Alberto Viglione
- 2023
- Plinius Medal
The 2023 Plinius Medal is awarded to Alberto Viglione for seminal contributions to understanding and assessing hydrological extremes.
Division on Natural Hazards
President: Heidi Kreibich
(nh@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Ira Didenkulova
(didenkulova@mail.ru)
The Natural Hazards (NH) Division covers all natural hazards that can produce damage to the environment and to the society. Therefore, it is a place where scientists and researchers of various geosciences disciplines meet with sociologists, economists and people responsible for territorial and urban security 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 eleven subdivisions as follows: Hydro-Meteorological Hazards, Volcanic Hazards, Landslide and Snow Avalanche Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Sea and Ocean Hazards, Remote Sensing and Hazards, Wildfire Hazards, Environmental, Biological and Natech Hazards, Natural Hazards and Society, Multi-Hazards and Climate Hazards. 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.
The NH Division is one of the historical Divisions of the EGU that was established 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. In addition, the NH Division awards the Plinius Medal that recognises outstanding interdisciplinary natural-hazard research and the Soloviev Medal that recognises outstanding scientific contributions in fundamental research on natural hazards. Both medals are open for all career stages.
Recent awardees
Ankit Agarwal
- 2023
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award
The 2023 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Ankit Agarwal for his distinguished work in complexity science for better understanding, quantifying and predicting hydroclimatic extremes.
Anne Mangeney
- 2022
- Sergey Soloviev Medal
The 2022 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Anne Mangeney for unique contributions to the understanding of geohazards by integrating novel modelling approaches with field and laboratory observations, and the transfer of knowledge towards risk assessment.
Slobodan Nickovic
- 2022
- Plinius Medal
The 2022 Plinius Medal is awarded to Slobodan Nickovic for pioneering work on modelling sand and dust storms and for significant contributions to the development of a global dust advisory and warning system.
Christian Grimm
- 2022
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Christian Grimm Advancing the ETAS Model to Improve Forecasts of Earthquake Sequences and Doublets
Ingrid Bjørge-Engeland
- 2022
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Ingrid Bjørge-Engeland Observations by ASIM of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes accompanied by Elves
Joan Villalonga
- 2022
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Joan Villalonga Observational characterization of meteotsunami triggering in the Balearic Islands from an ultra-dense observational network
Wazita Scott
- 2022
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Wazita Scott Weather circulation patterns associated with extreme precipitation events over Italy
Jakob Zscheischler
- 2022
- Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists
The 2022 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Jakob Zscheischler for fundamental work of an international standing, defining and developing models for the identification and risk assessment of compound and inter-related hazards, in a changing climate.
Latest posts from the NH blog
The 2023 Carnival disaster in São Paulo: an all time record for rainfall in Brazil
- Natural Hazards
- posted 2 weeks ago
In February 2023, Brazil experienced its largest rainfall event on record, which devastated the northern coast of the state of São Paulo. This event caused landslides, floods, and numerous fatalities, making it even more tragic than previous disasters in the region, which already have been elaborated on in another blog post. The situation highlights the urgent need for effective emergency management plans, and early warning systems to tackle the increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events due to climate …
The EGU23 bucket list for Natural Hazards Early Career Scientists
- Natural Hazards
- posted 1 month ago
The European Geoscience Union (EGU) General Assembly (GA) is a precious occasion to create new connections and receive new stimuli to feed your own research, specifically for those in the early stages of their career. Nevertheless, the occasions for networking and scientific discussion can be so many, that it could be difficult to choose what to attend. As a junior researcher and early career scientist (ECS) in the natural hazard division (NH) of EGU, I personally experienced that joining the …
Learning more about geohazards: Talking with EGU_NH 2023 Sergey Soloviev Medalist
- Natural Hazards
- posted 2 months ago
It is my pleasure to interview the 2023 EGU Sergey Soloviev Medalist Dr Peng Cui, Professor at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Resources、Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), known for his work and commitment to understanding geohazards, especially earthquake-induced hazards. He has dedicated his life to understanding how to minimize disaster risk. Over his vast research career, he has worked along different mountain ranges globally and felt compelled to do something for the people …
Connecting the dots: the importance of recognising multi-hazard events in disaster reporting
- Natural Hazards
- posted 2 months ago
In the past year, the world has witnessed many severe disasters caused by multiple hazards whose impacts overlapped in time and space. February this year, two severe earthquakes hit Syria and Turkey shortly after each other, followed by two more powerful earthquakes and over a hundred aftershocks in subsequent weeks [1,2]. The disaster caused over 48 thousand fatalities, and many people are still missing [3]. Another example is Afghanistan in June 2022, where an earthquake struck when people were already …
Current issue of the EGU newsletter
In the May newsletter, EGU spoke to researchers about the exclusionary practices contributing to the low retention rate of minority groups within the geosciences, and to understand what needs to be done to usher in change.
We hear about the geological period that no one talks about: menstruation in the field, and the struggles of being a parent or caregiver in academia. David Fernández-Blanco also shares his plans to better support early career researchers as EGU’s new Union-level Early Career Scientist Representative.
Members of EGU’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee invite your inputs to their survey on workplace experiences of geoscientists and EGU’s Education Committee shares ways to bring science to educators! Want to do your part in making the geoscience community more inclusive? Watch our free EGUwebinar to identify and combat structural discrimination in your work environment and personal life.