About

Alam Edris, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Envt. Studies, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh

Edris Alam has been active in disaster research since 2000 while conducting his MSc thesis at the Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh on post cyclone disaster management. Edris is happy to introduce himself as a hazard victim turning into a disaster researcher because of his experiences of April 1991-Cyclone while living in an offshore island in the Bay of Bengal. He is an Assistant Professor (on study leave) in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the Chittagong University (CU), Bangladesh. While serving at the CU, Edris was actively involved in teaching and also secured research funding from Governmental Organisations (GOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). To enhance his capacity to contribute to disaster risk reduction (DRR) he has also completed a specialized Masters Degree (2006-2007) in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development at Northumbria University, UK. Edris worked as a research intern and consultant between February and September 2007 at the Disaster and Development Centre (DDC), Northumbria University, UK, with the ESRC/DFID funded research project. To date, he has published twelve research publications on disaster risk reduction and sustainable development in the referred journals. He widely presented at the international conferences those of the International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC) 2008, Davos and World Conference on Humanitarian Studies (WCHS)-the Netherlands, Indian Science Congress and Bangladesh Geographical Society (BGS). Currently, Edris is working for a PhD at the Australia-Pacific Tsunami Research Centre and Natural Hazard Research Laboratory (APTRC-NHRL) of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. This research is focused on ‘Geological and historical records of coastal flooding in the Bay of Bengal’. His research interests include natural hazards — earthquake, tsunami, tropical cyclone, flood, climate change adaptation and disasters vulnerability and resilience in Bangladesh.

Tahmeed M. Al-Hussaini, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dr. Tahmeed M. Al-Hussaini, Professor of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) had his engineering education in Bangladesh (BUET), Thailand (AIT) and USA (SUNY-Buffalo). He was a visiting research scientist at ECP, France and visiting Associate at ICTP, Italy. His field of interest encompasses geotechnical and earthquake engineering, seismic hazard assessment, soil-structural dynamics and disaster mitigation. He is the vice -president of Bangladesh Earthquake Society since 2008. He is currently responsible for revising earthquake resistant design provisions of the Bangladesh national building code.

Ali Asgary, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, MADEM, Disaster and Emergency Management Program, York University, Toronto, Canada

Dr. Ali Asgary is an associate professor and graduate program director of the master of disaster and emergency management program at york university. He has been a former board member of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the past president of IAEM-Canada. His research involves business continuity, information technology applications in disaster and emergency management, post disaster recovery and reconstruction, and economic assessment of risk reduction measures.

Christoph Aubrecht, Research Associate, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Foresight & Policy Development Dept., Vienna, Austria

Christoph Aubrecht is mainly involved in applying the concepts of integrated disaster risk management to complex human-natural coupled systems by addressing geospatial aspects of socioeconomic information, several visiting research stays at NOAA-NGDC, Columbia University-CIESIN, and the University of Southern California.

Samira Barghouti, Dean of Research & Cooperation, Jerusalem (AlQuds) University for Arabs, Jerusalem-Palestine

Samira Barghouti currently is a Professor at the Medical Complex and Dean of Research & Cooperation at the Jerusalem (AlQuds) University for Arabs, Jerusalem-Palestine. She served at many universities in the USA and the ME, including a sabbatical at University of Abu Dhabi  as  Dean of Arts and Sciences in 2007. From 2003-2007 she served as Dean of Scientific Research and Professor of chemistry at the Arab American University-Jenin.

Bockline Omedo Bebe, Associate Professor of Livestock Production, Egerton University, Faculty of Agriculture, Kenya

Bockline Omedo Bebe is associate professor of livestock production at Egerton University, Kenya. His core functions is providing academic leadership and mentoring, teaching and supervising academic research projects of under and post graduate students in addition to consulting in livestock resources development, university curriculum and quality assurance, programme impact assessment and climate change adaptation responses. He is a researcher in climate change adaptation options, focused on building adaptive capacities of and water use efficiencies in, smallholder and pastoral livestock systems.

Djillali Benouar, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene, Bab Ezzouar, Algeria

Djillali Benouar is a professor in Earthquake Engineering at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene, and is Director of the Built Environment Research Lab. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Algiers, a master’s in Earthquake Engineering at Stanford, a Ph.D. degree in Engineering Seismology at Imperial College, and his post-doc was at the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo. He is an associate member of the Third World Academy of Science and is Senior Associate to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. He is also a consultant for the World Bank, UNESCO, IIED, UN/ISDR, and ALECSO (Arab League). In 2005 he received the UNESCO-GADR award for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Janos J. Bogardi, Executive Officer, Global Water System Project, Bonn, Germany

Prof. Janos J. Bogardi took up the position of Executive Officer on 1 June 2009. His first degree was in Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary, with special emphasis on water resources and agricultural water resources development. After obtaining a post graduate Diploma on Hydrology from the University of Padua, Italy, He earned his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Early in his career he worked as a consulting engineer in Africa and was seconded by the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand for five years. He was Professor for Hydraulics, and quantitative Water Resource Management Hydrology at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, the Netherlands, then worked with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, ultimately as the Chief of the Section on Sustainable Water Resources and Management. He was then appointed Director of the United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn, Germany and has been Vice-Rector a.i. of the Vice Rectorate of UNU in Europe (UNU-ViE) since May 2007. Prof. Bogardi has authored, co-authored, and edited more than 170 publications. In June 2008, he was honored by the International Cannes Water Prize "Grand Prix des Lumières de l?Eau de Cannes". Janos brings to the GWSP a wealth of international experience and a wide knowledge of water issues.

