Dr Iftekhar Ahmed is an associate professor and former program convenor of the master's course of Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development, taught at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He teaches policy and social aspects of disaster risk reduction, the resilience of the built environment, and sustainable development. His research interests include post-disaster housing, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and urbanisation in the Asia–Pacific region. He has written several books and many peer-reviewed publications and engages in various research and evaluation projects relating to disaster resilience. He is the lead author of a recent book "Disaster Resilience in South Asia: Tackling the Odds in the Sub-Continental Fringes" (Routledge, UK, 2020).