Pioneering sociologist and disaster researcher William Anderson is the most recent star to shine in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s Connections: Oral History Series. The series documents interviews with trailblazers in earthquake engineering and attempts to capture the history of the field.

Anderson, who is recently retired, has had an illustrious career that began as a researcher and professor, eventually leading to the position of field director at the Ohio State University Disaster Research Center (before the DRC’s move to the University of Delaware). Anderson had to overcome more than the typical obstacles of academia, notes Natural Hazards Center Director Kathleen Tierney in her introduction to the volume:

“His career was launched through the study not only of major disasters like the 1964 Alaska earthquake, but also through research on the civil unrest that swept U.S. cities, campus protests against the Vietnam war, and movements sparked by the demise of colonialism. Historically speaking, it was almost unheard of at the time for African Americans to become leading scholars at major research universities, much less full professors while still in their thirties. That wasn’t supposed to happen. That wasn’t the way the deck was stacked. But, fortunately for us and for the field of hazards studies, history and biography turned out to be drastically misaligned in Bill’s case.”

Anderson’s story includes stints at the World Bank, the National Academies, and more than twenty years at the National Science Foundation. He played key roles in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, the Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards Researchers program, and the Learning from Earthquakes program. Those that want to know more about Anderson’s long and now-storied life and career—including his favorite novels and penchant for rollerblading—can access the full text of the history on the EERI website.