Jean-Claude Bolay, Director, Cooperation & Development Center and Vice-Presidency for Academic Affairs, UNESCO Chair in Technologies for Development, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Mr. Bolay graduated with a PhD in Political Sciences, from the University of Lausanne in 1984. He is currently Director of International Cooperation and a Professor in Urbanization and Sustainable Development and North-South cooperation at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. He was formally a member of the Directors Board of NCCR North-South, “Scientific partnership for mitigating the syndromes of global change”; “Social practices in urban societies” and “Sustainable Development, Metropolisation and Pollution of Natural Resources in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam” and was coordinator of the FNRS research project “Rural-Urban Interface: The role of small regional centers in Ecuador” and the SDC-EPFL Project “Urban Environment and Social Disparities” (1999-2001).

Stefan Brem, Head of Risk Analysis and Research Coordination,Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport Federal Office for Civil Protection Policy Division, Bern, Switzerland

Eugen Brühwiler, Professor Structural Engineering and Director Institute of Structural Engineering, IIC School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

Professor Brühwiler's activities as a Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) (since 1995) are motivated by the following vision :
“Methods for the examination of existing structures (“Examineering”) must be developed with the ultimate goal to limit construction intervention (and thus the client’s expenditure) to a strict minimum. If interventions are necessary then their objective is to improve the structure (not just to repair it). This goal is in agreement with the principles of sustainable development.”

Rhoda Birech, Department of Crops, Horticulture and Soil Sciences, Egerton University, Egerton, Kenya

Dr. Rhoda Birech is a holder of a PhD degree in Conservation Agriculture (obtained from BOKU University, Austria) and currently a Post-doctoral candidate in the area of Marketing and Commercialisation of Bio-fuels. She is a Senior Lecturer at Egerton University doing teaching and research, where she has worked at the same University in different capacities for the last 19 years. She has been in the top leadership of at least four international research teams bringing together European and African Universities and local and international Research organizations. The most recent of these (2011 – 2013) is the BOKU (Austria), Makerere (Uganda), Egerton (Kenya) and Regional Universities Forum For Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). In the team, she coordinates efforts to create sustainable partnerships with stakeholders for innovative solutions in climate change adaptation in East Africa. Rhoda is heading the centre of Excellence for Contemporary Agricultural Research and Development (CECARD), with the core mission of delivering market driven curriculum, technologies and research towards community and National development in Kenya.

Christopher G. Burton, Scientist, Social Vulnerability and Disaster Resilience, GEM Foundation, Pavia, Italy

Christopher G. Burton coordinates the integration of a set of methods, metrics, and decision-making tools into the Global Earthquake Model that recognizes and evaluates the social context in which potential seismic disasters occur.

His main area of work involves the utilization of geospatial technologies and quantitative modeling to gain insight into adverse impacts from natural hazard events. He focuses on vulnerability (characteristics or qualities of systems that create the potential for harm) and resilience (the ability of systems to respond to and recover from perturbations following hazard events) to explore the compounded nature of disasters where environmental processes coalesce with factors such as urban growth, environmental degradation, marginalization, and poverty to bring about and magnify the impacts caused by extreme natural hazard events.

Ian Burton, Emeritus Professor, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Professor Ian Burton works as an Independent Consultant on adaptation to climate change and disaster risk reduction. He is a Visiting Fellow with the International Institute of Environment and Development  (IIED) London and recently served as Convening Lead Author for Chapter 7 (International) of the IPCC SREX (Extremes) Report. Professor Burton is also a Lead Author for the IPCC 5th Assessment. 
He is co-chair of the ICSU-ISSC-ISDR Working Committe for FORIN (Forensic Disaster Investigations) of the IRDR (Integrated Reserarch on Disaster Risk) Programme.

Peter Burgherr, Group Leader Technology Assessment, Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis, Paul Scherrer Institut , Villigen, Switzerland

Peter Burgherr leads the inter-disciplinary Technology Assessment group at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). His primary research interest is the comparative analysis of severe accident risks in the energy sector, and its relevance in the broader context of energy security and critical infrastructure protection. He is also strongly involved in the sustainability assessment of current and future energy technologies as well as their evaluation within Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA).
He is regularly presenting his work at international conferences and meetings, publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals, contributing to books, and various other publications. He is also engaged in the supervision of students at different levels, and lectured at ETH Zurich and University Geneva. He holds a doctoral degree in environmental sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ).

Barbara J. Cliff, President/CEO, Windber Medical Center, Windber, USA

Dr. Cliff is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Windber Medical Center in rural western Pennsylvania. She is a registered nurse with Masters Degrees in Health Services Administration and in Public Administration and earned her Doctorate Degree in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences in 2007. Her research interests are in underserved populations, especially rural; disease prevention and health promotion; and disaster preparedness. Her dissertation research was a study of disaster preparedness in rural hospitals in the United States. She also developed and taught a university course regarding public health issues in emergency management.

Andrew E. Collins, Director of the Disaster and Development Centre, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom

Dr. Andrew Collins is Reader and Director of the Disaster and Development Centre at Northumbria University. He is recurrently researcher, consultant or advisor with a wide range of governmental, non-governmental and humanitarian organisations operating internationally or locally. Andrew’s research and publishing work involves the theoretical, methodological and policy integration of health ecology, disaster reduction, sustainable development and human security. He led the establishment of the world’s first disaster management and sustainable development postgraduate programme launched in 2000, and the Disaster and Development Centre (DDC) launched in 2004. He supervises a community of PhD researchers spanning disaster and development studies. His orientation in this field includes through earlier voluntary service in contexts of conflict and environmental crises.

Francesco Della Corte, Director Department of Emergency Medicine, Azienda Ospidaliero Universitaria Maggiore della Carità, Novara, Italy

Francesco Della Corte, born in 1954, is Full Professor of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at the University A. Avogadro in Novara, Italy. Graduated in 1979 in Rome; appointed as Secretary of the European Society for Emergency Medicine in 1999 to 2006. He is the Founder and Course Director of the European Master in Disaster Medicine hosted by the University of Novara and Brussels. He is the Chair of the Emergency Department at Maggiore Hospital, School of Medicine in Novara.

