The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has added new experts to the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) investigating the June 24, 2021, partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida. NIST has also scheduled the next meeting of the NCST Advisory Committee for June.
Miami-based N. Emel Ganapati will serve as the social science team leader on the Evidence Preservation Project and will lead interviews of residents, first responders, family members and others with knowledge of the building’s condition and collapse events. Ganapati is an associate professor of public policy and administration and the director of the Laboratory for Social Science Research, International Hurricane Research Center, at Florida International University. She specializes in disaster recovery and mitigation, as well as sea level rise adaptation. She holds a master’s degree in planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in planning from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
“This social science component of the investigation will support the technical work by helping us refine or disprove the hypotheses the team has developed, or perhaps give us new leads,” said Ganapati. “Hearing from a variety of people who have different perspectives and memories of the event, and of the building over time, can help fill any holes in our understanding that quantitative measurements cannot fill.”
NCST Insider - featuring Emel Ganapati
Introducing Miami-based N. Emel Ganapati, who will serve as the Social Science Team Leader on the Evidence Preservation Project. She will lead interviews of residents, first responders, family members and others with knowledge of the building’s condition and collapse.
NIST expects the investigation to take at least two years, as every piece of evidenc ..
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