Dr. Osamu Murao is a professor at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) at Tohoku University, which was established in order to disseminate learning from the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster, and the founder of the International Strategy for Disaster Mitigation Laboratory (ISDM).  Together with collaborating organizations from many countries and with broad areas of specializations, the IRIDeS conducts world-leading research on natural disaster science and disaster mitigation.  In order to be in charge of ISDM in Regional and Urban Reconstruction Research Division, Dr. Murao was transferred to IRIDeS from Faculty of Engineering, Information and Systems at the University of Tsukuba in April 2013.  His current researches focus on post-disaster recovery process and urban design, and the relationship between physical environment (architecture and urban design) and disaster.  To date, with research grants by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and other organizations, he has investigated the post-disaster recovery process for damaged areas in Taiwan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Peru, Philippines, and World Trade Center in New York, as well as the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.  Particularly he kept tracking the recovery process of Chi-Chi Township since the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan as a visiting researcher of National Taiwan University in 2005.  Dr. Murao has been involved in some research projects about post-disaster urban recovery and disaster risk reduction in the world.