2006 APRU/AEARU Research Symposium
Earthquake Hazards Around the Pacific Rim - Global Watch and Environmental Impact
April 21-22, 2006 St.Francis Westin Hotel, San Francisco

1906 San Francisco Earthquake	Early in the morning on April 18, 1906, the people of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area were violently shaken awake as nature unleashed a massive earthquake. The initial destruction quickly worsened as spreading fires rampaged what was left of the city’s buildings. Leaving almost 3,000 dead and 300,000 homeless, the San Francisco quake and fire remains one of the worst urban natural disasters in modern times.
Prof. Teruyuki Kato	Although the 1906 earthquake permanently changed the face of San Francisco, it also brought about great changes in the way we study seismic events. As our understanding of them has become increasingly sophisticated and our measuring tools more sensitive, we have also diversified our academic approach. Many side fields have branched off to study specific aspects of earthquakes or tsunami. Beyond prediction, mitigation experts worldwide are examining how to reduce the worst effects of both and putting into practice what we learn from each natural disaster.
Prof. Chin-Hsiung Loh	To mark the 100th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, Osaka University and UC Berkeley co-hosted APRU/AEARU's 2nd Research Symposium. The two-day international symposium stood out from other 1906 commemorative events in its focus on reducing the environmental impact of quakes and strengthening university ties around the Pacific Ocean's earthquake-prone Ring of Fire.
Dr. Loh & APRU staff	More than 90 participants from 29 institutions explored topics such as creating a unified international warning network, new seismic sensing technologies, satellite damage mapping, large-scale experiments, ground-strengthening techniques and the role of the public in disasters. Symposium presenters from influential U.S. and Asian universities represented diverse professions, ranging from engineers and sociologists to architects and geologists. The audience listened as they presented their latest research and new tools such as LIDAR and ocean-based Tsunami detection buoys.
USGS scientist Brian Collins	The symposium’s 26 presentations were kicked off by greetings from Osaka University president Hideo Miyahara, UC Berkeley's International and Area Studies (IAS) assistant director Edward Epstein and APRU secretary general Lawrence Loh from Singapore National University.
Open Session Audience	To highlight the importance of connecting academic work with real world applications, three sessions were opened to the public for free. Kyoto University professor Haruo Hayashi contributed his perspectives on how different communities have recovered from recent natural disasters such as the Kobe earthquake, Sumatra tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Afterwards Charles James showed historical photos and artwork from UC Berkeley's extensive archives depicting cities hit by devastating earthquakes. A third presentation on the late Dr. Motoji Ikeya addressed this controversial Osaka University professor's lifework on the detection of quakes through animal behavior and other unorthodox methods.
Bay Cruise Banquet Participants	At the end of the conference, an open forum was held to gather ideas on how to make research on the urgent subject of natural disasters more effective. The forum's participants agreed that such a global challenge should be met with global-scale collaborative projects. The group called for members to further develop collaborative projects with other universities and to encourage active discussion on ways to protect lives and critical "Life Lines," such as health care, shelter, energy, food and water.
Symposium Group Photo	The success of this symposium will continue beyond 2006, as the venues for the next three years of this annual symposium have already been set for Indonesia, Chile and Taiwan. A publication of the presentations is also planned, so that researchers who were unable to attend can benefit from these top experts recent work. To see more images, please visit our 2006 APRU/AEARU Research Symposium slideshow. Hosted by Osaka University University of California, Berkeley Sponsored by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley San Francisco-Osaka Sister City Association Chairs : Prof. Chikaosa TANIMOTO, Graduate School of Engineering (Osaka University, Japan) Prof. Nicholas SITAR, Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Center (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Berkeley) Professor Yoshikatsu MUROOKA, Executive Director, Osaka University San Francisco Center