Reckoning with the Risk of Catastrophe-Workshop scheduled for October 2012 in Washington, DC.

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The steering committee of the seventh Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / National Science Foundation Research Conference, Reckoning with the Risk of Catastrophe, scheduled to be held October 3-5, 2012 in Washington, DC, asked Andrew Lo to put together a proposal to support American involvement in the research conference. The purpose of the conference is to facilitate true intellectual collaboration between American and German scholars. The bulk of the funds that Lo is requesting is to cover participant support costs for American scholars to attend the workshop. Approximately one-third of the American scholars selected to attend the workshop are students or early career professionals. The event will provide these students and junior researchers with an invaluable international experience. We know a great deal about disasters because disaster research has existed for more than 60 years. But the scale of recent events - particularly Hurricane Katrina, the financial meltdown, the Japanese Tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear problems that followed - have led scholars to seek new knowledge to better understand and manage potentially catastrophic risks. Researchers across countries and disciplines are beginning to investigate the root causes and common threads of such disasters, reinvigorating the study of catastrophic risk, and moving us closer to finding practical solutions.