Miguel Esteban is a GCOE Research Fellow at the Energy Department of Kyoto University in Japan and Visiting Research Fellow at UNU-IAS. He is also a member of the Waseda-Yokohama National University Advanced Coastal Environment and Management Group (WAYCEM), an international group of specialists in coastal engineering and disaster management activities.

After graduating with a MEng. in civil engineering from Bristol University (U.K.), Miguel Esteban commenced work for international engineering consultants JacobsGIBB at their head office in Reading, UK and later joined the site supervision team to work on the construction of two large underground caverns at CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research) on the Swiss/French Border. Miguel also worked briefly for the port division of consultants High-Point Rendel in London, where he was involved in various coastal engineering and port construction projects.

In 2006, Miguel received his PhD in coastal engineering after completing his dissertation on the “Structural and Financial Risk Assessment of Caisson Breakwaters against Wind Waves and Tsunami Attack”. This involved assessing the failure mode of caisson breakwaters and the financial risks involved in their construction. After that he joined UNU-IAS as JSPS-UNU Postdoctoral Fellow and carried out research on the effects of climate change on natural disasters and possible counter-measures strategies. During his time at the Institute, he was involved in the publication of various journal papers and policy reports, including Innovation in Responding to Climate Change: Nanotechnology, Ocean Energy and Forestry.