Dr Nebil Achour

Nebil has expertise in the resilience of healthcare to major hazards, about which he published over 50 scientific articles and reports, and was a member of the global WHO Hospital Safety Index revision panel.

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Background

After gaining a BSc in Civil Engineering from the Tunis Advanced School of Science and Technology, Tunisia, Dr Achour worked in private engineering and design firms on designing structures and training engineers in several countries. Granted a Japanese Government Scholarship to further his education, he gained his MSc with a focus on the response of hospital lifeline systems following seismic activities and his PhD on hospital’s fragility assessment in 2004 and 2007 respectively from Kanazawa University.

Following his graduation he was then employed as a Post-doctoral Researcher in his graduate University. He joined Loughborough University in September 2007 as a Research Associate. He coordinated the research activities of the £11million HaCIRIC research centre, and the CPM WBDL MSc Course. He was awarded the Best Paper Award during the CIB World Congress 2010, and the Highly Commended Paper in the 2016 and 2015 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. Nebil is actively involved in national and international research and consultancy activities and interested in exchanging knowledge with academics and practitioners, specifically those working on similar topics.

Research interests

• Innovation and modernization of healthcare emergency planning
• Disaster mitigation engineering
• Global challenge and healthcare resilience
• Healthcare system interconnectivity
• Public health and disaster prevention
• Healthcare and system dynamics
• Interdisciplinary research activities
• International best practice

Areas of research supervision

• Leadership and service development
• Service improvement and clinical processes
• Healthcare staff retention
• Staff motivation, stress and compassion fatigue

Teaching

• Healthcare Management (MSc Distance Learning)

Qualifications

• PhD in Disaster Mitigation Engineering, Kanazawa University (Japan)
• MSc in Disaster Mitigation Engineering, Kanazawa University (Japan)
• BSc (Hons) in Civil Engineering, University of Tunis II (Tunisia)
• Qualification in Team Leadership, Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering & Estate Management (2010-present)
• Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of the Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE), Emerald (2014-present)
• Member of the Post-Graduate Learning and Teaching (PG L&T) Committee, School of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University (2010-2013)
• Member of the Committee of Scientific Directors of the CIB World Building Congress 2016 (2015-present)
• Member of review panels for over 15 international journals

Member of the scientific committees of:

• International Conference on Disaster Resilience, 11-15 February, 2013, Sri Lanka
• 4th International Conference on Building Resilience, 8-11 September, 2014, UK
• 5th International Conference on Building Resilience, 15-17 July, 2015, New Zealand
• International Conference on Advances in Civil & Environmental Engineering (ACEE), 28-30 July, 2015, Malaysia
• CIB World Building Congress 2016 (WBC16), 30 May-3 June 2016, Finland

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

National and international esteem

• Co-Chair of the Int. Scientific Committee, CIB World Building Congress 2016
• External PhD Examiner in Coventry (UK), De Montfort (UK), Salford (UK) and New South Wales (Australia) Universities
• Co-Chair of the ‘Planning for more resilient healthcare in emergencies under increasing risks and decreasing budgets’ international workshop, Loughborough University, 2011, UK. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe.2011.43502caa.004
• Invited Speaker at ‘A Healthy Climate: The Implications of climate change for health and adapting healthcare services’ workshop, Nottingham Conference Centre, Nottingham, 2011, UK
• Guest Editor ‘Optimising healthcare facilities performance in natural hazards’ special issue of the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE), 2010 – 2011, Emerald
• Keynote Speaker at the ‘Memorial International Symposium on Earthquake Engineering in Retirement of Professor M Kitaura’, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, 2009, Japan
• Invited Author - Contributed with an article ‘Healthcare Resilience: What’s missing?’ to the Asian Disaster and Preparedness Centre (ADPC) Newsletter, Bangkok, 2008, Thailand