Rob de Wijk, Director, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands

In 2007 Dr. Rob de Wijk assumed the position of Director of the The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies.

He is also Professor of International Relations at the University of Leiden and Chairman of the National Security Think Tank, advising the Government on defence and national security issues, including contingency plans for crisis management and Columnist for Trouw.

His main fields of expertise are (national and international) security, defence, and terrorism.

Ranjith Dissanayake, Professor of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya. was a Fulbright Scholar in 2008 Columbia University USA and Endeavour Fellow in 2008 Monash University Australia, JASSO Research Fellowship Ehime University in Japan 2007. Was awarded Young Scientist Award 2007 for Exellence in Scientific Reaserch by National Science and Technology Commission of Sri Lanka and Overseas Prize for the paper published in Institution of Civil Engineers, London, UK, 2007 titled “ Lessons learnt from tsunami damage in Sri Lanka”.

Craig Duncan, Senior Information Management Officer, Information Management Unit, UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction UNISDR, Geneva, Switzerland

Craig Duncan is a Senior Coordinator at the UNISDR and joined the secretariat in 2006 as Senior Information Management Officer he is primarily responsible for knowledge management and the development of a global information clearing house for disaster risk reduction, known as 'PreventionWeb'.  

A Canadian national, Craig has an Engineering degree form the University of Guelph, and is an active member of many development communities. Prior to joining the ISDR secretariat, Craig worked for the UN OCHA as the Project Manager of ReliefWeb.

Richard J. Eiser, Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

J. Richard Eiser is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield, UK, having previously held positions at the Universities of Exeter, London and Bristol. He has authored several books and over 200 journal publications in social, cognitive and health psychology. His specialist interests include attitude formation, judgement and decision-making, and risk interpretation in the contexts of natural hazards, energy technology and health behaviour.

Mustafa Ö. Erdik, Professor, Department of Earthquake Engineering, Bogazici University, Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Istanbul, Turkey

Mustafa Erdik is a Professor of Earthquake Engineering at, and currently serves as the Director of  Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute in Bogazici University in Istanbul.  He has worked with UNESCO, UNIDO, UNDP and several international foundations around the world on earthquake engineering problems. He is a member of the editorial board of several professional journals. He serves in the executive board of several professional societies and establishments, including Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 scientific papers and 5 books. In 1999 he was elected as the laureate of United Nations Sasakawa Disaster Prevention Award and in 2004 he has received the NATO Science for Peace – Summit Prize. His current research interest is on earthquake hazard and risk assessment.  Born in Ankara, Turkey, Dr. Erdik received a B.S. degree (1970) from Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and the degrees of M.S. (1972) and Ph.D. (1975) from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Michael H. Faber, Professor of Risk and Safety, Head of the Department,Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

Professor Michael Habro Faber is Head of Department of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark.

His main area of expertise lies within risk informed decision making, management of catastrophic risks, national hazards, structural reliability, and life safety.

Eladio Fernández-Galiano, Executive Secretary, European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA), Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France  

Nina I. Frolova, Senior Scientific Researcher, Seismological Center of Institute of Environmental Geosciences, Russian Academy of Sciences and Regional Director for Europe, Directors’ Board Member, TIEMS - The International Emergency Management Society, Russia

Dr. Nina I. Frolova's research fields focus onseismic and integrated risk assessment and management with information technology application; development  of seismic vulnerability functions for different elements at risk; loss estimations due to scenario earthquakes taking into account secondary accidents at industrial facilities; development and maintenance of GIS “Extremum,” a system that is being made available for use throughout the world to assess the consequences of strong earthquakes and the identification of effective response measures.

Dirk Glaesser,Coordinator, Risk and Crisis Management,World Tourism Organization (UNWTO),Madrid, Spain

Dr. Dirk Glaesser joined the World Tourism Organization in 1997 as Sales and Marketing Representative. He was appointed in 2001 as Chief of Publications and in 2007, in addition, Chief, Risk and Crisis Management. Since 2007 he also supervises the UNWTO Consulting Unit on Biodiversity and Tourism. Dirk Glaesser authored several publications, which have been widely translated. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Lüneburg and was awarded in 2001 the International Tourism Exchange’s (ITB) scientific award for his work on crisis management. Dr. Glaesser is married and has two children.

Patrick Gwimbi, Senior lecturer, Department of Environmental Health, National University of Lesotho, Lesotho

His expertise focus on Climate Change and Disasters management, Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental Toxicology and Waste Management.

Patrick Gwimbi has previously taught at universities in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Johann Georg Goldammer, The Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), Freiburg, Germany

Professor Dr. Dr.h.c. Johann Georg Goldammer is head of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and is an institution of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. The GFMC is a contribution of Germany to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and serving as Secretariat of the Global Wildland Fire Network and the UNISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group. At Freiburg University he is serving as professor for fire ecology. Since 2005 the GFMC is an Associate Institute of the United Nations University (UNU).

Peter Greminger, Senior Consultant, Ressources&Riskmanagement, Federal Office for Environment, Bern, Switzerland

Dr Peter Greminger graduate in Forestry Engeneering at ETH Zurich in 1976 and got his phD in soil physics in 1981. From 1981 - 1983 he did a  Post Doc at University of Califonia (Spatial Variability) and was Director of the Swiss Forest Decline Program (SANASILV) from 1983 to 1989.
He worked for many years as a Senior consultant and was Director of Mountain Forests & Natural Hazards Departement at the Federal Office for Environment, Forest and Landscape (FOEFL) until 2005.
Since 2005 he works as a Senior Consultant for Ressources & Riskmanagement at the Federal Office for Enviroment (FOEN) in Bern, Switzerland.

