Academic and Training Program Hub

The Texas A&M Superfund Research Center (Superfund Center) comprehensively evaluates the complexities of hazardous chemical exposures, potentially adverse health impacts, and potential hazards of exposures to complex mixtures through a series of multidisciplinary projects focused on Disaster Research Response (DR2).Natural and man-made disasters, and shifts in domestic economic activity, markedly increase the risks of catastrophic chemical contamination events resulting from weather-related or human-caused emergencies, increasing the risk of potential adverse health impacts.

The Texas A&M Institute for Sustainable Communities (IfSC) is the university's focal point of interdisciplinary sustainable community research, engagement and high impact service learning. The Institute is the go-to place for A&M faculty, staff, and students to collaborate on work that crosses sectors and disciplines, advancing solutions that link knowledge to action, and solves critical societal challenges of today and tomorrow.Working on campus and around the world, we strive to support development of sustainable communities and cities that seek balance between human and environmental needs of people today and of generations to come; provide fair and equitable access to resources to improve the development of human capabilities and wellbeing; engage in civil engagement and participatory, democratic decision-making; and include adaptive capacity to survive, respond and grow in the face of expanding physical, social and economic threats.

The Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas was formally established on May 14, 2020 by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents following the passage of House Bill 2345 by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019. The Institute’s mission is to facilitate the integration of analytical tools and state-level decisions related to disaster resiliency. Through collaborative efforts, the Institute aims to deliver critical research on disaster risk reduction, support state agencies with data analytics and decision-making tools, and generate evidence-based solutions that help Texas communities become more resilient over the long term.

Texas A&M University’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HRRC) is an interdisciplinary research effort. Established in 1988, the HRRC was the first research center dedicated to vulnerability reduction and long-term recovery in the nation.Today, we are one of only two United Nations (UN-OCHA) Collaborative Centers in the world. We serve OCHA as a research and consultant agency with particular emphasis on national disaster plans and their implications for future development.The HRRC studies the full range of natural and technological hazards. Natural phenomena include floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and drought. Technological hazards include chemical and nuclear plant accidents, transportation accidents and pipeline explosions.

Our mission is to promote the development of knowledge, skills and capacity supporting emergency preparedness planning, response, mitigation and recovery in communities throughout the country, with emphasis on the rural and underserved.We work to prepare the public health workforce, community health workers, tribal health workforce, school nurses, county judges and other non-traditional responders to plan for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The center has been awarded millions in funding, which includes two CDC public health preparedness centers, as well as contracts with the Texas Department of State Health Services, local and regional health departments and the South Dakota Department of Health.This work has also led to collaborations with both Maine and New Hampshire Departments of Health and Human Services, the University of Texas School of Public Health, the University of North Texas School of Public Health, tribal partnerships in both Texas and South Dakota, as well as an award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for work with broader public health access issues within the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Crises, like flooding and pandemics, growingly affect communities and people. Our goal is to create knowledge and technologies to reduce the social, economic, and physical impacts of these disasters on communities. Our approach to urban resilience is unique, as we work at the interface of urban science, complex networks, artificial intelligence.Our research works to improve disaster management and responses using artificial intelligence. Our work in this area focuses on building, testing, and refining new methods and models to gather and analyze community-scale big data to generate knowledge for decision-making. Our goal is to help residents, civilian volunteers, and emergency responders better predict and cope with crises.

As a founding member of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC), the National Emergency Response and Recovery Training Center (NERRTC) has been a leader in homeland security training since its inception in 1998. Congressionally mandated and partially funded by the U.S. Congress, NERRTC provides local, state, tribal and territorial jurisdictions with high-quality, hands-on, scenario-driven leadership training.NERRTC clients and customers include state and federal agencies, municipal and county governments, private industries, public school systems and university campuses, law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, fire departments, public works departments, utility companies, and public health agencies. Since 1998, NERRTC has provided training for more than 925,086 responders in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.NERRTC assists and plays a key role in DHS/FEMA’s establishing and maintaining the concept of “culture of preparedness” and has sharpened its focus on that concept by incorporating an “all-of-nation”/ “whole community,” risk-driven, capabilities-based approach to preparedness. TEEX/NERRTC provides training in thirteen core competency areas across the community: cybersecurity, crisis communications, executive and elected officials, hazardous materials awareness and operations, health and medical services, incident management, infrastructure protection, public works, search and rescue, threat and risk assessment, disaster recovery, sports, and special events management (risk, evacuation, and incident management), and planning (training gap analysis).

The Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center was established in 2009 as a university-based research and education center. Led by Rice University, the SSPEED Center organizes leading Gulf Coast universities, researchers, emergency managers, industry leaders and private and public entities to better address severe storm prediction and its impact on the region. The Houston Endowment, Texas General Land Office, The Kinder Institute, Great Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium (GHFMC) and Rice University provide primary funding for the SSPEED Center.