Panel

Dr. Rosina Bierbaum is Dean Emerita of the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment and School of Public Health, University of Michigan, and a Research Professor and Roy F. Weston Chair in Natural Economics University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Her experience extends from climate science into foreign relations and international development. She served for two decades in both the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government and ran the first Environment Division of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Dr. Ngonidzashe Chirinda is a climate change scientist and an Assistant Professor in Sustainable Tropical Agriculture at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco. His research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions, uptake, monitoring, and modelling; identifying and evaluating climate change mitigation options; and assessing environmental policy implications. He has worked on several projects in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, exploring new ways to solve climate-related and food security issues.

Professor Miriam Diamond has gained expertise in chemical contaminants and environmental issues in general, from over three decades of conducting research and teaching at the University of Toronto. She has also been involved in promoting sound chemicals management at national to international scales.

Dr. Susanne Schmeier is an Associate Professor of Water Law and Diplomacy and the Head of the Water Governance Department at the Institute for Water Education (IHE) in Delft, The Netherlands. Her research, educational, and advisory work focuses on the legal and institutional mechanisms for mitigating conflict potential around natural resources and the environment, with a particular focus on water. She has published widely on topics relating to environmental security, transboundary water management and international organizations managing natural resources and the environment, both in academic journals and books and for a broader policy and general audience. She is particularly active in engaging with non-expert audiences, advocating for cooperative and sustainable water governance that involves a broad variety of stakeholders.

Jon Barnett is a human geographer in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Jon’s research investigates social impacts and responses to environmental change. He has been conducting field-based research on social vulnerability and adaptation to environmental change in Australia, China, Timor-Leste and Pacific Island Countries for twenty-five years. Jon's research has helped explain the impacts of environmental change on cultures, food security, inequality, migration, political instability, and water security.

Dr. Ermias Betemariam is a land health scientist at the Centre for International Forestry Research – World Agroforestry (CIFOR–ICRAF). His research focuses on land degradation and restoration, soils, and spatial science to understand land health constraints, target interventions, and influence policy.

Dr. Blake Ratner is Executive Director, Collaborating for Resilience - a cross-regional, non-profit initiative working to address environmental resource competition and strengthen governance and livelihood resilience in interconnected resource domains and landscapes. An environmental sociologist (Ph.D., Cornell University), he has published widely on rights, equity, accountability and institutional innovation in environmental decision-making, drawing on insights from action research to inform both policy and practice.

Dr. Mark Stafford Smith is based in Canberra, Australia, and contributes to research on adaptation and sustainable development. He is retired from CSIRO, Australia's national research organization, where he oversaw a highly interdisciplinary program of research on many aspects of adapting to climate change, as well as regularly interacting with national and international policy issues around sustainable development. He continues as a CSIRO Honorary Fellow, and in several international roles.

Chris Whaley is a senior policy advisor with extensive experience of global agreements on climate change, biodiversity, chemicals, forestry, and sustainable development, working in the U.K., EU, internationally, as a diplomat and in the UN system.