Akhilesh Surjan Author

Rajib Shaw is Professor in the Graduate School of Media and Governance in Keio University, Senior Fellow at Institute of Global Environmental Strategies, Chairperson of two Japanese NGOs, co-founder of a Delhi-based social entrepreneur startup Resilience Innovation Knowledge Academy, and Executive Director of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk. He is Chair of the United Nations Science Technology Advisory Group for Disaster Risk Reduction, Co-Chair of the Asia Science Technology Academic Advisory Group, Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier’s “Progress in Disaster Science” journal, and author of more than 300 academic papers and 45 books, including “Urban Risk Reduction: Asian Perspective” (Elsevier). Atta-ur-Rahman is Associate Professor in the Institute of Geography, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He recently completed his post-Doctoral studies on modeling disaster risk at Kyoto University, Japan. He is also a visiting faculty in the Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He specializes in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Environmental Impact Assessment. He is working with international organizations on various aspects of DRR and supervising research students in the field of disaster risk management. He is member of editorial board of reputed journals and has authored books and numerous research articles in prestigious journals. Dr. Akhilesh Surjan has successfully engaged with issues of climate and disaster risk reduction and urban environmental management. He served as a Lead Author for the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He also served as Contributing Author for the UN’s Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, published in May 2011. While mainly associated with UN agencies, Dr Surjan has also successfully worked in academic, civil society, and government institutions in Asia. In the past, he has deliberated upon risk management issues from the platform of Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal (India)- established in the aftermath of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984. Under UNDP’s Disaster Risk Management Program, he facilitated mainstreaming of community-based disaster preparedness concepts in Indian government’s policy, planning, and implementation. At United Nations University and Kyoto University, Dr Surjan’s contributions were directed towards issues of urban sustainability, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. He is particularly focusing on issues surrounding sustainability of development, and adaptation concerns of emerging cities. Presently working with the Charles Darwin University, Dr Surjan is the Research & Theme Leader of Humanitarian, Emergency and Disaster Management Studies. Dr Surjan was trained at Kyoto University where he successfully completed his doctoral study, an empirical action-research focusing on resilience to environment and disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Surjan is also a trained architect-planner – an interest zone that keeps him enthused when free. Gulsan Ara Parvin is researcher in the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies of Kyoto University, Japan. She has 12 years of teaching and research experience at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). She was an Associate Professor in the Urban and Regional Planning Department of BUET. Dr. Parvin was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to conduct research at Kyoto University from 2007 to 2010. She obtained her Ph.D degree from the Urban Engineering Department of the University of Tokyo in 2003 and M.Sc degree from Agriculture Conservation and Rural Development Program of Asian Institute of Technology in 1999. She acquired her BURP degree from Khulna University, Bangladesh. She has several publications in international journals and journals. Her research interests mostly concentrate on community development, vulnerability and disaster management for the poor, climate change impact and adaptation, women’s empowerment, and the role of NGOs.