Risk Group, IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), Vienna

Professor John Handmer is a Senior Scientific Adviser at IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), Vienna, and Emeritus Professor in the School of Science, RMIT University. He has qualifications and experience in human geography, economics and law. He is, or has recently been, on a number of Australian advisory bodies. These cover climate change adaptation, disaster risk and resilience, the National Vulnerability Profile project, and at NCCARF (National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility) he led the network on Emergency Management. He has also worked with the IPCC. His group at RMIT was one of 20 cases nationally selected for its impact on policy and practice by the Excellence in Innovation for Australia 2014 report. He received the 2016 RMIT “Vice Chancellor’s Research Award for Impact” for his work on the human dimensions of disaster risk.  In 2018 he was elected a Fellow at the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and in 2019 was nominated as the country’s top researcher in Emergency Management by the Australian Research Magazine. He had a leading role in the 2020 ISC-UNDRR report on Hazards definition and classification review, and is co-leading the development of a new Global research agenda for risk science on behalf of the IRDR, ISC and UNDRR.