Angela Gurnell commenced her research career with a BSc in Geography (awarded 1970) and subsequently a PhD (1973) and DSc (2000) from the University of Exeter. She was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Southampton in 1973 and then to Senior Lecturer and Reader. In 1994 she moved to the University of Birmingham, where she was awarded a personal chair in 1995. From 2002 to 2009, she was Professor of Physical Geography at King’s College London, serving as Head of the Department of Geography from 2003 to 2006. She then moved to her current post at Queen Mary University of London as Professor of Physical Geography.

Over five decades, Angela has conducted research within the field of river science. Her main interests are in the natural functioning of river systems and the ways in these systems respond to human interventions and pressures. At an early stage, she investigated the important but often overlooked role of vegetation in river system functioning, emphasising vegetation as a third crucial control on river channel dynamics in addition to the river’s flow and sediment transport regimes. This fundamental work led to applied research on the impacts of human actions on the character and condition of rivers. This applied research has included consideration of river flow regulation, sediment delivery to rivers resulting from land use change, vegetation management, invasions by non-native plant species, and the dynamics of all of these in the context of climate change. Recently, she has devoted considerable time to the promotion of Citizen Science, developing methodologies through which volunteers can contribute to understanding the physical condition of river systems. She also devised a method for professionals to assess river condition within the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ methodology for assessing Biodiversity Net Gain.

Throughout her career, Angela has led and contributed to numerous international and national projects in river science funded by both UK and European Union funding sources. She has also served on committees awarding research funding (e.g. chair of the UK Natural Environment Research Council’s Freshwater Sciences Peer Review Committee); providing guidance on the management of rivers (e.g. member of the writing group: European Guidance Standard for Assessing the Hydromorphological Features of Rivers) and supporting NGOs in their work on river conservation and restoration (e.g. member of the Board of Trustees of The Rivers Trust).

In recognition of her fundamental and applied research contributions, she was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Victoria medal in 2002; the British Society for Geomorphology’s Linton medal in 2012; and the European Geosciences Union’s Alfred Wegener medal in 2021.

Dr. Nitin Pandit is the CEO of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) in Bangalore, India.  Previously he was the Director of Priority Initiatives at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington, DC, USA, focusing on restoration and energy efficiency, after serving as the CEO of WRI India and led WRI’s work in India.

Before WRI, Nitin was President of the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC), with offices and programs in a dozen countries, for implementing novel sustainable energy approaches for developing countries. In the 90s, Nitin formed a boutique high-tech consultancy specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) applications in environmental and renewable energy systems. In the 80s, Nitin worked with reputed consulting firms.

Nitin has a bachelor's and a couple of masters’ degrees in engineering, and a doctorate in public policy.

Rev Dr Jasper Kenter is Director of the social enterprise Ecologos Research Ltd, having previously lectured at the Universities of York, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Leicester and Highlands and Islands. He is an interdisciplinary researcher in sustainable development, conservation and environmental management issues with a specialisation in ecological economics and citizen and stakeholder deliberation. His main research interests lie in people’s values around nature and in advancing new economics approaches that move away from economic growth towards enhancing wellbeing by meeting peoples basic needs and restoring ecosystems. Jasper takes a broad view of the notion of value and values, looking through the lenses of economics, ecology, ethics, psychology and spiritual practice, and has a particular interest in how social processes shape values and in ways we can integrate economic and deliberative methodologies to better incorporate shared values of nature into decision-making. He leads the Global Assessment for a New Economics (GANE) synthesising knowledge from 38 new economics approaches for sustainability transformation. He is a lead author of the IPBES Values Assessment and led work for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment on shared, plural and cultural values of ecosystems. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and his valuation research has received prizes from the European Society for Ecological Economics and the Society for Conservation Biology. Besides his research work, Jasper also works as an interfaith minister and spiritual counsellor.

Pooven Moodley is a Human Rights Lawyer and social justice activist from South Africa. He is currently the ED of Natural Justice, lawyers for the community and the environment. Before joining Natural Justice he was the Associate Country Director of Oxfam GB in South Africa and the Global Head of Campaigning for ActionAid International. He most recently led with other activists, the successful Campaign to stop South Africa’s proposed massive nuclear deal with the Russians. He has contributed to a range of struggles across the globe starting with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa when he was 14. He is a Council member of the ICCA Consortium and the Chair of the Defending the Territories of Life stream working with environmental and land defenders. He is also on the Board of Digital Democracy which backs up indigenous communities and their territories using technology.

Professor Shahbaz Khan (Australian) is the Director of the UNESCO Office in Beijing and UNESCO Representative to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea.

Prof Khan joined UNESCO in 2008 at its Headquarters as Chief of the Water and Sustainable Development Section. Then he served as the Director of the Regional Bureau for Sciences in Asia and the Pacific in Jakarta, Indonesia, and UNESCO Representative to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste (2015-2021).

Prof Khan has worked in Australia, France, Indonesia and Pakistan in various research, consultancy and policy positions. Before joining UNESCO, he was Professor and Director at the Charles Sturt University (Australia). His work has been widely recognized e.g. 2019 China Friendship Award, Great Wall Friendship Award China 2017, FEIAP Engineer of the Year Award 2016, UNESCO Team Award for Managing Hydro Hazards 2009, Land and Water Australia’s Eureka Prize 2007, CSIRO Medal 2007, Biennial Medal of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Prof Shahbaz Khan is currently Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra and Western Sydney University (Australia), Adjunct Professor at the Lincoln University (New Zealand), Distinguished Professor at the National University of Science and Technology (Pakistan) and Distinguished Professor at the Capital Normal University (China).

