Advisory Board

With a PhD in geography and development studies from EHESS in Paris, France, he works at the Department of Geography at the University of Chile in the field of social and cultural geography, focusing on socio-environmental issues and sustainability in the Chilean and Latin American context. Member of the steering committee of the IGU commission “The Cultural Approach in Geography” (2013-2016) and “Global Understanding” (2017-2024). He works in several academic networks with universities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Finland, USA, Sweden, and Chile. In 2018, he was awarded the National Geography Prize by the Chilean Society of Geographical Sciences, and in 2023, he was recognized by the American Geographical Society with the “Wrigley-Fairchild Prize”. He was held the “Pablo Neruda’s Chair” in the Latin-American High Studies Institute of the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University in France and, he is invited research at the Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions (MAKIT) of the University of Montpellier, and in the UMR SENS (Savoirs, Environnements, Nature) of the Paul Valéry University-CIRAD-IRD, France, as French Institute for Advanced Studies-FIAS fellow. Between 2022 and 2023, held the position of Vice President of Research at the University of Chile.

Previously a researcher in systems dynamics and entrepreneur in the digital sector, Carlos Alvarez Pereira promotes the emergence of a civilizational shift towards equitable wellbeing within a healthy biosphere. He was a member of the Executive Committee and Vice-President of the Club of RomeExternal link. Early 2024 he was appointed as its Secretary General. He co-leads the initiatives on Emerging New Civilization(s)External link and Youth and Intergenerational DialoguesExternal link. He keeps doing research in complexity thinking and the transformation of knowledge and innovation to respond to the existential needs of the 21st century. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the International Bateson InstituteExternal link and fellow of the World Academy of Art and ScienceExternal link (WAAS). He has been a lecturer and researcher at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), founder and manager during more than 20 years of several consulting companies in Spain, Switzerland, France and Germany, and founder of a non-profit research institution devoted to collaborative projects in the domains of complex systems and AI.

Howard Blumenthal is the founder of Kids on EarthExternal link, a global citizenship project for the world’s first generation of connected, literate (often, bi-lingual), healthy, wealthy children and teenagers. Howard writes and speaks about the human side of globalization, media/technology and social progress. His television work includes projects for History, MTV, Nickelodeon, HBO, PBS and Disney. On the Other Side of the FenceExternal link, a documentary about friendship across cultures, won the Gold Award for Documentary and a UN Public Service Award at the NY International Film Festivals. The TV series about world cultures, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, which he created and produced, won a Peabody and multiple Emmy Awards. The author of twenty books about music, popular culture, creativity and business, Howard wrote a popular weekly column for The New York Times Syndicate for 100 newspapers and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently he is the Executive Director of the 21st Century Learning Center at the University of Virginia.

Anthony Giddens is one of the most influential voices in contemporary social theory. He was director of the London School of Economics (LSE) and is a member of the British House of Lords. He was educated at the University of Hull and at the LSE. He has taught at the Universities of Leicester, Cambridge, and at the London School of Economics. His Theory of Structuration plays a central role in debates on social theory. Amongst his more than 34 published books (translated into 29 languages) is The Politics of Climate Change,External link first published in 2009, in which he argues for the social sciences to be integrated into sustainability research.

Joanne Kauffman served as principal research scientist and deputy director of the Center for Environmental Initiatives (MIT) and as co-executive director of the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS)External link. Since retiring from MIT, she has served as an advisor and consultant on international policy for sustainable development for UNESCO, the ETH Zurich, and the University of Tokyo. Her current work is concerned with sustainability policies and the application of sustainability science.

Nnenesi Kgabi is holder of the UNESCO-Chair on Sustainable Water Research for Climate Adaptation in Arid Environments at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Windhoek). She has worked for numerous regional, national and international programs and organizations, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) WaterNetExternal link, the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), UNESCO, the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), the National Research Foundation (NRF), the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST), and the Adaptation Fund (AF). After studies in chemistry, physics, and environmental science, she held positions at the University of North West (South Africa) and the Polytechnic of Namibia (Windhoek). Her current work is concerned with transdisciplinary approaches to the fields of environmental sustainability and hydro-climate sciences. Nnesi Kgabi is a member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), the International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS), and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), amongst others.

