ASP Colloquia

2026 EdEC ASP Summer Colloquium

July 13–24, 2026 | Boulder, CO

Beyond Boundaries: Training Earth System Scientists and Engineers in Convergence Research for Compound Hazard Resilience

Organizers: Julie Demuth, Mariana Cains, Soudeh Kamali, Kimberly Fewless, Shima Shams, and Alexandra Ramos Valle from NSF NCAR, Lori Peek and Jennifer Tobin from CU-Boulder, Jennifer Henderson from Texas Tech University, and the EdEC ASP Team.

ASP hosts an annual colloquium exploring subjects that represent new or rapidly developing areas of research. The colloquium brings together lecturers and graduate students to NSF NCAR for two weeks for classroom presentations, instruction and interaction. ASP covers travel and living expenses for 25 graduate students who attend the two-week program.

Applications Open: December 12, 2025
Applications Close: February 22, 2026

Colloquium Goals:

People and places are increasingly at risk of compound weather, space weather, and subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) hazards and disasters (UNDRR-ISC, 2025). Compound hazards are generally characterized as two or more events with overlapping spatial and temporal attributes (Nemeth et al. 2024). Compound hazards may include the following:

1. Co-occurring (also known as concurrent) events, where two discrete hazards occur simultaneously. An example is co-occurring tornadoes and flash floods (TORFFs; Henderson et al. 2020).
2. Cascading (also known as triggering) events, where an initial hazard triggers or amplifies a subsequent event. An example is fire burn scars that trigger flash flooding (Dulin et al. 2025).
3. Consecutive hazards, where an initial hazard has ended but people and places are consequently made vulnerable to a subsequent hazard. An example is hurricanes that cause power outages which are then followed by heat waves (Matthews et al. 2019; Nemeth et al. 2024, Zscheischler et al. 2020).

Building resilience to compound hazards requires understanding how natural, human, and technological systems interact. Disciplinary and practical expertise are needed in the:

• Physical sciences, environmental, and biological sciences – for the prediction of weather, space, and S2S events, including how these are coupled with the natural environment;
• Engineering and other technical disciplines – for the design, functioning, redundancy, failure modes, and lifespans of our built environment and other technical systems;
• Social and behavioral sciences – for understanding human culture, governance, communication, beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, behaviors, vulnerabilities, and policies associated with natural hazard risks; and
• AI/ML, computational sciences, and data sciences – for identifying knowledge and insights from disparate data sources and/or complex datasets through novel computational approaches.

Importantly, the integration of such expertise is essential to truly build resilience to compound hazards. This colloquium will center convergence research, which is an approach to define and solve complex problems through teams with wide-ranging expertise who work closely together to blend their knowledge (NSF, n.d.).

This two-week colloquium will train you in conducting cutting-edge convergence research using a systems approach to understand, identify, and develop effective solutions for compound hazard resilience. Click here to learn more about convergence research at NSF NCAR.

What You'll Do:

Students will take part in lectures and activities that encourage scenario-based, experiential, peer, and systems learning. Through these experiences, they will gain a clearer sense of what convergence research looks like in practice. They will learn to approach problems with an eye toward practical solutions, work effectively in teams with a broad range of expertise, and collaborate to improve resilience to complex hazards and disasters.

Who We're Seeking and Who Is Eligible:

We invite graduate students who are:

• Excited to work in teams of people with widely varying expertise to understand, identify, and solve complex problems;
• Interested in compound hazards; and
• From the Earth system and related sciences, including engineering, social and behavioral sciences, AI/ML and computational sciences, information and data sciences, environmental and biological sciences, and related disciplines.

Please reach out if you have any questions about your eligibility.

How To Apply:

• Applications include a form with long form responses and an abridged 3-page CV.
• Please refer to these guidelines regarding the use of AI in applications.

APPLY HERE!

References:

Dulin, S., M. Smith, B. Ellinport, B. Trump, J. M. Keenan, and I. Linkov, 2025: Quantifying the compounding effects of natural hazard events: a case study on wildfires and floods in California. npj Natural Hazards, 2(1), 40.

Henderson, J., Nielsen, E. R., Herman, G. R., & Schumacher, R. S. (2020). A hazard multiple: Overlapping tornado and flash flood warnings in a National Weather Service forecast office in the southeastern United States. Weather and Forecasting, 35(4), 1459-1481.

Matthews, T., R. L. Wilby, and C. Murphy, 2019: An emerging tropical cyclone–deadly heat compound hazard. Nature Climate Change, 9(8), 602-606.

NSF (National Science Foundation): Learn about Convergence Research, https://www.nsf.gov/funding/learn/research-types/learn-about-convergence-research

Nemeth, N., M. S. Johnson, G. Mocatta, and E. Hawley, 2024: Communicational responses for compound natural hazards: A systematic review. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 105041.

UNDRR-ISC (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, & International Science Council), 2025: Hazard Definition & Classification Review: 2025 Update of the Technical Report. https://doi.org/10.24948/2025.04

Zscheischler, J., O. Martius, S. Westra, E. Bevacqua, C. Raymond, R. M. Horton, ... & E. Vignotto, 2020: A typology of compound weather and climate events. Nature reviews earth & environment, 1(7), 333-347.

If you have any questions about ASP colloquia, please contact the colloquium coordinator. Click here to send them an email.