Conference
UCCRN: International Symposium
May 10-11, 2007
Columbia University, new York City
Panelists Biographies
REGINALD A. BLAKE
Dr. Blake is a geo-physicist and a water resources engineer who has a rich and extensive background in hydro-climatology, climatology, climate change and climate change impacts, hydrology, meteorology, physical oceanography, and air pollution. He is currently an assistant professor of Physics at the New York City College of Technology. Dr. Blake’s Ph.D. is in the specialized area of hydro-climatology, and his Ph.D. dissertation research was conducted at Columbia University’s NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA/GISS). He received his Ph.D. in 1998 from The City University of New York, and he was a post-doctoral fellow at NASA/GISS from 1998-2001. He holds a Master’s degree in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography and a Bachelor’s degree in Meteorology. For three years (2001 – 2004), Dr. Blake was a City Research Scientist for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). While at NYCDEP, he conducted, had oversight of, and was responsible for the City’s numerous air pollution studies for both mobile and stationary sources. His expertise includes: global and regional climate change, quantitative and qualitative hydrological (flood forecasting/watershed) modeling, and remote sensing applications to: land hydrology, hydro-climate, and air pollution. Dr. Blake’s remote sensing research is currently being done at NOAA-CREST.
ALBERT BRESSAND
Dr. Albert Bressand is the Executive Director of the Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy and Professor in the Professional Practice of Public Affairs at Columbia University. Dr Bressand also serves as a Special Adviser to the EU Commissioner in charge of energy in Brussels. Prior to joining Columbia, Dr. Bressand headed the Global Business Environment department at Royal Dutch Shell’s global headquarters in London. In this capacity, he was responsible for designing a new generation of Shell Global Scenarios around an enhanced, original methodology for risk and opportunity assessment. He was previously Managing Director and co-founder of Promethee, a nonprofit, Paris-based think tank specializing in the emerging global networked economy and its implications for corporate strategies, capital markets, and international economic relations. Dr. Bressand has served as Economic Advisor to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and held key positions with the French Institute for International Relations and the World Bank. He is a member of the faculty of the World Economic Forum, and has chaired a number of sessions at the Davos Annual Meetings. A French citizen, Dr. Bressand earned advanced degrees in both mathematics and engineering at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and an MPA and a PhD in Political Economy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
VIRGINIA BURKETT
Virginia Burkett is Chief Scientist for Global Change Research at the U.S. Geological Survey. She was formerly Chief of the Forest Ecology Branch at the National Wetlands Research Center and Associate Regional Chief Biologist for the USGS Central Region. Dr. Burkett has served as Assistant Director of the Louisiana Geological Survey, Director of the Louisiana Coastal Zone Management Program, and Director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. She has published extensively on the topics of global change and low-lying coastal zones. Nominated by the U.S. government, she was a Lead Author on the United Nation's IPCC Third and Fourth Assessment Reports (2001 and 2007). She coordinated both the Coastal and Southeast synthesis chapters of the U.S. National Assessment of climate change and its impacts. Burkett received a B.S. in zoology and an M.S. in botany from Northwestern State University of Louisiana; her doctoral work in forestry was completed at Stephen F. Austin State University of Texas in 1996. She is presently working on a third report for the IPCC concerning climate change impacts on water resources, which will come out later this year.
RICHENDA CONNELL
Dr Richenda Connell is CTO and co-founder of Acclimatise, a specialist risk management company that assist businesses in adapting to the threats, costs and opportunities of climate change. She advises businesses with large, fixed assets on how to ‘climate-proof’ their activities and assets. She works with pension funds, banks, insurers and law firms on managing climate risks across their portfolios. Richenda also develops tools to help businesses adapt to a changing climate. She was Technical Director at the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) from 1999 to 2005, where she co-developed the UKCIP climate risk management framework and the world’s first web-based climate adaptation tool, the UKCIP Adaptation Wizard. Prior to UKCIP, Richenda worked as an environmental consultant, for the most part as an air quality specialist to the power and water industries. She holds a doctorate in atmospheric chemistry from Oxford University.