Yuan Tseh Lee is a chemistry Nobel Prize Laureate, president emeritus of the Academia SinicaExternal link, and former president of the International Council for Science (ICSU). After his studies at the National Taiwan University and the National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan), he earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965. He subsequently undertook postdoctoral research at Harvard and taught at the University of Chicago, returning to Berkeley in 1974. Together with Dudley Herschbach and John C. Polanyi, he received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1986. Yuan Tseh Lee was awarded many honors for his service, amongst others the U.S. National Medal of Science, the British Royal Chemical Society's Faraday Medal, and the E. O. Lawrence Award. He also served as a patron of the 2016 International Year of Global Understanding, proclaimed by the world governing bodies of the social and natural sciences and the humanities.

Gordon McBean was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He was co-chair of the Governing Council of Future EarthExternal link, president of the International Council for Science (ICSU) from 2014-2018, and one of the initiators of the International Science CouncilExternal link (ISC), founded in 2018. As professor emeritus at Western University, Ontario (Canada), his research interests include climate change science and policy, natural hazards prediction and mitigation, and weather and environmental prediction systems. He is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Meteorological Society, and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. He was awarded, in 2015, the University of British Columbia Alumni Award of Distinction, American Geophysical Union Ambassador Award and Cleveland Abbe Award for Distinguished Service to Atmospheric Services and, in 2017, the International Meteorological Organization PrizeExternal link.

Luiz Oosterbeek is secretary general of the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH)External link and holds the UNESCO-Chair on Humanities and Cultural Integrated Landscape Management at the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (Portugal). He also serves as secretary general of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences and is vice president of HERITY (World Organisation for the Certification of Quality Management of Cultural Heritage). He is a member of the German Archaeological Institute, of the Scientific Committee of the European University Centre for Cultural Heritage (Ravello, Italy) and an advisor to the Taihu World Cultural Forum (China). He is president of the Instituto Terra e MemóriaExternal link, a research and development structure based in Mação (Portugal), with ongoing research projects in archaeology, heritage management and landscape management in various countries in Europe, Africa and Southern America, as well as the vice director of the Quaternary and Human adaptations cluster of Geosciences Centre at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). He holds prizes and awards from the European Commission, Brazilian Lawyers Bar, Portuguese Ministry of Culture, Gulbenkian Foundation, Foundation for Science and Technology and several private sponsors.

Hsiung Ping-Chen is co-founder and president of the Asian New Humanities Network (ANHN) and professor of history at the Chinese University Hong Kong, where she also serves as director of the Taiwan Research Centre. She has held visiting professorships at UCLA, the University of Michigan, Cornell University, the Freie Universität Berlin, and Keio University, Tokyo. Having received her B.A. in history from Taiwan University, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Brown University (Providence, USA) and her S.M. in population studies and international health from the School of Public Health at Harvard University. Her research interest lies in the areas of women's and children's health, gender and family relations, and the intellectual and social history of early modern/modern China and Europe.

Mamphela Ramphele has had a celebrated career as an activist, medical doctor, academic, businesswoman and political thought leader. She was co-founder of The Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko that reignited the struggle for freedom in South Africa. She is co-founder of ReimagineSAExternal link. From 2018 to 2023 she was the co-president of The Club of RomeExternal link. Mamphela Ramphele has received numerous national and international awards acknowledging her scholarship and leading role in promoting the empowerment of women, youth and other oppressed  people in South Africa and globally. She is the author of several books and publications on socio-economic issues in South Africa.

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Thomas Reuter is professor for anthropology at the Asia Institute of the University of Melbourne. He was senior vice-president of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (2008-2018), president of the Australian Anthropological Association (2002-2005), and chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (2008-2012). He was a member of the executive of the International Social Science Council from 2013-2018 and an expert advisor to IPBESExternal link and IPCCExternal link. He is currently a member of the board of the Future Earth Regional Centre for AsiaExternal link, a fellow of the European AcademyExternal link (EASA), and the World AcademyExternal link (WAAS). His sustainability-related research has focused on the role of indigenous and local knowledge; revitalization and eco-spiritual movements; political elites and policy; climate change; food security and food system change, biodiversity loss; public health (diet); and global socio-political trends. Thomas Reuter has published eleven books and more than 120 articles.

Hartmut Rosa is director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social StudiesExternal link at the University of Erfurt and professor of general and theoretical sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. His studies in the sociology of time and his current work on a sociology of world relation [Weltbeziehung] have established him as one of the most received German speaking sociologists and a public intellectual. His works on social acceleration and the theory of modernity, critical social theory and resonance theory, or his studies on post growth societies have been translated into numerous languages. For his work he was awarded the Erich-Fromm-PrizeExternal link and the Paul-Watzlawick-EhrenringExternal link in 2018.  

