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Program Faculty and Curriculum Coordinator

Catherine Petroff, Ph.D.
Principal, LP4 Associates LLC, and Affiliate Faculty, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington

Catherine M. Petroff has over 25 years of experience in tsunamis, coastal engineering, hydraulics, and marine construction. As a consultant in coastal engineering and affiliate faculty at the University of Washington, Dr. Petroff's experience covers a wide range of topics in tsunami science: from education to fieldwork to research. Her tsunami expertise centers on coastal effects: predicting structural loading and understanding fluid and sediment motion that occur during tsunamis. She led a forensic survey of the 1994 Skagway Alaska tsunami and participated in a post-tsunami survey of Peru in 1997. She has been a member of the tsunami research community since 1987 and has worked with many of the leading experts in this field.

Instructors

Nicolás Arcos
Research Scientist, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington and NOAA

Nicolás Arcos' instructional experience focuses on emergency management themes. He has worked with COPECO, the Honduran national emergency management agency, to assist several municipalities to reduce risks from flooding and landslides, and with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Seattle, where his research addressed natural hazards and public health planning. Nicolas holds the Master of Urban Planning from the University of Washington. Currently, he serves as Research Scientist for the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at University of Washingtonm and NOAA.

Frank I. González, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, NOAA Center for Tsunami Research; Affiliate Faculty in Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington

Frank González served as Leader of the NOAA/PMEL Tsunami Research Program from 1985 until 2006, when he became the founding Director of the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research (NCTR). His work focused on the development of inundation maps for member States of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program and the development of the NOAA Tsunami Forecast System, which integrates deep-ocean measurement technology and tsunami modeling technology to produce real-time forecasts of tsunami impact on coastal communities. He has participated in field surveys of three devastating tsunamis that occurred in Nicaragua (1992), Indonesia (1992) and Japan (1993). As an affiliate faculty at the University of Washington and NCTR scientist, he now focuses on tsunami education and research.

Paul Whitmore
Director, West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, National Weather Service, NOAA

Paul Whitmore started his career at the NOAA / West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in 1986 after working in geophysical exploration for an oil company. His projects at the Warning Center have included automation of seismic data processing, earthquake magnitude studies, GIS development, and improving tsunami warning products and graphics. He has worked closely with researchers at the University of Alaska to develop a scheme to predict tsunami wave heights in areas outside the tsunami source. He has served as the center's Director since 2002.

Instructors are subject to change.