Ana Maria Cruz is a Professor at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute of Kyoto University. She is an international expert in industrial risk management and emergency planning for conjoint natural and technological (Natech) disasters. She is a chemical engineer and holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Tulane University in New Orleans, USA. Her research interests include risk analysis of flooding, storm, earthquake, tsunami and climate change – induced impacts on infrastructure systems, Natech accident investigation and consequence analysis, and disaster risk management. She has over 40 peer-reviewed publications in international journals.