Keynote: Elizabeth Hausler

Sun. 9:15-10:00 a.m., Interlocken A/B

The major driving force for Build Change founder Elizabeth Hausler is the repeated, avoidable loss of life during earthquakes in developing countries. Hausler is compelled by the failure of current approaches to permanently change construction practices, and motivated by the lack of opportunities for poor people to make money. If they had enough money, they could build a house that is earthquake resistant, as shown clearly by the low number of fatalities in recent earthquakes in the developed world. But we can’t afford to wait for economic development—people are dying today.

Hausler has a master's and PhD in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's in environmental science from the University of Colorado, and a bachelor's in general engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a 2004 Echoing Green Fellow and a 2006 Draper Richards Fellow. She was a Fulbright Scholar to India in 2002-2003. She is a skilled brick, block, and stone mason and has lectured on sustainable, disaster-resistant construction in eight countries. She served on the 2002-2003 National Research Council committee to develop a long-term research agenda for earthquake engineering, which successfully put the earthquake engineering issues that plague developing countries on the agenda. Before graduate school, she spent five years in the engineering consulting industry, working for Peterson Consulting in Chicago and Dames and Moore in Denver. Hausler was featured as Person of the Week on ABC World News Tonight on March 10, 2006, for her work rebuilding houses in Aceh, Indonesia.

Presentation: 36th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Application Workshop
July 10, 2011 (33MB)