Past events
AAAS Annual Meeting 2013
Boston, MA, 14th–18th February
Predicting Major Events and Planning for Hazards: An Art or Science?
Hynes Convention Centre, Room 208.
Sunday 17th February
13:00 – 14:30
The pursuit of greater scientific understanding of hazards has increased our ability to predict and plan for future events. However uncertainty in many areas of research poses a challenge to such planning. High government expenditure on scientific research and hazard management is met by societal expectations of safety, certainty and useful public spending. These expectations have been evident in the backlash against expenditure on for example, the prosecution of Italian seismologists in L’Aquila and cynicism about climate predictions. In this session a panel of leading researchers in the fields of seismology, epidemiology, climate science and meteorology will present developments in the identification of hazards. They will consider whether advances in scientific understanding can meet social expectations about prediction, or whether we need for society, and policy-makers in particular to understand more about the nature of the scientific knowledge we have.
More details available at the AAAS website.
Moderator:
Tracey Brown, Sense About Science
Speakers:
Kelin Wang, Geological Survey of Canada
Bill Hanage, Harvard School of Public Health
Peter Webster, Georgia Institute of Technology
Discussants:
Albert Yuan, San Lian Life Weekly
Heather Kimmel, AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow
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