Robin Bell
Professor, Columbia University, & President, American Geophysical Union
Robin Bell is Research Professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where she directs research programs in Antarctica, Greenland, and developing technology to monitor our changing planet. Bell has coordinated 10 major aero-geophysical expeditions to Antarctica and Greenland, studying what makes ice sheets collapse. During the International Polar Year, Bell led a major expedition to Antarctica to explore the last unknown mountain range on Earth, the Gamburtsev Mountains. Here, the team discovered that water hidden beneath the ice sheet runs uphill. Using the new IcePod and gravity technologies, Bell’s team is presently exploring the Ross Ice Shelf, a floating piece of ice the size of France that covers the least known piece of ocean floor on our planet. Bell received her undergraduate degree in geology from Middlebury College and her Ph.D. in geophysics from Columbia University in 1989. Bell is the current President of the American Geophysical Union. |
 Corentin Caudron
Research Officer, Research Institute for Development (IRD)
Corentin Caudron received his PhD in Geophysics from Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and served as a post-doctoral researcher in several leading universities including Nanyang Technological University, University of Cambridge and University of Gent. Currently, Dr Caudron works as the Research Officer at the Research Institute for Development (IRD), Institut des sciences de la Terre (France). He has been focusing on seismoacoustics approaches to investigate volcanoes and has been working on various volcanic systems (from the 6 continents). He has extensive experience in monitoring and imaging the Earth via geophysical approaches and has also been investigating the dynamics of hydrothermal systems and magmas, as well as the triggering and characterization of volcanic and limnic eruptions.
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 Peter Dueben
AI and Machine Learning Coordinator, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Peter is the AI and Machine Learning Coordinator at ECMWF and holds a University Research Fellowship of the Royal Society that enables him to perform research towards the use of machine learning, high-performance computing, and reduced numerical precision in weather and climate predictions. Peter has also a strong interest in the quantification of uncertainty of predictions for chaotic systems. Peter is coordinator of the MAELSTROM EuroHPC-Join Undertaking project, work-package leader of the ESiWACE2 H2020 project, and Co-Pi of an US-INCITE grant to perform season-long, global, storm-resolving simulations. Before moving to ECMWF, Peter has written his PhD thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and has worked as PostDoc with Tim Palmer at the University of Oxford.
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 Miguel-Ángel Fernández-Torres
Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Valencia
Miguel-Ángel Fernández-Torres received the Audiovisual Systems Engineering degree, the Master degree in Multimedia and Communications and the Ph.D. degree in Multimedia and Communications from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, in 2013, 2014 and 2019, respectively. During the Ph.D. period, his research was related to spatio-temporal visual attention modeling and understanding, applying both Bayesian networks and deep learning. After two years as teaching assistant at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, he works at present as postdoctoral researcher in the ERC USMILE project, taking part in the Image and Signal Processing Group at the Universitat de València, Spain. His current research within the area of Machine Learning for Earth and Climate Sciences involves the design and understanding of explainable deep generative models and machine attention mechanisms to be deployed for anomaly and extreme event detection. In addition to his work on visual attention, he has participated in other projects within the Computer Vision field, which include image and video analysis, and medical image analysis and classification. He had also the opportunity to study at Technische Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria, during the Bachelor degree, in 2013, and to do a Ph.D. stay at the Visual Perception Laboratory of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, in 2016.
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 Adam Fysh
Coordinator, Disaster Risk Reduction’s Global Risk Analysis and Reporting Unit, United Nations
Adam Fysh works in the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Global Risk Analysis and Reporting Unit. He is the coordinator of the Global Risk Assessment Framework (GRAF), Part lead author in the Global Risk Assessment Framework (GAR 2019 and 2022) and overall coordinator for the GAR: Special Report on Drought. Previously, he worked in UNDRR’s Regional Office for Africa in programme delivery, World Food Programme’s Early Warning Section, German Red Cross’ community-based Disaster Risk Reduction in Palestine, UNICEF and IFRC in emergency response, and risk assessment in academic and government offices.
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 Andrew Harper
Special Advisor on Climate Action, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Andrew Harper is the Special Advisor on Climate Action to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. He is responsible for providing strategic guidance, oversight and expertise to shape UNHCR's response to the climate emergency. Prior to his current tasks, he was the Director of the Division of Programme Support & Management (DPSM), where he oversaw programme policy, planning and management, as well as technical support to field operations. Andrew has led the Innovation Service in UNHCR and was responsible for leading and coordinating the international response to the Syrian Crisis in Jordan. Some of the main achievements included responding to, at the time, the largest refugee crisis in the world, the establishment of the Zaatari and Azraq refugee camps, introducing biometric registration and linking that to the world’s largest biometric based refugee cash assistance programme. Andrew also served as the Head of Desk for UNHCR, covering the Iraq Situation, as well as the Emergency Focal Point for the Middle East and North Africa region for the Libyan Crisis. He has previously worked notably for the Australian Embassy in Turkey and UNOCHA, and in various field locations with UNHCR, including Central and Southeast Asia, the Western Balkans, Islamic Republic of Iran and Ukraine.
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 Feyera Hirpa
Senior Data Scientist, One Concern Inc.
Feyera Hirpa is a Senior Data Scientist at One Concern Inc., where he is developing high-resolution compound flood models used for operational flood forecasting at different scales. Feyera’s research interests center on understanding the drivers of water-related hazards and reducing their risks at different spatial and temporal scales. Prior to joining One Concern, Feyera worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) and then at Oxford University. He led the calibration of the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) at JRC and, as part of his research at Oxford, he estimated the impact of climate change on streamflow in the Greater Horn of Africa. Feyera received a Ph.D. degree in Environmental Engineering (2013) from University of Connecticut and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering (2004) from Jimma University.
