Spring 2011 seminar series on defining risk in offshore resource development

The purpose of this seminar series from the University of Alaska North by 2020 Forum/International Arctic Research Center is to explore overarching concepts of assessment and mitigation of risks applied in different settings relevant for natural resource development.

Potential questions addressed by speakers and in the discussion include:
How can risk be evaluated and integrated into decision-making?
What can be learned about potential biases from cognition and decision science?
What different paradigms or measures of risk are employed by different institutions?
How can the decision process integrate different perceptions or understanding of risk by different stakeholders?

A dozen speakers made seminar presentations in the fall; their presentation can be viewed here.
 
Here is the spring seminar schedule (as of April 20):

• Jeffery Loman (BOEMRE) presents, 'Preventing Success from Breeding Complacency'
  Susan Childs, Alaska sustainable development manager of Shell Exploration and Production, will also present.
  Thursday, April 28, 3:30 p.m.
  Administration Building, Room 204
  
  Videoconference locations:
  UAA Administration Building, Room 204
  UAF Butrovich, Room  212B
  Juneau Lena Pt 301
  BOEMRE Regional, Director's Conference Room
  Barrow Arctic Research Consortium

• Panel with Fran Ulmer
  Tuesday, May 3, 7 p.m.
  UAA Fine Arts Building, Room 150
  
  • Moderator:
    Fran Ulmer (UAA; Deep Water Horizon Spill Commission)
  • Panelists:
    Catherine Foerster graduated with B.S. in mechanical engineering with highest honors from the University of Texas. Worked for Exxon, ARCO and BP, and then as an engineering consultant before being appointed in 2005 as the engineering commissioner for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Named an outstanding mechanical engineering graduate and an outstanding graduate of the college of engineering at the University of Texas.
    Jeffery Loman has served as the deputy regional director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (successor to Minerals Management Service) Alaska Region for almost four years. Before that he was the Chief of Natural Resources at the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 10 years. Loman is a former U.S. Navy Aquanaut and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Diver - spending 20 years in "high risk" environments. Loman is a Harvard Senior Fellow and completed the Department of the Interior's Senior Executive Service Candidate Development
    Karlene Roberts is Director of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at UC Berkeley. Dr. Roberts has conducted twenty years of research on the design and management of high reliability organizations (HROs). HROs are organizations in which errors can have catastrophic consequences, but which are managed so well that errors infrequently occur.
    

• Karlene Roberts (UC Berkeley; Center for Catastrophic Risk Management)
  Thursday, May 5, 3:30 p.m.
  Videoconference Locations:
  UAA Administration Building, Room 204
  UAF Butrovich, Room 212B
  Juneau Lena Pt, Room 301
  BOEMRE Regional Director's Conference Room
  Barrow Arctic Research Consortium
  
  
• Karlene Roberts (UC Berkeley; Center for Catastrophic Risk Management)
  Friday, May 6, 3:30 p.m.
  UAF, TBD
  Videoconference locations:
  UAA Diplomacy Building, Room 301
  UAF Butrovich, Room  212B
  Juneau Lena Pt, Room 301
  BOEMRE Regional Director's Conference Room
  Barrow Arctic Research Consortium

• Mandy Kaempf discusses 'Risk Complexity: The Arctic Offshore as a Case Study'
  Thursday, May 12, 3:30 p.m.
  Videoconference locations:
  UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307
  UAF Butrovich, Room 212B
  Juneau Lena Pt, Room 301
  BOEMRE Regional Director's Conference Room
  Barrow Arctic Research Consortium

Contacts for all presentations:

• Hajo Eicken, GI & IARC, UAF, hajo.eicken@gi.alaska.edu
• Andrew Metzger, Dept. of Civil Engineering, UAF, atmetzger@alaska.edu
• Sharman Haley, ISER, UAA, afsh@uaa.alaska.edu

The presentations will be accessible online via a live video stream and archived as a video file a few days after the presentation. Please visit the schedule
for more information.