Claire J. Horwell
- 2020
- Plinius Medal
The 2020 Plinius Medal is awarded to Claire J. Horwell for her outstanding interdisciplinary research on the respiratory health implications of volcanic aerosols, including ash, minerals and liquid droplets.
Division on Natural Hazards
President: Ira Didenkulova (nh@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Paolo Tarolli
(paolo.tarolli@unipd.it)
The Natural Hazards (NH) Division of the EGU covers all the geological and geophysical processes that can be hazardous and can produce damage to the environment and to the society. Therefore it is a place where scientists and researchers of various geo-disciplines meet with sociologists, economists and people responsible for territorial and urban defense and planning policies. The aim is to improve the understanding of the evolution of the processes and to discuss new technologies, methods and strategies to mitigate their disastrous effects. The Division is structured in nine Subdivisions covering specific hazards. Of these seven are listed here: hydro-meteorological, volcanic, landslide, earthquake-, sea and ocean, remote sensing and hazards, wildfire hazards. The eighth Subdivision covers biological and environmental hazards and in addition hazards not included in the previous ones. The ninth (natural hazards and society) focuses on the social aspects of the hazards, including development sustainability, emergency, warning, after-disaster resilience, etc. Most of the topics that are treated in the NH Division are also treated in other EGU Divisions, which is expected due to the intrinsic transversal nature of the NH Division. For example, earthquakes are the main interest of the Seismology Division, but they are also of interest here where the chief topics are, among others, how to evaluate vulnerability and risk, how to reduce the impact on human lives and society, how geo-scientists can contribute to a prompt recovery of a community affected by disasters.
The NH Division is one the historical Divisions of the EGU that was established since when EGU was founded and has been and is one of the largest divisions to which many geo-scientists provide steadily contributions of papers and ideas over the years.
As for all EGU Divisions, an Early Career Scientist Award is established also for the NH Division and is given to young researchers who obtain outstanding results in the assessment and mitigation of natural hazard adopting a multidisciplinary approach. In addition, the NH Division awards the Plinius Medal devoted since 2012 to mid-career researchers and the Soloviev Medal for scientists who give outstanding contributions in fundamental aspects of research on natural hazards.
Recent awardees
John J. Clague
- 2020
- Sergey Soloviev Medal
The 2020 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to John J. Clague for his remarkable scientific contributions in fundamental and applied research on earthquakes, tsunamis, outburst floods and landslides, directed towards risk reduction for the benefit of societies.
Vitor Silva
- 2020
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award
The 2020 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Vitor Silva for his fundamental contributions to the research on earthquake risk assessment.
Kyoji Sassa
- 2019
- Sergey Soloviev Medal
The 2019 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Kyoji Sassa for outstanding scientific contributions in fundamental research in landslide hazards and in landslide risk-reduction initiatives for the benefit of societies.
Philip J. Ward
- 2019
- Plinius Medal
The 2019 Plinius Medal is awarded to Philip J. Ward for outstanding research on flood and drought risk assessments from global to local scales.
Jadranka Šepić
- 2019
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award
The 2019 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Jadranka Šepić for fundamental contributions to the research on meteorological tsunamis and high-frequency sea level oscillations.
Alexandra Urgilez Vinueza
- 2019
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Alexandra Urgilez Vinueza The occurrence of Landslides in Guarumales, Ecuador
Ina Teutsch
- 2019
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Ina Teutsch Rogue Waves in the Southern North Sea
Rahul Kumar
- 2019
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Rahul Kumar Urban interactions with heatwaves in India
Ricarda Gatter
- 2019
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Ricarda Gatter The significance of weak layers for submarine slope failure
Latest posts from the NH blog
Satellite soil moisture improves rainfall just where needed
- Natural Hazards
- posted 7 hours ago
Soil moisture and rainfall are the two fundamental variables in the water and energy cycle and their knowledge in many applications is crucial. For instance, for predicting the occurrence and the magnitude of flood and landslide events the knowledge of the initial soil moisture condition and of rainfall amount is mandatory. In the last decade, some authors have proposed a completely new approach, i.e., the use of satellite soil moisture for estimating and improving rainfall, doing hydrology backwards. In 2014, …
The Italian catalogue of earthquake-induced ground failures: saving the past for the future seismic hazard assessment #CEDIT
- Natural Hazards
- posted 2 weeks ago
The Italian Catalogue of Earthquake-Induced Ground Failures (CEDIT) is a database available online since January 2013 that stores data about ground failures induced by strong earthquakes, which occurred on the Italian territory since 1000 AD up to now. CEDIT is freely available on a web-GIS portal (currently the access is granted using Firefox as a web browser, the upgrade to other browsers is in process, Ed.) of the CERI Research Centre. His current curator is Salvatore Martino, Associate Professor in …
The multitasking skillbox of researchers, direct experiences from Early Career Scientists.
- Natural Hazards
- posted 4 weeks ago
Science is “the study of the nature and behaviour of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them” (Collins online dictionary). In other words, science is tightly linked to gaining knowledge. However, this definition and many others never mention that to gain knowledge through science, a vast amount of experience must be acquired beforehand and put into practice every day by scientists. Today, our post will give our blog readership the chance to read some stories behind the …
Behind the scene: knowing the President of the EGU Natural Hazard Division – Ira Didenkulova!
- Natural Hazards
- posted 1 month ago
In this last post of 2019, I have the pleasure to ask some questions to Ira Didenkulova, the President of the EGU Natural Hazards division who has been recently elected for a second mandate. Ira, can you introduce yourself and tell what led you the position of EGU Natural Hazard (NH) Division president? What are the main challenges you had and what’s next for the NH division? It seems this is the most difficult question. OK. Let’s be short and …
Current issue of the EGU newsletter
We are looking forward to welcoming all participants to the 2020 EGU General Assembly on 3–8 May in Vienna. In addition to many exciting scientific sessions, the meeting will feature hundreds of short courses and networking events plus a packed exhibition hall!
The 2020 General Assembly will also continue a number of traditions, including the popular Imaggeo Photo Contest. You have until 15 February 2020 to enter your photos and videos for a chance to win fame and fortune – in the form of a free registration to next year’s General Assembly. Another tradition is the annual mentoring programme, which supports first-time conference attendees and helps them assemble their own professional networks. The programme, which only lasts for the duration of the General Assembly, depends on both mentors and mentees signing up; brief applications are due by 8 March 2020.
In case you missed them: here are the winners of the EGU's Best Blog Posts and the Best of Imaggeo 2019 competitions as well as the year’s Top 10 most-read blog posts. (The most read? Think Game of Thrones.)
Do you have a geoscience outreach project you’d like to develop? The call for funding is open until 15 February 2020 for EGU Public Engagement Grants. Winners receive 1500 EUR and one free registration to next year’s General Assembly.
If you’d like to organise a meeting addressing a focused, cutting-edge topic at the frontiers of geoscience research, you have until 29 February 2020 to propose an EGU Galileo Conference.