Professor David Sanderson is the inaugural Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture at UNSW, and is an expert in designing for disaster. David has over 25 years’ experience working in development and emergencies and has carried out a number of assignments for NGOs and donors across the world.

From 1994-98 David was a Project Manager at the Oxford Centre for Disaster Studies. David worked for eight years for CARE International UK as head of policy and subsequently Regional Manager for southern and west Africa. From 2006-2013 David was Director of CENDEP, a centre at Oxford Brookes University focusing on development and emergencies.

Between 2013-14 he was a full time Visiting Professor at Harvard University, where he taught a course, ‘Design for urban disaster’, and from 2014-2015 was a Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

David has published articles and papers concerning urban livelihoods, shelter and disaster risk reduction. He has carried out a number of assignments for NGOs and donors across the world, and in recent years has led post-disaster reviews in Haiti, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines and Nepal.