Inaugural Professorial Lecture – Professor Caroline Orchiston
Shake, rattle and roll – earthquake risk and resilience in Aotearoa
About Professor Caroline Orchiston's research
Caroline is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose applied research investigates disaster risk management, community resilience and risk reduction in the context of disruptive natural hazard events. She is passionate about producing impactful research that contributes to policy and practice.
Caroline has led various national research programmes and teams, including as Associate Director for QuakeCoRE (NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience), an MBIE Endeavour programme investigating earthquake sequences in central Aotearoa NZ, and the Rural programme in Resilience to Nature’s Challenges. She was the Science Lead for the award-winning AF8 (Alpine Fault magnitude 8) programme for 8 years, which made a significant impact in improving awareness and readiness for earthquake hazards of national significance.
Her research group includes numerous PhD students working on advancing knowledge of societal risk and resilience, community resilience and risk communication, including in rural and tourism contexts. Caroline has been the Director of the Centre for Sustainability Research since 2021.
This lecture will be followed with light refreshments, tea, coffee and juice.
Streaming information
This event will be livestreamed from 5:25pm, Wednesday 30 September 2026.