Once again, we bring you an exciting episode of the Behind the Science Podcast with none other than Dr. Alfredo Mahar Francisco A. Lagmay. Dr. Mahar is a NAST (National Academy of Science and Technology) Academician, the Executive Director of the UP Resilience Institute (UP RI), and the Director of the UP Nationwide Operational Hazards (NOAH) Center. He is also a renowned researcher with extensively cited published works in the fields of volcanology and geohazards.
In this episode, Dr. Mahar shares new insights from the 2020 Taal Eruption, his beginnings as an academic in the natural sciences, and his personal insights on what it means to do science and to be a scientist.
In the field of disaster science, plenty of crucial data can only be gathered during or immediately after a disaster event. With warm enthusiasm, Dr. Mahar shares stories of driving to Batangas with his windshield wipers sweeping away volcanic ash, which led to the publication of the best and most detailed description of a base surge in the world. He and his team even find clever ways to get fleeting, large-scale data—such as the spatial extent of volcanic ash—through crowdsourcing.
Stories such as these lend insight to the passion and commitment of researchers in this field. Don’t miss out on listening to these rich and interesting stories on the Behind the Science Podcast, co-presented by the Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub and the UP College of Science. On the BTS Podcast, researchers share the stories behind their published works, from how they were conceptualized and funded to how they eventually became published.
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Check out the publications here:
1) Lagmay et al. 2021. Hazardous base surges of Taal’s 2020 eruption. Scientific Reports 11(1):15703.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94866-2
2) Balangue-Tarriela et al. 2022. Analysis of the 2020 Taal Volcano tephra fall deposits from crowdsourced information and field data. Bulletin of Volcanology 84:35.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00445-022-01534-y
Do you want to nominate a scientist in the field of DRR and geosciences to be featured on the Behind the Science Podcast? Or, have you read an author’s publication whose behind-the-scenes story you are eager to hear about? Let us know by emailing us at upri.educ@up.edu.ph and we will do our best to get them featured on BTS Podcast!