Dr Christopher Tremewan was elected as APRU’s 4th Secretary General and took up the role from June 2011.
Before heading the APRU International Secretariat, he was the Vice-President/ Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) of the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social anthropology from the University of Auckland, a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in political science (on Southeast Asian politics) from the University of Canterbury.
He was elected a senior associate member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, in September 1991 from where he published the book The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore (Macmillan and St Martin’s Press, 1994, reprinted 1996). He was a visiting fellow at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 2003 and a visiting professor at Peking University in 2007 – 2008.
In 1995 he became the founding director of the New Zealand Asia Institute, which he led until 1999. Previously, he held positions as a senior consultant, executive secretary, and research director for international development organizations based in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo.
A specialist on social regulation in Southeast Asia, his research has recently focused on the internationalisation of higher education.

Prof. Fumihiko Imamura is the director of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Japan and prof. of Tsunami Engineering. After serving as an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, he was Assoc. Prof. at Disaster Control Research Center in 2014. He specializes in tsunami engineering and natural disaster science, and has been conducting numerous studies/researches on the development of tsunami warning systems and disaster mitigation measures in the Pacific, aiming to reduce tsunami damage. Representative of TIME Tsunami Numerical Technology Transfer International Project TIME. Members of the Central Disaster Prevention Council Special Investigation Committee, the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Reconstruction Initiative Conference Review Committee, etc. Representative Director of the Promotion Organization of the 3.11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Major awards include NHK Broadcasting Culture Award (2014), Commendation by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Science and Technology Promotion Division, 2015), Prime Minister Commendation for Disaster Management Merit (2016)

Prof. Andrew Gordon is the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History at Harvard University. His teaching and research focus primarily on modern Japan. He has also taught Japan’s premodern history and courses on comparative history of labor, and on the United States as a colonial power and nation builder. He has written, edited, or translated numerous books and has published articles in journals in the United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, and Germany. His most recent book publications are A Modern History of Japan 4th edition (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Fabricating Consumers: The Sewing Machine in Modern Japan (University of California Press, 2011). He has recently published several articles on the historical context of Japan’s so-called “lost decades,” 1990s through the present. His present research focuses on public history in Japan, by examining major sites of Japan’s industrial revolution, as well as public commemoration of sites of importance in the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

In 2011, while serving as director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, Gordon led the Institute in founding the Japan Disaster Archive (http://jdarchive.org). This is a digital archive project which seeks to preserve the vast array of digital records concerning the March 11 disaster in Japan and its aftermath. It makes those records available to a global community of citizens, students, and scholars in close partnership with many organizations in Japan, including the National Diet Library and Tohoku University.

Gordon has served as Chair of the Harvard History Department (2004-07), Director of the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies (1998-2004 and 2010-2011), and Acting Director of the Asia Center (2016-2017). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1981 in History and East Asian Languages after completing a B.A. from Harvard in 1975. In 2014, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was honored with an Imperial Decoration (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon). In 2020 he received the 2nd Annual International Prize in Japanese Studies from the National Institute for the Humanities.

Active in both practice and research, Dr. Kanako Iuchi has worked in the field of international development planning and disaster risk management for more than 20 years, specializing in disaster management planning, urban and regional planning, and community development. Currently at the International Research Center for Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University as an associate professor, Dr. Iuchi focuses on disaster research and advocating better rebuilding after disasters. Prior to joining IRIDeS Iuchi worked as an Urban Specialist at the World Bank. Dr. Iuchi has also worked as an international development planner and researcher with bi- and multi-lateral organizations; national, regional, and local governments; and communities in more than ten countries across East and South Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe.

Her recent work has primarily centered on planning and researching post-disaster rebuilding after large-scale disasters in urban and coastal areas, including Aceh, Yogyakarta and Palu, Indonesia, Tohoku, Japan, New York City, USA, Tacloban, Philippines, and Kathmandu, Nepal. Dr. Iuchi hold a BS from Tsukuba University, an MRP from Cornell University, and a PhD from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in urban and regional planning.

Prof. Shunichi Koshimura received Ph.D. degree from the Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University in 2000. After graduating Tohoku University, he started his career as a JSPS research fellow in Earthquake Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, and a researcher in Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), NOAA, USA. In 2005, He joined Graduate School of Enginnering, Tohoku University as an associate professor, then in 2012, International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, as a professor. Dr. Koshimura carries out his research specifically on tsunami disaster. His main focus is on developing a real-time tsunami inundation forecasting system with HPCI (High Performance Computing Infrastructure) and on estimating social impacts of tsunami inundation by integrating numerical modeling, earth observation and geo-informatics. He is also a Co-Founder of RTi-cast, a technology firm to offer real-time tsunami inundation damage forecast services to government organizations and commercial clients.

