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Lee Miles formally took up the post of Professor of Crisis and Disaster Management and joined BU’s Disaster Management Centre on 1st September at an exciting occasion in its almost 15 year history.

His appointment will further expand the research, professional practice and teaching portfolios of the Centre and enhance the Centre’s contribution to University submission to the forthcoming The Research Excellence Framework 2020.

Prior to joining BU, Lee was Professor of International Relations in the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University, Co-Director of the Research Interest Group in Emergency Management, and the founding programme director of the Masters in International Crisis Management at Loughborough.

Lee is distinguished by his research in the fields of the politics of the European Union and EU Crisis Management, Foreign Policy Analysis and the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in crisis and disaster management. Most recently, Lee has been researching the role of political and policy entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in international crisis and disaster management, and developing concepts of ‘entrepreneurial resilience’.

Lee says: ‘I am delighted to be joining the exciting team, and play a leading role, at the Disaster Management Centre, as we continue to develop its outstanding profile as a centre of international excellence in policy advice, professional practice and disaster management training, and as a place where contemporary issues in disaster management are explored and fused linkages across professional practice, training and research are highlighted.

He added: “I was particularly attracted to Bournemouth given its international expertise in travel and tourism, and media and communication, where, as recent events in Africa (Ebola), Nepal (earthquakes) and the Ukraine (air disasters and ongoing conflict) demonstrate, there are notable opportunities to further develop interdisciplinary research agendas in order to further understand how to be more resilient when handling disasters in theory and practice’.