Speaker Biographies
Christine Ennew
Georgia Kremmyda
Georgia is Professor, Director of Studies in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Head of Teaching at the School of Engineering, University of Warwick. Georgia completed her undergraduate, postgraduate taught and doctoral studies at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Before joining Warwick in 2015 and for a period of 15 years, Georgia shared her time between carrying leading engineering roles in industry and delivering teaching and research in academia. Her teaching and research interests are oriented, but not limited, to the design of earthquake resilient structures, sustainable cities, infrastructure for emergencies and the delivery of interdisciplinary, problem-based education, especially in resource-constrained environments.
Within her academic role, Georgia is leading initiatives related to the development of innovative programmes which are promoting equitable and inclusive access to education, in Science and Engineering. Georgia leads the Warwick Humanitarian Engineering programme and Co-leads the Warwick Global Research Priority in Sustainable Cities, both aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. On international level, Georgia is elected Vice President (Conferences) of the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists for 2021-2023. Within Warwick, she is Deputy Chair of the Institutional Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team, leading the subgroup working on ‘Organisation and culture for inclusivity, diversity and equality’. She is also Chair of the STEM Education and Student Experience workstream within the framework of the Warwick STEM Grand Challenge.
Elena Korosteleva
Professor Elena Korosteleva is an accomplished academic in Politics and Global Sustainable Development with a wealth of experience designing and implementing projects that build resilience in diverse contexts. As the Director of the Institute of Global Sustainable Development (IGSD), she brings extensive knowledge and expertise in developing innovative solutions to global challenges. Additionally, she has been awarded the Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics twice by the European Commission in recognition of her exceptional research and teaching.
Currently, Professor Korosteleva is involved in various projects, including serving as a Co-Investigator on the Horizon Europe project SHAPEDEM-EU (2022-25), founder of the Belarus Oxford Observatory (2021-23), and Principal Investigator for the GCRF COMPASS (2017-22) and GCRF COMPASS+ projects (2022-23). These projects focus on fostering resilience in Central Eurasia, with a particular emphasis on research integration, impact governance, and sustainable communities.
Vita Sanderson
Vita Sanderson, is a Chartered Structural Engineer currently working with Arup International Development on various health and education projects.
Vita is also passionate about humanitarian efforts, serving on the Board of Trustees for MSF UK (Médecins Sans Frontières UK) and the Operational Centre Amsterdam (OCA) Council. Her impressive combination of technical expertise and humanitarian advocacy make her an excellent role model for young engineers and professionals aspiring to make a difference in the world.
Emma Crichton
Emma is a chartered civil engineer with experience in various projects. She strongly believes in the significance of collaboration, impactful partnerships, and the role of engineering in improving society. As the Head of Engineering at Engineers Without Borders UK, she spearheads the organization's mission to promote globally responsible engineering, embed it in curricula, and integrate it into daily practice.
Colin Eddie
Professor Eddie, is a distinguished expert in the field of tunnel design and construction, with 38 years of experience in the industry. He has an in-depth knowledge of best practices in tunnel design and construction, including temporary and permanent construction methodologies. Colin is known for his innovation and safety-driven approach, and has led many major projects to success.
Colin actively manages a research and development program, and has personally introduced numerous innovations that have improved safety, efficiency and quality in recent major projects. In recognition of his expertise, Colin was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2005 and in 2015, he was appointed as Royal Academy Visiting Professor of Innovation and Tunnelling at the University of Warwick. He was awarded the John Mitchell Gold Medal by The UK Institution of Civil Engineers in 2014 for his significant contribution to tunnelling.
Recently, Colin formed his own consultancy business, and has been responsible for the management of a specialist underground engineering department, which has designed some of the largest underground projects in the UK. Over the past two decades, he has managed the implementation of over £2.5bn of tunnelling work.
Quang Khai Ha
Dr. Quang Khai Ha works as a Lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) since 2021. From 2009 to 2021, he worked as a project manager at the Division for Water Resources Planning and Investigation for the South of Vietnam (DWRPIS), a unit of the Vietnam Ministry of Environmental and Natural Resources. Dr. Ha obtained a Master degree in Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and a PhD on Environmental Engineering from Kansan National University, South Korea in 2019. During 2021 and 2022, he was an organizer of 2 international conference on Environmental and Natural Resources. Currently, he is a guest editor for the Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.
His research interest on Hydrogeochemistry (i.e., acidification, salinization, trace metal and arsenic contamination), groundwater protection, water quality management and climate change. In 2015, he found that groundwater resrouces in Ho Chi Minh is mostly impacted by poor management of groundwater extraction. During 2016-2019, he found that nitrification and pyrite oxidation are responsible to acidification of groundwater in Southern Vietnam including Ho Chi Minh City. Both of those processes were related to anthropogenic activities such as fertilizer application and well installation. He also indicate that salinization, acidification and land subsidence are the three emerging environmental issues in the southern Vietnam that need to be urgently managed for sustainable development of the area.
Angela Wilks
Rana Ilgaz
Rana is Head of Profession Highways and Traffic in TfL Engineering. Transport for London is London’s strategic transport authority responsible for all transport modes and their wide range of assets. Rana is responsible for engineering activity on London’s strategic 580 km long road network including its traffic infrastructure, as well as all of London’s traffic signals. Her remit includes highways, traffic, traffic control, road safety audit and arboriculture and landscape engineering. Her team designs and assures major schemes such as the implementation of London’s fast-growing cycling network and vital infrastructure upgrades.
