Virtual Forum Presentation
January 24, 2001 -- 12:00 Noon Eastern Time

The World Congress on Disaster Reduction

Walter Hays, Ph. D.
Senior Program Manager
American Society of Civil Engineer

SUMMARY

EIIP Virtual Forum Presentation
Wednesday - January 24, 2001 - 12:00 Noon EST

The World Congress on Disaster Reduction

Walter Hays, Ph. D.
American Society of Civil Engineers

Avagene Moore - Moderator
EIIP Coordinator

This EIIP Virtual Forum discussion focused on the status and plans for the upcoming World Congress on Disaster Reduction. Dr. Walter Hays is an engineering seismologist and serves as Senior Program Manager for Sustainable Built Environment in the Technical and International Programs Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers, located in ASCE's World Headquarters in Reston, Virginia.

The World Congress on Disaster Reduction will be a recurring global forum having activities that focus the goals and objectives of communities around the world on achieving a sustainable built environment and improving disaster technical assistance. Plans for a Pre-World Congress Summit Meeting on 18-22 August 2001 and a World Congress Meeting in 2002 are now being implemented. Participation by interested individuals is welcome and encouraged. See the World Congress Web pages (link is above) for further information.

WALTER HAYS
Senior Program Manager
American Society of Civil Engineers

Dr. Walter W. Hays, an engineering seismologist, serves as Senior Program Manager for Sustainable Built Environment in the Technical and International Programs Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers, located in ASCE's World Headquarters in Reston, Virginia.

Dr. Hays is providing leadership for the World Congress on Disaster Reduction, a recurring global forum having activities that focuses the goals and objectives of communities throughout the world on achieving a sustainable built environment and improving disaster technical assistance. The Congress will seek to marshal and involve all scientific and technical disciplines, all public- and private-sectors, all communities, and all nations in disaster reduction through: a) the Alliance of 1,000, b) Global Blueprints for Change, c) regional forums and activities, and d) global centers of excellence on sustainable development. Five ASCE Divisions and Councils and the new Center of Excellence on Sustainable Built Environment support this activity.

Prior to joining ASCE on July 21, 1999, Dr. Hays worked 26 years at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Virginia and Colorado. He served as the Deputy Chief for Research Applications, USGS for 19 years, working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Science Foundation, National Institute for Standards Technology, and a dozen other federal agencies in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) created by Congress in 1977. As an Honorary Professor in FEMA'S Emergency Management Institute, he has given more than 120 lectures. He was a point of contact for cooperative activities with the engineering and science profession, the insurance industry, business and industry, and other Federal, state, and local agencies. During his public service with USGS, Dr. Hays was an active member of the Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction and two other subcommittees of the President's National Science and Technology Council.

Working in cooperation with scientists, engineers, architects, insurers, planners, and emergency managers in the United States and abroad, he has created programs, marshaled resources, and institutionalized technical programs, activities, and partnerships. Examples include: 1) Public-Private Partnership 2000 (PPP2000), a joint activity of 19 federal agencies the insurance sector and about 25 other private-sector organizations created on April 30, 1997 and 2) the program, "Reduction of Earthquake Losses in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (RELEMR)," created on October 10, 1993, to provide a forum for cooperation between: Algeria, Egypt, France, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia, and the United States.

Dr. Hays has given lectures, invited presentations, and keynote speeches to national and international groups, and has organized more than 200 national and international conferences, forums, short courses, and workshops through the auspices of USGS, Engineering Foundation, American Society of Civil Engineers, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Institute for Business & Home Safety, and United Nations programs such as RELEMR, and a predecessor program, SEISMED.

EDUCATION

He earned a Ph.D. in Geophysics, Washington University in St. Louis in 1961 and a B.Sc. in Geology, from Southern Methodist University in 1957.

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