Natural Hazards Observer
| July 2005 | Volume XXIX | Number 6 |
Meet the 2005 Mary Fran Myers
Scholarship Winners
Launched in 2004, the intent of the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship is to recognize outstanding individuals who are committed to disaster research and practice and who have the potential to make a lasting contribution to reducing disaster vulnerability. The scholarship was established to ensure that individuals from all sectors of the hazards community be represented at the Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. This year’s winners, Wei Choong and Ana Pamela Membreño, truly exemplify the spirit of the scholarship. The Natural Hazards Center awarded two scholarships this year because of the sheer excellence of the applications (there was no deciding between the two).
Choong, from Melbourne, Australia, has a background in international development and has worked in Bangladesh, Fiji, Lao PDR, Thailand, and East Timor on development issues such as food security, poverty alleviation, and natural disaster risk management. Over the past two years she has worked at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in Bangkok, Thailand, as both a research intern and as part of an Australian Government program—Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development. She has also served as an external evaluator for a disaster prevention and livelihood security project for CARE International in Lao PDR. Through research focused on reducing natural disaster risks at the community level, Choong has developed interests in disasters and development, community based disaster risk management, public awareness and education, and the exploration of indigenous coping strategies. In her pursuit of these interests, she hopes to continue contributing to the existing body of knowledge while working practically at a grass roots level to further reduce risks in developing countries.
Membreño is a civil engineer who recently finished her master of science in rural planning and development at the University of Guelph in Canada. She chose to pursue this degree after working in her native Honduras as a project manager for reconstruction projects in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. Throughout her studies she pursued an interest in floodplain management (looking specifically at vulnerability reduction measures, institutional capacity building, and promotion of community participation) and is a certified floodplain manager. During the summer of 2004, she did a 12-week internship with the Natural Hazards Project at the Unit of Sustainable Development and Environment of the Organization of the American States in Washington, DC. Through this work, Membreño was encouraged to further pursue vulnerability reduction issues with the possibility of implementing a floodplain manager certificate program for Honduras. Currently she is conducting environmental assessment consistency analyses for Yap Environmental Systems Analysis Limited–Guelph and hoping to return to Honduras to work on development projects in the area of disaster management.
Congratulations again to the winners and many thanks to the scholarship’s namesake. Mary Fran Myers, a former codirector of the Natural Hazards Center was a major guiding force for the Center as well as the broader hazards community. Reducing disaster losses, both nationally and internationally, was her life’s work. By the time of her death in April 2004, her numerous contributions to the field were recognized by thousands of individuals and organizations throughout the world. Based on Myers’ explicit request, scholarship funds are used to bring individuals to the annual workshop who otherwise might not be able to attend. A gift account has been established with the University of Colorado Foundation. Contributions can be sent to Mary Fran Myers Scholarship, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado, 482 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0482. Checks should be made payable to the “University of Colorado Foundation.” Visit http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/scholarship/ for more information.
Congratulations to 2005’s Student Paper Competition Winners
The Natural Hazards Center is pleased to announce the winners of the 2005 Hazards and Disasters Paper Competition for Undergraduate and Graduate Students. This year’s call for papers resulted in one and a half times more submissions than last year’s and reflected a broader diversity of academic interests, which included agricultural communications and journalism; anthropology; disaster and crisis management; community and regional planning; emergency administration and planning; environmental management and planning; geography; land use planning, management, and design; mechanical engineering; politics; rural sociology; sociology; urban and regional science; and veterinary sciences.
Students were encouraged to submit recent literature reviews, theoretical arguments, case studies, and descriptions of research results on topics relevant to the social/behavioral aspects of hazards and disasters. Papers were received from all over the world, including Australia, Canada, Chile, India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Topics included tsunamis, typhoons, climate change, wildfires, floodplains, storm surges, and military response to crises.
The winning papers were written by undergraduate Sheridan Wimmer of Kansas State University and graduate student Hannah Brenkert of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Wimmer’s paper, “Can Biotechnology Help Slow Global Warming?” addressed the use of biotechnology and global warming. Brenkert’s “The Place of Fire” focused on the behaviors and perspectives of residents living in fire-prone areas. Copies of the winning papers are available online at http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/SPC/.