What is the role of universities in disaster response, recovery, and rehabilitation? Focusing on our disaster victim identification project

A university provides diverse knowledge and expertise that can be mobilized readily in response to community needs in the event of a disaster. Due to its comprehensive capability, a university can contribute significantly in all phases of disaster cycles: pre-disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery. It is this comprehensive strength that makes universities such an important part of our society, even in a disaster situation. This article summarizes Tohoku University's strength displayed in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. As a case study of response-phase contributions, this article also focuses on the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) project, in which authors have been involved for nearly three years.