Disaster Research Center

The Disaster Research Center is the oldest center in the world devoted to the social science and management aspects of disasters. DRC was established in 1963 and now, over fifty years later, DRC continues to celebrate success in research, training, and service to the disaster community. The center was established at Ohio State University in 1963 by Professors E.L. Quarantelli, Russell Dynes and J. Eugene Haas and moved to its current location at the University of Delaware in 1985. Now, over fifty years later, DRC continues to celebrate success in research, training, and service to the disaster community. Historically, DRC has conducted field interviews and extensive research projects on group, organizational, and community preparation for, response to, and recovery from natural and technological disasters and other community-wide crises. While much of the research at DRC has been interdisciplinary throughout its existence, DRC has embarked on a new era as the Center builds on and maintains its foundation in social science while broadening its activities to embrace more explicitly interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research. All DRC research is intended to yield both basic scientific knowledge on disasters and information that can be applied to develop more effective plans and policies to reduce disaster impacts.