The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that provides an open forum for all those who are interested in risk analysis. Risk analysis is broadly defined to include risk assessment, risk characterization, risk communication, risk management, and policy relating to risk, in the context of risks of concern to individuals, to public- and private-sector organizations, and to society at a local, regional, national, or global level.
The official journal of the SRA is available online to all current members. A focal point for new developments in the theory and practice of risk analysis for researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines, including behavioral, biological, decision, economic, engineering, health, physical, and social sciences.
SRA members are part of a growing and thriving community characterized by a shared commitment to excellence in risk analysis theory and practice. The diverse interests of members support a wide range of SRA specialty groups.
The Advanced Materials and Technologies Specialty Group (AMTSG) works to further the risk analysis of many new and exciting materials and technologies currently being developed including the areas of additive manufacturing (e.g. 3D-printing), nanotechnology, bio-based and synthetic biology.
The Applied Risk Management Specialty Group is where the rubber meets the road. Our objectives are to: establish SRA as the preeminent clearinghouse bridging risk management with risk analysis tools; attract risk managers to SRA and facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge among risk management practitioners and technical specialists such as researchers, scholars, teachers, and others interested in the application of risk analysis tools within a risk management context; encourage collaborative and interdisciplinary research on applied risk management concepts, terminology, and frameworks that promote understanding and effective use of risk management practices; provide active, worldwide leadership on risk management issues; promote risk management as an effective approach for addressing a wide range of technically and socially complex problems facing the world today.
The Decision Analysis and Risk SpecialtyThe Decision Analysis and Risk Specialty Group (DARSG) focuses on promoting the use of risk- and decision-analysis tools in supporting decisions. The group currently has approximately 430 full-time members, which makes it the largest specialty group in the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). Group (DARSG) focuses on promoting the use of risk- and decision-analysis tools in supporting decisions. The group currently has approximately 430 full-time members, which makes it the largest specialty group in the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA).
The Dose Response Specialty Group (DRSG), founded in 1994, is a subsection of the Society for Risk Analysis that focuses on the relationships between underlying causal mechanisms for toxic effects, population dose-response relationships (including interindividual variability), and implications for regulatory choices. We are interested in probabilistic methods for projecting responses to assist in analyzing the benefits of measures that are expected to alter population exposures to chemical, physical, and microbial hazards. We are also interested in the integrated use of mechanistic, animal, and epidemiologic data to estimate risks at lower doses than can be directly assessed in animal toxicology or human studies. We provide fora for vigorous interdisciplinary exchange in our sponsored symposia and three teleseminars per year led by invited speakers.
The Ecological Risk Assessment Specialty Group (ERASG) is currently planning several workshops, including such topics as regional risk assessment, invasive species, climate change, statistical methods, and the integration of human and ecological risk assessment. Anyone with an interest in ecological risk assessment is encouraged to join, from eco-risk practitioners to decision makers relying on these analyses for more effective decision making. We encourage SRA members from all sectors to join the ERASG.
The Society for Risk Analysis Economics and Benefits Analysis Specialty Group (EBASG) focuses on the use of economic analyses to support risk-management decisions. These analyses provide information on the costs, benefits, and other impacts of alternative approaches for reducing risks. Our goals include encouraging better integration between risk assessors, economists, and others involved in risk-management decisions, as well as enhancing the data and methods available for conducting economic analyses.
The Engineering and Infrastructure Specialty Group (EISG) supports SRA members for risk and policy analysis applied toward infrastructure management and engineering problems. The variety of topics include energy, environmental protection and pollution prevention, transportation, homeland security, disaster preparedness and response, technology regulation, and water and wastewater, among many others. EISG sponsors best student paper awards, encourages infrastructure management and engineering submissions for the journal Risk Analysis, pursues joint activities with engineering professional societies, and invites and reviews engineering papers for the annual meeting.
The Exposure Assessment Specialty Group (EASG) is comprised of Society for Risk Analysis members who are interested in the role of exposure assessment in risk analysis. Open to all SRA members, the group promotes and fosters independent and collaborative research in all facets of exposure science to advance the state of the art and serves as a resource to the Society in matters concerning the role of exposure in risk analysis.
The risk field needs concepts, principles, theories and methods that give some sort of unity to the field and provide guidance on how to think when assessing, managing and communicating risk. To this end, we need further developments of such concepts, principles, theories and methods, scrutiny/clarification of existing ones, and reflections and discussions. This entails a broad set of initiatives and measures. The Foundational Issues in Risk Analysis Specialty Group (FRASG) represents an arena for generating them.
