Keynote Speakers
Dr. Regina Folorunsho
Climate Change Driven Disasters: Need For Pragmatic Mitigating Policies
9:30 am Eastern Standard Time
Dr. Regina Folorunsho is a Director in the department of Marine Meteorology and Climate at the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research. She received her MSc. in Geography from University of Lagos in 1992 with specialty in climatology and remote sensing. She has a PhD in Geography again from University of Lagos with emphasis in Meteorology and Oceanography in 2004. Her research areas include: Ocean Dynamics Studies, Marine Meteorology, Global Climate Change and Sea Level Rise, and the Nigerian Continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. She has undertaken several professional trainings in Physical Oceanography, Coastal Typology and Geographic Information System (GIS) in several countries outside Nigeria.
She is the recipient of two awards: Award for commitment and exceptional service to the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic (PIRATA) Program from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Project (TAO) in 2006 and an award for: Sustainable Environmental Management in Africa 2017, from the Science and Technology Department of South Africa. She has participated in several coastal studies, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), oceanographic survey cruises for several oil and private companies.
Dr. Folorunsho was one of the lead authors of “Cities, Disasters and Climate Risk”, a chapter in the Climate Change and Cities, first Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (ARC3). edited by Cynthia Rosenzweig et. al. 2011. She was also a coordinating lead authors of “Disaster and Risk in Cities”, a chapter in the Climate Change and Cities, second Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (ARC3.2), edited by Cynthia Rosenzweig et al. 2018.
She has published over 35 papers on meteorological forcing, climate change and coastal and marine processes.
Dr. Ksenia Chmutina
Frames of Disasters: Are Natural Hazards Really A Problem?
1:30 pm Eastern Standard Time
Dr Ksenia Chmutina is Senior Lecturer in Sustainable and Resilience Urbanism and Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. Ksenia’s research focusses on the processes of disaster risk creation and systemic implications of sustainability and resilience under the pressures of urbanization and climate change in the context of neoliberalism. Her research interests also include narratives and framings of disasters, intersectionality and vulnerability, and interlinkages between critical urban studies and disaster studies. Her research mainly comprises location-based case studies and systemic policy analysis; it brings together qualitative research and participatory methodologies to generate transdisciplinary understanding of disasters as socio-political processes. Ksenia uses her work to draw attention to the fact that disasters are not natural.
A well-documented track record of publications and external activities provides testament to the internationally recognized quality of her work. Ksenia has conducted research in the UK, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, China, the Caribbean, and across Europe, working with policymakers, industry, and marginalized communities. She is a co-author of a textbook ‘Disaster Risk Reduction for the Built Environment’ (Wiley, 2017) and a Joint Coordinator of the CIB W120 ‘Disasters and the Built Environment’. A core part of Ksenia’s activities is science communication: she is a co-host of a popular podcast ‘Disasters: Deconstructed’ and writes for the non-academic outlets such as The Conversation, OpenDemocracy and Current Affairs.