Xuanmei Fan is director of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (SKLGP) at Chengdu University of Technology, China. She received her PhD in Engineering Geology from the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observations (ITC) at the University of Twente in 2013. In 2015, she became a leading professor at SKLGP. Prof. Fan’s research focuses on the earthquake- and climate change-induced chains of geological hazards, long-term landscape evolution and disaster risk reduction. Her work has been widely applied in the emergency response and rescue operations following major earthquakes. Due to her significant scientific achievements and contributions to society, she has recently received Chinese Young Women Scientists Award, Scientific Exploration Award, and the Science and Technology Awards of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG). As chair, she co-founded the Global Partnership for Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR), aiming to address the global challenges created by increasing multi-hazard risk and climate change in a fast-changing world.