Led by seismologist Lucy Jones, the Caltech Center for Disaster Resilience will bring researchers and community leaders together to strengthen disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

When earthquakes, fires, droughts, severe storms, and extreme heat hit Southern California, the consequences depend in part on how communities have prepared beforehand. But leaders don't always have access to the latest science when developing disaster policies.

Meanwhile, researchers make important discoveries about hazards, but these findings may not reach the officials who can put them to use. And researchers may not know which questions are most urgent to policymakers.

Caltech's new Center for Disaster Resilience aims to bridge these gaps by linking scientists, officials, industry, and organizations to enhance public safety.

"We developed structures to fund research and structures for societal decisions, but we didn't connect them," says Jones, a faculty associate in geophysics at Caltech and an authoritative voice in resilience with decades of experience communicating in the aftermath of earthquakes.

"When we do, we can better understand our greatest vulnerabilities and how to cost-effectively address them. The center will build that connection and advance resilience through three overlapping efforts: community engagement, targeted research, and high-quality public communication."

Resilience Begins with Community Connections

As one of three emphases, an Alliance for Disaster Resilience, forming now within the center, will foster ongoing relationships among researchers and decision-makers across government, major employers, utilities, healthcare providers, nonprofits, and emergency response agencies.

Jones has long championed social capital—the strengths and resources that arise out of connections between and among individuals and organizations—as a powerful, often overlooked element of disaster resilience. Inviting community leaders to meet regularly with each other and with researchers could improve coordination and efficiency before and during emergencies.

"While we know we can't prevent every disaster, there's a lot we can do to prevent or mitigate disasters and keep them from growing into complete catastrophes. That starts with putting science into action," U.S. Senator Alex Padilla from California said in a recorded statement for the center's launch event.

He continued: "We have world-class researchers studying threats and developing new ways to reduce the risks. We have local leaders and emergency responders building better, more efficient processes that can save more lives. And we have community members who need reliable information and a meaningful voice as we better plan and prepare for disasters. The challenge has too often been bringing all these groups together. That's a challenge that this center aims to meet head-on by connecting scientific discovery with the decisions being made in cities and in communities, so that the latest research isn't just published and peer-reviewed; it helps make people safe."

The center will provide alliance members with quarterly expert briefings on emerging research and best practices focused on scientific topics relevant to their needs. An annual symposium will gather alliance members. They will be offered two guided field trips each year to hazard-related sites. Immediately after an earthquake or another serious event, members will be invited to consult with Jones.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger highlighted the need for connection in a July 29 motion, calling for the county to review its readiness for a large-scale earthquake and engage with Jones and other researchers affiliated with Caltech and UCLA.

Research Guided by Community Needs

The center's second emphasis is responding to the needs alliance members express by encouraging new research and technology development on campus and at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. For example, Caltech researchers have predicted sites with highest debris flow risk to identify which debris basins should be cleared first before storms.

Alliance members will participate in cross-sector planning workshops, working through questions with scientists. The first, focused on El Niño and coastal erosion, will take place in early 2027 at Caltech's Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Newport Beach.

The questions alliance members raise may span multiple fields of science and engineering. The center, as part of Caltech's Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, will reach across Caltech to answer those questions. With the new center, Caltech builds on Jones's previous private nonprofit resilience initiative, magnifying its scientific and institutional reach.

"Lucy Jones has a decades-long history of distinguished contributions to fundamental science and to translating the meaning of that science to the wider society," says John Eiler, the division's Ted and Ginger Jenkins Leadership Chair and the Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology and Geochemistry.

"During most of that time, she has maintained a close, collegial relationship with Caltech. Her founding and leadership of the new Center for Disaster Resilience within the Seismo Lab marks a new chapter in this history, as she redefines her role on campus, while also advancing her science and her public engagement to better address the new era of risks to our city and communities throughout our region.

"Lucy sets a unique example of leadership on both sides of the relationship between fundamental research and social impacts, and I am delighted to see her deepen her engagement with campus as she moves into this exciting and impactful new stage of her career."

Other Caltech centers and labs whose work informs hazard policies will be invited to partner on research and communication: the Seismological Laboratory, Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy, Resnick Sustainability Institute, and the Earth Science and Technology Directorate at JPL.

Clear, Actionable, and Factual Communication

The center's third emphasis is science activation through effective communication. The effort builds on the trust Jones has built over decades of calmly providing accurate, actionable information to the public after earthquakes.

As severe weather and other hazards create new challenges for communities, the need for fast, reliable scientific information extends far beyond earthquakes. Compounding that need, AI and social media have changed the ways we share and receive information.

It was this potential to expand and modernize communication that inspired Zhongwen Zhan to encourage Jones to establish the center at Caltech. Zhan is the Clarence R. Allen Leadership Chair of the Seismological Laboratory and a professor of geophysics.

"For a century, people in California and around the world have turned to Caltech's Seismo Lab to understand earthquakes and the damage they cause," Zhan says. "Today, we need to reach people through new channels and provide clear, reliable information about a broader range of hazards."

The center will coach scientists and journalists in Jones's time-tested approach while modernizing the channels through which scientific information reaches civic leaders and the public.

As a first step, the center will lead development of the ShakeOut Scenario 2.0, building on the first ShakeOut Scenario, which Jones initiated as a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist in 2008. That scenario provided information about what is likely to happen in a major earthquake. ShakeOut 2.0 will use new information collected over the last two decades to create a better model. It will help institutions such as hospitals, local governments, and schools understand how their decisions could change outcomes and cost-effectively prevent losses.

Jones envisions the new center helping to bring about a future in which leaders across government, industry, and communities are knowledgeable, connected, and better prepared for disasters. By interweaving community engagement, research, and science communication, she aims to save lives and reduce harm.