The NSF Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Program

This paper presents several major developments and research initiatives of NSF's program in earthquake hazard mitigation. These activities include (1) establishment of three new earthquake engineering research centers in the U.S., (2) initiation of a major five-year cooperative research program on urban earthquake disaster mitigation between the U.S. and Japan, (3) initiation of two joint center-to-center projects between the U.S. and Japan, and (4) planning for a high-performance earthquake simulation facility network in the U.S. These activities highlight the ever-increasing importance of research innovations for earthquake disaster mitigation and the continuing challenges for cooperation between the U.S. and Japan.