Understanding the Grand Challenges of Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling Webinar

Dr. Jan Bakkes specializes in assessing and processing environmental information for decision-making. He is vice president of The Integrated Assessment Society and past senior project leader for PBL, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Since 2010, he has been assisting the China Council for International Collaboration on Environment and Development as a member of high-level Task Forces and Policy Studies. He has worked with the OECD and the World Bank and was associated with UNEP (Nairobi) for a long period. He has helped these organizations kick-start broad-based assessments and future outlooks, such as the OECD Environmental Outlook. He fulfilled key roles in a range of science-policy interface projects for the European Commission and other EU organizations, such as Cost of Policy Inaction; Beyond GDP; and EU Resource Efficiency in a Global Context.

Dr. John Robinson is a Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and the School of the Environment, at the University of Toronto; Honorary Professor with the Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability at The University of British Columbia; Adjunct Professor with the Copenhagen Business School. At the University of Toronto, he is also Presidential Advisor on the Environment, Climate Change & Sustainability. His work focuses on the intersection of climate change mitigation, adaptation, and sustainability; the use of visualization, modelling, and citizen engagement to explore sustainable futures, buildings, and urban design; creating partnerships for sustainability with non-academic partners; and the intersection of sustainability, social and technological change, behavior change, and community engagement processes. 

Dr. Jill Jäger is an independent scholar based in Vienna. Her past accomplishments and positions include: Project Leader at the Stockholm Environment Institute; Director of the Climate Policy Division of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy; Deputy Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis; and Executive Director of the  Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. In addition to contributing numerous scientific publications in books and scientific journals, she has participated in a range of research projects focusing on integrated sustainability assessment, climate vulnerability, and sustainability science. 

Dr. Detlef van Vuuren is a Professor in Integrated Assessment of Global Environmental Change at Utrecht University and senior researcher at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. His work focuses on response strategies to global environmental problems using integrated assessment models and other tools. As such, he participates as part of the IMAGE integrated assessment modelling team. He has published more than 360 articles in refereed journals including high profile journals like Nature and Science. He is among the few people worldwide that are listed as most highly cited researchers in three different disciplines.