Hurricane Resilience Research Institute

By Sarah F. Hill

The TAMEST Natural Hazards Summit: Responding to and Mitigating the Impacts, the first of a two-part series, was held on October 19, 2021. The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) was co-founded in 2004 by the Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison and Nobel Laureates Michael S. Brown, M.D., and Richard E. Smalley, Ph.D. With more than 320 members, 10 Nobel Laureates and 16 member institutions, TAMEST is a powerhouse of intellectual dissemination. The summit was presented by the Hurricane Resilience Research Institute (HuRRI) at the University of Houston and presented via Zoom due to the ongoing pandemic.

The UH Vice President/Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer, Amr S. Elnashai, Fellow of the Royal Academy, UK, and member of TAMEST, gave opening remarks and stated that UH is No. 3 in the state of Texas in research expenditures, and that the University has achieved almost $60 million in Intellectual Property revenue this past year. Another pride point is that UH is hiring 100 additional faculty, starting with 25 lines immediately, in the areas of energy, health, sustainability and security – topics that the summit covered in detail.

A veritable pantheon of National Academy members met virtually to present their respective research regarding natural disasters in Texas. While the speakers mainly concentrated on Texas, the research done by the brightest minds in academia and industry will surely influence other states in the nation to increase their preparedness for disaster events.

Each panelist was a consummate expert in his or her field – the natural disasters that were discussed included wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, and extreme heat and cold. Highlights included the presentation by Chief Tonya L. Hoover, United States Fire Administrator (Acting), for the United States Fire Administration. She discussed the widespread threat of wildfires in states we wouldn’t normally see such disasters, such as Michigan and New Jersey, in addition to California. “One community’s emergency is another community’s disaster,” she stated. Also notable was the presentation given by Peter Hotez, M.D. Ph.D. (NAM), Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. He refused to use the term “anti-science” for the behavior that is being seen in our country. “I use the term ‘anti science aggression,’” because as he went on to say, it is costing us human lives.