Allen J. Scott is professor emeritus at the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and is, together with Ed Soja and Michael Dear, co-founder of the Los Angeles School of Urban Research. He is regarded as one of the most influential urban geography thinkers. He graduated from St Johns College, Oxford University and received his PhD from Northwestern University (Illinois) in 1965. He subsequently taught and undertook research at the University of Pennsylvania, University College London, Toronto University, the Université de Paris, the University of Hong Kong, and at UCLA from 1981. In 2003, he was awarded the Vautrin Lud Prize, the unofficial Nobel Prize for Geography for his lifetime achievements. Furthermore, the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography awarded him the Anders Retzius Gold Medal in 2009 and in 2013 he received the Regional Studies Associations Sir Peter Hall Prize. In 2011, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

Paul Shrivastava is Chief Sustainability Officer at Pennsylvania State UniversityExternal link, Director of the Sustainability Institute, and Professor of Management at the Smeal College of Business (Penn State). He is a member of the Club of RomeExternal link. Previously, he was the Executive Director of Future EarthExternal link, where he established the secretariat for global environmental change programs. He researches integrating arts and sciences for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, and leads the UNESCO Chair "Art et science dans le cadre des objectifs de développement durable" at the ICN Business SchoolExternal link, Nancy, France. He is an advisor to the Research Institute for Humanity and NatureExternal link, Kyoto, and the Network for Education and Research on Peace and SustainabilityExternal link at Hiroshima University. He has published 17 books and over 130 articles in refereed and scholarly journals.

Anne Snick is a member of the Club of Rome and Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education, and has specialised in systems thinking, focusing on systemic drivers of the exploitation of humans and nature as well as on resilient capacities of emerging alternatives. Her focus has been on sustainable finance for many years, resulting in several international publications.

Moreover, she is active in the field of sustainable higher education by empowering students to self-organise for complexity-based, transdisciplinary and vision-driven learning. In this field, she brings together international student movements, thus increasing the impact and visibility of learner-driven, transdisciplinary pedagogies.

Another topic of Anne’s work is menstrual health, a key driver of the empowerment of young women worldwide. This is not only a challenge in what is called the global South, but also among migrant or marginalised communities in rich countries. In this field she collaborates with women activists, a start-up in menstrual hygiene, and an organisation that strengthens the capacities of local communities to self-organise around health.

Throughout her career, she has combined academic research with transdisciplinary field work involving marginalised groups as co-experts. She is an ethics expert in Research and Innovation for the EC, with internationally recognised competencies in complexity-based Responsible Research & Innovation.

Carlos Alberto Torres, distinguished professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, is a political sociologist of education and founding director of the Paulo Freire Institute in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles (UCLA). He has been a visiting professor at universities in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. His empirical research focuses on the impact of globalization in higher education and global citizenship education. Torres's theoretical work has resulted in the development of a political sociology of education. He is considered one of the world's leading authorities in Latin American Studies and Global Citizenship Education, has been elected fellow in the Royal Society of Canada and corresponding member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Since 2015, Carlos Torres has been the inaugural holder of the UNESCO-Chair on Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education (UCLA).

Sander van der Leeuw is the founding director of Arizona State University's School of Human Evolution and Social ChangeExternal link (2003-2011) and was awarded the title Champion of the Earth for Science and InnovationExternal link by UNEP in 2012. As archeologist and historian, he has been specializing in the long-term interactions between humans and their environments. He became a pioneer in the application of the Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) approach to socio-environmental challenges, technology and innovation. Using the CAS perspective, he was the coordinator of the ARCHAEOMEDES interdisciplinary research program (1991-2000) on socio-natural interactions and environmental problems in Southern Europe, the first of its kind worldwide. After teaching positions in Amsterdam, Leyden, Cambridge and Paris (Sorbonne), he was external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, held a chair at the Institut Universitaire de France (2003-2008), and became dean of the School of SustainabilityExternal link (2010-2013) at Arizona State University. Sander van der Leeuw is corresponding member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences and is now co-director of the ASU-SFI Center for Biosocial Complex SystemsExternal link.

Perla Zusman was a member of the steering committee of the IGU commission The Cultural Approach in Geography (2004-2012) and currently serves on the board of the IGU commission C16.21 History of GeographyExternal link. She is an independent CONICET researcher for human geography at the Institute of Geography at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) and a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at UBA. After her studies and research stays at the Universities of São Paulo and Barcelona, she focused her research on the fields of cultural geography, history of geographic thought, and political geography. Perla Zusman is author and (co-) editor of numerous books in the field of human geography.