David Applegate

Ph.D. in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

David Applegate is the senior science advisor for earthquake and geologic hazards at the U.S. Geological Survey. In that capacity, he leads the Earthquake Hazards, Global Seismographic Network, and Geomagnetism Programs and provides coordination for geologic hazards activities across the USGS. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the National Science and Technology Council's interagency Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction. In addition to his USGS duties, Applegate is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Utah’s Department of Geology and Geophysics and an instructor in the Environmental Sciences and Policy graduate program at The Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining USGS in February 2004, he spent eight years at the American Geological Institute as director of government affairs and, for the last four years there, as the editor of Geotimes, AGI's newsmagazine of the earth sciences. Before coming to AGI, Applegate served with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources as the American Geophysical Union's Congressional Science Fellow and as a professional staff member for the minority. Born and raised in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Applegate holds a B.S. in geology from Yale University and a Ph.D. in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Andrew Bates, CAAMA, FACCP

Adjunct Professor
Hawaii Pacific University
avbates@att.net
(808) 630-0224

Andrew Bates joined the staff of the International Studies Department of Hawaii Pacific University in April 2005. He teaches International and Domestic Emergency Management. He also is an Emergency Management consultant for Information System Supports, Inc.

From March 2003 to March 2005 he was the Program Manager for the Center of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE). This organization provides civil-military and humanitarian consultative services, manages the US Pacific Command’s HIV/AIDS program, provides information products related to Disaster events and humanitarian relief.

Immediately after retiring from the United States Navy Medical Department in 1998 he served as the lead Medical Planner for the first medical Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The Joint Medical Operations-Telemedicine ACTD successfully deployed information technology applications and communication networks to Joint Task force medical units in the Pacific Theater. This innovative program successful addressed the use of information technology practices in rural Humanitarian Assistance settings.

He wrote Concept of Operations orders and fielded technology throughout the Pacific region. He participated in over 50 Medical Civic Action Projects (MEDCAPS) in Southeast Asia

From October 1996 to October 1998 while stationed in San Diego Lieutenant Commander Bates was the Plans, Operations, and Medical Intelligence Officer for the Pacific region. He was the Disaster Response coordinator for the Commander Naval Base San Diego (Medical section) and deployed Navy Medical Department personnel throughout the region to support Disaster response missions. He served with the United States Marine Corps for three years in Okinawa with the 3d Force Service Support Group. He was the Company Commander for deployable field hospitals in support of Joint Task Force Commands in Korea and Thailand. He has extensive field medical experience and interface with Host Nation Humanitarian groups. Other Military assignments included; The Naval Hospital, Oakland, CA, Naval Dental Center Treasure Island, San Francisco, and The Naval School of Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD, where he taught doctors, dentists, and nurses health administration in both field and hospital settings.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from George Washington University. He graduated from Golden Gate University with a Masters Degree in Public Administration (Health Services) and completed the University of California at Berkeley program in Emergency Preparedness Planning and Management with Distinction. He is a graduate of the Naval War College and a Fellow in the American College of Contingency Planners and is credentialed by the American Academy of Medical Administrators. He speaks and writes regularly on the topic of Emergency Management.

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Dr. Laura Kong

12W PHD 1990, MIT/WHOI alumnae

Director, UNESCO IOC International Tsunami Information Centre

Dr. Laura S. L. Kong
Director, UNESCO/IOC International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC)

Dr. Kong has been the Director of the ITIC since 2001. As Director, she oversees a Centre that supports the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in its efforts to deploy tsunami warning and mitigation systems globally, and that works directly with the 27-nation International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific (ICG/ITSU) to strengthen national tsunami preparedness. Over the past year, Dr. Kong has been actively involved in the IOC’s implementation of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System. The IOC is also coordinating warning systems being established in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. Within the United Sates, she is member of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program’s Steering Committee and serves as a Tsunami Advisor to Hawaii State Civil Defense. She is a member, and former Chair, of the Hawaii State Earthquake Advisory Committee, and a member of the Hawaii State Hazard Mitigation Forum. Previously, she was a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and a researcher in volcano and marine seismology at the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute. She is a graduate of Brown University and received her doctorate in Seismology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1990.

737 Bishop St., Ste. 2200
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 USA
Tel: 1-808-532-6422
Fax: 1-808-532-5576

URL: http://ioc.unesco.org/itsu

Web Site: http://www.tsunamiwave.info

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Charles A. Setchell

AICP, Urban Planning and Urban Disaster Mitigation Specialist,
Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), USAID

Mr. Setchell has more than 25 years of experience in managing the process of physical, social, and economic change, both in the US and abroad. This professional experience is grounded in undergraduate and graduate degrees in urban and environmental planning from the University of California, Davis, and University of California, Berkeley, respectively, as well as doctoral studies in urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Examples of past work include: design of a new city in Indonesia as a private consultant; assessment of Bangkok's slum housing market for the Government of Thailand while serving as a Fulbright Scholar and MacArthur Fellow; preparation of numerous land use, housing, and environmental management plans as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines; implementation and evaluation of disaster response and mitigation programs for FEMA; and formulation of shelter policies and programs for USAID. Since his arrival at OFDA in 1998, Mr. Setchell has helped design and implement a number of emergency relief and hazard mitigation projects in numerous countries, and seeks to promote disaster reduction through the integration of relief and development activities. He makes numerous presentations at training courses, meetings, and conferences on a regular basis, and has published on a wide variety of topics.