Ken has devoted over fifty years as a geographer to the human dimensions of environmental risks, hazards, disasters, and resilience. Incorporating natural, social, and management sciences, he has taken a broad front approach to bridging deep theoretical thinking and geographical knowledge with institutional practices to influence policymaking processes and outcomes in disaster response, recovery, and mitigation.
His work has been pathbreaking, engaging a wide variety of organizations at all levels of governance, and bringing together researchers, policy makers, and members of the public for complex discussions about developing actionable outcomes to help transform landscapes and people’s livelihoods to achieve sustainable development. Over several decades, he has tirelessly encouraged the engagement of geographers in policy making processes and outcomes, and inspired generations of students to move in new and promising directions in hazard and disaster research and mitigation.
Photo of Ken Mitchell at overlook of the flat land on which the base line for all official maps of Ireland since the 19th century was laid out.
