Civil Engineering for Disaster Risk Reduction

Dr Sreevalsa Kolathayar pursued M.Tech from IIT Kanpur; PhD from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and served as International Research Staff at UPC BarcelonaTech Spain. He is presently Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka, India. Dr Sreevalsa has authored six books and over 75 research papers. He is Editorial Board member of two International Journals and Executive Guest Editor for one. His research interests include Seismic Hazard Assessment, Geohazards, Earthquake Preparedness, Landslides, and Water geotechnics. He is currently the Secretary Indian chapter of International Association for Coastal Reservoir Research (IACRR), and Executive Committee Member of Indian Society of Earthquake Technology. In 2017, The New Indian Express honoured Dr Sreevalsa with South India's Most Inspiring Young Teachers Award. He is the recipient of ISET DK Paul Research Award from Indian Society of Earthquake Technology, IIT Roorkee in 2018. He has received Marie Curie Action Fellowship from European Union and Professional Recognition Award from Coastal Reservoir Center University of Wollongong Australia. He is in the roster of two technical committees of ASCE Geo-Institute namely, i) Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics ii) Engineering Geology and Site Characterization. He received "IEI Young Engineers Award'' by The Institution of Engineers (India), in recognition of his contributions in the field of Civil Engineering.

Dr. Indrajit Pal presently working as Assistant Professor and Chair at Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, and Management program at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Prior to joining at AIT, Dr. Pal served as a faculty member at Centre for Disaster Management at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, India (Premier National Institute for training Indian Administrative Services Officers). Dr. Pal has done extensive work on capacity development of decision-makers, risk assessment and disaster risk governance. Dr. Pal has written 6 books and more than 55 articles in international and national peer-reviewed journals apart from supervising masters and doctoral research. Dr. Pal having about 18 years of experience in research and capacity development on Disaster Risk Management and Governance and Disaster Risk Science and Education. RESEARCH EXPERTISE: Disaster Risk Governance, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Development, Incident Command System (ICS), GIS / RS in disaster risk management, Climate Change Adaptation, Community Based Disaster Risk Management, Disaster Risk Science and Education, Sustainability, Public Health Risk assessment.

Dr Siau Chen Chian Darren is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his Ph.D. and B.Eng.(1st Class with Gold Medal) from Cambridge University and Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity respectively. Dr. Chian's contribution in earthquake engineering lies in the field of catastrophe modelling, landslides and damage vulnerability of underground structures. He was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as the geotechnical specialist to carry out reconnaissance missions at the Mw7.6 Padang Earthquake in 2009, Mw9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and Mw7.8 Muisne Earthquake in 2016. Dr. Chian was named Top 10 Innovators Under 35 in Asia by the MIT Technology Review for his novel contribution in catastrophe modelling in 2016. Dr. Chian is a nominated member of the Technical Committee on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering under the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). He is also an Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Young Scientist supported by The International Science Council (ISC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

Dr Arpita Mondal works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of CIvil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. She is also an associate faculty member in the Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies at IIT Bombay. Arpita's research focuses on hydroclimatic extremes - how they can be characterized, what causes them, and how they are likely to evolve with climate change. She uses a combination of statistical analysis, physical understanding and computer model simulations. Arpita serves as an Associate Editor of the Springer journal Regional Environmental Change. She received the Early Career Research Award from the Science and Education Research Board (SERB), and the INSPIRE Faculty Award, both funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. She also received the Asian University Alliance (AUA) Scholars' Award. Arpita completed her PhD at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, MTech at IIT Bombay and Bachelors in Civil Engineering at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. As a PhD student, Arpita had received the Endeavour Research Fellowship (Government of Australia), Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship (USIEF), and the Berkner Travel Grant of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Arpita scored the first rank in the university in both her Bachelors and Masters.