The Advisory Committee guides Future Earth as it enters its next phase as an evolving international platform for research and innovation.
The committee provides advice to ensure that Future Earth’s research is of the highest quality. It also aids the organization in forming the links between science and society that are critical for transforming research into action. Among other tasks, the Advisory Committee provides guidance on:
- Identifying emerging trends in sustainability and areas where new research is a priority;
- Continuing to develop Future Earth’s existing research and innovation projects and launching new ones;
- Ensuring that Future Earth’s activities are responsive to the evolving needs of society and making research results accessible to innovators in policy, business, civil society and more.
The Advisory Committee succeeds the Science and Engagement Committees, which were active from 2014 to 2017. In December 2017, Future Earth announced that Leena Srivastava and Johan Rockström would co-chair the newly-formed Advisory Committee. The full membership was announced in March 2018.
Advisory Committee Members
Anny Cazenave
Advisory Committee
Dr. Anny Cazenave is a French space geodesist and one of the pioneers of satellite altimetry. She works for the French space agency CNES and has been deputy director of the Laboratoire d’Etudes en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiale (LEGOS) at Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées inToulouse since 1996. Since 2013, she has served as director of Earth sciences at the International Space Sciences institute (ISSI), in Bern, Switzerland. As one of the leading scientists in the joint French/American satellite altimetry missions TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission, she has contributed to a greater understanding of sea level rise caused by global warming. Cazenave is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was the lead author of the sea level sections for their fourth and fifth Assessment Reports.
Asunción Lera St. Clair
Advisory Committee
Dr. Asuncion Lera St. Clair works as Senior Principal Scientist at the Digital Assurance Programme of DNV GL Research & Innovation Unit. She is also Senior Advisor to the Earth Sciences department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. Philosopher and sociologist, Asun has over 25 years of experience on the human dimensions of global challenges, and on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. Her current work focuses on the ethical and societal challenges and potential of digital technologies, including their relevance for climate services and sustainable development. Asun is member of the Board of Governors of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), and was member of Future Earth Engagement Committee during 2017. Her work has contributed to the development of ISSC social science agenda for global change and ICSU science review of the SDGs. She was Lead Author for IPCC AR5 Working Group II Chapter 1, on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Asun has also served as an Associate to the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) project under the International Human Dimensions Programme for a number of years and was President of the International Development Ethics Association (IDEA). Before joining DNV GL Asun was Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen, Norway, and Research Director of the Oslo Centre for Climate Research-CICERO.
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias
Advisory Committee
Dr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias is Associate Professor at the University of Brasilia’s Department of Ecology (initially at the Forestry Department beginning in 1981), where he has supervised Master’s and Ph.D. students, and a senior advisor on biodiversity policies for the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. He previously held various positions in the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment since 1991, including Research Director of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), Director for Biodiversity Conservation since 1999 and National Secretary for Biodiversity and Forests from 2010 to early 2012 at the Ministry of the Environment. Braulio was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) from February 2012 to February 2017 where he played a key role to promote the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Earlier, besides his role at the University of Brasilia and at the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, he was Research Leader and Division Chief of the Ecological Research Station of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), where he worked since 1978 and until 2011. Outside of the government he has been a member and president of the NGO Pro-Nature Foundation (FUNATURA) and has coordinated the establishment of the Brazilian Fund for Biodiversity (FUNBIO), where he later represented the Ministry of the Environment in its Governing Council. A graduate of the University of Brasilia with a Bachelor’s in biological sciences (1975) with a Ph.D. in zoology from Edinburgh University (1981), Braulio has published extensively and has been an active member of several national committees and councils dealing with biodiversity, most notably the Brazilian National Biodiversity Committee (CONABIO), which he coordinated from 2003 to 2011, the Brazilian National Council for Genetic Resources Administration (CGEN), which he established and coordinated in 2002 and again from 2010 to early 2012, the Brazilian National Technical Committee for Biosafety (CTNBio), where he represented the Ministry of the Environment from 1999 to 2001 dealing with environmental impacts of GMOs, and the Governing Council of the National Environment Fund (FNMA). Since 1994 and until early 2012, he coordinated the Brazilian National Biodiversity Program, the National Biodiversity Projects – PROBIO I & II (with GEF/World Bank support), the Brazilian National Biodiversity Strategy Project (with GEF/UNDP support), and coordinated the elaboration of the first four Brazilian National Biological Diversity Reports to the CBD. Braulio has been a national leader and global champion on protected areas, threatened species conservation, ecosystem and biodiversity monitoring and information, forest conservation, fire ecology in savannas, pollination research and management, biodiversity for food and nutrition, biodiversity and health interlinkages, biodiversity and climate change interlinkages, biodiversity mainstreaming across economic sectors and engagement of the business sector in the biodiversity agenda.
