DrAngelo Jonas Imperiale

Angelo Jonas is Assistant Professor based at the Centre for Humanitarian Action within the School of Agriculture and Food Science of the University College Dublin (Ireland) and Director of the UCD Master Programme in Humanitarian Action.

His research sits at the intersection of the fields of Human Geography, Rural Sociology/Anthropology, Environmental Studies and Disaster Studies, and it aims to advance scientific understanding of the social dimensions of risk and resilience, and of disaster management and development planning. He focusses on the resilience, wellbeing and collective agency of local communities living in vulnerable regions. He investigates the knowledge production processes, governance strategies, planning frameworks (i.e. social impact assessment) and community engagement approaches needed to enhance Disaster Risk Reduction and community resilience outcomes of pre-disaster and post-disaster planning, including humanitarian action, emergency response, recovery, reconstruction, climate action and sustainable development planning in rural and mountainous regions and disaster-prone areas.

His publications on these topics have appeared in various international outlets, including the Journal of Rural Studies, Disasters, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development, Nature Water, Politics and Governance, Current Sociology, Disaster Prevention and Management and Mountain Research and Development. His work has been cited by international newspapers (e.g. The Guardian, The Hill, the Sydney Sun), policy documents and scientific reports from international organizations, including: The United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction; the World Health Organization (WHO); the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the UN Water; the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Angelo Jonas is Honorary Senior Fellow at the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Melbourne (Australia), member of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), a member of the Mountain Resilience Initiative, and part of ProClim, the Forum of Climate and Global Change of the Swiss Academy of Science. He was scientific policy advisor of the former Special Envoy for Water and International Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and participated as independent observer in various missions abroad, including in the UN 2023 Water Conference, several United Nations General assembly meetings and other preparatory UN meetings that led to the organization of the UN 2023 Water Conference.

Angelo Jonas earned his PhD in Human Geography from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). In 2015, for his work in the L’Aquila post-disaster region, he was the first recipient of the Rita R. Hamm Excellence Impact Assessment Scholarship from the International Association for Impact Assessment. Prior to his current position at the University College Dublin, he was a visiting professor at the Gran Sasso Science Institute (Italy), and held research and teaching positions at the University of Groningen and IHE Institute of Water Education (The Netherlands). He holds a certificate in University Teaching, the University Teaching Qualification, from IHE, Institute for Water Education (The Netherlands).