Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga

Dilanthi Amaratunga is Professor of Disaster Management at the School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, UK where she leads the University's Centre for Disaster Resilience, responsible for supporting research on disaster management portfolios. She is also the Associate Head of International Development for School of the Built Environment. Her research interests include post disaster reconstruction including conflict mitigation, gender and projection; Capability and Capacity building in managing disasters; Socio-economic measures for conflict-affected re-construction and women in construction. An interdisciplinary background in Quantity Surveying, Facilities and Business Continuity Management, Education and Training, Gender and Disasters and Disaster Mitigation and Reconstruction provides her the opportunities to work across a broader disaster management research agenda including developing partnerships of international research teams, government, NGOs and communities. She is the Co-Editor of International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, the only journal to promote research and scholarly activity that examines the role of building and construction to anticipate and respond to unexpected events that damage or destroy the built environment.

She has secured a number of significant, high profile grants  thereby continuing research to  improve the knowledge gap between the short term recovery and long term re-construction efforts associated with major disasters; raise awareness and develop skills; set up mechanisms for the transference of knowledge to the market, government and professionals; develop tools specific to each type of disasters; map gender relations and time use; assess access to and control of resources, and the different coping strategies, vulnerabilities and capabilities of men and women; and enhance the role of women as owners, users and creators of the built environment, including situations associated with pre-disaster and post-disaster.  She is the Principle Investigator of "CEREBELLA: Community Engagement for Risk Erosion in Bangladesh to Enhance Life Long Advantage", an international collaborative project with  Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Bangladesh which is INSPIRE (International Strategic Partnerhsips in Research and Education) British Council funded.

She has presented widely at international conferences, has led international disaster management workshops and seminars and is working actively with the United Nations. She is an Advisory Panel Member of United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Campaign on Resilient Cities 2010 - 2015. She has supervised and supported a wide range of Post Graduate Research students. To date she has produced over two hundred publications, refereed papers and reports, and has made  a large number of presentations in around 25 countries. Dilanthi is also a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).