ASTAAG
Disaster Risk Governance
Chairperson of ASTAAG:
Shi Peijun
Executive vice-president, Beijing Normal University;
Vice chairman, the Expert board of the National Commission for Disaster Reduction , China.
He is a member of the UNISDR scientific and technical advisory group and a member of OECD’s High Level Advisory Board on Financial Management of Large-scale Disasters. During 2008 China Wenchuan Earthquake, he was appointed as the vice chairman of the National Expert Committee for Wenchuan Earthquake to lead the scientific teams for the emergency response and post-disaster reconstruction.
Environment Disaster Management
Co-chair of ASTAAG:
Rajib Shaw
Executive Director, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), China
He worked closely with the local communities, NGOs, governments and international organization, including United Nations, especially in the Asian countries. He is currently the President of Asian University Network of Environment and Disaster Management [AUEDM].
Disaster Risk Management
Ali Ardalan
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
He is a pioneer in DRM in Iran and the MENA region who created MPH and PhD programs in disaster health. He is a WHO Consultant, Senior Fellow at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, faculty at European Master of Disaster Medicine, and representative of Central Asia in GNDR.
Disaster Preparedness and Resilience in Health
Emily Ying Yang Chan
Professor and Assistant Dean, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Director, Collaborating Centre for Oxford University and CUHK for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response (CCOUC) Honorary Research Fellow (Emerging Infectious Diseases and Emergency Preparedness), University of Oxford Visiting Scholar, FXB Centre and Senior HHI Fellow Harvard School of Public Health, China.
Professor Chan’s research expertise includes disaster preparedness and resilience in health, climate change and health, evidence based public health interventions, and disaster-based epidemiology. She has published more than 200 international peer-reviewed articles. She serves as technical advisors to various government and international nongovernment bodies
Earthquake Risk Reduction
Jamilur Reza Choudhury
Vice Chancellor, University of Asia Pacific; Former Vice Chancellor, BRAC University and Former Professor of Civil Engineering, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
He has acted as Consultant to a large number of national and international agencies on projects related to tall buildings, industrial buildings, transmission towers, aircraft hangars, stadiums, ports and jetties, computerization of public and private sector organizations.
Multi-stakeholder Partnership
Takako Izumi
Associate Professor, the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Japan.
She also serves as Program Coordinator of the Multi-Hazards Program under the Association of Pacific Lim Universities (APRU). Previously she worked for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), for disaster response coordination in Asia, and for an international NGO as general manager of the disaster response and DRR programs.
Private Sector Involvement
Antonia Yulo Loyzaga
Executive Director, Manila Observatory, Philippines
She oversees collaboration on climate and disaster risk reduction with organizations such as NASA, JAXA, IDRC, UNISDR and APEC. She is a member of the Philippines Department of Science and Technology’s Committee on Space Technology Applications as well as a Board Trustee of the Ateneo de Manila University and Ateneo de Naga University.
Climate Change Adaptation
Joy Jacqueline Pereira
Principal Research Fellow, Southeast Asia Disaster Prevention Research Initiative (SEADPRI-UKM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
She led the team that developed the National Policy on Climate Change 2009 under the aegis of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia and is currently involved in developing the Malaysian Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plan (MyDRR) in conjunction with the National Security Council of the Prime Minister’s Department.
Drought Risk Reduction
Vinod Kumar Sharma
Senior Professor, Disaster Management/Consultant at Indian Institute of Public Administration; Executive Vice Chairman, Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of Sikkim; Adjunct Professor of Disaster Management, Amrita University, India.
He has served in a number of Universities in India and Middle East before joining Indian Institute of Public Administration. He is founder Chairman of a non-profit organization, SEEDS India. He is also Visiting Professor, Kyoto University, Japan and many other Universities/institutions.
Disaster Governance
Sugeng Triutomo
Chairman, Disaster Risk Reduction Foundation; Lecturer, Indonesia Defense University; Advisory Board, National Platform for DRR, Indonesia.
Previously he has worked in the government as Deputy Chief/ Minister for National Disaster Management Authority (BNPB) and Director of Disaster Mitigation at National Coordinating Board for Disaster Management (BAKORNAS PB). He is also founder of Indonesian Society for Disaster Management (MPBI), National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (Planas PRB), Academic Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction and Indonesian Disaster Experts Association (IABI).
Disaster Resilience
David Sanderson
Professor, the Inaugural Judith Neilson chair of architecture at the University of New South Wales Sydney; Member of boards, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Humanitarian Innovations Fund (HIF); International Advisory Group Member, Project for the Study of the 21st Century; Steering Group Member, Global Alliance for Urban Crises.
David has 25 years of experience working across the world in development and emergencies. He has held senior posts in both NGO and academic sectors, leading teams and programmes, developing strategies and undertaking training, research and consultancy. He is a member of several NGO and donor advisory boards and has published articles and papers concerning chronic poverty, urban livelihoods, resilience and shelter.
Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, and Sustainable Development
Frank Thomalla
Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute, Bangkok, Thailand.
Dr. Thomalla leads the SEI Asia Research Cluster on Reducing Disaster Risk and co-leads the SEI Initiative on Transforming Development and Disaster Risk (TDDR). He aims to advance theoretical and practical understanding of the complexity of the human system, sustainability and risk based in grounded systems-orientated research, and to contribute to more inclusive disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation planning and implementation processes that lead to more equitable, sustainable and resilient development.
Emergency Management and Disaster Risk Analysis
Secretary of ASTAAG:
Yang Saini
Professor, The State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology; Director, International Center for Collaborative Research on Disaster Risk Reduction, Beijing Normal University, China.
She specializes in infrastructure risk analysis, emergency management and evacuation, multi-hazard spatial-temporal analysis, community-based disaster risk reduction and post disaster recovery. She is the PI of more than 8 national and international research projects and published over 30 peer reviewed papers in recent five years. Previously she worked in Cleveland State University, the United States, as an assistant professor before join the Beijing Normal University in 2008.
