Mary Comerio, Professor of Architecture at University of California, Berkeley, and PEER researcher, has been awarded a Green Star Award by the United Nations and Green Cross International.

The Green Star Awards recognize those who have made remarkable efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to environmental emergencies around the world. A joint initiative between the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Green Cross International (GCI), the Award aims to:

• – Raise awareness of environmental emergencies
• – Encourage increased international efforts to prevent, prepare for and respond to such emergencies;
• – Emphasize the connection between environmental impacts of disasters and emergencies, and the consequences for affected populations and providers of humanitarian assistance

The Green Star Awards are presented every two years as part of the Advisory Group on Environmental Emergencies (AGEE) meeting.

Prof. Comerio’s was given the award for her outstanding track record and international reputation in the field disaster management. For the last 25 years she has focused on seismic safety for housing and post-disaster recovery. Her research on the costs and benefits of seismic rehabilitation for existing buildings has been widely published and she is an internationally recognized authority on post-disaster reconstruction. Most recently, Prof. Comerio has gained recognition for her work in the area of post-disaster reconstruction following the earthquake in Sichuan Province, China in 2008, and the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

For more information, visit the website: http://hqweb.unep.org/greenstar/laureates/2011/comerio.asp