Dr. Mahar Lagmay was recently recognized as one of the 100 scientists in a list published by Asian Scientist Magazine. Alongside four National Scientists, he makes up the group of five Filipinos acknowledged by the magazine.
Dr. Mahar Lagmay as one of the Asian Scientist 100. (Photo credit: Asian Scientist Magazine and University of the Philippines Diliman)
The 2016 Asian Scientist 100 list features distinguished scientists, innovators, and leaders in the region who made significant contributions to science and technology in the past year. Asian Scientist Magazine is an online publication based in Singapore that launched in 2011.
Renowned for his work on natural hazard and disaster science research in the Philippines, Dr. Lagmay also heads Project NOAH as its Executive Director. The Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) Program was launched in 2012 as one of the Philippine government’s flagship disaster management initiatives. It recently completed several multi-hazard maps for the entire country as part of its goal to reduce the country’s disaster risk to natural hazards.
International Research Collaboration
Dr. Lagmay is also a professor in the National Institute of Geological Sciences based in the University of the Philippines. He was previously featured in the magazine as one of Asia’s rising scientists last July 2015. In that same year, he was the first Asian geologist to receive the Plinius Medal from the European Geosciences Union (EGU).
As a professor and NOAH Director, he facilitates collaborations with international scientists and organizations. These include volunteers, experts, and researchers. Project NOAH also participated in the UN World DRR Conference which helped form the 2015 Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction.
Crowdsourced Mapping
NOAH continues its research and development activities beyond mapping natural hazards. It recently launched a new project called ISAIAH to focus on the capacity of different sectors in DRR. In doing so, it strengthens its partnership with the global mapping community of OpenStreetMap (OSM). This allows the open-source and crowdsourced information from OSM to be used in the tools being developed for risk analysis.
WebSAFE is one of the tools being developed under ISAIAH in collaboration with UNICEF and the World Bank.