University and Industry Partners
The Oregon Hazards Lab collaborates with many affiliates outside of our organization whose research complements our work. Their understanding of multi-hazards in the Pacific Northwest can improve our resilience monitoring efforts, while the real-time data collected by our sensor network can improve scientific understanding of dynamic environmental processes and events.
Critical Infrastructure Advisors
The Oregon Hazards Lab produces several public safety products for stakeholders and the general public. Our industry advisors help us ensure that these products are available and impactful to those who need them.
Debra Smith
Critical Infrastructure Liaison
Debra Smith leads the Over the Top Energy Advisors group and has extensive experience with utilities and the energy industry in the Pacific Northwest. Most recently, she served as the General Manager and CEO of Seattle City Light, one of the nation’s largest community-owned electric utilities. Debra will collaborate with the Oregon Hazards Lab on outreach to power utilities and help them utilize the lab’s public safety products, such as wildfire detection cameras.
Roger Johnson
Fire Management Liaison
Roger Johnson is the former Fire Chief at the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District. In this role, he coordinated with local, federal and state wildland firefighting agencies in a high-risk wildland urban interface setting. Mr. Johnson also served as the director of the Oregon Fire Chiefs Association for two terms, in which he played a pivotal role in advocating for statewide wildfire policy including SB 762. He is currently a member of the State Interoperability Executive Committee and a liaison to the Oregon Wildfire Detection Camera Interoperability Committee. Mr. Johnson will help advise the Oregon Hazards Lab on outreach to fire departments.
University of Oregon Faculty
The Oregon Hazards Lab collaborates with many professors within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon. Their research can help advance our mission to better understand, detect, and mitigate multi-hazards within the Pacific Northwest. Our sensor network also provides the real-time data that is necessary to capture the dynamics of environmental events and inform scientific understanding of these processes.
Josef Dufek
University of Oregon, Department of Earth Sciences, Professor
Josef Dufek is the Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon. His research interests include the dynamics of explosive volcanic eruptions, magma dynamics, and the geochemical consequences of these processes. He is also using computational and sensing approaches to study the fluid dynamics and properties of wildfire smoke plumes.
Ram Durairajan
University of Oregon, Department of Computer Science, Associate Professor
Ram Durairajan is an expert in cybersecurity, computer networking, multi-cloud computing, internet data science and programmable Optics. He is collaborating with the Oregon Hazards Lab in his HazardMon project, which monitors monitoring systems to ensure they are resilient to threats like cyberattacks and power outages.
Emilie Hooft
University of Oregon, Department of Earth Sciences, Professor
Emilie Hooft is an academic expert in the structure of the Cascadia Subduction Zone and understanding how magma is transported from Earth’s mantle to the surface. Professor Hooft has been a close collaborator with the Oregon Hazards Lab since its inception in 2018. She is also involved as senior personnel in the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center.
Leif Karlstrom
University of Oregon, Department of Earth Sciences, Associate Professor
Leif Karlstrom is an academic expert in volcanoes, glaciers, geomorphology, fluid mechanics and geodynamics. His research studies volcanic eruption cycles, magma flow pathways in the crust, and the interpretation of volcanic seismicity. This research can help the Oregon Hazards Lab to better understand volcanic hazards in the Pacific Northwest.
Josh Roering
University of Oregon, Department of Earth Sciences, Professor
Josh Roering is an academic expert on landslide processes and soil erosion. His specialty is geomorphology, a discipline of geology that addresses the evolution of landscapes, including mountain building by tectonic and volcanic processes and erosion by rivers, glaciers, and landslides. His research also investigates the impact of land use practices like timber harvesting on erosion and landscape dynamics.
Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center
The Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT) was established in 2023 through an award from the National Science Foundation. CRESCENT is the nation’s first subduction zone earthquake hazards center and is headquartered at the University of Oregon. Three tenets comprise CRESCENTs core mission: advancing basic and applied science, geoscience education and training, and partnerships and applications of the science. The Oregon Hazards Lab shares an office with CRESCENT, and we collaborate on scientific research and outreach to stakeholders.
Diego Melgar
Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center, Director
Diego Melgar is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon and the director of CRESCENT. He has expertise in seismology, earthquake early warning systems, strong ground motion, and geodetic imaging. He uses diverse data sets to study major global earthquakes and is helping to build the next generation of earthquake and tsunami early warning systems.
Valerie Sahakian
Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center, Lead Investigator
Valerie Sahakian is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon. Her academic expertise includes characterizing fault structures and use ground motion to understand more about past earthquakes and details of shallow Earth structure. She leads the CRESCENT Partnerships and Applications program, which uses research to improve societal resilience to earthquakes.
Amanda Thomas
Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center, Lead Investigator
Amanda Thomas is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon. She is a seismologist with expertise in the physical properties of faults, seismotectonics, crustal deformation, and the mechanics of earthquakes and faulting. She is the CRESCENT science planning lead and has worked with OHAZ field technicians on research to improve lahar early warning systems on Mt. Rainier.
Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments
The Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments (IROCE) at the University of Oregon is a hub for research teams to focus on addressing some of the most significant risks facing their organizations, communities, and the environment. IROCE advances the University of Oregon’s mission to help tackle challenges faced not only by our organization, but by our larger community. The Oregon Hazards Lab’s work aligns well with interdisciplinary programs within IROCE, specifically the Center for Wildfire Smoke Research and Practice. We look forward to collaboration on applied research to enable communities and organizations to understand risk exposures and improve decision-making around the natural hazard exposures communities and organizations face.
André le Duc
Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments, Director
André le Duc is the Vice President of Safety and Risk Services at the University of Oregon and its Chief Resilience Officer. As Director of the Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments, he links, leverages, and aligns applied social science research and resources to help organizations and communities adapt and thrive in the face of adversity.
Other External Partners
The Oregon Hazards Lab also collaborates closely with the following organizations:
- U.S. Geological Survey
- Pacific Northwest Seismic Network
- Oregon Department of Emergency Management
- Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries
- University of Washington
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, San Diego
- University of Nevada, Reno
- California Institute of Technology