My research on improving flood and community resilience through locally appropriate, innovative, mitigation and adaptation strategies has evolved over 20 years.

Initially, as a Lloyds TSB Research Fellow, I developed time-saving remediation strategies that adopted new materials and techniques to reduce costs and re-homing times for flood damaged property (Proverbs, Soetanto 2004). Having seen the financial and personal cost of flooding, I found ways to improve individual’s roles in enhancing flood resilience within social systems, as Co-Investigator on the fifteen-institution EPSRC CREW programme (2008-11). Enlightened by these insights into a human-centred approach–which I have pursued ever since–I sought to address the life-threatening flood risks in my birth country, Indonesia, securing funding from the British Council Newton Fund and Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (Ristekdikti), Indonesia.

Working with local communities in Semarang, Indonesia, I shaped policymakers’ awareness of BGI’s role in urban environments as part of the ‘BuGIS’ Institutional Links project (2017–19, https://bugis.lboro.ac.uk/). BuGIS also revealed the lack of flood insurance for low-income communities, leading me to work with economists, computer scientists, geographers and insurance experts on the ‘FloodFinJava’ project (GCRF, 2018–20), resulting in policymakers understanding the complementarity of private insurance and government flood protection work, and an Outstanding Paper at the 2021 Emerald Literati Awards.

Subsequently, I was engaged by NERC to shape its Nature-based Solutions research agenda (2022–23) and appointed as a ‘World Class Professor’, funded by the Ristekdikti (2017–18). I am Visiting Professor at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and Universitas Diponegoro (UnDip) (2025-26).

Beyond academia, I am a member of the Environment Agency’s Trent Regional Flood and Coastal Committee’s Innovation Subgroup. I led the award-winning BIM-Hub initiative (http://bim-hub.lboro.ac.uk/), received Premier Award of the CIOB’s International Innovation and Research Awards 2014, and won 4 international best journal paper awards. I supervised 15 PhDs to completion, and am External Examiner for 14 PhDs from universities in Ghana, Malaysia, South Africa, the UK.

I was keynote speakers for several international conferences. I led the Construction Engineering Management Programme for 6 years (2019-2025), contributing to maintaining its top three position in the last ten years in the Complete University Guide.

Professional affiliations

• Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Awards

• ABCE Extra Miles Award 2022 for bringing about positive change in the School through any aspect of their job, including collegiality and all aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion
• Outstanding Paper at the 2021 Emerald Literati Awards
• ABCE Award 2020 for Research Excellence (highly commended)
• The CIOB International Innovation and Research Award 2014 – Premier Award in the Innovation in Education and Training category
• Emerald Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2014 (Structural Survey)
• Emerald Outstanding Paper Awards 2009 (highly commended paper)
• The RICS Building Surveying Faculty Postgraduate Prize for the best paper presented at COBRA 2002 Conference
• Scholastic awards for all my degrees (BEng, MEng, PhD)

External activities

• Visiting Professor at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and Universitas Diponegoro (UnDip), Indonesia (2025-26)
• World Class Professor at Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Indonesia (2017-18)
• Visiting Professor, Ryerson University, Canada (2010, 2012)
• Executive Committee Member (Publications Officer) of Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM) (2009 – 2024)
• External Examiner for 14 PhDs from universities in Ghana, Malaysia, South Africa, the UK
• Programme External Examiner for University of Salford (2015-17), Kingston University (2016-20), University of Reading (2018-2022)
• Member of Review Panel, Newton Fund Researcher and Institutional Links, British Council (2015 – 2020)
• Member of Innovation Sub-group of Environmental Agency’s Trent Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC) (May 2023 – present)
• Reviewer for proposals submitted to International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) (2024 – present)
• Reviewer for proposals submitted Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) Fellowship Programme (2025)
• Reviewer for proposal to the Vienna Science and Technology Fund, Environmental Systems Research (2020)
• Member of Judging Panel, Constructing Excellence East Midlands Awards (2021-2024)
• Proposal Reviewer for ESRC-DFID (2013), UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) (2014)
• Keynote speaker in several international conferences