Dr. Susan Cutter is a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina.  She is also the Director of the Hazards Research Lab, a research and training center that integrates geographical information science with hazards analysis and management. She received her B.A. from California State University, Hayward and her M.A. and Ph.D. (1976) from the University of Chicago.  Dr. Cutter has been working in the risk and hazards fields for more than twenty-five years and is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar in this field.  Her primary research interests are in the area of vulnerability science—what makes people and the places where they live vulnerable to extreme events and how this is measured, monitored, and assessed.  She has authored or edited twelve books and more than 85 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. 

She was the co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation award to the Association of American Geographers to bring the nation’s geographic resources to bear on this important national and international priority. This agenda and supporting documents were published as The Geographical Dimensions of Terrorism, edited by S.L. Cutter, D. Richardson, and T. Wilbanks (editors) in 2003.  She is a co-principal investigator and member of the Executive Committee of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)(a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence focused on the social and behavioral sciences). 

In response to the 9/11 terrorist attack, Dr. Cutter led a team of researchers who examined the use of geographical information science techniques (e.g. geographical information systems, remote sensing) in the World Trade Center rescue and relief efforts. Dr. Cutter has also led post-event field studies of evacuation behavior from the 2005 Graniteville, SC train derailment and chlorine spill, and the geographic extent of the storm surge inundation along the Mississippi and Alabama coastline after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. 

In 1999, Dr. Cutter was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a testimonial to her research accomplishments in the field.  Her stature within the discipline of geography was recognized by her election as President of the Association of American Geographers in 1999-2000.  She serves on many national advisory boards and committees including those of National Research Council, the AAAS, the National Science Foundation, the Natural Hazards Center, and the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment.

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