New NHERI Program Expands Learning Opportunities for Early-Career Researchers
Published on March 16, 2026
This year, the NHERI Education and Community Outreach team is starting a new program for early-career researchers to learn about the NHERI network and NSF-funded opportunities in natural hazards research. The NHERI Professional Learning Community, (PLC) is a series of free, facility-focused webinars that provide vital details on NSF-funded experimental laboratories, computational and data offerings, and other cognate resources — including considerable research expertise in the field of natural hazards damage mitigation.
The NHERI PLC complements the offerings of the NHERI Summer Institute and, as a virtual learning experience, opens opportunities for even more early-career researchers to learn about NHERI and NSF resources – and to make valuable professional connections within the greater natural hazards academic community.
In these webinars, listed below, PLC participants will meet and learn directly from NHERI-facility principal and co-principal investigators – who will make brief presentations followed by a question-and-answer session. Register for one or more of the PLC webinars.
REGISTER for NHERI PLC sessions
Session I: March 30 | 12:00 – 1:30 pm CT
- University of California, San Diego: Large High Performance Outdoor Shake Table 6-DOF (John McCartney, PI)
- Lehigh University: Real-Time Multi-Directional Natural Hazards Hybrid Simulation Facility (Jim Ricles, PI)
- University of Texas at Austin: DesignSafe, Cyberinfrastructure, and Data Management (Tim Cockerill, Co-PI)
- Registration deadline: March 27
Session II: April 20 | 12:00 – 2:00 pm CT
- University of Colorado Boulder: CONVERGE Facility (Rachel Adams, Research Associate)
- Oregon State University: O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory (Pedro Lomonaco, Co-PI)
- University of California, Berkeley: Simulation and Computational Modeling Center (Matt DeJong, PI)
- University of California, Davis: Center for Geotechnical Modeling (Jason DeJong, PI)
- Registration deadline: April 17
Session III: May 18 | 12:00 – 2:00 pm CT
- University of Washington: RAPID Facility (Laura Lowes, Co-PI)
- University of Texas at Austin / University of Utah: Large Mobile Shakers (Brady Cox, Co-PI)
- Florida International University: Wall of Wind (Arindam Gan Chowdhury, PI)
- University of Florida: Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel (Jennifer Bridge, PI)
- Registration deadline: May 15
The NHERI ECO is excited to offer this new educational opportunity. Please feel free to share it with your early-career colleagues.
