A key aspect of resilience is consistency—which is why IRIS researchers are working towards proactive, nature-based solutions all year long.

University of Georgia College of Engineering Assistant Professor Alysha Helmrich recently attended the Qatar Resilience Symposium, which hosted over 150 representatives from key government agencies, academic institutions, utility companies, and more from all over the world.

Dr. Helmrich is a co-PI on a national priority research program cluster project known at the Proactive Resilience Plan (PReP): An Integrated Framework Applied to Critical Economic Sectors. She leads a sub-team of researchers developing a national resilience framework for the nation of Qatar.

This resilient researcher didn’t just attend a symposium halfway around the world- Dr. Helmrich gave a talk on infrastructure resilience, based on a social-ecological-technological systems lens, then moderated a panel on infrastructure system interdependencies with Dr. Bilal Ayyub, Dr. Dhabia Al-Mohannadi, Dr. Shaikha Al Sanad, Dr. Abdulla Al Wahedi and Ms. Mona Noureldin Husen.

The two-day program consisted of talks and panels centered around infrastructure resilience, risk identification, policy innovation and technologies for enabling resilience. Dr. Helmrich’s research focuses on systems thinking, urban resilience, and infrastructure decision-making under uncertainty.

She also hosts the Resilient Futures Podcast– check out one of our previous episodes featuring Dr. Helmrich and IRIS colleague Dr. Lynn Abdouni where they discussed similar research, the PReP project, and how city systems are built- recorded live in Doha, Qatar during last year’s visit!

Photos courtesy of Alysha Helmrich.