People 2022–23

The department has seen significant growth over the last few years, and 2022–23 was no exception. We welcomed a number of new research, teaching and professional services staff, increasing our staff community to just under 50 people: 31 members of academic staff, with another scheduled to start in January 2024. The IRDR also has 13 members of project staff ranging from research assistants to senior research fellows and ten members of professional services staff.

Awards

Several members of the department’s professional services support team were nominated in the BEAMS Professional Services Awards: Sarah Jeal and Nadia Jackson in the ‘Communicating and engaging effectively with the world’ award category and Nicola Jordan for ‘Giving our students the best support, facilities and opportunities’. Nadia went on to win her award and Nicola received a special mention by the judges in recognition of her outstanding contribution.

In the UCL Education Awards and MAPS Faculty Education Awards, which recognise staff making outstanding contributions to the learning experience and success of UCL students, IRDR staff were both finalists and winners in different categories. See the Education section for more details.

Academic staff

Research project staff

Research Associates and Fellows

 Project staff

Professional services staff

Visiting staff

• Assoc. Prof. Anawat Suppasri, IRIDeS, Tohoku University
• Professor Jeffrey Keisler, University of Massachusetts
• Dr Laila Shahzad, GC University Lahore
• Dr Chris Needham-Bennett, Needhams 1834
• Prof A. S. M. Maksud Kamal, University of Dhaka
• Ewan Haggarty

PhD students

Abby Ewen
Disability and identity in times of Crisis in Nepal, balancing urgency and inclusion in disaster resilience
Funding: Self (supported by the Tomorrows Cities Research Hub) 
Supervisor: Mark Pelling 

Adel Alharb

Ahmed Ziaur Rahman
Geospatial assessment of water and soil salinisation risk to climate and disaster resilience in coastal Bangladesh
Funding: Government of Bangladesh
Supervisors: Mohammad Shamsudduha, Richard Taylor (external)

Aimee Colgate
How cascading events of hazards happening in concurrence are managed  
Funding: Self  
Supervisors: Gianluca Pescaroli, Roberto Gentile  

Aisha Aldosery
Internet of Things (IoT) based Surveillance System for Predicting Areas that are High- risk of Mosquito Infestation: A Case Study of Mosquitoes Surveillance at Madeira Island and Northeast Brazil 
Funding: Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau 
Supervisor: Patty Kostkova

Alex Thompson
Health system emergency preparedness, resilience and response: the case of wildfires
Funding: Self
Supervisors: David Alexander, Gianluca Pescaroli

Anastasia Chau
The efficacy of disaster-related warnings triggering safety-seeking behaviour
Funding: UCL Studentship
Supervisors: Joanna Faure Walker, Adam Harris (external)

Anuja Jaitly
An impact analysis of microinsurance on generational progress at the household level 
Funding: Self
Supervisors: Punam Yadav, Maureen Fordham

Ava Sullivan
Characterising risky human-animal interfaces to prevent zoonotic disease spillover events
Funding: EcoHealth Alliance
Supervisors: Patty Kostkova, Jon Epstein (external)

Bernice Mufor Nkekeh
Community Emergency Preparedness and Response. A comparative analysis of the cases of Mount Cameroon and Mount Etna
Funding: Self-funding
Supervisors: Peter Sammonds, Lisa Danquah

Christiana Iliya
Desertification and the Covid-19 pandemic as contributors to food insecurity in Africa
Funding: Self-funded
Supervisor: Bayes Ahmed

Dan Thompson
Financing Community Electricity Resilience
Funding: Self
Supervisors: Gianluca Pescaroli, Rozana Himaz, Jun Rentschler (External) 

David Gregory
Fault action, interaction and Seismic Hazard in the Central Apennines system 
Funding: CoreLogic 
Supervisor: Joanna Faure Walker

Emma Back
How has the experience of COVID-19 shaped perceptions of pandemic risk? A comparative study.  
Funding: Self
Supervisors: Patty Kostkova, Stephen Roberts (UCL Institute for Global Health)

Emmanuel Agbo
Disaster Mitigation and Emergency Response: A case of flood vulnerability in Nigeria
Funding: TETFund, Nigeria
Supervisor: David Alexander and Rob Wicks (external)

Izazul Haq
Risk of groundwater salinisation in an Asian Mega-delta under global change: evidence from the Bengal Basin
Funding: Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK
Supervisors: Richard Taylor, Mohammad Shamsudduha

Jack Bestwick
Tsunami Evacuation Modelling
Funding: UCL Stipend
Supervisor: Fatemeh Jalayer

Jeremy Reynolds
Learning from organisations regarding adaptive capacity and their relevance to urban resilience planning
Funding: London Fire Brigade
Supervisors: David Alexander, Gianluca Pescaroli

Joshua Anthony
Palaeochannels in the Somerset Levels and their implication for flood risk management. 
Funding: Self
Supervisors: Katerina Stavrianaki, Simon Day

Kayla Paulson

Khuloud M Al Mufarraji
Effective risk and crisis communication for better community resilience
Funding: Ministry of Higher Education - Sultanate of Oman
Supervisors: David Alexander, Katerina Stavrianaki

