We are thrilled to welcome Tianjun Sun, assistant professor of psychological sciences at Kansas State University, to the ARISE team. She will help lead and work with the team on Themes 1 and 4, bringing a strong psychological science perspective and approach to modeling household and behavioral decisions related to disaster events, resilience, and social equity using survey and experimental approaches. In addition, Dr. Sun will assist with the household and business surveys for Theme 1.

ARISE is a major investment in Kansas by the U.S. National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR RII Track-1). The ARISE acronym stands for “Adaptive and Resilient Infrastructures driven by Social Equity.” This project is framed around four research themes. Theme 1 focuses on understanding equity measurements and interdependent infrastructure systems; Theme 2 develops an evaluation framework; Theme 3 considers four case studies for hypothesis testing; and Theme 4 integrates research into decision-lever case studies and decision support tools.