Markku T. Häkkinen, Senior Researcher, Department of Mathematical Information Technology University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Markku Häkkinen is senior researcher at the department of Mathematical Information Technology of the University of Jyväskylä.  He has worked in the field of human factors and user interface research and software development for over 25 years. Mr Hakkinen's current research focus is in the design of accessible, multimodal warning systems.  Mr. Hakkinen was a key technical contributor in the development of the DAISY and ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Digital Talking Book standards, a participant in Web standards development, and is currently an invited expert to the W3C WAI User Agent Accessibility Working Group. He has a B.Sc. in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, conducted graduate research in speech-based Interfaces at Virginia Tech, and has a M.Sc. in Computer Science/Cognitive Science from the University of Jyväskylä.

Ryusuke Hashimura, Associate Professor, Department of EcoDesign, Sojo University, Kumamoto, Japan

Makarand (Mark) Hastak, Professor and Head, Division of Construction Engineering & Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

Dr. Makarand (Mark) Hastak is the Professor and Head of the Division of Construction Engineering and Management as well as Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue University, USA. Dr. Hastak has been involved with the construction industry for the past 24 years where he has conducted research, taught, and assisted industry in the area of construction engineering and management including disaster risk reduction, infrastructure management, cost control, project management, management decision making, risk management, and strategic planning. Dr. Hastak’s research has made significant contributions to the field of risk management in construction with particular emphasis on understanding, assessment, and management of profitability and risk in construction. To further enhance research in risk assessment and decision-making, Dr. Hastak has established a research lab at Purdue University called SPARC (Solutions for Profitability and Assessment of Risk in Construction). The objective of this lab is to offer a venue for graduate students and industry alike to contemplate solutions in profitability enhancement, risk assessment and management in construction. His group at the SPARC lab has been engaged in cutting edge research in these areas funded by several federal, state, and private agencies. Dr. Hastak also serves as the Research Director for the Purdue Housing Research Center and represents the university at the National Consortium of Housing Research Centers as the past chair.

Yongnian He, Research Professor, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, People's Republic of China

Professor He's focal area of work are earthquake disaster management and popularization of science concerning prevention and reduction of earthquake disaster.

Sam  Hettiarachchi, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa and Chair, Risk Assessment Working Group of UNESCO/IOC/ICG/IOTWS, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Professor Sam Hettiarachchi is a Professor of Civil Engineering of the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. He specialised in Coastal and Harbour Engineering having done his PhD at Imperial College, London. Since 2005 he has served as Chairman of Working Group of Risk Assessment of UNESCO/IOC/Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) for the establishment of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System(IOTWS). Professor Hettiarachchi has served on expert panels of UNESCO/IOC for the preparation of Guidelines on Coastal Hazards, Risk Assessment and Management. His research interests cover coastal structures, tsunami risk assessment and management.

Yasamin O. Izadkhah, Assistant Professor, Risk Management Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran

Yasamin main fields of interest include Earthquake Disaster Management, Children and Disasters, Risk Education and Training, Disaster Risk Reduction and Community Resilience. She is the author/co-author of more than 80 papers presented and published in national/ international conferences, bulletins and academic journals. Internationally, she has travelled to more than 15 countries in relation to her research activities and has contributed to various joint research/educational projects and reviews with various organizations including UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNAPCICT and World Bank. Her recent research project focuses on "Evaluation of Women’s Role in Confronting Earthquakes".

Carlo Jaeger, Professor for Economy, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK, Potsdam, Germany

Carlo Jaeger, born 1947 in Switzerland is a professor for economy at the University of Potsdam, Germany. At the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK, he is head of the department on „Transdisciplinary Concepts and methods“. Carlo studied sociology and economy in Berne, Switzerland and Frankfurt, D. He was a professor at the ETH in Zurich, at the Universities of Zurich, Frankfurt and the TU Darmstadt. Carlo Jaeger is the Chairman of the European Climate Forum, which has been initiated by the PIK and which is an association with members from universities, NGOs and the private sector, and which concentrates on solutions for global environmental problems. Together with Shi Peijun, Carlo is Co-Chair of the Integrated Risk Governance Projects (www.irg-project.org). His current interest in research is focused on climate change and financial markets.

Allia Khedidja, Professor and Director, Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari USTHB, Alger, Algeria

Khedidja Allia is Chemical Engineering Professor and research director at the University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumedienne, Algiers.  She received her engineer diploma at Polytechnic school (ENP) and the Doctorate in Chemical Engineering at National Polytechnic School, Algiers (ENP) and Thames Polytechnic – London-UK.
She occupied several posts as; Director of Higher Education (MESRS), Director of the Industrial chemistry institute USTHB and President of the Scientific Committee - Industrial Chemistry institute, Head of Chemical Engineering Department at the National Polytechnic school of Algiers (E.N.P), and Researcher at Research and Development Direction at SONATRACH (1974-1976). She took part at many commissions on the higher education reforms, and she was the National Coordinator of the higher education Commission (Technology) of “Maghreb Equivalence”.

Professor Khedidja Allia has published (and continues) several scientific works in the fields of chemical engineering (Pneumatic conveying, fluidization, semi fluidization and wastewater treatment...), and has been involved (and continues) with a number of research projects.

She is an UNESCO Expert and also national research expert.
She is also interested and implicated by the teaching of ethics in engineering science.

Wolfgang Kröger, Executive Director, ETH Risk Center, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Professor Dr Wolfgang Kröger has been Ordinarius of Safety Technology at the ETH Zurich since 1990 and director of the Laboratory and Safety Analysis. Before being elected IRGC’s Founding Rector in 2003 he headed research in nuclear energy and safety at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), where he was also on the board of directors. After his retirement at the beginning of 2011 he has become the managing director of the newly established ETH Risk Center.

