Leicester Professor honoured with global award for life-saving disaster risk work 

The University of Leicester's Professor Nibedita Ray-Bennett has been awarded a prestigious Norio Okada Implementation Science Award for her work on disaster risk management alongside her long-time collaborator, Dr Hideyuki Shiroshita (Kansai University).  

Awarded by the Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM) Society, the award recognises Professor Ray-Bennett's dedication to the research and implementation of disaster death prevention across the globe.  

Professor Ray-Bennett is an expert in risk management and the founding president of the Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN), alongside Dr Shiroshita. She is also a Sr. Research Fellow and Associate Director of the University of Leicester's Institute for Environmental Futures (IEF).

She has worked on several lifesaving projects internationally. This includes developing lifesaving kits for women at risk from complications following unsafe abortions and post abortions during disasters. 

Her expertise has been crucial in helping Odisha in India cut the number of fatalities from snakebites in half by 2030, as well as highlighting a critical gap in global health data in capturing circumstances surrounding drowning deaths. 

The Avoidable Deaths Network launched the International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths, which they mark each year on March 12. 

Professor Ray-Bennett and Dr Shiroshita accepted the award at the 15th IDRiM ceremony in Samos, Greece on 1 October 2025. 

Professor Ray-Bennett said: " I am deeply honoured and profoundly grateful to receive the Professor Norio Okada Distinguished Implementation Science Award 2025 from the IDRiM Society. It is an extraordinary privilege, made even more meaningful by the fact that Professor Norio Okada personally recommended both me and Dr Hideyuki Shiroshita for this award.

This award is a significant milestone in my journey to become an impactful academic, one that has been many years in the making.

I am especially thankful to the Leicester Institute for Environmental Futures for their unwavering support. Their generous seed funding enabled me to pursue ambitious implementation initiatives, including the Case Stations for Avoidable Deaths, the Global Campaign for Avoidable Deaths, and my current work on developing Avoidable Disaster Deaths Toolkits.

Behind every successful implementation are the implementers. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the many remarkable individuals— ADN scientists, community leaders, advisors, mentors, and operational team members—who believed in me and supported my continuous process of trial and error in implementation science.