David Johnston

Co-leader, Urban Communities

David is Director of the Joint Centre for Disaster Research in the School of Psychology at Massey University and Deputy Director of QuakeCoRE, the NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience. His research focuses on human responses to volcano, tsunami, earthquake and weather warnings, crisis decision-making and the role of public education and participation in building community resilience and recovery. In 2016 he became co-chair of the World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) High Impact Weather Project (HIWeather) steering group. This follows his role as the chair of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Scientific Committee (IRDR) (2013-2015). He is the editor of The Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, and was the founding editor of the Journal of Applied Volcanology.