Kathleen Tierney, director of the CU-Boulder Natural Hazards Center and a nationally recognized expert on disasters, is available to talk with the media about the Japan earthquake. Tierney has worked on Japan earthquake issues for many years. She is a longtime member of a U.S.-Japan group focusing on urban earthquake hazards and has been a visiting professor at Kyoto University in Japan. The Natural Hazards Center is the nation's leading repository of knowledge on human behavior in disasters. Tierney can be reached at 302-981-0259 (302 area code is correct) or by e-mailing tierneyk@colorado.edu.
Liesel Ritchie, assistant director for research at the Natural Hazards Center, is a co-principal investigator on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration project to study the effectiveness of tsunami warnings. She also has worked on tsunami preparedness in Alaska. She can be reached at 662-617-2464.
CU-Boulder Professors Anne Sheehan (720-480-3727, anne.sheehan@colorado.edu), Peter Molnar (303-492-4936, peter.molnar@colorado.edu), Roger Bilham (303-492-6189, 303-408-9125, roger.bilham@colorado.edu), Craig Jones (303-492-6994, craig.jones@colorado.edu), and Kristine Larson (303-440-3756 kristinem.larson@gmail.com) all are knowledgeable about the Japan earthquake and the ensuing tsunami as well as the tectonics of the affected area. Sheehan, Molnar, Bilham and Jones are geological sciences faculty and also are affiliated with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, while Larson is a faculty member in the aerospace engineering sciences department.
Leysia Palen, associate professor of computer science and director of CU-Boulder's Project EPIC: Empowering the Public with Information in Crisis, is available to talk about technology-related public communications during disasters. Palen can be reached by calling 303-492-3902 or by e-mailing palen@colorado.edu.