KRISTIE EBI
Dr. Kristie L. Ebi is an independent consultant based in Alexandria, VA, who has been working in the field of global climate change for more than 10 years. Her research focuses on the potential impacts of climate variability and change, including the impacts associated with extreme events, thermal stress, foodborne diseases, and vectorborne diseases. She is working with WHO, UNDP, USAID, and others on designing adaptation measures to reduce current and projected impacts in health and other sectors. She is a Lead Author for the Human Health chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, and for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.6 (Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems). She was a Convening Lead Author on the WHO publication: Methods of Assessing Human Health Vulnerability and Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change, and was a Lead Author in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. Dr. Ebi has more than 25 years of multidisciplinary experience in environmental issues. She has edited three books on climate change and health, and has more than 75 publications. Dr. Ebi’s scientific training includes a M.S. in toxicology and a Ph.D. and MPH in epidemiology, and two years of postgraduate research in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
ESTER FUCHS
Ester R. Fuchs is a Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University. After receiving her BA from Queens College, C.U.N.Y., she went on to receive her MA from Brown University, followed by a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. She served as Special Advisor to the Mayor for Governance and Strategic Planning under New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from 2001-2005. While at City Hall, Dr. Fuchs coordinated three significant mayoral initiatives: the restructuring the City’s delivery of Out-of-School Time (OST) programs to children, youth, and families; the Integrated Human Services System Project (Access New York) to streamline the screening and eligibility determination processes, case management, and policy development and planning functions within and across the 13 human services agencies through the use of technology; and the merger of the Department of Employment with the Department of Small Business Services to align the City’s workforce development programs with the needs of the business community. Dr. Fuchs was also appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to serve as Chair of the 2005 NYC Charter Revision Commission. She was the first woman to serve in this capacity. Before going on a public service leave to join the Bloomberg Administration, Dr. Fuchs was Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Chair of the Urban Studies Program at Barnard and Columbia Colleges, and founding Director of the Columbia University Center for Urban Research and Policy. She serves on the Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board, NYC Economic Opportunity Commission, the NYC Workforce Investment Board, the NYC Commission on Women's Issues, and the Advisory Board for NYC’s Out of School Time (OST) Initiative. She was recently appointed to the Committee on Economic Inclusion of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and is a member of the Boards of the Fund for the City of New York and the Citizen Union. Prof. Fuchs has been the recipient of a grant from the Wallace Foundation Learning in Communities Initiative; the Guggenheim Foundation for summer public service internships; the Ford Foundation on Political Participation and the Civic Culture of Moslem Communities in NYC; the Greater London Enterprise to compare governance in London and New York; US Department of Justice on Implementation of the National Voter Registration Act; the National Health and Human Service Employees Union AFL-CIO project on Political Participation in NYC and NYS; a Ford Foundation grant on New Voices in State Fiscal Policy; the US Department of Housing and Urban Development evaluation of the federal homeless policy, the Continuum of Care; and Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Technical Assistance Project. She is the author of Mayor’s and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago and a frequent political commentator on tv and radio. Dr. Fuchs lives in Manhattan with her husband, Daniel Victor, and their three children.
CYNTHIA GHORRA-GOBIN
Dr. Ghorra-Gobin serves as Research Director at the National Scientific Research Center (CNRS) in Paris. Her research focuses on the leadership and political responsibilities of cities in addressing global issues. Recent publications include La ville insoutenable (ed.) (Paris, Belin, 2006) [The unsustainable city] and La Théorie du “New Urbanism” (Paris, Ministère Equipement, 2006) [The theory of New Urbanism in favor of smart and green growth]. Dr. Ghorra-Gobin teaches at the Institute of Political Studies (Paris) and at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, and serves as a consultant to the OECD and CERTU (Centre d'Etudes sur les réseaux, les transports, l'urbanisme et les constructions publiques). She is also on the scientific committee of four French journals Quaderni , Géographie et Cultures [Geogaphy and cultures], Géoéconomie [Geoeconomy] and L’Information Géographique [the Geographical Information] Dr. Ghorra-Gobin holds a Ph.D. in urban planning (UCLA) and a doctorat d’Etat in geography (University of Panthéon-Sorbonne).
