Charlotte Benson
- Principal Disaster Risk Management Specialist, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department,
Asian Development Bank
Charlotte Benson is Principal Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, where her work includes the development and coordination of ADB's disaster risk management policy and approach, and support to ADB’s operational departments in designing and implementing disaster risk management projects. She has over 25 years’ experience in economic and financial aspects of disaster risk management in developing countries, including in mainstreaming disaster risk in development, disaster risk financing, the fiscal management of disaster risk. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of London.
Marjorie Greene
- (Retired) Special Projects Manager at Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Marjorie Greene recently retired from EERI after a 40-year career in natural hazard mitigation work in which she focused on earthquake hazard mitigation, preparedness, and learning from earthquake programs in the U.S. and abroad. Trained as an urban planner, Marjorie worked for EERI for almost twenty years; before that she worked for the state of California’s Bay Area Regional Earthquake Preparedness Project and as a natural hazards researcher for Battelle. Among her professional activities, Marjorie was the managing editor of the World Housing Encyclopedia from its inception to 2015, consulted for the World Bank and the Government of India, advised several countries about their earthquake rebuilding programs, and coordinated over 50 reconnaissance missions by EERI members to investigate damage and glean lessons from major earthquakes around the world. Since her retirement she has visited IIT Gandhinagar on an annual basis as a scholar-in-residence. She is an honorary member of EERI.
Jim Hall
- Professor of Climate and Environmental Risk (School of Geography and the Environment)Senior Research Fellow (Department of Engineering Science)Fellow (Linacre College)
Jim Hall FREng is Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks in the University of Oxford and Director of Research in the School of Geography and the Environment. Before joining the University of Oxford in 2011 to become Director of the University's Environmental Change Institute, Prof Hall held academic positions in the Newcastle University and the University of Bristol. Prof. Hall is internationally recognized for his research on risk analysis and decision making under uncertainty for water resource systems, flood and coastal risk management, infrastructure systems and adaptation to climate change. Professor Hall is a member of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology and is Expert Advisor to the National Infrastructure Commission. He is Chair of the Science Advisory Committee of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). He was a member of the UK independent Committee on Climate Change Adaptation from 2009 to 2019.
Prof Hall's group in the University of Oxford is at the forefront of risk analysis of climatic extremes and their impacts on infrastructure networks and economic systems, from local to global scales. He led the development of the National Infrastructure Systems Model (NISMOD), which was used for the UK's first National Infrastructure Assessment and for analysis of the resilience of energy, transport, digital and water networks in Great Britain. His group developed the first national water resource systems simulation model for England and Wales. Prof Hall conceived of, and now chairs, the UK's Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI). His systems analysis methods have been applied worldwide, including in Argentina, China, Curacao, St Lucia, Tanzania and Vietnam. He has published four books, including, The Future of National Infrastructure: A System-of-Systems Approach, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016.
Amongst various distinctions, Prof Hall was awarded the George Stephenson Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2001 and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2018. Prof Hall was a Contributing Author to the Nobel Prize-winning Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In 2010 Prof Hall was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering "for his contribution to the development of methods for flood risk analysis, which underpin approaches for flood risk management in the UK and internationally". He has published more than 160 articles in peer reviewed journals, which have been cited more than 15,000 times, and is editor of the journal Water Resources Research.
External link: https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/people/jhall.html
Takeya Kimio
- Distinguished Technical Advisor on Disaster Risk Reduction JICA; Japan International Cooperation Agency Visiting Professor Tohoku University, IRIDeS; International Research Institute of Disaster Science
Takeya Kimio is well known in the world as a Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction Policy Advisor. He was a key member of Japanese Government negotiation team for the formulation of the UN Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 and he played a major role in structuring the document around the importance of investment, and promoted “Build Back Better” as a common term in recovery. Under the leadership of Prof. Takeya, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) implemented the Sendai Cooperation Initiative for Disaster Risk Reduction, in which the Japanese government pledged 400 billion yen and trained 40,000 DRR specialists between 2015 and 2019 to achieve the Sendai Framework for DRR. Prof. Takeya is also engaged in the development of human resources for future generations at the Tohoku University International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS).
External Link :
Ravi Sinha
- Professor, Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Ravi Sinha is Professor and former Dean of Alumni & Corporate Relations at IIT Bombay. His research activities are mainly in earthquake engineering, structural engineering and disaster risk management. Prof. Sinha is closely associated with policy-making related to disaster risk management in India. Prof. Sinha has chaired or served in several government panels. Prof. Sinha is also a member of Maharashtra State Disaster Management Authority. He is the Co-Chairman of National Panel of Experts of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.
Prof. Sinha is a member of Executive Committee of Bureau of Indian Standards. He is also a member of its committees responsible for development of national standards related to earthquake safety. Prof. Sinha also has extensive experience on urban disaster risk management, and is a co-author of World Bank’s Primer on Climate Resilient Cities.
External Link : www.civil.iitb.ac.in/~rsinha