Biography
Professor Atsushi Iizuka is currently Director of the Information Science and Technology Center, and a former Director of Research Center for Urban Safety and Security at Kobe University, which was established just after the 1995 earthquake to accumulate related research. His research area is basically Geotechnical Engineering. Especially his interest was focused on the theoretical interpretation of mechanical behavior of soil materials and development of numerical simulation techniques for ground deformation. But since he moved to Research Center for Urban Safety and Security, Kobe University, his research area was widened to the cross-sectoral research topics relating to disaster prevention and mitigation. He is now working on collaborative researches with RIKEN R-CCS, JAMSTEC, E-Defense and so on, related to that field. Also, he is currently a leader of the research unit of Multidisciplinary Integration for Resilience And Innovation: MIRAI, which was established in 2017 at Kobe University. This world-leading research has been the basis of implementation of best practices in Japan and abroad.