TODD GOLDMAN
Todd Goldman is Associate Director for New Initiatives at the University Transportation Research Center (UTRC), where he works to develop closer collaborative ties between academic researchers and transportation planning and engineering professionals. He also serves as Associate Director for Research at the CUNY Institute for Urban Systems, where he works on research related to environmental, economic, and institutional dimensions of urban infrastructures. He has over seventeen years of experience working as a consultant and policy analyst on transportation planning and finance, energy and environmental policy, and economic development issues. His research experience bridges academia and professional practice, and has included research and consulting work for governmental, business, environmental groups, including the California State Legislature, Caltrans, Environmental Defense, the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, New York State Department of Transportation, the Partnership for New York City, and other organizations. He earned a Masters of City and Regional Planning, a Masters of Science in Transportation Engineering, and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the Transportation Economics committee of the Transportation Research Board.
STEPHEN A. HAMMER
Dr. Stephen A. Hammer is Director of the Urban Energy Project at Columbia University’s Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy. Dr. Hammer researches and supports energy policymaking efforts in cities, and teaches graduate seminars on urban energy systems and distributed energy technologies. Dr. Hammer regularly lectures on environmental and energy topics around the US, Europe, and China, and has published articles and opinion pieces in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, industry trade journals and other international publications. In 2006, Dr. Hammer completed a comparison of energy policymaking practices in New York City and London, portions of which will be published this year in Urban Energy Transition (Elsevier Press). In addition to teaching at Columbia University, Dr. Hammer provides research, regulatory, technical and project management support to public and private sector organizations. Past clients include several start-up firms, President George H.W. Bush’s Commission on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Park Service, the City of New York, leading international NGOs, and hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses. Dr. Hammer holds a PhD in Urban Planning from the London School of Economics, a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a BS in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Davis.
CHARLES HEAPS
Dr. Charles Heaps is the Acting Director, Stockholm Environmental Institute (US office) and the developer of LEAP: the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System, a leading energy and environmental planning tool used by many hundreds of organizations in over 140 countries worldwide . For the last 16 years, Charlie has worked around the world conducting workshops, undertaking energy studies and providing training and assistance to users of LEAP. Charlie is also the manager of COMMENT, a five year initiative to foster a web-based community among developing country energy planners. In addition to developing LEAP, Charlie has developed a range of other software tools and web sites for energy and environmental planning including GreenTrips (a web based tool for households to plan their transport emissions), and IDENTIFY (a spreadsheet-based tool for industrial climate mitigation project planning developed for UNIDO). Charlie has also been a major contributor to the development of other SEI software tools including WEAP and PoleStar. Charlie received a Bachelor of Science degree (first class) in energy studies from the University College of Swansea in Wales, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Technology from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London in 1990.
WALTER HOOK
Walter Hook has been the Executive Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) since 1993. Under his leadership ITDP has grown from a small NGO with only 1 full time staff member to an organization with roughly 20 full time staff and representatives in 13 countries, including China, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, India, Germany, the Czech Republic, the United States, and Indonesia. ITDP's early work focused on sending bicycles to developing countries, and redirecting the transport sector lending activities of the World Bank away from an exclusive focus on road projects towards more multi-modal transport solutions. Today, ITDP works with municipalities and NGOs in developing countries to initiate and implement sustainable transport projects with a focus on bus rapid transit (BRT), traffic demand management (TDM), non-motorized travel (NMT), and brownfield redevelopment. Recent successes include the implementation of the TransJakarta BRT system, the modernization of over 150,000 Indian cycle rickshaws, and the initiation of the California Bike Coalition. ITDP receives financial support from the Hewlett Foundation, the US Agency for International Development, the Global Environmental Facility, the United Nations Environment Program, UNDP, and the World Bank, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and numerous other donors. He received his PhD in Urban Planning from Columbia University in 1996 and taught as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of Architecture and Urban Planning from 1994 until 1996, and again in 1999. He holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and a BA from the Johns Hopkins University.
WILLIAM HORAK
William Horak is Chair of Brookhaven National Laboratory's Energy Sciences & Technolgy Department (EST). EST's mission is to conduct basic and applied sciences, research and development, and technology implementation and deployment to:
- Assure adequate supplies of clean/affordable energy and reduce U.S. vulnerability to supply disruptions, encourage efficiency, advance alternative and renewable energy technologies, and increase energy choices for all consumers.
- Maintain U.S. Leadership in the science and technology of energy supply and use.
- Educate new generations of scientists and engineers.
