Prof. Hirokazu Tatano is the Research Division Head of Disaster Management for Safe and Secure Society, the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University. In addition to his responsibilities as a Professor at the DPRI, he has served as Vice President of the International Society of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Society) since 2010, and as Secretary General of the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI) since 2015. He has pursued pioneering research on economic consequence analysis with a major focus on economic resilience to natural disasters at the levels of individual businesses, markets, and regional economies. Another research focus is on methodologies for integrated disaster risk management and governance. Through these academic activities, he hopes to help establish “implementation science” as a key area of science for disaster risk reduction.
Prof. Andrew Collins is a leader of the Disaster and Development Network and a Professor of Disaster and Development, Department of Geography, Northumbria University, UK. Beyond his research, local teaching and management responsibilities, he represents disaster, development and health-related initiatives internationally. He led the establishment of the world’s first disaster management and sustainable development postgraduate programme, launched in 2000, and the Disaster and Development Network (DDN), launched in 2004. Prior to his academic appointments, Andrew also worked internationally, including three years of voluntary support to communities in wartime Mozambique. He is currently engaged in high-level policy and advisory work, serves on the reviewing and commissioning boards for national and international organisations and multiple journals, and is involved with 13 research funding bodies.