Kimon Pantelides
Developing a Consistent Approach to Ensuring Community Resilience to Risk during times of Financial Crisis: A study of Fire Services in Southern Europe and the importance of Quality Assurance systems
Funding: Self
Supervisor: David Alexander and Gianluca Pescaroli

Lan Li
The Real Impact of Social Media on Vaccination: A Comparison Study on Behavior Change between the UK and China
Funding: China Scholarship Council-UCL Joint Research Scholarship
Supervisor: Patty Kostkova, Caroline Wood

Lillian Norris

Liran Renert
Omissions in pandemic preparedness plans and the COVID-19 crisis 
Funding: Self
Supervisors: David Alexander, Estella Carpi, Patrizia Duda

Mark Kuyo Ojal 
Understanding how relationships between institutions and actors in urban development contribute to risks in urban poor settlements
Funding: IRDR
Supervisor: Mark Pelling, Cassidy Johnson (UCL Bartlett Development Planning Unit)

Mater Almehmadi
Post Disaster Waste Management Reducing Human Vulnerability when dealing with Toxic Wastes in Post Disaster Waste Management: The Case of Hurricanes\
Funding: Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau
Supervisor: David Alexander, Gianluca Pescaroli

Mhari Gordon
Displaced Populations and Natural Hazards 
Funding: UCL Warning Research Centre
Supervisors: Punam Yadav, Ilan Kelman, Carina Fearnley (UCL warning Research Centre)

Minna He

Michael Ruprecht

Miriam Orcutt

Mohamed Alwahedi
Time series analysis of borehole strainmeter data in the western US reveals coseismic and postseismic surface deformations associated with intermediate magnitude earthquakes (M4-6)
Funding: Ministry of Education – United Arab Emirates
Supervisor: Peter Sammonds, Katerina Stavrianaki

Musaad Almuthaybiri
Investigating the Perceptions of Emergency Managers towardsTowards Supply -Chain Management for Disaster Preparedness in the Saudi Arabia Health System: A Qualitative Study of Challenges and Opportunities
Funding: Saudi Cultural Bureau 
Supervisors: David Alexander, Yasmine Sabri 

Myles Harris
Prolonged field care: a grounded theory of prehospital health for risk reduction in remote environments 
Funding: Self and London South Bank University
Supervisors: Ilan Kelman, Di Lamb (External)

Naif Alrehaili
Assessing the Emergency Planning Requirements for Responding to Flash Floods in the KSA 
Funding: The Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau in the UK (SACB) 
Supervisors: David Alexander, Gianluca Pescaroli 

Nicole Paul
Population displacement following disasters
Funding: UCL Overseas Research Scholarship, Motorola Solutions Foundation, Willis Towers Watson Research Network
Supervisors: Carmine Galasso (UCL CEGE), Jack Baker (External)

Qiushuang Shi
Community-based Cascading Risks Assessment
Funding: Self
Supervisor: David Alexander

Rebekah Yore
Transitional phase(s) to disaster recovery: microinsurance, warning systems and shelter/temporary housing
Funding: UCL-IRDR Impact Studentship with Rescue Global 
Supervisors: Joanna Faure Walker; David Alexander

Rhea Leung
Mitigation and disaster preparedness measures enacted in remote mountainous areas affected by earthquake–triggered geohazards
Funding: Self
Supervisors: David Alexander, Simon Day

Rob Davis
Exploring the flood early warning risk data and how this is used by rescue service for a search and rescue methodology
Funding: Self
Supervisor: David Alexander, Gianluca Pescaroli

Salma Al Zadjali
Decadal Variability of Precipitation in Oman and the Assessment of Cloud Seeding in the Al-Hajar Mountains
Funding: Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation in Oman
Supervisors: Peter Sammonds, Simon Day, Mohammad Shamsudduha 

Sam Mitchell
Spatio-temporal variations of slip on active normal faults in central and southern mainland Greece
Funding: London NERC DTP 
Supervisors: Gerald Roberts (external), Joanna Faure Walker 

Sangita Thebe Limbu
Indigenous Knowledge, Gender, and Climate Change  
Funding: IRDR
Supervisors: Punam Yadav, Maureen Fordham  

Shinta Michiko (Chiko) Puteri

Shiyi Zhang
Assessing the economic and non-economic impacts of climate transition
Funding: China Scholarship Council-UCL Joint Research Scholarship 
Supervisors: Sonja Ayeb Karlsson, Ting Sun

Umut Lagap
Quantifying post-disaster housing stock resilience
Funding: The Ministry of National Education, Republic of Turkey
Supervisors: Carmine Galasso, Roberto Gentile 

Victoria Maynard

Xiao (Shaw) Han
Disaster, vulnerability, and development
Funder: Self
Supervisor: Peter Sammonds and David Alexander

Xiaohui Shen

Yasna Karina Palmeiro Silva

Zerong (Chelsea) Li
An integrated approach of GIS and space syntax modelling to investigate how well an ethnic group is integrated into its host city – a case study of the London China Town
Funding: Self
Supervisors: Bayes Ahmed, Yasmine Sabri

Zhu Yu
Building an Effective Response Framework to Cascading Disasters Linked to Hazardous Materials 
Funding: Self
Supervisors: Bayes Ahmed, Yasmine Sabri

Find more information about our PhD students on our People pages.