graduate students in a new Masters International Natural Hazards program, which is organized in connection with the U.S. Peace Corps. The program is the first of its kind in the geosciences, and has attracted significant interest from students across the country. The program includes a two-year Peace Corps assignment in a Latin American country with significant natural hazards. NSF funding supports the academic year component leading to a masters degree. The award allows the exploration of the potential of the program to support a strong and diverse student population from across the U.S. and to assess the potential of Peace Corps collaboration with Earth science curricula in natural hazards. The program is designed to emphasize a substantial social component in natural hazards research, to allow substantial multicultural foreign practical experience, and to facilitate long-term contact with natural hazards.
