Dr. Akhilesh Surjan has successfully engaged with issues of climate and disaster risk reduction and urban environmental management. He served as a Lead Author for the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He also served as Contributing Author for the UN's Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, published in May 2011. While mainly associated with UN agencies, Dr Surjan has also successfully worked in academic, civil society, and government institutions in Asia. In the past, he has 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, he facilitated mainstreaming of community-based disaster preparedness concepts in Indian government's policy, planning, and implementation. At United Nations University and Kyoto University, Dr Surjan's contributions were directed towards issues of urban sustainability, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. He is particularly focusing on issues surrounding sustainability of development, and adaptation concerns of emerging cities. Presently working with the Charles Darwin University, Dr Surjan is the Research & Theme Leader of Humanitarian, Emergency and Disaster Management Studies. Dr Surjan was trained at Kyoto University where he successfully completed his doctoral study, an empirical action-research focusing on resilience to environment and disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Surjan is also a trained architect-planner - an interest zone that keeps him enthused when free.
