Proceedings of the 4th Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster Risk Reduction Increasing the Effectiveness and Relevance of Our Institutes

Professor Hirokazu Tatano is a vice-director of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, and the head of the Research Division of Disaster Management for Safe and Secure Society. In addition, he has served as the vice-president of the International Society of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Society) since 2010, and as the Secretary-General of the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI) since 2015. He has carried out pioneering research on an 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 methodologies for integrated disaster risk management and governance. Through these academic activities, he wishes to contribute to establishing “implementation science” as a key area of science for disaster risk reduction.

Professor Andrew Collins is the leader of the Disaster and Development Network, Northumbria University, UK, and is a professor in Disaster and Development and subject head of Human Geography, Policy and Development in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University. He represents many disaster and development-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, he went through the international voluntary sector. He has been elected as the first Chair of the Board of Directors of GADRI between 2016 and 2020 and of the United Kingdom Alliance for Disaster Research from 2016 until the present.