Speakers

Mr. Tadao Ando

Architect, Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo

Mr. Ando was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941. He was self-educated in architecture and established Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969. His representative works include “Church of the Light”, Ibaraki, Osaka, “Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth”, U.S.A. and “Punta della Dogana Contemporary Art Centre”, Venice, Italy. He has been awarded many prizes; Annual prize, Architectural Institute of Japan for “Row House, Sumiyoshi” in 1979, The Pritzker Architecture Prize, U.S.A. in 1995, the Gold Medal of Union International des Architectes in 2005, and The Order of Culture, Japan in 2010. He has been a professor of The University of Tokyo since 1997 and a professor emeritus since 2003. He is also a founder of the Setouchi Olive Foundation dedicated to restoring the environment of the Seto Island Sea. He has been serving as the Committee Chairman of Momo-Kaki Orphans Fund Great East Japan Earthquake since 2011.
*Photo by Keitaku Hayashi

Professor Gordon McBean

President, The International Council for Science (ICSU)

Prof. Gordon McBean is President of the International Council for Science (ICSU), Co-Chair of the Governing Council for Future Earth: Research for Global Sustainability, and Professor Emeritus of Geography at Western University, London, Canada. He has been very active in international scientific programs: Chair (1988-94), World Climate Research Programme; Chair (2005-11) Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Program; President (2009-15), START International; and President (2000-2011) Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences. He is a member of the Orders of Canada and of Ontario; shares the Nobel Peace Prize (2007) as a major contributor to IPCC. He was awarded, in 2015: University of British Columbia Alumni Award of Distinction; American Geophysical Union Ambassador Award; and American Meteorological Society Cleveland Abbe Prize.

HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan

President, The Royal Scientific Society, Jordan

HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan is a leading advocate for science as a catalyst for change in the Arab World. The Princess has dedicated herself to engaging with scientists and policy makers, and to fostering an environment in which home-grown solutions can be found for pressing issues faced by Jordan and the region. The Princess is Chair of World Science Forum 2017, which will be held in Jordan.

Lord Krebs Kt, MA, DPhil, FRS, FMedSci, Hon DSc

Honorary Fellow and Former Principal, Jesus College, University of Oxford

Sir John Krebs completed the undergraduate degree in Zoology (1966) and DPhil (1970) at Pembroke College Oxford. He has been Fellow of the Royal Society since 1984. Between 2000 and 2005, he reconstructed the food-safety administration after BSE crisis as the first Chairman of the UK Food Standards Agency and recovered its trust of the public. He was created a life peer in 2007 and sits in the House of Lords. He was Chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee(2010-2014), Chairman of the UK Science and Technology Honours Committee(2008-2014). Between 2009 and 2017, he sat on the UK Climate Change Committee and chairs its Adaptation Sub-Committee．He was also President of the British Science Association (2012-2013).

Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy

Professor, Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University

Through pioneering and creative fieldwork conducted in the tropical Amazon rainforest, a great achievement of Dr. Lovejoy was shedding light on the fact and a major mechanism of species decline when the biodiversity concept was still in its infancy. Through this fieldwork, Dr. Lovejoy became the first person to academically clarify how human caused habitat fragmentation and propelled biodiversity toward crisis. Based on profound insights into ecosystems obtained through the series of research, Dr. Lovejoy became the first to publish the “a projection of species extinctions.” From there, he has continued to indicate and propose measures for curbing the rising rate of endangered species, significantly influenced numerous academic institutes and societies and helped lay the foundation for protecting the natural environment based on biodiversity, which is now a mainstream concept.

Mr. Pavan Sukhdev

UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, The Founding Trustee of Green Indian States Trust (GIST), Founder & CEO of GIST Advisory, Associate Fellow of Davenport College, Yale University

Mr. Sukhdev is a pioneer in developing an accounting system with economic rationale and practical metrics for a transition towards an inclusive green economy. He has drawn attention to the critical role of the Corporation in this transition. His work has shown how to mainstream the values of ecosystem services into improved public policies and business practices. By developing accounting systems with sustainability metrics for the corporate, provincial and national levels, he has driven momentum and capacity building to hasten the evolution to an inclusive green economy.

Prof. Shinya Yamanaka

Director and Professor, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University (CiRA)

Shinya Yamanaka is most recognized for his discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are differentiated cells that have been reprogrammed to the pluripotent state. Professor Yamanaka received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2012 jointly with Dr. John Gurdon. He has held his current post at Kyoto University since 2010 and serves as a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes in the US.

Ms. Bruktawit Tigabu

Co-founder, CEO and Creative Director, Whiz Kids Workshop

Ms. Tigabu, determined to improve conditions of Ethiopian children and deliver education on a mass scale, established Whiz Kids Workshop in 2005 (WKW) with her husband and began broadcasting Tsehai Loves Learning , Ethiopia’s first preschool educational program. Winner of multiple international awards including Prix Jeunesse International, Japan Prize, Rolex Young Laureate and others, her latest brainchild Tibeb Girls , is an animation series about three Ethiopian adolescent superhero girls.