<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;text-align:center;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="color:black">Tornado Hazard Wind Assessment and ReducTion Symposium (THWARTS)</span></b><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;text-align:center;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black">September 26-27, 2018</span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;text-align:center;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black">University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – iHotel and Conference Center</span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black">This event may appeal especially to researchers new to the hazards engineering field. The symposium focus will be on severe storm meteorology, wind engineering and structural engineering disciplines, but all related disciplines are welcome.</span><span class="gmail-m_3860613356100622201gmail-apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)"> </span></span><span style="color:black">There will be strong representation from the ASCE TWSE group – with special emphasis on young researchers and students. The THWARTS symposium offers partial travel funding to about 40 attendees who are early career faculty or graduate students.</span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;background:white;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black">Why THWARTS? Better understanding of near-surface tornado wind hazards and impacts requires representation from all relevant disciplines and true interaction between these groups.</span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;background:white;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black"> </span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;background:white;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black">Additional details, including dates of abstract submission, to follow.</span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black"> </span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black">For details, contact Frank Lombardo from the University of Illinois: </span><span style="color:black"><a href="mailto:lombaf@illinois.edu" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">lombaf@illinois.edu</span></a></span><span style="color:black">.</span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
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