Seda Kundak, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

Dr. Seda Kundak has been working in the field of risk assessment and vulnerability at urban scale. She participated graduate courses on natural hazards and disaster mitigation in Switzerland and Japan. She has accomplished her post-doctoral researches at the Politecnico di Milano in the ENSURE Project (FP7). She has worked as an expert in ISMEP Project. She is currently working as an assistant professor at the Istanbul technical University, Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

Alejandro Linayo Rivero, President, Disaster Risk Management Research Centre, Merida, Venezuela

Systems engineer with specialization in stochastic and operational research; master degree in organizational theory and PhD studies in educational and social sciences. Started to work in disaster response operations in 1985 and in 1997 began to work as researcher and professor (post-degree) on DRR programs. Since 2007 is president of the Research Centre on Disaster Risk Reduction CIGIR and member of the Directive Board of the Latin American Network of Social Studies on Disaster Prevention LARED.

Thomas R. Loster, Chairman, Munich Re Foundation, Munich, Germany

Thomas R. Loster, a geographer, was a member of the Geoscience Research Group at Munich Reinsurance Company, Munich, for 16 years. Mr. Loster was appointed chairman of the Munich Re Foundation in July 2004. The Foundation addresses major global challenges – environmental and climate change, water as a resource and risk factor, population growth and disaster prevention. The Foundation aims to prepare people to deal with risks and to improve their living conditions.

Uwe Lübken, Project Director "Disaster Migration in Historical Perspective," Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC), Munich, Germany

Dr. Lübken is coordinating the research project "Disaster Migration in Historical Perspective" at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany. He has published widely in the fields of American and environmental history and is focusing in particular on the historical evolution of risks, natural hazards, and natural catastrophes. From 2004 to 2008, he worked as a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC. He has taught American history and environmental history at the University of Cologne and LMU Munich, and postwar German and European history at the Cologne School of Journalism.

Nikolay A. Makhutov, Member Correspondent, Russian Academy of Sciences and Chief Scientific Researcher, Institute of Machine Science, Russian Academy of Sciences; Head of the Russian Academy of Sciences Working Group “Risk and Safety”, Russia

Professor Nikolay A. Makhutov's research fieldsfocus on development of integrated risk mitigation programs. Range of projects include: natural and technological hazards; risk based decision making; risk analysis for critical infrastructures; emergency response management; fracture mechanics.

James Martin, Professor Civil Engineering, Virginia Tech (VT), USA

Dr. Martin is Professor of Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech (VT), USA, and Director of the Institute for Disaster Risk Management at VT. He has over 20 years experience in disaster-related work, with focus on earthquake engineering and seismic hazard assessment. He is a frequent field investigator of worldwide disasters, and has been involved in the advancement of US building codes. He often serves as international consultant on major civil infrastructure projects for private firms and government agencies. He has won national awards for research, teaching, and professional service.

Adolfo Mascarenhas, Local & Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Commission of Science and Technology, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Adolfo Mascarenhas, has been a Professor  at the University of Dar es Salaam and has worked at the local, national, regional and international level. His main interest are in environment, knowledge  and development.  He has served as a Chairman of several national institutions, including the National Scientific Research Council, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, the Tanzania Forest Research  Institute.  Has been  advisor to the Rector of the UNU, the DG of UNEP,  drafted  the water and sanitation programme for WHO/UNICEF. He was the founder Director of IUCN when they opened the Regional Office for Southern Africa. He returned to the University of Dar es Salaam to his base at the Institute of Resource Assessment and served as Director of Post graduate studies.

Christof Mauch, Director, Rachel Carlson Center for Environment and Society, Germany

Christof Mauch is Director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society and Professor and Chair in American Cultural History and Transatlantic Relations at LMU Munich. Before joining LMU he was Director of the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C.. Mauch has held Visiting Professorships in Environmental History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; and at the Center for Environmental History, Vienna, Austria. He is currently the President of the European Society for Environmental History. Mauch has authored or edited about 40 books, some of them award winning. His publications include American Environments. Climates, Culture, Catastrophe, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2012 (Ed. with Sylvia Mayer); Uncertain Environments: Natural Hazards, Risk, and Insurance in Historical Perspective (Ed. with Uwe Lübken; 2011); Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Toward a Global Environmental History, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books 2009 (Ed. with Christian Pfister).

Virginia Murray, Consultant Medical Toxicologist, Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division, London, UK

Professor Virginia Murray qualified in medicine, was was appointed consultant medical toxicologist at Guy and St Thomas’s Hospital Poisons Unit and was Director of Chemical Incident Response Service from 1995.

Since April 2003 she works for Health Protection Agency’s Centre for Radiation, Chemicals and Environmental hazards (CRCE).  She has considerable experience in advising on toxicological and environmental public health aspects of response to acute and chronic chemical and extreme event incidents. Appointed as Visiting Professor in Health Protection, King’s College, London (2004) she has published widely.

She is the UK Government member on the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Scientific and Technical Committee since 2008.   

Juan Murria, Consulting Engineer, Director, Centro de Investigacion de Riesgos (Risk Research Center) Universidad de Falcon, Punto Fijo, Venezuela

Juan Murria is a Venezuelan civil engineer with ample   experience in the oil industry in Venezuela, Brunei  and Holland..

In Venezuela he has directed  the preparation of a contingency plan for the oilfields in the eastern coast of Lake Maracaibo. (PLAN COLM). 

In 2003 he was appointed  Vice President for Latin America  of the Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction (GADR) and in 2004 he founded  the  Risk Research Center at the Universidad de Falcon in Punto Fijo, Venezuela and becoming its first Director.

Murria has lectured extensively and given short courses and seminars at universities In Venezuela, Japan, and several countries in Europe, North, Central and South America and the Caribbean and written more than 100 papers in the areas of his expertise.

Norio Okada, Professor and former Director of Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI),Kyoto University, and President of IDRiM Society, Kyoto, Japan

Professor Norio Okada is an expert in integrated disaster risk management , water and environmental management, sustainable management of cities and regions,
social systems engineering.