Fatima Denton
Advisory Committee
Dr. Fatima Denton is an IPCC lead author and the director of an innovations, science, technology and natural resource management division, the special initiatives division, at the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa. Fatima Denton is currently the coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Prior to this, she led one of the largest adaptation research programmes as part of a joint initiative of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), managing a portfolio of more than 45 projects across thirty three countries in Africa on a range of adaptation strategies that will help Africa’s poor cope with climate change impacts. Fatima joined IDRC in 2006 after working as a senior energy scientist with the United Nations Environment Program UNEP Risoe in Denmark where she worked on energy poverty, climate adaptation and policy matters relating to energy SMEs and institutional and governance. Prior to this she worked with the energy programme of Enda Tiers Monde in Senegal on issues such as sustainable development and climate change vulnerability and adaptation, as well as food security, local governance, water, and energy poverty in the Sahel. She has written articles on energy poverty, gender and energy, and climate change adaptation. She was a coordinating lead author for the Working Group II Fifth Assessment of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and was lead author for the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy and Climate Change Mitigation (SREEN). Having held several roles on scientific committees, she is currently a member of the Independent Science Panel (ISP) of the CGIAR Climate Change and Food Security Programme (CCAFs). Fatima holds a PhD in political science and development studies from the University of Birmingham (UK), and completed undergraduate studies at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop, the University of Besancon, the University of Paris – la Sorbonne Paris IV and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Internationales, where she studied respectively humanities, applied linguistics and interpreting, humanities and international relations.
Jim Balsillie
Advisory Committee
Jim Balsillie is the retired Chairman and co-CEO of Research In Motion (BlackBerry), a Canadian company he scaled from an idea to $20 billion in sales globally. He is founder of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) and the Arctic Research Foundation (ARF), and co-founder of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). He currently chairs the Board of Directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). Mr. Balsillie served as the private sector representative on the UN Secretary General’s High Panel for Sustainability. His awards include: several honorary degrees, Time Magazine World’s 100 Most Influential People, three times on Barron’s list of “World’s Top CEOs.”
Johan Rockström
Co-Chair, Advisory Committee
Dr. Johan Rockström is the Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor at the Institute of Earth and Environmental Science at Potsdam University. Rockström is an internationally recognized scientist on global sustainability issues, where he led the development of the new Planetary Boundaries framework for human development in the current era of rapid global change. He is a leading scientist on global water resources, with more than 15 years of experience from applied water research in tropical regions, and more than 100 research publications in fields ranging from applied land and water management to global sustainability. Aside from his research helping to guide policy, Rockström consults several governments and business networks. He also acts as an advisor for sustainable development issues at noteworthy international meetings, such as the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conferences (UNFCCC). Supplementarily, he chairs the advisory board for the EAT Foundation and the Earth League.
Joy Shumake-Guillemot
World Health Organization/ World Meteorological Organization
Dr. Joy Shumake-Guillemot leads the World Health Organization/World Meteorological Organization Climate and Health Joint Office in Geneva, Switzerland. She is an environmental health scientist and public health practitioner who has worked with WHO, WMO, UNICEF and others to develop public health policy and programming for climate adaptation and risk management. She has extensive field experience in Africa, Asia and Latin America supporting public health and humanitarian assistance programmes. Her current work focuses on enabling WMO and WHO to work together to accelerate the availability, access and use of climate and weather information that can improve public health policy and practice. She plays a leading coordination role for the Health, Environment, and Climate Change Coalition (HECCC) between UN Environment, WHO and WMO. Joy has led several strategic efforts as the lead author of the WHO Operational Framework for Climate Resilient Health Systems, the health strategy for the Global Framework for Climate Services, the Climate Service for Health Guidebook and has contributed to numerous research, policy and technical publications. Joy received her Doctor of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins University.
Leena Srivastava
Co-Chair, Advisory Committee
Dr. Leena Srivastava is the Vice Chancellor of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi – an interdisciplinary higher education institution, focussed on sustainable development. She worked for over three decades on research in the areas of energy, environment and climate change policies at TERI, where she was previously Executive Director. She has worked with a host of international science-policy organisations, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is a member of the President’s Advisory Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development at the Asian Development Bank; Sustainable Development Advisory Board, Caterpillar Inc. USA; and the Sustainability Advisory Board of Cairn Energy, Vedanta Resources and Consocia Advisory, India.
