StEER Members,  

Today is bittersweet. Ian Robertson, our Associate Director for Coastal Hazards, is retiring from his position at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and thus his role with StEER. Ian was central to StEER’s design and development since our initial award in 2018. We want to express our sincere gratitude for his dedication, leadership, and wise counsel over the past six years. I hope you will all join me in congratulating Ian on an exceptional career as a scholar dedicated to building community resilience and look forward to his continued engagement with StEER. 

Ian, enjoy this well-deserved next chapter of your career. 

We are pleased to announce that Mohammad “Shafiq” Alam has agreed to assume Ian’s role as Associate Director for Coastal Hazards for the remainder of the current NSF award. As Shafiq currently serves as an Assistant Professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa, this fortunately allows us to maintain our contractual relationship with Hawaii as we work to close out our current NSF award. Specializing in coastal engineering, Shafiq previously served as a postdoctoral associate with StEER and led the design of our new unified assessment mobile app. He brings deep knowledge of our operational model and the processes used in our virtual and field responses, allowing us to move seamlessly both operationally and contractually through this transition. 

Shaifq, thank you for stepping into this important role.

As the natural hazards community looks forward to the next chapter of NHERI, StEER will use the 2024-25 academic year to prepare a proposal for funding to launch the organization’s third iteration. We look forward to engaging all of you in understanding the operational model that would best serve your needs and elevate the role of field observations within natural hazards engineering research. 

With appreciation for continued support,

Tracy Kijewski-Correa

Director