George Pararas-Carayannis, President, Tsunami Society International, Honolulu, USA

Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis, for about 35 years, was involved with Tsunami Research at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics of the University of Hawaii, with scientific organizations of the U. S. Government and also served as Director of the World Data Center A-Tsunami, as Director of the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) (under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and as Tsunami Advisor for the State of Hawaii's Civil Defense.

Stefan Pickl, Chair for Operations Research Management Safety & Security AllianceCOMTESSA Computer Science Faculty, Core Competence Center C3 for Operations Research, Universität der Bundeswehr, Munich, Germany       

Professor Stefan Pickl studied mathematics, electrical engineering, and philosophy at TU Darmstadt and EPFL Lausanne 1987-93. Dipl.-Ing. ’93, Doctorate 1998 with award. Assistant Professor at Cologne University (Dr. habil. 2005; venia legendi "Mathematics"). Visiting Professor at University of New Mexico (U.S.A.), University Graz (Austria), Universiti Brunei, University of California at Berkeley, Naval Postgraduate School NPS Monterey (U.S.A.).  Visiting scientist at SANDIA, Los Alamos National Lab, Santa Fe Institute for Complex Systems and MIT. Associated with Centre for the Advanced Study of Algorithms CASA (U.S.A.), Center for Network Innovation and Experimentation CENETIX. Foundation and Director of COMTESSA (Core Competence Center C3 for Operations Research, Management Safety & Security Alliance), member of MUNICH AEROSPACE, HOLM (House of Logistics and Mobility) and research branch “Humanitarian Logistics”/ “Integrative Risk Assessment Future ICT”.

Saifur Rahman, Director, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute, Arlington, USA

Professor Saifur Rahman is the founding director of the Advanced Research Institute (www.ari.vt.edu) at Virginia Tech where he is the Joseph R. Loring professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment (www.ceage.vt.edu). He is a Fellow of the IEEE.  He is the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. He is a vice president of the IEEE Power and Energy Society. His areas of interest are: smart grid, energy efficient lighting solutions, renewable energy, demand  response, distributed generation and critical infrastructure protection.

Ortwin Renn, Department of Social Sciences, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

Ortwin Renn serves as full professor and Chair of Environmental Sociology and Technology Assessment at Stuttgart University (Germany). He directs the Interdisciplinary Research Unit for Risk Governance and Sustainable Technology Development (ZIRN) at Stuttgart University and the non-profit company DIALOGIK, a research institute for the investigation of communication and participation processes in environmental policy making. Renn also serves as Adjunct Professor for “Integrated Risk Analysis” at Stavanger University (Norway) and as Affiliate Professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology and Beijing Normal University.

Christoph Ritz, Head, ProClim Forum for Climate and Global Change, Bern, Switzerland

Christoph Ritz, PhD in plasma physics at the University of Fribourg. Head of a research group on turbulence and chaotic behavior in nuclear fusion devices and other media in the USA. Since 1993 executive director of ProClim- Forum for Climate and Global Change of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. Direction and editor of scientific assessment reports and position papers in the field of climate and global change and energy.

Badaoui M Rouhban, Director, Section for Disaster Reduction, UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris, France

Dr Badaoui Rouhban is Director of the Unit for Disaster Reduction at UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris. He manages and coordinates international activities related to the scientific, engineering and educational aspects of natural disaster studies and prevention including earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, landslides and droughts. Within UNESCO Dr Rouhban is the focal point for the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and coordinates input to this Strategy from various Programmes Sectors including Education, Culture, Social and Human Sciences. He is involved in several United Nations and international projects and mechanisms concerning disaster risk reduction.
Dr Rouhban holds a Doctor of Engineering degree from the University ‘Pierre & Marie Curie’ in Paris and has carried out post-doctoral research in engineering seismology at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He authored several papers and articles on hazard studies and disaster resilience.

Jane E. Rovins, Executive Director, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), Beijing, China

Dr. Jane E. Rovins, CEM, FPEM is an Executive Director for Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR). Previously, she worked in the public and private sectors promoting risk reduction, mitigation planning and providing emergency management training; was a Professor for American Military University in the Emergency and Disaster Management Department; and as a consultant for emergency and disaster management groups throughout Asia, Latin America and Africa. Her specialties are disaster risk reduction, programme management, planning, organizational development and education.

Haresh C. Shah, Obayashi Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, Stanford University, Founder and Senior Advisor Risk Management Solutions, Inc., Stanford, USA

Peijun Shi, Vice-President, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

Peijun Shi is the executive vice-president of Beijing Normal University. He received his Ph.D of palaeogeography at Beijing Normal University and gained postdoctoral experience at the College of Natural Resources at the University of California in Berkeley, USA. He is a member of the Expert Committee under the National Disaster Reduction Committee, which belongs to the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China and also a member of OECD’s High Level Advisory Board on Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes. His research focuses on natural disaster theories and risk management. He has been charged with many relative national or ministerial programs and has numerous publications. He established the system of “regional natural disaster system” which consists of “environment, hazard and society”. Furthermore he put forward the technological system of regional agricultural natural disaster assessment. Peijun Shi is currently co-chairing the IRG-Project.

Shital Hardik Shukla, Assistant Professor, Sardar Patel Institute of economic and Social Research, Ahemedabad, India

Shital Hardik Shukla is an Assistant Professor, Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahemedabad, India. Her areas of research work include climate change and disaster management, sustainable development and environmental planning, coastal area development, research methodology for social science, and natural resource management. She has published various reports and papers in reputed journals and books.

Alois J. Sieber, Head of Security Technology Assessment Unit, European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute, Ispra, Italy

Cletus I. Springer, Director, Organization of American States, Department of Sustainable Development, Washington, USA

Mr. Cletus Springer assumed duties as a Director of Sustainable Development with effect from March, 2008.
Prior to joining the OAS, Mr. Springer headed his own consulting practice which catered to a client base that included Caribbean governments and intergovernmental institutions. Mr. Springer has authored scores of published and unpublished technical papers on a number of wide-ranging subjects. In his new capacity, Mr. Springer will oversee the design and implementation of sustainable development cooperation programmes in OAS Member States in the Caribbean.

