This volume examines how to build resilient communities worldwide through effective collaboration between scientists, educators, and community leaders. Grounded in ongoing scientific research and connected by international collaborations, it captures the complexities of integrating scientific research into practical emergency response and disaster preparedness policies. Building Resilient Communities Globally explores how cities around the world are tackling the biggest threats to their communities, while developing resilient populations. It focuses not only on lessons from Fukushima, but also for Fukushima and for communities worldwide. Multidisciplinary and international experts examine such questions as: What makes a community resilient? What aspects of resilience were demonstrated in the wake of the Fukushima accident? How can exposed social, economic, and physical vulnerabilities be addressed in future? They explore the impacts on communities, including physical threats and the less tangible social, health, and economic effects. They consider the opportunities provided by developing innovative technologies to enhance community resilience, while balancing such innovation with social, cultural, economic, and even political constructs and constraints. The volume also treats the challenging task of effectively communicating threats and risks to the general public and to community leaders, enabling engagement in preparation and mitigation activities, and creating the potential for rebuilding faster and stronger. Scientists, academics, educators, students, community leaders, and concerned citizen will find valuable lessons they can apply to create their own resilient communities.

Dr. Kai Vetter is Senior Scientist and Head of the Applied Nuclear Physics program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. Professor Vetter's main research interests are in the development and demonstration of new concepts and technologies in radiation detection to address some of the outstanding challenges in fundamental sciences, nuclear security, and health. He oversees a wide range of developments in gamma-ray detection and imaging and the fusion of nuclear with complementary data that relevant for example in the mapping of contamination in Fukushima or the verification of ion-cancer therapy. He is also the Director of the Institute for Resilient Communities that was established in 2015 to address the need to better integrate advancements in sciences and technologies with communities through education and outreach locally and globally. It reflects his activities in Fukushima, Japan, and is based on a partnership with several research institutions and universities in Japan and the City of Koriyama. He has authored and co-authored more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is fellow of the American Physical Society. Timothy Burroughs is an Assistant to the City Manager and serves as the Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) for the City of Berkeley. In this role he is the City's lead staff for advancing community readiness for a range of hazards, such as natural disasters and the impacts of climate change. Prior to his appointment as CRO, Timothy led development and managed implementation of Berkeley's ambitious Climate Action Plan. Berkeley's efforts to achieve deep reductions in global warming emissions and to increase community readiness for the impacts of climate change have garnered national recognition for their high level of innovation and sustained community engagement. Timothy has a master's degree in international environmental policy from American University in Washington, D.C. Timothy also served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia, West Africa. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife and two kids. Erika Suzuki is a Program Officer at the Institute for Resilient Communities and the Applied Nuclear Physics program in the Nuclear Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She formerly served as the Program Manager of the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium, and the Deputy Director of the Nuclear Policy Working Group. She has authored publications on next generation nuclear security education, as well as on safeguards and nonproliferation. Erika has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.