Dr. Lori Dengler, professor and chair of Humboldt State University’s Department of Geology has been named 2008 Scholar of the Year.

Campus ceremonies honoring her achievements will be held in the fall.

“Humboldt State University is indeed fortunate to have Dengler as a distinguished member of our faculty and our students are always eager to study with such an eminent scholar and field expert,” President Rollin Richmond said.

Dengler has been a member of international post-tsunami survey teams, including Crescent City (2006), Indonesia (2005), Southern Peru (2001) and Papua New Guinea (1998).

Director of the Humboldt Earthquake Education Center since 1986, Dengler joined HSU in 1979.

A member of the team that developed the United States National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program in 1995,

Dengler served as California’s scientific representative on the program’s steering committee from 1996 to 2003. She authored the program’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Mitigation Projects in 1998.

In 2007, she was the co-convener of a meeting sponsored by the National Science Foundation to examine future directions for tsunami research in the United States.

The author or co-author of more than 50 journal articles and technical papers, Dengler has also written a number of publications for the general public, including three editions of the North Coast earthquake and tsunami preparedness magazine, “Living on Shaky Ground.” She is currently at work on the fourth edition, scheduled to be released in September.

Dengler was the first recipient of NOAA’s Richard Hagemeyer Tsunami Mitigation Award for her leadership and role in the Redwood Coast Tsunami Work Group and a host of related community and statewide activities.

She earned her doctorate at UC Berkeley in 1979, where she also earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees. Her research centers on earthquake intensity studies and tsunami and earthquake mitigation.

Dengler will deliver the 2008 Scholar of the Year lecture on Monday, Sept. 29, followed by a campus dinner in her honor at a time and location to be announced.

Details are available from the Office of Research and Graduate Studies at 707-826-5194.