Naoko Ishii
Advisory Committee
Dr. Naoko Ishii has served as the CEO and Chairperson for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) since August 2012. In October 2015, the GEF Council unanimously agreed to extend her tenure for the second term until August 2020. Previously, Ms. Ishii was the Deputy Vice Minister of Finance of Japan, where she was responsible for Japan’s international financial and development policies, and for its global policies on environmental issues such as climate change and biodiversity. She led the Japanese delegation at the Transition Committee for designing the Green Climate Fund. For nearly half of her career, Ms. Ishii has served on international assignments, including at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. At the World Bank, Ms. Ishii was the Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives (2006-2010). She also served as the World Bank’s country program coordinator for Vietnam (1997-2001), a project manager at the Harvard Institute for International Development (1996-1997), an economist at the International Monetary Fund (1992-1995) working on Africa and Asia and a visiting fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University (1984-1985). Ms. Ishii taught sustainable development and environment at Keio University. She has published numerous papers and several books, two of which were awarded the Suntory Prize (1990) and Okita Memorial Prize for International Development Research (2004). She is the inaugural recipient of the 2006 Enjoji Jiro Memorial Prize. She holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo.
Oyun Sanjaasuren
Advisory Committee, Future Earth; Chair, Health Knowledge-Action Network
Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren is currently Director of Division of External Affairs at the Green Climate Fund. Previously, she was Chairperson of the Global Water Partnership, an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to a water-secure world. Oyun Sanjaasuren served as the first President of the United Nations Environment Assembly of UNEP and is currently on advisory boards of a number of international organisations dedicated to sustainable development. She was elected to five terms as Member of Parliament of Mongolia (1998-2016), and served as Vice-Speaker of the Parliament, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Environment and Green Development. While in Parliament, Oyun successfully championed a number of reforms, especially in good governance, green development and rights of children with disabilities. One of the leading women figures in Mongolia, she chairs a number of Mongolian NGOs, including the Zorig Foundation to advance democracy, Special Olympics and Women Corporate Directors. She is a founding member of Down Syndrome Association and Special Olympics Mongolia and has been actively contributing to the causes of children with disabilities. Before joining politics, Oyun worked as a geologist in Mongolia (Mongolian-Czech JV) and in the UK (Rio Tinto). She also worked for a UNDP project to establish a mineral processing centre in Ulaanbaatar. Dr. Oyun graduated from Karlova University in Prague and holds a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Cambridge University, UK.
Peng Gong
Advisory Committee
Dr. Peng Gong is Professor and Chair of the Department of Earth System Science, Dean of School of Sciences and Vice Chair of the Academic Committee, at Tsinghua University (Beijing, China). Before joining Tsinghua, he had taught in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary (Canada) between 1991 and 1994, and was faculty in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley (USA) between 1994 and 2015. In 2000, he founded the International Institute for Earth System Science at Nanjing University (China) and in 2004, he served as the founding director of the State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, jointly sponsored by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University. His major research interests include mapping, monitoring and modeling of global environmental change, and modelling of environmentally related infectious diseases. He is the author/co-author of over 500 articles and 7 books. From 2004 to 2006, he was one of the nine members on the Board of Overseas Advisors to the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. He won the distinguished teacher award from Beijing, the 1994 Talbot Abraham Grand Award from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, the 2008 Recipient of Outstanding Contribution Award in Remote Sensing from the Association of American Geographers and one of the 10 Outstanding Authors Award in 2016 from the Joint Board of Science China and Scientific Bulletin.
Tetsuzo Yasunari
Advisory Committee
Dr. Tetsuzo Yasunari received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 1980. His main fields of study are climate dynamics and global environmental change, including human impacts on the earth climate system. He served as professor at University of Tsukuba (1990-2002) and Nagoya University (2002-2012) and is currently professor emeritus of these universities. He was a member of Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). He is a review editor of IPCC-AR6 (Working Group I) and also served as a review editor of IPCC-AR5 and as a contributor for IPCC-FAR and SAR. Since April 2013, he has been the Director General of the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) in Kyoto, Japan. He is Chairman of the Future Earth National Committee under the Science Council of Japan and is a member of the International Science Committee for Future Earth. He is a fellow of the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU). His publication list of peer-reviewed journal papers is available here.
Tolu Oni
Advisory Committee
Dr. Tolullah Oni is an urban epidemiologist and public health physician at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. She is also an Honorary Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Cape Town and leads the Research Initiative for Cities Health and Equity (RICHE). Her research focuses on transdisciplinary urban health, generating evidence to support healthy urban development and public policies in rapidly growing cities, supporting a coordinated approach between science, policy and societal role players to identify creative strategies that address complex urban population health challenges. She has received several awards in recognition of her research contribution including the South African National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Emerging Researcher award, and the Carnegie Corporation “Next Generation of African Academics award.