Rana is a civil engineer (Dipl.-Ing.) from Aachen University. In previous roles she has delivered Intelligent Transport Systems projects across Europe. As Chief Engineer Traffic Systems her team developed and maintained London’s traffic management and control systems and as a highlight she led the traffic systems readiness for the 2012 Games.
Jenny Spiga
Dr Jenny Spiga is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics at Warwick, specialising in Medical Physics with a focus on dosimetry, Monte-Carlo simulations, and experiments for new radiation therapy techniques utilising the latest X-ray sources. She has worked extensively with the biomedical group ID17 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble since her undergraduate days and has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed research papers on topics such as Microbeam Radiation Therapy and the application of X-ray microbeams in the treatment of epilepsy. Dr Spiga is a member of the Global Challenge Network+ in Advanced Radiotherapy and the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists. She is also involved in a diversity and inclusion project conducted in collaboration with the Department of Engineering at Warwick and INWES.
Alfita Puspa Handayani
Dr Alfita has been a lecturer at Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering ITB since 2015 and serves as secretary at Pusat Studi Agraria-ITB (Agrarian Study Centre-ITB). After completing her doctoral study at ITB, Alfita focuses on several studies related to Land Economics and Land Development post-disaster in Lombok and the Lembang Fault. Some of her research is on Land Price Prediction, Land Consolidation, Land Institutional Models, and Land Information Systems for Earthquake Risk Management Using Community Participation. In 2022, with several colleagues in some collaborative research, she started researching Multipurpose Cadastre Development Based on Sustainable Land and Disaster Risk Management. She also focuses on Mapping the potential and participation of women in disaster-prone areas.
A.K.M. Saiful Islam
Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Islam is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Water and Flood management of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He has received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (1989) from BUET, a Master of Science in Water Resources Engineering (1999) from BUET, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2004) from Drexel University, USA. His research interests aim at climate change impact on hydrology, water resources management, urban and coastal flood management, remote sensing for disaster risks reduction. He has published over 67 peer-reviewed journal articles, more than 100 conference papers, and contributed to 9 book chapters. He was contributed to IPCC as a Lead Author on its Sixth Assessment Report.
Ashar Saputra
Ashar Saputra, is an Assistant Professor at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia. He holds a Ph.D. in Structure from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, an M.T. in Structure from Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia, and an S.T. (B.Eng.) in Built Environment from the same institution.
Dr. Saputra has been teaching at Universitas Gadjah Mada since 2011, starting as an Instructor before being promoted to Assistant Professor. He has also worked as an expert consultant for UNOPS and served as a Co-Team Leader for Yogyakarta Resilience Cities with the World Bank in 2012.
In terms of professional certifications and memberships, Dr. Saputra is a member of the Himpunan Ahli Konstruksi Indonesia (Indonesian Construction Experts Society) and is registered with IPU-HAKI.
Dr. Saputra has been involved in numerous service activities, including serving as an Expert Team member for projects such as Capacity Development on Natural Disaster Risk Management for Communities in Small Islands and Improvement of Environmental Quality and Human Resources through Water Supply and Disaster Mitigation in Watukamba, Ende, Nusa Tenggara Timur.
Christia Meidiana
She is a lecturer at Faculty Engineeering, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia. She got the Doctoral degree in environmental technology from Technische Universitaet Graz, Austria in 2012. Currently, she is the Head of the Master Program for Regional and Urban Planning, Faculty of Engineering, Brawijaya University and has involved in international and national projects related to environmental issue. She is a registered as a member of Asia-Pacific Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society (APCBEES) and Global Research & Development Services (GRDS)
G M Tarekul Islam
Intan Supraba
Dr Intan is a faculty member at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada (CEED FoE UGM). Her research interest area is in water conservation including rainwater harvesting and algae bloom mitigation. She has been appointed as the Head of Sanitation and Environmental Engineering Laboratory at the CEED FoE UGM, and the Executive Committee Member, International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research for Asia Pacific Division.
Vangelis Pitidis
Vangelis Pitidis is an Assistant Professor of Global Sustainable Development at IGSD, focusing on the intersection of urban resilience, governance and citizen science both in the Global North and in the Global South. Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowHis research is focused on urban resilience and its potential to transform the traditional pathways of urban governance delivery as well as in developing participatory methods for engaging local communities in disaster risk management, based on dialogical co-production methods. Among others, he is currently working on the EU HORIZON 2020 funded project RISKPACC: Integrating Risk Perception and Action to enhance Civil protection-Citizen interactionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, a project focused on bridging the Risk Perception and Action Gap (RPAG) between Civil Protection Authorities and local citizens.
Chiara Borsetto
Chiara Borsetto is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, UK. Her research interests are focused on antibiotics, including antimicrobial resistance and drug discovery. She is currently a co-investigator on the NERC-funded project, which aims to study the impact of pharmaceutical wastes on the environment and local community of a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in India. In this project, she is working in collaboration with colleagues in India to evaluate the effects of pharmaceutical manufacturing waste on the environment and human health. Dr Borsetto is also passionate about citizen science and participatory approaches for inclusive research, as demonstrated by her work on the "Rivers As A Resource For All" project.