Dr. Takako Izumi is an associate professor at Tohoku University’s International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), working on global frameworks and strategies for disaster risk reduction (DRR). She is concurrently serving as director of the APRU Multi-Hazards (MH) Program that aims at addressing the threat of frequent natural disasters in the Pacific Rim. Before joining Tohoku University, she spent more than15 years working in the fields of DRR, response, recovery, and development with MERCY Malaysia, UN Habitat, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), UN Office of the Recovery Coordinator for Ache and Nias (UNORC), and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). In 2015, she was appointed to the UNDRR Asia and Pacific Science, Technology, Academia Advisory Group (ASTAAG) to support the efforts of governments and stakeholders in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for DRR. She holds Ph.D. in Global Environmental Study from Kyoto University, Japan.

Dr Animesh Kumar is the Deputy Chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, based in Bangkok. In this capacity, he coordinates disaster risk reduction policy, and inter-governmental, multi-stakeholder and UN mechanisms in the region.
Before joining this position Dr Kumar held the same position in the UNDRR Regional Office for Africa, based in Nairobi.
In his previous positions, Dr Kumar worked in other UN entities in Africa and Asia, including on a UN secondment to the Government of Ethiopia as their Policy Advisor on DRR and climate change. Dr Kumar has also led risk assessments and profiling in multiple countries, including a series of food security atlases in India, and serves on various committees including on science and technology, urban and city resilience, business resilience, etc.
Dr Animesh Kumar is a Geographer, and holds an MPhil and PhD in adaptation and sustainability.

Prof. Rajib Shaw is the professor in Graduate School of Media and Governance in Keio University. He is a Senior Fellow of Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Japan, and the Chairperson of SEEDS Asia and CWS Japan, two Japanese NGOs. He is also co-founder of a Delhi (India) based social entrepreneur startup Resilience Innovation Knowledge Academy (RIKA). He is the Co-chair of the United Nations Asia Science Technology Academic Advisory Group (ASTAAG) and Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) IPCC’s 6th Assessment report. He is the editor of a book series on disaster risk reduction, published by Springer and the Chief Editor of an academic journal Progress in Disaster Science by Elsevier. More of his work can be seen in: www.rajibshaw.org

Dr. Anders Karlsson, PhD, joined Elsevier in 2012 as Vice President, Global Strategic Networks, to support Elsevier’s relations with key stakeholders in Asia-Pacific region. Before Elsevier he was for five years Counselor for Science and Innovation at the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo, Japan. He is a member of Elsevier’s sustainability board and is the Japan chapter Chair of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM). He has been part of Elsevier’s analytical work on Stem Cell Science, Brain Science, Sustainability Science, Disaster Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Gender in Science.

Before serving as Science Counselor, he was for 10 years Professor in Quantum Photonics at the Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, Sweden. In year 2000 he was one of 20 researchers to receive the Future Research Leader grant from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. He also held a special research fellow position 2001-2007 with the Swedish Research Council. His work leading a consortium on quantum information technology, was awarded the EU René Descartes Research Prize in 2004. He has been Visiting Scientist at NTT Basic Research Labs, Stanford University as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, École Polytechnique Paris, Zhejiang University and Senior Advisor at Osaka University. He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Engineering Physics, both from the Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.

Ms. Suvendrini Kakuchi is a Sri Lankan journalist and author based in Tokyo. She has a long career writing on development issues including disasters in Japan and Asia.

Her coverage of the March 11.2011 tripple disaster focused on the importance of the media communicating lessons learned from the field to reduce loss of lives and property.

In her work in Armenia, India and other Asian countries, she has presented and produced international publications that share Japanese reporting stratgeies for disaster safety and effective official, academic and community response.

She is a former Neiman Fellow, Harvard University and was the first Asian female President of the Foreign Correspondents` Club of Japan.

Mr. Takeshi Komino is the General Secretary of CWS Japan, and Co-chairperson of Japan Platform. Also serves as Secretary General and a member of Executive Committee for Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), joint secretariat of Japan CSO Coalition for DRR (JCC-DRR), and the chairperson of Japan Quality and Accountability Network (JQAN). He graduated from Doshisha University, and holds Development Studies M.A. from Brandeis
University.

Dr. Takako Izumi is an associate professor at Tohoku University’s International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), working on global frameworks and strategies for disaster risk reduction (DRR). She is concurrently serving as director of the APRU Multi-Hazards (MH) Program that aims at addressing the threat of frequent natural disasters in the Pacific Rim. Before joining Tohoku University, she spent more than15 years working in the fields of DRR, response, recovery, and development with MERCY Malaysia, UN Habitat, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), UN Office of the Recovery Coordinator for Ache and Nias (UNORC), and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). In 2015, she was appointed to the UNDRR Asia and Pacific Science, Technology, Academia Advisory Group (ASTAAG) to support the efforts of governments and stakeholders in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for DRR. She holds Ph.D. in Global Environmental Study from Kyoto University, Japan.