Professor Ian Davis
Honorary fellowship
Year conferred: 2006
Professor Ian Davis, a British Architect and more recently University Professor, has specialised in Shelter, Reconstruction and Disaster Risk Reduction since 1972. He edited the first UN guidelines on ‘Shelter after Disaster’ in 1981 and was a team member developing its revision in 2009 as well as being one of the authors of Guidelines for the World Bank in Washington on ‘Housing Reconstruction following Disasters’. (publication March 2010) In September 2009 he was selected by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be one of the lead authors of a special report: “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation” (SREX)
He is currently visiting Professor in Disaster Management in Oxford Brookes and Kyoto Universities. He was a Professor in Cranfield University from 1998-2010 and in Coventry University from 2004-8. Ian was a Principal lecturer in the School of Architecture in Oxford Polytechnic, (later to become Oxford Brookes University) for nineteen years up to 1989. During that time he founded the Disasters and Settlements Unit, that subsequently evolved into the Centre for Emergencies and Development Planning (CENDEP)
He has visited over forty countries to provide advice to Governments, the United Nations, Non Governmental Agencies and the Private Sector on ways to reduce disaster risks and promote effective recovery. In 1996 he became the first British Citizen to be awarded the United Nations Sasakawa Award for his contribution to reducing international disaster risks. Ian has been on the board of directors of five NGO’s concerned with Humanitarian Aid and Development, and is currently Chair of the Tearfund Peer Advisory Group on Disaster Risk Management He became a founder trustee of the Fair Trade organisation- Traidecraft in 1978. He has authored, or co-authored 11 books and over 90 academic papers
He is married with three children and eight grandchildren, the youngest being under 1 year old and the eldest- 21 years. His interests include developing effective international humanitarian aid, foreign travel, walking, photography, painting, writing, architecture, classical music, history, topography, church activities and enjoying grandchildren.
