Conference speakers

Professor Kimiro Meguro is a Professor at the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) and a leading expert in urban and international earthquake disaster management. After earning his PhD from UTokyo in 1991, he ascended through various academic ranks to become a professor in 2004. Since 2024, he has served as the Dean of the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies. His academic influence extends globally, having held adjunct professorships at the United Nations University and Tohoku University, etc.

His research adopts a holistic approach, integrating hardware and software strategies to minimize hazard-related losses and transform disaster recovery into opportunities for improving potential problems of affected area. He has been to over 100 countries and spearheaded earthquake disaster mitigation initiatives in more than 40 nations, notably in developing regions.

Beyond academia, he is a pivotal figure in policy and governance, serving as a special advisor to the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government and contributing to numerous disaster-related committees. His leadership includes presiding over major academic societies, such as the Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering and Japan Society for Natural Disaster Science and chairing bid and organizing committees of the 17WCEE. His profound contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the Prime Minister’s Commendation for Disaster Management Service.

Engr. Ronaldo S. Ison is licensed civil/structural engineer in the Philippines. He is the owner and principal Civil/Structural Engineer of R.S. ISON & Associates which he founded in 1989. He specializes in the structural engineering design of low to high-rise buildings and has extensive professional practice in his country. He is a four-time President of the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines, from 2002-2004 and then in 2019-2021. In 2004, during his presidency in the ASEP, the ASEP founded the Asia Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Manila. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines, Institute of Civil Engineering. He is consistently a member of the National Structural Code of the Philippines codes development committee.

Pennung Warnitchai received his doctoral degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1990 and is currently Professor of Structural Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).  He has been actively involved in research and practice in the fields of structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, wind effects on structures, bridge engineering, and disaster management.  Since 2002, he has been leading a long-term research program on "Mitigation of Earthquake Risk in Thailand" funded by the Thai Research Fund and later by the National Research Council of Thailand. In the professional organizations, he was the chairman of the chapter on the effects of earthquakes and wind loads at the Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) from 2002 to 2016.  He led a team of experts and professional engineers to develop the first official seismic design standard for buildings and structures in Thailand in 2009.  Several of his research team's findings, such as new design spectra for long-period ground motions in the Bangkok basin and a new method for analyzing the seismic response of tall buildings, were translated into code of practice in this seismic standard.  He is also currently Thailand's national delegate to the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) and founding director of the Earthquake Research Center of Thailand (EARTH).

Dr. Naveed Anwar, a distinguished Pakistani-born structural engineer with over 40 years of experience, currently serves as the CEO of CSI Bangkok and holds an adjunct faculty position at the School of Engineering and Technology (Structural Engineering Department) at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). His expertise spans diverse areas like finite element modeling, advanced concrete design, performance-based design of tall buildings, technology adaptation, BIM, and software development. Dr. Anwar's focus on knowledge sharing is evident through his extensive research supervision, publications, and international conference keynotes. He actively contributes to capacity building through initiatives like ACECOMS and AIT Solutions, and his drive for integrating emerging technologies into structural engineering reflects his forward-thinking approach to the field. He can be contacted at naveed@csibangkok.com.