Consultancy

• Member of the Global Expert Consultation on Revision of the Hospital Safety Index, World Health Organisation (WHO) (2012-2015)
• Member of International Post-earthquake Investigation Team to Ercis and Van (Turkey). Team included members from Italy, Japan, Turkey and UK, Van, 2011, Turkey
• Member of International Advisory Panel to develop ‘A Curriculum Framework for Public Health Risk Management’, WHO East Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO), Amman, 2013, Jordan
• Member of International Advisory Panel to develop and of ‘A Protocol for Health Emergency Risk Assessment’, WHO East Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO), Amman, 2013, Jordan

Selected recent publications

Journals and edited books/journals

Achour, N and Kähkönen, K.E.E. (Eds) (2017) "Disaster resilience: Building the Jigsaw", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 8(3), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-04-2017-0029. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/ijdrbe/8/3

Achour, N. (Ed.) (2016). Proceedings of the CIB World Building Congress 2016: Volume V - Advancing Products and Services. (Tampere University of Technology. Department of Civil Engineering. Construction Management and Economics. Report; Vol. 18). Tampere University of Technology. Department of Civil Engineering.

Soetanto, R., Mullins, A. & Achour, N (2016), “The perceptions of social responsibility for community resilience to flooding: the impact of past experience, age, gender and ethnicity”, Natural Hazards. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2732-z [Open Access]

Achour, N; Pascale, F; Price, ADF; Polverino, F; Aciksari, K; Özüçelik, DN; Miyajima, M; Yoshida, M (2016), Learning lessons from the 2011 Van Earthquake to enhance healthcare surge capacity in Turkey, Environmental Hazards, 15(1), 74-94. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2016.1139539

Conferences

Achour, N., Pantzartzis, E., Pascale, F., Price, A.D.F. (2012), Opportunities associated with the integration of environmental and resilience appraisal tools, Japan-UK Joint workshop on Policy Integration between Environmental Assessment and Disaster Management 30 November – 3 December 2012, Ichikawa, Japan. Accessible from: http://www.nishikiz.depe.titech.ac.jp/JPUK2012/Proceedings_of_the_JP-UK_joint_WS.pdf

Pascale, F., Achour, N., Price, A.D.F. and Polverino, F. (2012), Evaluation, analysis and benchmarking of the Design of Emergency Departments in Italy, Proceedings of the HaCIRIC International Conference: Transforming Healthcare Infrastructure and Services in an Age of Austerity, 19-21 September, Cardiff

Pascale, F., Achour, N., Price, A.D.F. and Polverino, F. (2012), Design Evaluation of Emergency Departments: Lessons learned from International case studies, Proceedings of the Emergency Department: Considerations for Innovation and Strategic Design Workshop, 28-29 June, Washington DC

Glass, J., Achour, N., Parry, T. & Nicholson, I. (2011) The Role of Responsible Sourcing in Creating a Sustainable Construction Supply-Chain, Proceedings of The CIB International Conference Management and Innovation for a Sustainable Built Environment - MISBE2011, 2011, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Reports

Achour, N (2015), A ‘disaster prevention’ approach advocated, Health Estate, 69(6) 29-32. Accessible from: http://www.healthestatejournal.com/story/14477/a-disaster-prevention-approach-advocated

Achour, N (2015), “Reconnaissance report: Water supply failure incident in Library on 22nd December 2014”, March 2015, Loughborough University, UK

Achour, N (2014), “Report on the Reliability and Resilience of the Department of Chemistry systems and installations”, March 2014, Loughborough University, UK

Achour, N. and Pascale, F. (2012) “Ercis and Van Earthquakes (Turkey) International Investigation Team Reconnaissance Report”, Loughborough University, UK

Glass, J., Achour, N., Parry, T. and Nicholson, I. (2012), “Responsible sourcing of construction products and materials: results from an industry survey”, Concrete Magazine, February 20120, 47-49, ISSN: 0010-5317

Achour, N and Price, ADF (2011) “Planning for more resilient healthcare in emergencies under increasing risks and decreasing budgets: Preliminary report on the workshop findings and way forward”, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK, 7p