"Addressing Earthquake risk of Developing Countries", Brian Tucker presents at Torrey Pines La Jolla Rotary Club

Torrey Pines (La Jolla) Rotary Club - Brian Tucker of GHI - Geohazards International (www.geohaz.org)

"The earthquake risk in developing countries is large and growing rapidly. Unless something is done to reduce it, developing countries will suffer human and economic losses far greater than these countries have experienced in the past. Given the “shrinking” of the world, these losses will affect developed countries as well. GeoHazards International (GHI) is a Palo Alto-based, nonprofit organization that has attempted to reduce the death and suffering caused by earthquakes in the world’s most vulnerable communities, through advocacy, preparedness, and mitigation. Disaster response, recovery and reconstruction, which attract so much attention and resources after earthquakes strike, are not the work of GHI. Instead, GHI works before earthquakes to raise awareness, strengthen local institutions, and launch various mitigation activities, particularly in schools and hospitals. This is how to reduce death, suffering and economic losses. GHI and its partners around the world have achieved some success: because of our work, thousands of school children are safer, hundreds of cities are now aware of their risk, the seismic hazard of dozens of cities have been assessed, and numerous local organizations are more capable to manage their communities’ earthquake risk. But there is disturbing evidence that the rate at which earthquake risk management is improving, globally, is woefully inadequate. As GHI continues its work to improve risk management in developing countries, it has launched an effort to recruit new allies, such as the Rotary Clubs, for ideas and support." (Brian Tucker).


Brian Tucker received a B.A. in Physics, a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University. He headed the Geological Hazards Programs of the California Geological Survey from 1982 to1991. In 1991, he founded GeoHazards International (www.geohaz.org), a nonprofit organization working to reduce the risk of natural hazards in the world’s most vulnerable communities through preparedness, mitigation and advocacy. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Seismological Society of America. In 2000, he was honored for his service to the people of Nepal by the King of Nepal, and, in 2002, was named a MacArthur Fellow. In 2007, he received the U.S. Civilian Research and Defense Foundation’s George Brown Award for International Science and Technology Cooperation and was elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.

Breakfast with Brian Tucker and rotarians Steve Brown and Fary Moini of La Jolla Golden Triangle RC.