Background
As a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Hazard Management Group he participated in research on emergency planning and social impact assessment, and played an important role in the Congressionally mandated SARA Title III survey of community warning capabilities and preparedness for chemical emergencies. In addition, Rogers led efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of protective public actions for chemical emergencies. His research on disaster planning and preparedness includes articles on emergency warning, public response, community decisions in disasters, the selection of appropriate protective actions, and the potential for role conflict among emergency responders.
His interests in public response to risk and hazards, emergency management and environmental impact of technology were developed at the University of Pittsburgh where he completed a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1983. He then joined the faculty of the University Center for Social and Urban Research. His work on perceived risk and hazards focuses on how who-we-are influences how-we-perceive risk and hazard, including public perception and acceptability of risk, the use of time budget data in the estimation of risk, social structural aspects of risk perception, the role of hazard experience, and the dynamics of perceived risk.