Caroline is the Acting Director and Research Associate Professor at the Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago. She is the Science Lead for AF8, a collaboration between Civil Defence and the science community to improve our ability to respond to a future Alpine Fault earthquake. Her research interests lie in the area of natural hazards and societal resilience, with a particular interest in the tourism sector. She is based in Dunedin with her husband Tom and their three children.

Tom is a disaster risk specialist, with a specific focus on earthquakes in mountain environments – including New Zealand and Nepal. He is an expert in spatial modelling of earthquake-generated landslide hazard and risk, and scenario modelling with a focus on large-scale simulations for governments, militaries, and humanitarians for emergency response and disaster risk reduction. Tom led the development of the first comprehensive Alpine Fault earthquake scenario, he has recently returned to New Zealand and will continue his research at the University of Canterbury from July 2021.

Tom is a Professor of Disaster Risk and Resilience in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; and the Co-Lead of the Rural Disaster Resilience programme of Resilience to Natures Challenge (MBIE National Science Challenge). His areas of interest include natural hazard risk assessment, with a focus on understanding and trying to mitigate the impacts of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to critical infrastructure systems and primary industries. He is one of the science leads of AF8.

Rob is a Senior Scientist at GNS. He works as an Earthquake Geologist – someone who specifically studies the earthquake history and seismic hazard of faults. In New Zealand, Rob’s focus has been on the Alpine, Hope and Wellington faults. Lately Rob has been involved in the science response to the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.

Dr. Simon Cox is a Principal Scientist at GNS Science in Dunedin. His work involves: fault and earthquake research in the South Island; the mapping of rock avalanches, earthquake-induced landslides and alluvial fan flooding hazards; and building a digital geological map dataset of Antarctica. He has led immediate earthquake response, was part of the Alpine Fault Drilling Project, run experiments on Southern Alps hot springs, and an Earthquake Hydrology project that demonstrates liquefaction damage during the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes was exacerbated by leakage and release of groundwater from artesian aquifers.

Ali completed his PhD, titled ‘Increasing the disaster resilience of remote communities through scenario co-creation’ in collaboration with Franz Josef community members and West Coast Lifelines. He ran a series of workshops to further develop the AF8 scenario, and will present on these findings. Following his PhD, Ali worked for two years at Te Rākau Whakamarumaru National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and last year began working as a Senior Advisor in Risk Reduction and Resilience at Kōmihana Rūwhenua Earthquake Commission (EQC).

Alice is the Programme Lead for AF8. She specialises in the communication of complex information, with a particular interest in how clear communication design can help us prepare for and respond to emergency events. Previously, Alice has worked with NGOs and IGOs across Europe and Asia supporting their work in disaster and development fields. She returned home to the South Island of New Zealand in 2018 to join AF8, where one of her roles is the design, development and delivery of the AF8 Roadshow.

Kate is a Senior Scientist at GNS Science. She works as an Earthquake Geologist, with a particular interest in the geological records of earthquakes and tsunamis that have impacted the coastline of New Zealand over the past 100’s to 1000’s of years. Kate has previously developed geological records of past large earthquakes on the Alpine fault in Fiordland, and she currently leads several projects that focus on understanding the seismic and tsunami hazard posed by the Hikurangi subduction zone.