William Horak has a B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Nuclear Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois. He is an internationally recognized expert on energy issues and has served on numerous boards, committees and panels, both in the United States and for international organizations, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
SALEEMUL HUQ
Dr.Saleemul Huq completed his BSc (with Honours) in 1975 from Imperial College, London, United Kingdom and his PhD in plant sciences also from Imperial College in 1978. He then taught at the University of Dhaka until 1984 when he set up (and became the first executive director) of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. When he left BCAS in 2000, it was the leading scientific research and policy institute in the country in the field of environment and development. In 2000 he became an Academic Visitor at the Huxley School of Environment at Imperial College in London where he taught a course on global environmental policies. In February 2001 he joined the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London as Director of the Climate Change Programme. His interests are in the inter-linkages between climate change (both mitigation as well as adaptation) and sustainable development, from the perspective of the developing countries (with special emphasis on the least developed countries). He has published numerous articles in scientific and popular journals and was the lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is a co-anchor of the cross cutting theme on Adaptation and Mitigation for the fourth assessment report.
KLAUS JACOB
Klaus H. Jacob, is a Special Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University where after a 33-years of research and teaching in the basic Earth Sciences he retired from a full-time position in 2001. As an Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, he is teaching Disaster Risk Management. Dr. Jacob’s research includes the effects of global climate change and related sea level rise on coastal storm surge frequency, flooding and inundation, primarily of infrastructure systems in major coastal cities. This research was applied for instance to the New York Metropolitan East Coast Regional Assessment that examined the impacts of climate change and flooding scenarios on the New York transportation infrastructure and other built assets. He currently serves on a National Academies Committee on Climate Change and U.S. Transportation.
PATRICIA ROMERO LANKAO
Patricia Romero Lankao is Deputy Director at the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment in National Centre for Atmospheric Research , US . A sociologist by training, she holds two PhD degrees - one in Regional Development the Autonomous Metropolitan University, Mexico and the other in Agricultural Sciences and Environmental Policy from the University of Bonn , Germany . She taught graduate and post-graduate students in Mexico City for 14 years, has collaborated with the Mexican Government, NGOs and public stakeholders, and has led a range of outreach activities on environmental issues. Additionally she has contributed to a number of interdisciplinary international research networks (Global Carbon Project, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, International Human Dimensions Programme and Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research). Her research interests are at the interface of the human dimensions of global environmental change (e.g. the causes and societal impacts of climate change, especially as applied to cities). She was co-lead author of chapter 7 "Industry, Settlement and Society", as well as lead author of the Summary for Policy Makers and the Technical Summary of the WGII-IPCC Report.
EVA LIGETI
Eva Ligeti, a lawyer (LL.B. Windsor, LL.M. Osgoode), is the Executive Director of the Clean Air Partnership and co-chair of the GTA Clean Air Council. Eva works to build programs, policies and practices that facilitate sustainable urban development and deliver market and community-based research and strategies for healthy, clean air; less energy usage, mostly from renewable sources; and a sustainable built environment that reflects livable, sustainable urban planning, with convenient, accessible, public transit and active forms of transportation. Eva directs research resulting in reports and publications on a wide spectrum of public policy issues. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, Graduate Program in Environmental Science. Ms. Ligeti serves on numerous boards and committees including, Brantford Power Inc., FCM’s Green Municipal Fund's Council and the Advisory Council of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. Eva was Ontario’s first Environmental Commissioner from 1995 until 1999. Prior to her term as Environmental Commissioner, she was the Principal, Sheppard Campus, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology and Chair, School of Legal and Public Administration.
SHOMIK MEHNDIRATTA
Shomik Raj Mehndiratta is Senior Transport Specialist, East Asia Infrastructure Unit of the World Bank. He serves as a project leader managing project development, World Bank financing and implementation of loans for multi-component urban infrastructure projects in including in China and Vietnam. His projects have included the development of a Bus Rapid Transit system in Hanoi, the first BRT investment by the Bank outside of Latin America. He introduced the first initiative in the Bank urban transport portfolio to coordindate urban planning with transport planning, in Fuzhou, China. He is also leading development of the Bank's transport climate-change portfolio in the region, including in China, the largest single-country transport climate change program in the World Bank. Prior to working at the World Bank, he specialized in infrastructure investment analysis, market assessment, pricing and contracting strategy at CRA in Boston. He earned his undergraduate degree at the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India; and his Masters and Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley.