Gerhard *Franz* Ulrich Stoessel, Focal Point DRR, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC, Bern, Switzerland

Dr. Franz Stoessel works with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC since 2000. The SDC is part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and manages international development cooperation, cooperation with Eastern Europe and Humanitarian Aid.
Mr. Stoessel is senior policy advisor in Disaster Risk Reduction. As Focal Point DRR he is in charge of institutional knowledge management and runs a thematic network with more than 140 members. Main tasks are capitalizations of good practices, training courses and sharing of technical knowledge in international development cooperation.
From 2000-2002, he was Executive Secretary of PLANAT, the Swiss Platform for Natural Hazards.
He is a member of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit SHA (specialized groups on «Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction» and «Water and environmental Sanitation»)

Jishnu Subedi, Coordinator, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Jishnu Subedi, Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and MBA, is currently working as Coordinator, Master of Science in Structural Engineering, at Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University. Before joining the institute in 2009, he worked as Researcher in the Disaster Management and Planning Unit of United Nations Centre for Regional Development. He also served as Vice-Principal (2006-2007) and Coordinator for Masters in Disaster Risk Management (2004-2007) at Nepal Engineering College. His main areas of work include urban disaster risk management, climate change and earthquake risk mitigation. He has co-authored a book on Disasters and Development: Investing in Sustainable Development of Nepal and has published numerous papers in disaster management and earthquake risk management.

Helen T. Sullivan, STARI Research Fellow & Department of Psychology Rider University, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, USA

Helen Sullivan is a research fellow in the Science and Technology Advanced Research Institute (STARI) at Rider University and is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Psychology. Her courses include Learning and Memory, Behavior Modification, Sensation & Perception, Research Methods & Statistics and Independent Research. Her current research interests focus on how to reduce the risk of harm from disasters. The Cognitive Science Net Laboratory is the platform she has developed,in conjunction with PSYDRR,for conducting her research. She has presented her work at conferences and workshops in Europe, China, and Japan. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, Sigma Xi, the Eastern Psychological Association, the Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Community, the Global Risk Forum, and the Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction.

Annegret H. Thieken, German Committee for Disaster Reduction DKKV, Potsdam, Germany

Professor Thieken (Dr. rer. nat. habil.,) has been Professor for Geography and Natural Risks Research at the University of Potsdam since October 2011. Beforehand she was Deputy Director of the Climate Service Center (CSC) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht in Hamburg (in 2010 and 2011) as well as Professor for Natural Hazard and Risk Management at the University of Innsbruck (Austria; from 2008 to 2010), where she was also acted as scientific director of the inter- and transdisciplinary centre alpS. Prior to that, Annegret Thieken was senior scientist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) for eight years. She did her PhD-research at the University of Halle (Saale) and studied environmental sciences (geo-ecology) at Braunschweig’s Technical University and the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Annegret Thieken has more than 15 years of experience with research on water-related risks as well as with the management of interdisciplinary research consortia. Her research has dealt with a broad range of topics, e.g. probabilistic flood risk modelling, uncertainty issues, analysis and modelling of losses, multi-risk studies as well as evaluation of mitigation measures at different scales. Up to now, she has (co-)authored about 40 reviewed papers in international journals, 15 other reviewed publications and 60 contributions in conference proceedings, journals, books and scientific series.

Tan Ngoh Tiong, Dean, School of Human Development and Social Services, SIM University, Singapore

Professor Tan is Dean, School of Human Development and Social Services at SIM University, Singapore and former Professor of Social Work at Augsburg College, USA. He is Co-Chair of the Commonwealth Organisation for Social Work, and chaired the Families and Survivors of Tsunami Project. He is the former President of Singapore Association of Social Workers and past Vice President of International Federation of Social Workers.  Dr Tan has edited many books including: Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice, Extending Frontiers: Social Work in Singapore, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Social Work Around the World.

Trias Aditya, Assistant Professor, Department of Geodetic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Trias Aditya is academician at the Department of Geodesy & Geomatics Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia. His research interests include interoperable GIS and Geovisualization. His latest research projects include Collaborative Spatial Data Infrastructure for Disaster Risk Reduction and online tools for community resilience.

Thomas Usländer, Head of Department, Fraunhofer-Institute for Information and Data Processing (IITB), Department of Information Management, Karlsruhe, Germany

Dr. Thomas Usländer is Head of department Information Management and Deputy Spokesman of the Business Unit  Energy, Water and Environment. His focal area of work are requirements analysis of environmental risk and crisis management systems, decision support systems based upon environmental in-situ and Earth observation sensor networks, design and implementation of geospatial service-oriented architectures based upon standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), relationship management to international initiatives such as INSPIRE, GMES, GEOSS, HMA and geospatial data and text mining.

Bartel van de Walle, President, ISCRAM Association and Associate Professor, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands

Dr. Bartel Van de Walle is a tenured Associate Professor at the Department of Information Management, Tilburg School of Economics and Management at Tilburg University (the Netherlands), visiting professor at Harbin Engineering University (China) and guest professor at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. He served as a staff advisor on science policy to the Flemish minister of science and innovation in 2010-2011, and is board member of the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) since 2010.

He received his MSc and his PhD in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Ghent University (Belgium). His dissertation research was on decision support for individuals and groups, two areas which are still at the core of his current research interests at the intersection of information and communication technologies and the (humanitarian) crisis management domain.

These interests have lead him to work for various European or UN funded research and consultancy projects in Africa (Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, and South-Africa), the Middle East (occupied Palestinian territories and Jordan), China, Russia, as well as in several universities and research labs in Europe and the USA.