The Microbial Risk Analysis Specialty Group (MRASG) focuses on public health risks associated with a variety of biological hazards. These hazards generally share many common features, such as the ability to grow, reproduce and die; to disperse both actively and passively; to interact with other biological populations in the ecosystem; and to evolve and adapt.
Employment-related risks are often among the most severe risks encountered by people. The prevailing levels of risk of disease, injury and stress in the workplace tend to be three or more orders of magnitude higher than corresponding risks in the general environment. The costs and impacts from this are immense, not only to workers, but to their families, organizations, and society as a whole. Because the exposures are often higher in the workplace, and somewhat easier to assess, occupational cohorts have been the source of much of the raw data for environmental risk assessment. Important science-policy issues are especially prominent in occupational health, including genetic screening and monitoring, risk spreading through dose/time adjustments, hazard thresholds, wage-risk tradeoffs in employment, risk transfer, residual risk, and development and use of occupational inference values and banding tools.
Resilience has become an important concept in safety and risk research and applications. The issue is how we can make a system able to sustain or restore its functionality and performance following a change in the condition of the system (disruption, threat, opportunity). Resilience analysis and management constitute a main strategy to meet threat and in particular the unforeseen and potential surprises. Many people and organizations today make a call for a shift from risk to resilience, and considerable resources are devoted to the development of methods and models for supporting resilience analysis and management. A new type of expertise is growing, professionals in resilience analysis and management are in high demand.
JERSG provides a forum for SRA members interested in: Identifying disparities in risks experienced by specific subpopulations and sources of those disparities; Informing the scientific community about issues related to justice and equity in the distribution of risks; Collaborating to empower other SRA members to further address justice and equity concerns within their purview; Discussing and recommending approaches to address and/or mitigate disparities in exposure to risks
The Risk Communication Specialty Group (RCSG) focuses on the communication of risk information between technical and lay audiences and is open to all members of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). Our membership represents a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives on risk communication. Members’ interest areas include the perception of risk, public participation, mass media coverage of risk, trust and credibility, social influence, and evaluation related to risk -communication activities. The purpose of the group is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge among practitioners, researchers, scholars, teachers, students, and others to encourage collaborative research, provide leadership, build scholarship, and play an active role in advancing the field of risk communication.
The Risk Policy and Law (RP&L) Specialty Group of the Society for Risk Analysis is a group of scientists, social scientists, lawyers, engineers, and others interested in the interface between risk analysis, public policy, and laws. The RP&L Specialty Group was formerly called the “Risk, Science & Law” Specialty Group; it changed its name in 2006. The group’s goal is to support collaborative research and dialogue to identify and illuminate issues that arise from risk-related legislative acts, regulatory rules, treaties, oversight and review mechanisms, judicial proceedings, and other legal institutions.
The Security and Defense Specialty Group (SDSG) focuses on the development and application of risk science and risk analysis to security and defense. These domains present unique and challenging opportunities for the risk science community. Risk analysis for security and defense applications involves threat, vulnerability, and consequence elements often under adaptive adversarial settings. Thus, the scope of hazard events include targeted, random, and natural failures that may or may not be independent. Statistical, simulation-based, and expert-guided methods are of interest to model threat likelihood and system impacts with varying levels of data, information, and uncertainty. Emerging methods from machine learning and artificial intelligence may also be leveraged to better understand the security and defense risk landscape. Security risk perception, communication, and policy implications are critical for generating robust solutions and actionable insights.
Risk Science is of tremendous importance in tackling the pressing problems of the future, and SRA is leading the charge to advance risk science. I am proud to serve SRA in whatever ways are needed, and I deeply appreciate receiving the SRA Richard J. Burk Outstanding Service Award.
Throughout my nearly two-decade career in risk analysis, SRA has been my home professional society as well as a community in which I have matured professionally and found wonderful mentors. SRA has played a pivotal role in shaping my career. I have had the opportunity to give back to the SRA community by serving in a number of different roles, and I am grateful to be able to do this.
I have so many favorite memories throughout my time at SRA. From engaging round-table discussions and presentations to post-conference hikes and kayaking each experience has not only enriched my understanding of risk science but also fostered lifelong connections within the community.
Whether you’re a senior SRA member or a student or young professional there are opportunities to serve in SRA and help to build this community. I am honored to receive the Richard Burk Outstanding Service Award, and I look forward to many more years of serving SRA alongside many of you.