CLAUDIA NATENZON
Geographer, 1975 at Humanities School, Buenos Aires University, Argentina. Doctor in Geography, 2000. University of Sevilla, Spain. Since 1988 she is researcher at the Geography Institute of the BA University. Coordinator of the PIRNA - Natural Resources and Environmental Research Program. Her field of research is the analysis of catastrophic floods and social vulnerability under the glance of social theory of risk, applying eider social and geographical methodologies as participative methodologies for stakeholder involvement. She is, also, Postgraduate Professor and Invited Researcher at the "Participative Integral Planning and Management Program", FLACSO (Latin American School of Social Sciences), Argentina. She was Principal Investigator at the Project "Impacts of Global Change on the Coastal Areas of the Rio de la Plata: Sea Level Rise and Meteorological Effects" AIACC/GEF (2002-2004). Since 2004 she is Investigator of the NSF Project “Understanding and Modeling the Scope for Adaptive Management in Agro ecosystems in the Pampas in Response to Inter-annual and Decadal Climate Variability and Other Risk Factors”, under the leadership of Guillermo Podestá, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Sci. In this Project she is part of the sub group that be in charge of the objective: Conduct a self-reflective analysis of factors that promote or impede integrative science research and outreach with stakeholder. Since 2005 she participates in the Project “From Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential” (PccP) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), into the IHP-International Hydrologic Program - UNESCO.
DAVID NISSEN
David Nissen is the Director of the Program in International Energy Management and Policy and Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs holds a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology as well as an M.A. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Economics, both from the University of California at Berkeley. For 12 years prior to joining SIPA, Nissen managed the LNG and the gas strategic consulting practice at Poten and Partners, Inc., a leading commercial and energy consulting firm. He has held senior positions with Exxon's Corporate Planning Department and Chase Manhattan's Corporate Lending Group. Nissen also served in the U.S. Federal Energy Administration (precursor to the Department of Energy) during the Carter Administration, where he directed the quantitative assessment of the Carter Administration's National Energy Plan. Professor Nissen has held faculty positions at the Rutgers School of Business and the Rice University Department of Economics. Dr. Nissen's publications include numerous articles in Econometrica, Review of Economic Studies, Management Science, and various energy journals.
RICHARD PLUNZ
Richard Plunz is Professor of Architecture and Director of the Urban Design Program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He is also Director of the Urban Design Lab at Columbia's Earth Institute. He has developed numerous urban development projects and research both nationally and internationally. Professor Plunz is the author of many books, studies, and reports including A History of Housing in New York City (Columbia University Press, 1992), recently republished in a Japanese edition (Kajima, 2005). He is the editor of Design and the Public Good: Selected Writings by Serge Chermayeff, 1933-1980 (M.I.T. Press, 1982); Two Adirondack Hamlets in History (Purple Mountain Press, 1999); with Peter Madsen, The Urban Lifeworld. Formation, Perception, Representation (Routledge, 2002); After Shopping (Verlag Anton Pustet, 2003). Professor Plunz received a BA, BArch, and MArch from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
CYNTHIA ROSENZWEIG
Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University. Her primary research involves the development of interdisciplinary methodologies by which to assess the potential impacts of and adaptations to global environmental change. She has joined impact models with global climate models (GCMs) to predict future outcomes of both land-based and urban systems under altered climate conditions. Advances include the development of climate change scenarios for impact analysis, and the application of impact models at relevant spatial and temporal scales for regional and national assessments. Recognizing that the complex interactions engendered by global environmental change can best be understood by coordinated teams of experts, Dr. Rosenzweig has organized and led large-scale interdisciplinary, national, and international studies of climate change impacts and adaptation. She co-led the Metropolitan East Coast Regional Assessment of the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. She is also a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and an AAAS Fellow. She leads the Climate Impacts research group at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies, whose mission is to investigate the interactions of climate (both variability and change) on systems and sectors important to human well-being.
JEFFREY SACHS
Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015. Sachs is also President and Co-Founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at ending extreme global poverty. He is widely considered to be the leading international economic advisor of his generation. For more than 20 years Professor Sachs has been in the forefront of the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and enlightened globalization, promoting policies to help all parts of the world to benefit from expanding economic opportunities and wellbeing. He is also one of the leading voices for combining economic development with environmental sustainability, and as Director of the Earth Institute leads large-scale efforts to promote the mitigation of human-induced climate change. In 2004 and 2005 he was named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time Magazine, and is the 2005 recipient of the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. He is author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books, including New York Times bestseller The End of Poverty (Penguin, 2005). Sachs is a member of the Institute of Medicine and is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has received many honorary degrees, most recently from Trinity College Dublin, the College of the Atlantic, Southern Methodist University, Simon Fraser University and McGill University. Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University.
