Research project staff

Our research project staff lead and supervise research and contribute to the strategic direction of the department.

Research Associates and Fellows

Senior Research Fellow in Gender and Disaster, 'Who Cares?' and Director of the Centre for Gender and Disaster

Dr Louisa Acciari has a Master's in Comparative Politics – Latin America (Sciences Po Paris) and a PhD in Gender Studies (LSE). She is the Director of the RDR Centre for Gender and Disaster. Her research looks at gender in the world of labour through an intersectional and decolonial lens, particularly how marginalised and informal women workers organise to defend their rights. She has been studying and collaborating with the domestic workers’ movement in Brazil and Latin America since 2014 and recently started researching the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the sector. Before joining UCL in August 2020, Louisa worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro for two years and has extensive experience in conducting research, consultancy and training on gender and labour rights with the ILO, the International Domestic Workers’ Federation, Solidarity Centre and the OECD, among others.

Research Fellow in Climate Change Adaptation

Dr Jonathan Barnes is a critical human geographer interested in environmental policy, social transitions and sustainable finance. His work draws on post-structural theory to explore the effectiveness and equity of climate finance. He is a Research Fellow in Climate Change Adaptation funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship grant, exploring the politics of knowledge in climate change adaptation. He holds a PhD in Geography from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London and a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining UCL, he worked in research roles at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Commonwealth Secretariat. His PhD research explored Green Climate Fund (GCF) project development in South Africa through a climate justice lens.

Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Risk Governance, Urban Cities

Dr Thaisa Comelli is an urban planner with expertise in participatory and community-led approaches to sustainable and equitable urban development. Over the last 10 years, she has worked in more than 15 different urban and social contexts across the global north and south, liaising with both local communities and institutional actors to deliver concrete impact for vulnerable and marginalised groups. Her experience includes collaborations with global institutions such as United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), UCLG-Africa, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and World Habitat.

Research Fellow in Earth Observation for High-Impact Multi-Hazards, EO4MULTIHAZARDS

Dr Afrah Daham is a Research Fellow for the EO4MULTIHAZARDS project at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction. Her expertise spans remote sensing, photogrammetry, geospatial modelling, geographic information systems (GIS), environmental impact assessment and the use of earth observations in disaster management. She specialises in image processing, climate change modelling, sand mining issues, meteorological datasets and vegetation analysis. Her research focuses on improving the understanding of multi-hazard risks through integrated, mixed-method approaches, active stakeholder engagement and comprehensive quantitative assessments of hazard, exposure and vulnerability.

She holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Bristol, an MSc in Surveying Engineering (Photogrammetry) from the University of Baghdad and a BSc in Surveying Engineering from the University of Baghdad. She also holds a Visiting Research Fellow position at the University of Bristol’s Department of Civil Engineering.

  • Email: a.daham@ucl.ac.uk

Future Leaders Fellow in Climate Change Adaptation

Dr Susannah Fisher works across research, policy and practice on adapting to climate change. Her interest is in ensuring climate finance supports effective and equitable adaptation, and that adaptation is at the scale and ambition needed for the escalating impacts of climate change. She is the Principal Investigator of a five-year research programme exploring the politics of knowledge in climate change adaptation, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. Before joining RDR, Susannah led a research portfolio in Europe’s climate innovation agency and provided technical support to climate funds, philanthropy and civil society on adaptation. She has been a team leader at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and an adaptation expert in the UN African Climate Policy Centre based in Addis Ababa (UNECA). She was previously a Lecturer in the Development Planning Unit and holds a PhD from the geography department at the University of Cambridge.

Senior Research Fellow in Resilience to Low Probability High Impact Events, AGILE

Dr Femke Mulder specialises in disaster management science, the sociology of disasters, and humanitarian studies. Her research focuses on localised, participatory and inclusive approaches to risk communication and disaster knowledge management.

Research Fellow in Damage-Dependent Fragility and Consequence Modelling

Dr Jingren Wu holds a PhD in Earthquake and Structural Engineering. His research interests focus on the seismic and tsunami risk assessment of buildings and infrastructures, as well as structural retrofitting. His current work explores the damage-dependent fragility of buildings under earthquakes and tsunamis.

Project Staff

Research Assistant, Who Cares? Rebuilding Care in the Post-Pandemic World

Jessica Roberts is a gender and sexuality scholar currently assisting with research at the RDR Centre for Gender and Disaster. Their work has focused on intersectionality and disasters, contributing to the GRRIPP (Gender Responsive Resilience and Intersectionality in Policy and Practice) project. Notable outputs include a report presented to the Mayor of London with Green Party members of the City Hall London Assembly. They have also collaborated with Public Health Wales and are an accredited expert on UN Women’s WRD (Women’s Resilience to Disasters) Expert Register. Jessica’s research interests include queer sociolinguistics, intersectionality, and disability studies. They hold a BA in French and Italian from the University of Leeds and an MSc in Gender (Research) from the London School of Economics. Current projects include Gender Responsive Resilience & Intersectionality in Policy & Practice and T-AP Who Cares? Rebuilding Care in a Post-Pandemic World. Jessica has presented their work at international conferences, including UCL’s Challenging the Binary: Non-Binary, Genderqueer & Gender Neutral Language (2023) and Lavender Languages & Linguistics (2021)

Research Assistant in Earth Observation for High-Impact Multi-Hazards, EO4MULTIHAZARDS

Roquia Salam is a PhD student in the Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, supported by the UCL Research Excellence Scholarship (RES). Her PhD research focuses on developing a web-based forecasting system for rainfall-induced landslide disasters. Her research interests include natural hazards, climate change adaptation, vulnerability assessment and disaster risk management. She holds an MSc in Geospatial Technologies, awarded through the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Scholarship, as well as an MSc and BSc in Disaster Management from Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR), Bangladesh. Roquia has contributed to key projects, including the EO4MULTIHAZARDS initiative funded by the European Space Agency and the Resilient Futures for Rohingya Refugees project led by UCL. She also works as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant at UCL, supporting modules such as ‘Data Analysis and Interpretation’ and ‘Statistical and Geospatial Data Analysis.’