Anawat Suppasri

Associate Professor, International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University

Dr. Anawat Suppasri is an Associate Professor at International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University. After the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, he took many of visitors and professors from both Japan and overseas to tsunami affected areas as well as contributing his knowledge to public via activities together with UNDRR, UNDP and other UN related organizations as well as several embassies in Japan. At present, his research focuses on tsunami numerical simulation, tsunami fragility analysis, tsunami evacuation and disaster mitigation education. He is one of the leading experts on these topics. He is ranked No. 4 in “tsunami” publications in SCOPUS database. Among the top 10, he is the only one 40`s and Associate Professor (others are professor or retired). However, for publications in the last five years, he is ranked No. 1. Some of his publications are selected as highlighted articles in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. His publications are highly cited and received citation awards from Coastal Engineering Journal in 2017 and 2019. His research publications also received awards from Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) in 2011 and 2014, Japan Foundation of Ocean Engineering in 2011 and Japan Society for Natural Disaster Science in 2013. He is an editorial board member of Geoscience Letters, Coastal Engineering Journal and former board member of International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. His supervised students also received awards from international conferences such as poster awards from the World Bosai Forum 2019, AOGS 2022 and JSCE in 2023. His international contribution to UN related agencies such as UNDP and UNDRR was highly recognized and awarded by the former Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in 2018 and the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) The Young Scientists’ Award in 2022. He was selected as distinguished researcher of Tohoku University since 2022 and recognized as the World`s Top 2% Researchers in 2025. He became the first ASEAN person who got elected as section president of Asia and Oceania Geosciences Society. He is currently leading and co-leading several international research projects on tsunamis, coastal disasters and disaster mitigation funded by the jointly funded Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) project by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), other projects by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and projects funded by other international insurance companies and consultant companies.