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Engineering prize-winner to give BA lecture

30 April 2007

Dr Tiziana Rossetto, UCL Civil & Environmental Engineering, has won the Isambard Kingdom Brunel Prize for engineering from the British Academy for the Advancement of Science (BA).

Her prize is to give a lecture at the BA Festival of Science, held in York this September. The lecture, 'Why do earthquakes become disasters and what are engineers doing about it?' will look at how building construction affects the number of people killed in an earthquake. The title is inspired by a question she was asked by a man on a train. When she said she was an earthquake engineer, he asked how his £5 donation to the Pakistan Earthquake appeal was being spent. Having taken part in missions to survey the damage done by that disaster and others such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2005, Dr Rossetto is keen that safer building be promoted by NGOs and Development agencies in hazard-prone countries.

Dr Rossetto is a lecturer in Earthquake Engineering and Geohazards at UCL Civil & Environmental Engineering, and will be running an MSc course on Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Management from next year.

The BA Award Lectures are awarded each year to five outstanding young communicators, giving them a platform to share their ideas at the BA Festival. The awards are highly competitive and the winners receive the chance to reach a broad audience from across the scientific community and the public. Dr Rossetto's lecture will take place on 12th September.

To find out more, follow the links at the bottom of this article.