On April 25, 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal, killing more than 9,000, injuring more than 23,000, and leaving tens of thousands lacking food, shelter, and water. Aftershocks continued in the following days and months, including a 7.3 magnitude quake on May 12 that killed or injured another 2,700.

Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless with entire villages flattened across many districts of the country. Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO Heritage sites throughout the Kathmandu Valley. It was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake that registered 8.0 on the Richter scale and resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 people.

Several days after the initial seismological event, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart asked Professor Jeffrey Ravel, the Head of the History Section, to serve as the Faculty Lead coordinating MIT’s response efforts. Ravel was joined by Mr. Aaron Weinberger, Assistant Director for Institute Affairs in the Office of the President, and Mr. Bigyan Bista, then a doctoral student in the Department of Biology and a leader in the MIT Nepali student group MITeri.