IRDR Science Committee Vice-Chair Irasema Alcántara-Ayala has been awarded the 2016 Sergey Soloviev Medal for her contribution to the basic knowledge of natural hazards, vulnerability and prevention of disasters in developing countries.

Dr. Alcántara-Ayala is an outstanding expert in natural hazard and risk assessment, with knowledge spanning from mass movement processes, landslide occurrences and hazards to vulnerability, disaster risks and prevention of disasters. Dr. Alcántara-Ayala’s research has consistently been of very high quality. Her paper ‘Geomorphology, natural hazards, vulnerability and prevention of natural disasters in developing countries’ is one of the influential articles in the field, being widely cited and extensively used by the scientific community and decision makers.

Dr. Alcántara-Ayala’s research focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean region that are especially important given the exposure of our vulnerable societies to a series of natural hazards and the yet incipient implementation of strategies of disaster risk reduction and management.

Moreover, Dr. Alcántara-Ayala devotes herself to combine natural science with social science approaches. She utilizes the analysis of social vulnerability and integrated research methods on disaster risk to help in understanding the generic and specific impact of physical hazards on society. Her efforts not only improve our understanding of natural hazards from a natural scientific point of view, but also raise social awareness about the importance and the need for implementing disaster risk reduction strategies based on the understanding of root causes.

“The Soloviev Medal (since 1996) has been established by the Session on Natural Hazards (NH) in recognition of the scientific achievement of Sergey Soloviev. It is reserved for scientists for their exceptional contributions to natural hazards, in particular, for their research aiming at an improvement of our knowledge of basic principles as well as for the assessment and proper mitigation of hazards in view of environmental protection and the integrity of human life and socio-economic systems.” — European Geosciences Union Sergey Soloviev Medal

Resource is from European Geosciences Union, edited as needed.