UCSF Hosts Symposium on Japan Earthquake and Disasters - One Year Later

By Jeffrey Norris

Craig Van Dyke, MDCraig Van Dyke, MD

WHAT: The UCSF departments of psychiatry and pediatrics and UCSF Global Health Sciences hosting a multidisciplinary symposium about Japan one year after the catastrophe, featuring first-hand details from many who responded to the disaster last year. Opening remarks by Dr. Craig Van Dyke and the honorable Hiroshi Inomata, Consul General of Japan, will be followed by discussion of casualties, radiation contamination and its impact and the tsunami itself, including disaster mitigation, community resilience, post-disaster housing, health, and the UCSF response.

Media are invited to cover the event.

WHEN:

Monday, March 19, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
News conference with presenters: 12:15 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.

WHERE:

UCSF Langley Porter Institute
401 Parnassus Ave., Room 190
San Francisco, CA

WHY:

  • At the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami, the public continues to be concerned about radiation contamination, cleanup, public health and the struggles of people from affected communities.
  • Following the recent minor early-morning Bay Area temblor, earthquake safety also is on local residents’ minds, as is the more global issues related to the future of nuclear power in Japan and elsewhere.
  • UC faculty and distinguished visitors and experts from Japan will make presentations, many based on first-hand experience during the past year.

WHO: Among the Japanese visitors and presenters, Toshifumi Kishimoto, MD, PhD, helped organize emergency psychiatry assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami; Hiasako Watanabe, MD, also has taken a leading role in organizing mental health services in Fukushima; Hiroshi Nimura, MD was director of surgery at a hospital directly in the path of the earthquake, tsunami and radiation contamination; pediatric oncologist and molecular epidemiologist Mitsuyoshi Urashima, MD, PhD, has taken a leading role in Japan on educating the public abut the health effects of nuclear radiation.

UCSF psychiatrists Van Dyke and John Takayama, MD, PhD, have been involved in several collaborations related to core health concerns following the disaster.

UC Berkeley participants include Mary Comerio, MSW, a recognized disaster recovery expert, and earthquake engineer Stephen Mahin, PhD, who led an invited delegation that visited Japan shortly after the disaster. James Seward, MD, medical director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a UCSF clinical professor, and Arrietta Chakos, MPA, and advisor on urban disaster resilience, round out the panel.

View the agenda: The Great East Japan Earthquake and Disasters: One Year Later

Media interested in attending, please reply in advance of the event to Jeffrey Norris [email protected] or phone 415-476-2557

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