Professor Lee Bosher

Dr Bosher is a social scientist and geographer that has developed a portfolio of projects (totalling over £6m) related to Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and the integration of proactive risk management strategies into the decision-making processes of key stakeholders.

After an initial career as a laboratory technician, Lee personally experienced a couple of disasters (a tropical cyclone in India and then an earthquake in Nepal) that steered him towards a new career path. Thus in 2000, he graduated from Coventry University with a BSc in ‘Development & Health in Disaster Management’. Between 2001 and 2004 Lee completed a Post Graduate Certificate in ‘Research Methods in Social Science’ at Middlesex University and a PhD on the 'Social and Institutional Elements of Vulnerability in Andhra Pradesh, South India', at the Flood Hazard Research Centre.  

After a short period working on an independent review of training provided by the British Armed Services, Lee joined the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering (SABCE) at Loughborough University in May 2005. After 2005, he worked as an investigator-researcher on two additional research projects (PRE-EMPT and RE-Design) before being appointed to a Lecturer position in October 2009. Lee was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2012 and Reader in 2017 and the same year became SABCE’s Director of Doctoral Programmes. In 2020 Lee was promoted to Professor of Disaster Risk Management and became Group Leader of the Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC). Lee joined ULSB in April 2023. 

Dr Bosher's publications can be viewed/accessed via Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=s2jnvKAAAAAJ&hl=en 

Dr Bosher is a social scientist and geographer that has developed a portfolio of projects (totalling over £6m) related to Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and the integration of proactive risk management strategies into the decision-making processes of key stakeholders. Lee's publications and external activities provide testament to the internationally recognised quality of his work. Lee's other research and teaching interests are related to the technical, social, environmental and institutional roles in improving the resilience of society and critical assets to natural hazards and human-induced threats. 

Recent research projects 

• ‘River basins as 'living laboratories'  for achieving sustainable development goals across national and sub-national scales’ (NERC) project (February 2019-January 2021)  
• ‘Valuing the benefits of blue/green infrastructure for flood resilience, natural capital and urban development in Vietnam’ (NERC/ESRC/NAFOSTED) project (January 2019-July 2021) 
• Newton Fund (British Council) funded ‘Enhancing urban flood resilience for 1 million people through Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) in Semarang, Indonesia’ project (March 2017-November 2018) 
• NERC funded ‘Evaluating the resilience of critical infrastructure for emergency response to extreme flood events in Leicester City’ project. (October 2014-May 2015) 
• Daiwa Foundation funded travel grant to study “Climate change impacts on, and improved disaster risk management for, cultural heritage sites in Japan and the UK”. (July-October 2015) 
• European Commission (FP7) funded ‘Evolving Concept of Security (EVOCS)Project (June 2014-December 2015)
• European Commission (FP7) funded ‘Designing Safer Urban Spaces’ (DESURBS)Project (January 2011-December 2014)

Dr Bosher has supervised 11 PhD students to successful completion and he is keen to supervise more projects, so please contact him if you are interested in undertaking a PhD.

Lee is open to supervising students interested in the following topics:

• Principles of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and the mainstreaming of DRM and sustainable development into long-term developmental and business strategies. More research needs to be conducted that can identify the 'business cases' for proactive (disaster) risk management.
• Studying risk perception and the role of socio-environmental-technical adaptations for improving the resilience of vulnerable families, households, communities, businesses and critical infrastructure services to natural hazards (e.g. floods, typhoons and earthquakes).
• Investigating the interlinkages between disaster risk reduction, nature-based solutions and cultural heritage management.
• Pedagogical research related to the use of models, children's toys and on-line computer simulations as learning tools for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Lee currently contributes to a range of modules across the School through a combination of teaching and project supervision. Central to his teaching approach is to the need to make lectures as engaging as possible; to achieve this Lee draws upon recent research as well as profiling the latest disasters and emergencies as case studies that form the basis of highly topical problem-based learning sessions. 

Conference scientific/organising committees

• 2023 – 10^th (i-Rec) conference on ‘Tensions Between Tradition and Innovation in Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Action, and Reconstruction’, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
• 2021 – 42^nd WEDC International Conference, September, Loughborough University, UK
• 2019 - 9th (i-Rec) Conference on ‘Disrupting the status quo: Reconstruction, recovery and resisting disaster risk creation, July, University of Florida, USA
• 2018 – 41^st WEDC International Conference, July, Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya.
• 2016 - International Conference on Building Resilience, September, Auckland, New Zealand.
• 2016 – 39^th WEDC International Conference, KNUST University, Kumasi, Ghana.
• 2016 - CIB World Building Congress, May- June, Tampere, Finland.
• 2015 - 38^th WEDC International Conference, July, Loughborough University, England.
• 2015 - 7^th (i-Rec) Conference on ‘Post-disaster reconstruction, July, UCL, England.
• 2014 - 37^th WEDC International Conference, September, Hanoi, Vietnam.
• 2013 - 36^th WEDC International Conference, July, Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya.
• 2013 - 6^th (i-Rec) conference: Sustainable post-disaster reconstruction - From recovery to risk reduction, May, Centro Stefano Franscini (ETHZ), Switzerland.
• 2013 - CIB World Building Congress, April, Brisbane, Australia.
• 2011 - 35^th WEDC International Conference, July, Loughborough University, England.
• 2010 – 5^th (i-Rec) conference: Participatory design and appropriate technology for disaster reconstruction, July, Ahmedabad, India.
• 2010 - International Conference on Innovation in Architecture, Engineering & Construction, June, Pennsylvania State University, USA.
• 2008 - Information and Research for Reconstruction (i-Rec) 4^th International Conference on ‘Post-disaster reconstruction April – May, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Institution	Date(s)	Degree or Diploma Obtained
Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, England	2005	PhD (Disaster Risk Management): ‘The divine hierarchy: The social and institutional elements of vulnerability in south India’ (Defended February 2005)
Middlesex University, England	2003	Post Graduate Certificate in Research Methods in Social Science (PGC)
Coventry University, England	2000	BSc (Hons) Development and Health in Disaster Management (Higher second-class honours)