About the Editors
Editors-in-Chief
Ning Lin, PhD
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University; Associated Faculty, School for Public and International Affairs; Associated Faculty, Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment; Associated Faculty, High Meadows Environmental Institute
Princeton, NJ, USA
Lin’s research areas include Natural Hazards and Risk Analysis, Wind Engineering, Coastal Engineering, and Climate Change Impact and Adaptation. Her current primary focus is tropical cyclone hazards and risk analysis. She integrates science, engineering, and policy to study tropical cyclone-related weather extremes (strong winds, heavy rainfall, storm surges, and compounding sea level rise and heatwaves), how they change with changing climate, and how their impact on society can be better mitigated.
Chong Xu, PhD
Professor, Geological Hazards Research Center
National Institute of Natural Hazards
Beijing, China
My research focuses on disaster chains primarily triggered by earthquakes and rainfall-induced geological hazards. It includes fundamental theoretical research and applied research aimed at reducing the risks of geological disasters. I have achieved systematic results in the areas of earthquake and geological hazard identification, big data construction, exploration of mechanisms and patterns, and hazard and risk assessment.
Managing Editor
Jialiang Cai, PhD
Jialiang received a B.Sc. in Ecology from East China Normal University (China) and a M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from Peking University (China). He earned his Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). Jialiang continued to work first as a Postdoctoral Researcher and later as a PI (Visiting Research Fellow) for 7 years at Aalto University (Finland). His research focused on understanding the exposure and resilience of society to nature resources risk as well as the synergies and tradeoffs between economic competitiveness, social welfare, and environmental sustainability for accessing transformative pathways towards achieving the 2030 Agenda in a warmer world. Prior to joining the npj series in May 2023, Jialiang served as a Senior Editorial Development Specialist at earth science, astronomy and space sciences, physics, and chemistry journals at Frontiers. He is based in the Shanghai office.
Associate Editors
Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, PhD
Institute of Geography, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
Mexico City, Mexico
My research on natural hazards, vulnerability, and disaster risks is crucial for promoting sustainable development and addressing societal needs. By involving various stakeholders in disaster risk reduction, I strive to foster integrated disaster risk research that encompasses social and political structures. Through collaboration with partners, I aim to enhance disaster risk management. One of my main goals is to bridge the gap between scientific research and policymaking.
Daniel R Chavas, PhD
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN, USA
My research interests are in extreme weather, climate, and risk, including under climate change. My specialties are in tropical cyclones and in severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. I combine observations, theory, and real-world and idealized modeling to understand how these phenomena work, why our climate system produces them, and how we can better predict their hazards and impacts to society.
Renata Libonati, PhD
Professor, Department of Meteorology, Institute of Geoscience, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
I am a professor at the Department of Meteorology, Institute of Geoscience, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where I teach remote sensing, statistical analysis, and climatology. My research includes Natural Hazards, Climate Extremes, and Remote Sensing, focusing on the understanding of fire as an Earth system process that interacts with vegetation, climate, and humans. I am involved in projects related to pyrogeography, remote sensing of fire, single and compound events (heat waves, drought, fires, pollution), and their impacts on biodiversity and human health in the tropics. Over the last decade, I have collaborated closely with stakeholders regarding fire management, early warning systems, hazard assessment, and risk mitigation.
Rongkun Liu, PhD
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Kathmandu, Nepal
My research interests lie at the intersection of social and natural sciences, focusing on social-ecological resilience, climate and water-related hazard risk reduction, and integrated river basin management. I conduct transdisciplinary research that addresses the challenges of understanding, situating, and contextualizing hazard mechanisms, risk management, and human well-being through a holistic systems perspective. With over a decade of experience living and working in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, I have extensive experience in promoting sustainable development while navigating the diverse and complex social-ecological dynamics of mountain systems. I hold a PhD in environment and natural resources from The Ohio State University, a master’s degree in global environmental policy from American University in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor’s degree in diplomacy from Peking University in China.
Marco Turco, PhD
Department of Physics, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
My research interests lie in making climate information action-oriented, through a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach. I specialize in analyzing weather forecasts and climate change projections across various scales, extending to seasonal climate predictions. Additionally, I focus on evaluating different types of weather-driven natural hazards, particularly wildfires, droughts, and floods.
Saini Yang, PhD
Professor, China Institute of Education and Social Development, Beijing Normal University
Beijing, China
Dr. Saini Yang is a professor at Beijing Normal University. She got her bachelor and master degree from Southeast University and PhD degree from University of Maryland. Her research interests include disaster risk science and climate change adaptation, especially in the modeling and assessment of natural hazards and climate change's impact on social ecological systems. She is the Excutive Director of the Integrated Research on Disasgter Risk (IRDR) and the director of the International Cooperative Research Center for Disaster Risk Reduction at Beijing Normal University. She is a member of the Asia-Pacific Science and Technology Advisory Group of the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction and a member of the expert committee of the national disaster reduction Commission of China.
Advisory Editors
Charles Axelsson, PhD
Charles handles quantitative and qualitative environmental social science including hazard and disaster responses at Nature Communications. He has a BSc in Geography, an MSc in Environmental Technology, and a PhD in the Science and Management of Climate Change from Universita Ca’ Foscari Venezia’s Department of Economics. His doctoral research was on urban policy adaptations to flooding under climate change, where he assessed policies and stakeholder participation. He is based in Nature’s New York office.
Joe Aslin, PhD
Joe joined Communications Earth & Environment in January 2020 and has a background in tectonics and structural geology. His doctoral research at the University of Liverpool focused on the physical and chemical processes which influence deformation in mid-crustal fault and shear zones using a combination of field and laboratory techniques. Prior to that, Joe used U-Pb geochronology to investigate the uplift and tectonic history of the central Andes during his MSci research at the University of Bristol. Joe is based in the London office.
Editorial Board Members
Jeroen Aerts, PhD, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Paul Bates, CBE PhD FRS, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Joern Birkmann, PhD, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Kerry Emanuel, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA
Adam Emmer, PhD, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Changbao Guo, PhD, Institute of Geomechanics, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China
Radley M. Horton, PhD, Columbia University, NY, USA
Alik Ismail-Zadeh, PhD, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Andrzej Kijko, PhD, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Toshio Koike, MD, PhD, International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), Tsukuba, Japan
Carolyn Kousky, PhD, Environmental Defense Fund, PA, USA
Ciro Del Negro, MD, Etna Volcano Observatory (EVO) and Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Catania, Italy
Dev Niyogi, PhD, University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA
Ilan Noy, PhD, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Xiaoyi Shao, PhD, National Institute of Natural Hazards, Beijing, China
Athanasios Vafeidis, PhD, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
Gabriele Villarini, PhD, Princeton University, NJ, USA
Jie Yin, PhD, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
Guoqing Zhang, PhD, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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