• College of Associated Scientists and Advisors (CASA)

UNU-EHS has founded the College of Associated Scientists and Advisors (CASA) where selected scholars from across the globe find a multidisciplinary forum for networking and academic cross-pollination. Prominent natural and social scientists and humanists from all the walks of life assemble to dedicate their efforts primarily, in a first stage, to the research and measurement of human vulnerability to hazards of natural origin with the aim of canvassing the resulting findings into capacity building, early warning programmes, and policy-relevant recommendations.

The exchange of ideas between the CASA scientists and UNU-EHS takes place through continuous dialogue as well as in joint symposia, workshops, and publications. Their contributions to the two Expert Working Group meetings staged by UNU-EHS in 2005 in Kobe, Japan, and Bonn, Germany, as well as to the multi-source preparation of a book entitled ‘Measuring Vulnerability to Hazards of Natural Origin’, authored by Joern Birkmann, Academic Officer at UNU-EHS, are showcases of this fellowship’s accomplishments so far.

CASA is proud to count among its first fellows the following distinguished scholars:

PD Dr. Hans Guenter Brauch is chairman of Peace Research and European Security Studies (AFES-PRESS), Germany. He is a political scientist and linguist of international acclaim, and a senior consultant at UNU-EHS since 2004. Besides numerous contributions and articles, Dr. Brauch has authored two think pieces for the Institute’s first scientific publication series.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Heinz Patt is a consulting engineer in the area of hydraulic engineering and water resource management. Until October 2008 he headed the institute for hydraulic engineering and water resource management at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Today, he chairs different working groups in the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA); and serves as scientific advisor to the UNW-DPC. Prof. Patt authored more than 120 publications, including three standard educational monographs.