Andrew Collins is Professor in Disaster and Development with the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences where he is also subject lead for human geography, policy and development. Beyond his regular research, teaching and management responsibilities, he represents disaster, development and health related initiatives internationally, including through election to board and chair appointments for multiple disasters related institutions and alliances. He gained his PhD from King’s College London in Human Geography in 1996 and first-class BSc (Hons) from Kingston University in 1992.

Prior to the above, Andrew worked for extended periods in Africa and the Middle East including voluntary service. He has led the establishment of the world’s first disaster management and sustainable development postgraduate programme launched in 2000, and currently the Disaster and Development Network (DDN) (formerly the DDC) launched in 2004. Related projects and international links include through supervision of a community of PhD, postdoctoral and active affiliates for research grounded both in local level hazard and vulnerability mitigation and higher-level policy and advisory challenges.

My research interests are in the theoretical, methodological and policy aspects of disaster reduction, health ecology, sustainable development, adaptive capacity or human security in contexts of complex crises. This engages interlinked issues of environment and society, population displacement, risk, governance, education, environmental and disaster management globally and locally. Local impacts have focussed on engaging health security through disease risk reduction and community-based strategies, considered a form of resilience building. This requires societal and scientific rebalancing midst environmental and global crises. I engaged in field specific research of more than 25 countries, using this to interpret action on hazard, risk, disaster, health ecology, complex emergency and humanitarian spaces, as interdisciplinary and cross sectoral challenges.

This research orientation embraces advocacy and engagement of an altogether people centred disaster risk reduction, with an objective of emboldening this beyond resilience and survivability, purposively for well-being outcomes at multiple levels. In concept and methodologically, living with climate change and pandemic threat demands evidence of the nature of persistent social and economic inequality, fragility and uncertainty. This opens possibilities for proactive application of science, technology, policy and behavioural change. I aim to spend the remainder of my research contribution attempting to make it influence the change we need to see for the health of future generations. I draw on knowledge and research experience accumulated locally during smaller-scale research partnerships through to global research alliances. I serve on a range of high-level academic research, policy and practitioner advisory, review and commissioning boards, nationally (UK), regionally (EU) and globally (UN), particularly when linked to the 2015-2030 agenda of the United Nations SDGs, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Paris Climate Agreement.