Fernando de Jesús ARAGÓN DURAND

Biography

Mr Fernando ARAGON-DURAND is currently completing his PhD at the Development Planning Unit at University College London. His research project is about the social construction of meanings and discourses on environmental risk and disasters at policy level. He has been awarded scholarships from CONACYT - National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico and from the Ford/MacArthur foundations (research abstract available at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/courses/mphilphd_profiles.htm#aragon).

As a disasters expert, he is currently evaluating the implementation of the Natural Disasters Fund for the Ministry of the Interior of Mexico. Mr. Aragón
is also producing the Environmental Policy Report (2001-2006) for the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

Previously, he has done several consultancy jobs for the Ministries of Environment and Education, and various Universities in Mexico on issues of regional sustainable development, urban sustainability and environmental education.

Mr.Aragón is a member of various academic groups based in the UK related to disasters, science and policy. His academic interests are focused on the social construction of knowldeges on risk and disasters; management of science and policy interfaces in developing countries; policy and discourse analysis on disasters and conflicts. He has an extensive experience in policy analysis. He is author of a number of papers and chapters on disasters, environmental education and urban sustainability.

He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa and a master's degree in urban development from El Colegio de Mexico, A.C. Mr Aragon received additional training in ecology, population and development from the Universidad Iberoamericana, campus Santa Fe. He is the founder and former Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Programme on Sustainable Development and Environment at the Universidad Iberoamericana, campus Golfo-Centro in Puebla city, position held till 1998. After that he was a visiting lecturer on environmental issues at Universidade Grande Rio, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in the University for Peace, Costa Rica. In 1994, Mr Aragon worked at the Federal Ministry of Social Development in Mexico City.

Mr Aragon enjoys sharing his experience through teaching and researching. He is a former player of ""pelota vasca" (a popular ball game of the Basque country of Spain and France)and was part of the national team that attended the Panamerican Games of Basque Pelote in La Habana, Cuba. He speaks fluently English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

This biography was last updated on April 30, 2007