This is what I know: People and professions naturally segment themselves into silos of expertise or by discipline. Thus when you are looking for applied research it can be hard to find. When you do mix scientists and emergency managers together sometimes they talk past one another and they don't have mutual interests, even though their end goal of building disaster resilience in the larger part is the same.
Back during the National Level Exercise TOPOFF 2, which was held in Seattle and King County, we needed radiation health physicists to help us understand the impacts of different doses of radiation. The goal was to provide decision-makers with factual information on which to make their protective action determinations. We had a tough time finding a scientist who could take what they knew about the data, have a conversation and actually make a recommendation to the mayor and county executive.
Almost all of the hazards we face today, natural and technological, have a science component to them. Climate change's impacts, electromagnetic pulse, seismic, etc., are such that we need science at our elbow during all phases of emergency management.
If you are interested in having more interactions with the science community, one place to do that is the Natural Hazards Workshop that is held every year. It is one of the few places where I've seen scientists, academics and emergency managers mixing and sharing their thoughts and ideas. I highly recommend attending.
Lastly, something I don't think I've written about is the Center for Critical Infrastructure Resilience. My parent organization (where I work day-to-day), the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, and the Center for Regional Disaster Resilience, which I lead, have partnered with Northeastern University and others on an application to have the type of relationship between science, research, academics and emergency management that I allude to above. Our proposal is in, we were (I think) one of three finalists and site visits by the Department of Homeland Security have been completed. Now we are just waiting for, "And the winner is ..."
Our goal is to really have applied research with lots of interaction between emergency management practitioners and the science community, before research begins, so that what is being worked on has practical value to the user community.
Your mission today is to call someone you know in the academic or research community and just check in with them. Send them this blog post as a way to start the dialog. If you physically have contact with them, give him or her a hug!
