​Russell R. Dynes is Founding Director, Disaster Research Center (DRC), Department of Sociology, University of Delaware, U.S.A. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Tennessee and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. (He has served as Chair of the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University and the University of Delaware.) From 1977-82, he was Executive Officer, American Sociological Association in Washington, DC. From 1976-79, he chaired the Committee on International Disaster Assistance, National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council and in 1979 he served as head of the Task Force on Emergency Preparedness and Response for the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. From 1986-90, he served as President, Research Committee on Disasters, International Sociological Association. He has been a Fulbright lecturer in Egypt, India and Thailand, as well as a Visiting Professor at University College, Cardiff. He is author or editor of ten books, including Organized Behavior in Disaster. Sociology of Disaster and Disasters Collective Behavior and Social Organization and well over 100 articles, many on disaster related topics.