ROBERT SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ
Roberto Sánchez Rodríguez has taught urban and environmental studies at universities in Mexico, France, and the United States. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Riverside, and Director of The University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UCMEXUS). His research addresses the linkages between environment and development, and the interactions between global environmental change and globalization where he focuses on the vulnerability of urban areas to climate variability and climate change. Dr. Sanchez is Co-Chair of the International Human Dimensions Program (IHDP) core project on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC), and past Vice-Chair of IHDP Scientific Committee.
MARCO SCHMIDT
Marco Schmidt studied Landscape Architecture in Berlin. He worked on several scientific urban ecological demonstration projects, commissioned by the Berlin Senate for Urban Development. Main focus is the evaluation of local rainwater management strategies, especially regarding water balance modifications in urban areas. Since 1992 teaching and research activities at the Technical University of Berlin and the University of Applied Sciences in Neubrandenburg on developing the necessary skills and best practice in the landscape planning process. Research and testing fields in urban ecology, esp. rainwater management of pavements, roof greening, façade greening systems and rainwater harvesting projects. He is also specialized in electronic acquisition and processing of environmental data.
NIELS B. SCHULZ
Dr. Niels Schulz is a Research Associate at the Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College (IC) London. Before joining the Energy Futures Lab he worked for two years as postdoctoral fellow at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) in Yokohama, Japan. At UNU-IAS he worked with the ecosystem and people program and conducted research and capacity building programs to address urban environmental challenges of cities in the Asian-Pacific region. In particular he worked on indicators of sustainable production and consumption at the urban scale. Dr. Schulz holds a PhD in ecology from Vienna University, where his research examined changes in energy use and resource consumption during the industrial transformation of the United Kingdom. Past research has also included an examination of integrated measures for land-use and land-cover change such as ‘human appropriation of net primary production’, ecological footprint analysis, and other measures of society’s material and energy metabolism.
ELLIOTT SCLAR
Elliott Sclar is Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development and Professor of Urban Planning and International Affairs at Columbia University. He is Director of Graduate Programs in Urban Planning and is active in the work of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Sclar was co-coordinator of the Taskforce on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers, one of ten UN Millennium Project taskforces set up to guide the implementation of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. Sclar is an economist and a leading figure in a scholarly movement to reconnect population health and urban planning in creating healthier cities.
WILLIAM SOLECKI
Dr. William Solecki’s research focuses on the urban environmental change and urban land use and suburbanization. Solecki currently is the Interim Director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities and the chair of the Department of Geography at Hunter College – CUNY. He has served on several U.S. National Research Councils committees including the Special Committee on Problems in the Environment (SCOPE). He currently is a member of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Megacity Study Group and the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP), Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Scientific Steering Committee. He currently serves (has served) as the co-leader of several climate impacts and land use studies in the New York metropolitan region, including the Metropolitan East Coast Assessment of Impacts of Potential Climate Variability and Change. He holds in degrees in Geography from Columbia University (BA) and Rutgers University (MA, Ph.D).
SUMEETA SRINIVASAN
Sumeeta Srinivasan is a Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; and a Preceptor in Geospatial methods in the Department of Government, at Harvard University. Dr. Srinivasan is interested in how cities change and how Geospatial methods can be used to visualize and quantify cities as systems. She is affiliated with the China Project at Harvard University. Her research interests include the integration of transportation and land use planning and the use of quantitative methods to study urban growth. She has worked on urban issues in India, China and the United States. She has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.
RALPH TORRIE
Ralph Torrie is Vice President for Energy Policy and Climate Change, ICF Consulting. He has been studying and writing about sustainable energy futures for 30 years. He is the former assistant coordinator of the Energy Research Group of the United Nations University and the International Development Research Centre. He has been involved in the climate change issue since 1988 and throughout the 1990’s worked closely with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives in the development of strategic approaches to greenhouse gas emission reduction for application at the local government level. He is the co-inventor of environmental planning software that has been translated into several languages and is in use in over 300 cities around the world. He has a special interest in sustainable energy scenario research and recently completed an analysis for the David Suzuki Foundation of how Canada could cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50%. He has worked and lectured throughout the world, has numerous publications, and is a recipient of the Canadian Environment Silver Award for his work on climate change. Mr. Torrie was appointed Vice President for Energy Policy and Climate Change for ICF Consulting in 2005.
