Hamidreza Khankeh

Biography

Prof. Dr. Hamidreza Khankeh is an internationally recognized leader in Disaster Medicine and Emergency and Disaster Health, with more than 30 years of academic, clinical, and policy experience. He currently serves as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the QUEST Center for Responsible Research, Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and as Full Professor at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Tehran.

His work bridges disaster risk management and responsible research. He is the principal investigator of a DFG-funded project on Patient and Stakeholder Engagement in Stroke Research, which advances responsible and open science by systematically integrating patients, caregivers, clinicians, and policymakers into the research process. The project develops evidence-informed, applied recommendations that enhance relevance, transparency, and societal impact in biomedical research.

In parallel, Prof. Khankeh has pioneered public and citizen engagement in science by initiating the Science Slam in Iran as a national platform for dialogue between researchers and society. This initiative supports participatory knowledge production and aligns scientific evidence with community values and needs. Building on these experiences, he has ongoing project to develop a conceptual framework for Responsible Research in the Qualitative Paradigm, emphasizing ethical rigor, reflexivity, trustworthiness, and co-production of knowledge.

He holds a PhD in Nursing (Emergency and Disaster Health) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Karolinska Institute. A Georg Forster Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he has authored or supervised over 500 publications and is among the most cited disaster health scholars in the Middle East. His research focuses on the health impacts of climate change, responsible research in emergency and disaster, Responsible Research in the Qualitative Paradigm , the intersection of emergency risk management with climate change, hospital resilience and safety, social trust in crises, and integrated risk management. He is widely recognized as one of the most cited disaster health scholars in the Middle East.

Zimmerman worked in numerous roles over forty five years at UnityPoint St. Luke’s BirthCare Center in Cedar Rapids, IA, USA including staffing, education, outreach, nursing service and the nursing residency program. Zimmerman has been a legal expert for twenty-one years in labor and delivery and fetal monitoring. Zimmerman has spoken at numerous state and regional events.