Newswise — The Florida State University has internationally recognized faculty researchers who stand ready to comment on a variety of topics related to the March 11 Japanese earthquake and resulting tsunami. The following experts are available to speak with the news media on potential dangers at Japan’s nuclear facilities, the physical processes that underlie the formation of a tsunami, the challenges that the public health sector faces in the coming hours and days, and how religion figures in to the way the Japanese people react to and deal with a disaster of this magnitude.
NUCLEAR DANGER
•Kirby Kemper, vice president for Research and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of PhysicsKemper has been involved in nuclear physics research for more than 45 years. He is familiar with the types of radiation produced in nuclear power reactors and how the possible escape of radiation from them is monitored. Kemper can address the potential for a nuclear emergency in Japan, where the earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused three nuclear reactors to automatically shut down and caused a fire at a fourth. (More than 20 percent of Japan’s energy supply is provided by nuclear power.)
PUBLIC HEALTH: FACING THE AFTERMATH
•Les Beitsch, associate dean for health affairs at the FSU College of Medicine, Dr. Beitsch, former commissioner of Health for the state of Oklahoma and deputy secretary of the Florida Department of Health, focuses on health policy. He has co-authored articles assessing public health preparedness programs in the United States and exploring ways to bridge the public health system and practicing clinician involvement in disaster response efforts. Beitsch can offer perspective on how public health systems and hospitals/physicians can work to minimize the public health threat emerging in the tsunami’s wake.
PERSPECTIVES ON DISASTER: BUDDHISM AND SHINTO
•Jimmy Yu, assistant professor, Department of ReligionYu is a scholar of East Asian religions, with a research focus on premodern Chinese Buddhism. He can discuss responses to the calamity from Japanese religious traditions as seen in the Japanese media, as well as Buddhist doctrinal views on human disasters.
THE SCIENCE OF TSUNAMIS
•Philip N. Froelich, FSU’s Francis Eppes Professor of Oceanographysubject=Newswise Article: Reporter Follow-up">[email protected]Froelich, a 2011 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), teaches courses on both earthquakes and tsunamis and can address issues pertaining to sub-seafloor geology and ocean physics. Froelich contends that the “real story” around the Pacific Rim is that the March 11 seismic event will replicate itself somewhere on the subduction zone near Seattle in the near (geological) future.
•Steven Morey, associate research scientist at the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS)Morey’s research focuses on ocean modeling to study oceanic physical processes and circulation. He conducts studies of storm surge, deepwater processes over steep topography and estuarine systems and their connectivity to the offshore environment. He can answer questions about the formation of tsunamis, how fast they travel and why they get so large in coastal areas.
•Dmitry Dukhovskoy, assistant research scientist at the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), (850) 644-1168; [email protected]’s research focuses on numerical modeling of physical processes in the ocean, including the generation of topographic waves. He can address the mechanics of a tsunami and how it forms.
•James J. O’Brien, emeritus Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography and former director of the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction StudiesAn internationally known expert on El Niño and related weather phenomena, O’Brien also is the past state climatologist of Florida. He can discuss ocean waves, particularly long waves created by severe storms or seismic disturbances.
•James F. Tull, professor of geological scienceTull has special expertise in structural geology, global tectonics and fault systems.
•Steve Kish, associate professor of geological science Kish has special expertise in remote sensing and geographic information systems.
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