Yu Xiao awarded National Science Foundation grant

The Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning congratulates Dr. Yu Xiao for receiving the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award.

Dr. Xiao is a TSUSP professor whose research areas include community resilience and disaster management. When she heard about the catastrophic earthquake and subsequent tsunami due to hit the Pacific Northwest region, she moved from Texas A&M University to Portland State University to help prepare.

Her award-winning project is called “Community Resilience to Cascading Impacts of Extreme Events and Geohazards Across Scales Through Engaged Scholarship and Learning.” This project focuses on developing a transformative graduate training program for addressing and identifying solutions for cascading hazards. The program will be transdisciplinary, including the areas of atmospheric science, computer science, geotechnical engineering, geosciences, urban studies and planning, and environmental social science. The goal is that the program will be flexible and responsive, allowing students to not only learn best practices of community resilience and disaster management, but also apply them by engaging with diverse stakeholders such as city practitioners and federal agencies.

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