Akhilesh Surjan

Theme Leader - Humanitarian Response & Disaster Management Studies

I am an Associate Professor / Research & Theme Leader of Humanitarian, Emergency and Disaster Management Studies at the Charles Darwin University.

For the past 20 years I have been engaged with issues of climate and disaster risk reduction and urban sustainability, including work in the United Nations, academic, non-governmental and government institutions in Asia-Pacific region.

I served as a lead author for the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). I also served as contributing author for the UN's Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction published in May 2011. I have deliberated upon risk management issues from the platform of Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal (India)- established in the aftermath of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984. Under UNDP's Disaster Risk Management Program, I facilitated mainstreaming of community-based disaster preparedness concepts in Indian government's policy, planning and implementation.

I have presented research in international forums, edited newsletters, project reports, and contributed papers in international journals, peer-reviewed books and global seminars. I am regularly invited to lecture in universities, citizen forums, governmental/ non-governmental forums/conventions, city-networks and other relevant training institutions. I have competently contributed in academic circles by evaluating postgraduate/doctoral research works for universities located in Asia-Pacific. My writings have featured in peer-reviewed journals and books.

Periodically, I am invited to review manuscript submissions made to major journals in the field of disaster risk, global change and sustainability issues. I lived in Japan for 10 years and worked with the United Nations University (Tokyo) and Kyoto University, where my contributions were directed towards postgraduate teaching and research, capacity building and productively collaborating and networking with multi-tiered stakeholders.