Professor Shahbaz Khan holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Civil Engineering (1990) from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore (Pakistan), a Master of Science degree in Water Resources Technology and Management (1992) and a Doctorate in Civil Engineering (1995) from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). He also holds a Master’s degree in International Environmental Law (2005) from Macquarie University (Australia) and a Master’s degree in Applied Environmental Economics (2007) from Imperial College London (United Kingdom) as well as a Hon Doctorate Environment and Development from the National University of Malaysia (2016) Hon DSc from the University of Birmingham (2018).

A native of Argentine Patagonia, Emiliano Donadio obtained a bachelor’s degree in zoology at the National University of La Plata. After a Fulbright fellowship in the US, he attended the University of Wyoming, where he obtained a Masters in Zoology and then a PhD in Ecology. Upon completion of his graduate training, Emiliano returned to Argentina, where he became an associate researcher in the Argentine Research Council (CONICET).

In 2019, Emiliano became the Scientific Director of Fundación Rewilding Argentina. His work focuses on understanding and conserving critical ecological interactions and designing, implementing, and monitoring rewilding projects executed by Fundación Rewilding Argentina. Emiliano works on ecological mechanisms and conservation issues involving South American camelids (guanacos and vicuñas), huemul deer, pumas, jaguars, foxes, skunks, Andean condors, lesser rheas, and caracaras. He has been published in journals including the American Naturalist, Biological Conservation, Ecology, and the Journal of Applied Ecology.

With more than 25 years of experience as policy maker for the Netherland’s government, Martin has worked in several policy domains, including environmental policy, nature policy, international biodiversity policy and green growth policy. Currently, Martin is the Executive Director and member of the Management Board of the Capitals Coalition, a global collaboration redefining value to transform decision-making.  
 
Martin is co-author of several national policy documents and has led public-private collaborative actions on natural capital in the Netherlands from 2014. In 2018 Martin initiated and is leading the Government Dialogue on Natural Capital that is now extending to all capitals. He is lead-author of the narrative publications Natural Capital for Governments: What, why and how (2019) and Natural Capital for Biodiversity Policy: What, Why and How (2021). Martin co-founded Business for Nature and is a member of the Coordination Group of this global business coalition that advocates for ambitious global policies to reverse biodiversity loss. 
 
Martin has master's degrees in forestry (Wageningen University, 1989) and History of Arts (Leiden University, 2012). 

Professor Dr Stefan Krause is Professor of Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. His interdisciplinary research group on coupled groundwater and surface water systems investigates the multifaceted impacts of global environmental change on hydrological fluxes, biogeochemical cycling and contaminant transport, and ecohydrological feedback functions in complex landscapes.

Stefan is part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Tom’s research is at the intersection of geography, ecology and accounting, studying how people construct spaces enabling different forms of calculative interaction with nature.  This work has implications for understanding how humanity can organise sustainable development that conserves Earth’s biosphere

David is a physical geographer with interdisciplinary research interests focusing on three complementary themes within hydroclimatology (interface between hydrology-climatology): (1) hydroclimatological processes within alpine, Arctic, mountain and glacierized river basins; (2) climate and river flow regimes; and (3) river energy budget and water temperature dynamics. He has cross-cutting interests in ecohydrology/ hydroecology, specifically ecological response to hydro-climatological and physico-chemical habitat variability/ change, and development of new methods for monitoring, analysing and modelling environmental dynamics. 

David is Professor of Hydrology in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of Research of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences. He is Chair-holder for the  UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

David is listed in the Reuters Top 1000 world’s top climate scientists

Iseult Lynch is an Associate Editor for Environmental Science: Nano, and Deputy director for the Facility for Environmental Nanomaterials Analysis and Characterisation (FENAC) at the University of Birmingham.  Her research focuses on the environmental interactions of nanoparticles and nanostructured surfaces with biological entities from macromolecules to organisms.

She has a very broad overview of all aspects of nanomaterials safety assessment and the data requirements, having served as Chair of the EU Nanosafety Cluster Working Group (NSC WG) on databases for two years (and as co-Chair of the Hazed WG prior to that), as well as being theme editor for the Materials and classification section of the NSC Vision2020 research roadmap (under review for publication in June 2013). Prior to the University of Birmingham she was Strategic Research Manager at the Centre for BioNano Interactions in University College Dublin, where she was instrumental in the development and implementation of numerous large EU-funded projects.

Iseult is part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Akshay Vishwanath is an environmental professional seeking to solve some of Africa's greatest natural resource problems through leadership, empowerment, social justice and entrepreneurial initiatives. Akshay currently works as a Portfolio Manager at Maliasili, an organization that supports leading African conservation organizations become even better. Previously, Akshay worked at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for close to a decade implementing conservation projects across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Akshay is also passionate about social justice issues and advocacy work, and plays a key role in several groups and campaigns that seek to protect public green spaces in Kenya and strengthen good governance of these resources. He was in the leadership of the Friends of Nairobi National Park from 2013-2018 (including 2 years as Chair of the Board), during which time he was the lead coordinator of the SaveNNP Campaign which sought to protect the Nairobi National Park from infrastructure development such as the Standard Gauge Railway. He now serves as an advisor to the Friends of Oloolua Forest.

Akshay has an MBA from the African Leadership University, a MSc in Environmental Studies from Macquarie University (Australia) and a BSc in Environmental Studies from Bangalore University (India). Akshay was selected one of the Top 100 Young African Conservation Leaders in March 2021 by a collaboration between the Africa Alliance of YMCAs, World Organization of the Scout Movement, African Wildlife Foundation, and WWF.