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Natural hazards expert Rick Luettich, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has received a Science and Technology Impact Award from the Department of Homeland Security.

Natural hazards expert Rick Luettich, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has received a Science and Technology Impact Award from the Department of Homeland Security.

Luettich is director and lead principal investigator of the department’s UNC-based Center of Excellence for Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management. 

The award, presented during the department’s recent University Network Summit in Washington, D.C., recognizes the applicability and utility of research projects to real-world problems and their positive impact on national security. 

Luettich received the award for his work on the ADCIRC (Advanced Circulation) Storm Surge and Inundation Model. The model is a computer program used by the Louisiana Governor’s Office and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make decisions about emergency planning, mitigation and recovery efforts, flood gate closures, response personnel positioning and disaster aid estimates. 

The Homeland Security-backed center is part of the UNC Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and  Disasters, where Luettich serves as director.

Luettich is also professor of marine sciences in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences and of environmental sciences and engineering in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and director of the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, N.C.

To see a YouTube video about Luettich’s coastal hazards modeling work, go to  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NJTM9ADu3A&feature=youtube_gdata.

Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters contact: Anna Schwab, (919) 962-0344, akschwab@email.unc.edu

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