Each year, the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship—named for the late Natural Hazards Center co-director—honors outstanding scholars, practitioners, and students who share Myers' commitment to improving disaster management and reducing vulnerability.
The scholarship provides financial support to bring recipients to the annual Natural Hazards Workshop, where they can engage with experts in the field to enhance their research or professional goals and further their careers.
The selection committee was impressed with the interdisciplinary and community-grounded approach demonstrated by the 2026 award winner.
Taiwo Ogunwumi, Deltares
Taiwo Ogunwumi is an experienced Flood Risk & Disaster Management Specialist at Deltares, a leading independent institute for applied research in water and subsurface systems. With expertise in geospatial science, climate resilience, and community-centered hazard mitigation, Ogunwumi has helped governments, humanitarian organizations, and communities across Africa, Asia, and Europe to understand and address water-related hazards.
While growing up in Nigeria, Ogunwumi witnessed firsthand the impact of floods on isolated, underserved, and hard-to-reach “last mile” communities.
“These are places that are already so vulnerable, for many reasons, and I saw the tremendous impact of flooding on farmers, on woman, on children, and all people living there,” he said. “It really drove me to ask how can we use science to support them?”
Ogunwumi returned to some of these communities during his master's research. Most, he found, lacked detailed or reliable flood maps and early warning systems, with limited channels to document flood impacts. This inspired Ogunwumi to launch the Geohazards Risk Mapping Initiative, a youth-led nonprofit focused on flood risk reduction in West Africa.
What began as a small local initiative to create flood maps for one community grew into a regional effort to generate more accessible, multi-hazard risk information across the region. This includes real-time flood reporting platforms and interactive flood susceptibility maps. In practice, developing these tools requires blending local knowledge with insights from satellite data, advanced flood modeling, and Geographic Information Systems.
“We’re not just forcing information on communities. Because the locals understand the location, they understand the environment. This is where they live. They already have this deep knowledge,” he explained.
Ogunwumi has led and mentored multidisciplinary teams of volunteers, especially youth, to do flood risk analysis and geospatial modeling. This educational component, Orunwumi said, is core to his work, which blends cutting-edge science with bottom-up, collaborative approaches for disaster risk reduction.
“Developing those technical skills at the local level is important. Because the risks change over time. You don't want to come every year to begin to help them to map their risks again," Orunwumi said. "If you train young people, they have ownership over their own disaster prevention and preparedness."
Orunwumi's portfolio includes flood risk assessments and resilience planning initiatives in Nigeria, Ghana, South Sudan, São Tomé & Príncipe, Madagascar, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Germany.
He hopes that attending the Natural Hazards Workshop will be a chance to exchange knowledge and learn from experts working across diverse flood contexts, especially in the United States.
As part of the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship, Orunwumi will receive registration, meals, and travel expenses to attend the 51st annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. You can learn more about the scholarship, which was made possible by a numerous donations from individuals and nonprofits in the hazards and disaster community, here. You can donate to this award or other Center activities via our giving page.