ELKE U. WEBER
Elke U. Weber is the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business in the Management Division of Columbia Business School and Professor of Psychology at Columbia University. Her M.A. and Ph.D. (in Behavior and Decision Analysis, 1984) are from Harvard University. She has held academic positions in the United States (University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Ohio State University) and Europe (Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Corporate Management). She spent a year (1992/93) at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and half a year (2002) at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Center for Advanced Study) in Berlin. She is an expert on behavioral models of judgment and decision-making under risk and uncertainty. Recently she has been investigating psychologically appropriate ways to measure and model individual and cultural differences in risk taking, specifically in risky financial situations and environmental decision-making and policy. Weber is past president of the Society for Mathematical Psychology and the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. She has edited two major decision journals and currently serves on the editorial boards of six journals. She just finished a seven-year term on two advisory committees of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, related to human dimensions in global change. At Columbia, she founded and co-directs the Center for the Decision Sciences, which fosters and facilitates cross-disciplinary research and graduate training in the basic and applied decision sciences. She also is the Director of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, which coordinates research on individual and group decision making in response to climate variability and climate change conducted by scientists from eight national universities in labs and field sites around the world.
P. CHRISTOPHER ZEGRAS
P. Christopher Zegras is an Assistant Professor of Transportation and Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He teaches graduate-level courses in urban transportation planning, statistics, and land use-transportation planning in the Department of Urban Studies at MIT, where he has also co-taught urban design and planning studios in Beijing, Santiago de Chile, and Mexico City. His research interests include the influence of the built environment on individual travel behavior, transportation infrastructure and system financing, comparative analyses of metropolitan transportation systems, and mitigating transportation greenhouse gas emissions. On these and other related topics, he has consulted widely, including for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Canadian, German, US, and Peruvian Governments, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the United Nations Center for Regional Development. Zegras previously worked for the International Institute for Energy Conservation in Washington, DC and Santiago de Chile and for MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. He holds a Master in City Planning and a Master of Science in Transportation from MIT and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, also from MIT.
FENGQI ZHOU
Dr. Fengqi Zhou is a Research professor and Director of Center for Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS). She was a visiting scholar at Harvard University from August, 2001 to July, 2002, and a visiting scholar at the Center for Environment Studies, Oxford University from January 2006 to March 2006. Dr. Zhou holds a BS degree in Energy Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, and a masters degree and PhD in economics from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
RAE ZIMMERMAN
Rae Zimmerman is Professor of Planning and Public Administration at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and since 1998, Director of the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS), a research and education center initially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). She leads ICIS’ partnership in the U.S. DHS-funded Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Modeling of Terrorism Events at the University of Southern California, where her work focuses on critical infrastructure, and also conducts research on extreme events for the NYU Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response and Dartmouth’s Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P). She authored Governmental Management of Chemical Risk (Lewis/CRC), co-produced Beyond September 11th (U. of Colorado-Boulder, 2003), and is co-editor of Digital Infrastructures (Routledge 2004) and Sustaining Urban Networks (Routledge, 2005). Professor Zimmerman teaches and conducts research in environmental quality, environmental health risk management, and urban infrastructure innovations to support urban areas. Her work on global climate change focuses on the influence of infrastructure and land use institutions and global climate change. In these areas she authored or co-authored a chapter of the MetroEast Coast (MEC) study (Columbia Earth Institute 2001), a chapter in The Baked Apple (NY Academy of Sciences, 1996), and articles on extreme events and risk applicable to global climate change in Risk Analysis (1999) and the Mid-West floods in The Sciences (1994). Other related research areas are environmental decision tools for communities, risk communication, and water resources research. Professor Zimmerman’s research is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the National Science Foundation; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (through three universities); and various state and local agencies. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and past president and Fellow of the international Society for Risk Analysis, and a member of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board Homeland Security Advisory Committee. Former professional appointments include the Committee on the Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the U.S. EPA Board of Scientific Counselors, the U.S. EPA National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) Working Group on Drinking Water Research, the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment of NAS, and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Comparative Risk Committee. She holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of California (Berkeley), a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in planning from Columbia University.