Risk InSight

What happens when the power grid fails and resilience is lacking? Seth Guikema, Ph.D., University of Michigan and Mark H. Weir, Ph.D., The Ohio State University, have a timely conversation about the Texas Energy Crisis with Roshi Nateghi, Ph.D., who teaches industrial engineering at Purdue University and particularly focuses on infrastructure sustainability and resilience. They discuss the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) oversight on the bulk power system and what happens when their resilience falls under the jurisdiction of states when it comes to distribution systems. Simple assignment of blame is incorrect and counterproductive, and through risk sciences, can be avoided.

Robyn Wilson, Ph.D., Ohio State University, and Gina Eosco, Ph.D., NOAA, discuss compound hazards and how that impacts the decision making process for individuals and communities when threatened by both extreme weather events and COVID-19. What actions should people take when faced with both evacuation and stay-at-home orders?

Four panelists discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their research projects in various disciplines of risk analysis.

Panelists:

• Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, Ph.D., Stanford University
• Khara Grieger, Ph.D., North Carolina State University
• Mark Borsuk, Ph.D., Duke University
• Roshanak Nateghi, Ph.D., Purdue University

Robin Cantor, Ph.D., and Dubravka Tosic, Ph.D., Berkeley Research Group, discuss how businesses and non-profits can begin to re-open and regain their customers post-COVID-19.

Vicki Bier, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, discusses lessons learned from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.

Rae Zimmerman, Ph.D., research professor at NYU Wagner, discusses the new challenges for risk analysts posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, from a NYC perspective.

Sally Wyatt, Ph.D., Maastricht University, and Marie-Valentine Florin, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), discuss direct-to-consumer genetic testing and human genome editing with an overarching theme of risk vs. reward. This episode is hosted by Catherine Wong, University of Luxembourg.

Sarah Vos, PhD, a research analyst at the University of Kentucky, and Jeannette Sutton, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, discuss risk communication on social media and the factors that increase the likelihood of a message being shared and re-tweeted.

Julie Demuth, project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, discusses how individual experiences with extreme weather events, such as tornadoes, impact how we prepare for future events. Demuth's research indicates that people's risk perceptions are highly influenced by a memorable past tornado experience that contributes to unwelcome thoughts, feelings and disruption, which ultimately increase one's fear, dread, worry and depression.

Christine Hassauer, research associate and doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Munich, discusses her work in developing a conceptual framework to describe food safety.