The 8th APRU-IRIDeS Multi-Hazards Summer School was held on 24th – 27th July at Tohoku University. This is the first summer school after COVID-19; the last one was held four years ago. IRIDeS and Tohoku University were extremely grateful for the participants who joined this event immediately after the COVID-19 situation was resolved.

Prof. Hideo Ohno (President of Tohoku University) welcomed the participants with his opening remarks, followed by remarks by Ms. Adriana Rohas from the APRU secretariat in Hong Kong. Prof. Shinichi Kuriyama (Director of IRIDeS) also welcomed the participants to IRIDeS and the summer school.

More than 43 students and researchers from 13 countries and region participated in the event. On Day 1, the participants learned from the experience and research on the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, including its recovery process, disaster memory, health management during disasters, and case study of history and interdisciplinary collaboration. Day 2 focused on the lectures on the roles of different stakeholders such as local government (Tagajo City), NGO (Church World Service), and volunteers. Day 3 invited speakers from UC Davis, Kyoto University, University of Tokyo, and National Taiwan University. They spoke about earthquake anticipation with machine learning and AI, earthquake forecasting in the Nankai Region, and large-scale earthquake simulation. In the afternoon, the participants conducted group work and discussion on an interdisciplinary research of disaster science.

On Day 4, the participants visited the Higashi-Matsushima Recovery Museum and the Kadonowaki Elementary School ruins to see what happened at the time of the tsunami and the damage from the disaster.