Bartel has published nearly 100 reviewed papers in proceedings of international conferences and journals. He has served as a reviewer, advisor or consultant for the American, Dutch and Flemish National Science Foundations, the European Commission, and the United Nations (ISDR, OCHA and WHO). Bartel received a prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship in 2005 for his research on threat rigidity and computer-mediated communication and decision making.

Bartel co-founded the international Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) Community in 2004, and has since co-organized special sessions, tracks, international workshops, conferences and PhD Summer Schools in Europe, the USA and China. Bartel was elected founding chair of the Board of the ISCRAM Association, established as an international non-profit organization in Belgium in 2009.

Eric Veulliet, CEO, alpS - Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Technologies, Innsbruck, Austria

Dr. Eric Veulliet leads the alpS - Centre since more than nine years. "alpS research" investigates how global climate change affects regional and local human-environment systems. Climate and socio-economic scenarios provide the basis for assessment and evaluation of possible future developments in mountain regions. "alpS development" focuses on innovative, marketable technologies and strategies for a sustainable adaptation to climate change. These include innovations for early warning and monitoring systems for the prevention of natural disasters, tools for modern risk management as well as concepts for adapted land-use, water resource and forestry management. "alpS consult" supports decision makers, institutions and businesses on the basis of its scientific expertise. Risk management for municipalities and businesses or regional energy development strategies serve as two successful examples. alpS minimises negative risks of climate change and reaps its economic opportunities.

James Herbert Williams, Dean, DU Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, Denver, USA

Professor James Herbert Williams, PhD., is Dean and Milton Morris Endowed Chair at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. He holds his MSW from Smith College, MPA from the University of Colorado and PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Washington-Seattle. Dr. Williams’ research and training has been funded by grants from several federal and state agencies and private foundations. Dr. Williams’ publications and community engagement focus on health promotion and disease prevention, health disparities, economic sustainability, human security, conflict resolution, delinquency and violence, mental health services for African American children in urban schools, disproportionate minority confinement of African American youth in the criminal justice system, community strategies for positive youth development, and social issues of the African American community.  His scholarship has been published in several prominent health and social science journals.  
 Dr. Williams has 30 plus years of experience as a scholar/educator and social work practitioner.  He has served on two commissions for the Council on Social Work Education and as a member of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Board of Directors. He is the current President of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work.     

Detlof von Winterfeldt, Director, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria

Professor Detlof von Winterfeldt is the Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. He is on leave from the University of Southern California (USC), where he is a Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and a Professor of Public Policy and Management.  Concurrently with his term at IIASA, he is a Centennial Professor of Management Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  In 2004 he co-founded the National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), the first university-based center of excellence funded by the US Department of Homeland Security, serving as CREATE’s director until 2008. For the past thirty-five years, he has been active in teaching, research, university administration, and consulting.  He has taught courses in statistics, decision analysis, risk analysis, systems analysis, research design, and behavioral decision research.  His research interests are in the foundation and practice of decision and risk analysis as applied to the areas of technology development, environmental risks, natural hazards and terrorism.  He is the co-author of two books, two edited volumes, and author or co-author of over 120 journal articles and book chapters on these topics.  As a consultant he has applied decision and risk analysis to many management problems of government and private industry.  He has served on eighteen committees and panels of the U.S. National Academies and the U.S. National Science Foundation, including an appointment to the National Academies’ Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications.  He is an elected Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and of the Society for Risk Analysis.  In 2000 he received the Ramsey Medal for distinguished contributions to decision analysis from the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS. In 2009 he received the Gold Medal from the International Society for Multicriteria Decision Making for advancing the field. In 2011 The Council of IIASA elected him as Honorary IIASA Scholar.

Qian Ye, Professor, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

Dr. Qian Ye is Professor for climate change impacts at Beijing Normal University, deputy general secretary of the Chinese National Committee for IHDP and leading scientist of the Social and Economic Impact Assessment Group at Beijing Meteorological Bureau.
He is executive director of the newly established IHDP core project, IRG Project and member of the Scientific Steering Committee. His current research interest is focused on the role of social and ecological dynamic system in dealing with climate change and its impacts.

Sidika Tekeli Yesil, Consultant, Ministry of Health of Turkey, Department of Health Services at Emergencies and Disasters

Dr. Tekeli-Yesil, is currently working on health disaster plans. Her interest areas are disaster management in health systems, disaster epidemiology, public health, risk perception and awareness among communities. She gained her master degree in Public Health from the University of Bielefeld/Germany. She did a PhD in Epidemiolgy at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel/Switzerland, where she worked as a research assistant and later as a scientist.

John N. Zeppos, Group BCM & ERM Deputy Director, COSMOTE Mobile Telecommunications S.A., Maroussi, Greece”

A dynamic and dedicated senior management professional having acquired more than 18 years of experience, responsible for Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in 4 countries. Possesses excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and negotiate persuasively at Board and Group Audit Committee level, presenting BCM & ERM programme status as well as budget reports. Very attentive to detail with a practical approach to problem solving and the organization required to ensure that effective plans are devised and achieved. Superior planning skills ensure that every risk is accounted for and mitigated against, to ensure stability and secure continuation for business operations.
International recognitions he received for his exemplary thought leadership on Business Continuity (BCM), include but are not limited to:

• Highly Commended BCM Manager of the Year 2011 - CIR Awards, London, UK, May 2011
• Global Highly Commended Business Continuity Manager (BCM) of the Year 2011 - Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Awards, London, UK, November 2011
  

Successfully led the COSMOTE BS25999 certification project, coordinating activities of more than 300 BCM Operational Team Members. Certification gained in July 2011 directly by BSI UK.
In addition to his regular position, John also serves as an Operational Capability Expert for the Industrial Resources & Communications Services Group (Comms) EAPC, providing thought leadership on his subject matter of BCM within NATO.
Enjoys leading and being part of a successful and productive team and thrives in highly pressurized and challenging working environments.
John currently lives & works in Athens, Greece.