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 Bilel Jamoussi
Chief of Study Groups, TSB, ITU
Tunisian born, Dr. Bilel Jamoussi is Chief of the Study Groups Department of ITU Standardization Bureau in Geneva Switzerland. Since 2010, he has been leading the bureau’s standards making activities into a new era characterized by rapid convergence and the need for increased collaboration with vertical sectors and partnership between developed and developing countries. Prior to 2010, Jamoussi worked for a Telecommunication equipment and solutions provider for 15 years in Canada and then in the United States where he held several leadership positions and was granted 22 US patents in diverse areas including packet, optical, wireless, and quality of service. He holds a BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English and speaks some Spanish and German.
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 Rinku Kanwar
Software Designer, Finance & Supply Chain, IBM CIO
Rinku Kanwar is Software Designer for Technology Software Engineering - IBM CIO, Developing Supply Planning, characterization engineering, semiconductor data analytics and cognitive tools for Finance & Supply Chain. She has developed solutions for IBM Watson Supply Chain Insights that predict, quickly assess and more effectively mitigate disruptions , helping clients to optimize supply chain decision making and performance. She was engaged in enabling Global Foundries to step down off the IBM Systems, without negatively effecting IBM Systems as a client and now working towards enabling Samsung as the new supplier of 7nm technology to IBM, Focused on design and implementation of software to assist reach IBM Systems Z and Power9 milestones, in supply planning arena and semiconductor data analytics. She is also working with Hybrid Cloud Services team of IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, developing cloud native solution for making sure of continuous compliance for IBM managed IT infrastructure to various regulations such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, CIS etc. Mapping of various regulatory documents to common hierarchy using Machine Learning. Rinku lives in Parkland, Florida.
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 Monique Kuglitsch
Innovation Manager, Fraunhofer HHI, Chair, ITU/WMO Focus Group on AI for Natural Disaster Management, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
Dr. Monique Kuglitsch is the Innovation Manager at Fraunhofer HHI and Chair of the newly established ITU/WMO Focus Group on AI for Natural Disaster Management. She previously managed operations for the ITU/WHO Focus Group on AI for Health. In her past role at the American Meteorological Society, M. Kuglitsch was the Lead Technical Editor for several journals (including the Journal of Hydrometeorology and Journal of Physical Oceanography) and the Senior International Outreach/Communications Specialist. As a researcher, M. Kuglitsch has investigated past climate change, extreme weather events, and regional climate model projections. M. Kuglitsch has experience in fluvial and limnological field work, geochemical laboratory methods, applied mathematics and statistics, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate risk/impacts research.
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 Helen Li
Senior AI researcher, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT)
Ms Helen Li serves as the Senior AI researcher, Vice Chairman of AIIA (Artificial Intelligence Alliance) Technology & Industry Group, and Leader of Industry Group in Artificial Intelligence Research Team within the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). During the course of her career, she has taken charge of several important research topics including Artificial Intelligence (industry and application), application of 5G, along with other emerging technologies in various industries. She is also an expert on AI in Emergency Management, Emergency Security, Intelligent Computing, and AI in Remoting.
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 Nicolas Longépé
Earth Observation Data Scientist, Phi-lab Explore Office, European Space Agency (ESA/ESRIN)
Dr Nicolas Longepe received the M.Eng. in electronics and communication systems and the M.S. degree in electronics from the National Institute for the Applied Sciences, France, both in 2005. Then, he received the PhD degree from the University of Rennes I, France, in 2008. From 2007 to 2010, he was with the Earth Observation Research Center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan, firstly for 11 months as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow, and then as an invited researcher. From 2010 to 2020, he worked at CLS, France, as a research engineer in the Radar Application Division. Since September 2020, he is now with Phi-lab Explore Office at ESA/ESRIN. His main scientific interests include (EO) SAR remote sensing and digital technologies such as Machine (Deep) Learning. He has been working on the development of innovative EO-based applications for environmental and natural resource management (ocean, mangrove, land and forest cover, soil moisture, snow cover, permafrost) and for maritime security (oil spill, sea ice, iceberg, and ship detection/tracking). At the Phi-lab Explore Office, he is involved in the development of innovative EO missions (e.g. PhiSat) where Artificial Intelligence is deployed directly on the spacecraft.
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 Shamila Nair-BedouelleAssistant Director General for Natural Sciences, UNESCODr. Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO since April 2019. She has a long standing career as a researcher (University of Cape Town, Institute Pasteur, MIT University Park in Boston, and the French National Institute for Medical Research), and in implementing international programmes for science for development (UN, UNESCO and European Commission). As Director of the OzonAction at the United Nations Environment Programme, she was responsible for developing and implementing programmes for the Montreal Protocol, providing 148 developing countries with scientific and technical advice and implementing capacity building programmes for the phase out of ozone depleting chemicals. She launched the first global program for capacity building for women technicians. Prior, she was Programme Manager and responsible for the research for development and international cooperation with developing countries, specifically health research, in the European Commission. Thereafter, she coordinated science programmes in Africa for UNESCO in close collaboration with the African Union Ministerial Council for Science and managed the United Nations Cluster for Science and Technology in Africa. She holds a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Cape-Town in South Africa, HDR (University of Paris V) and is a Member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa. She pursued her research career at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, at the MIT University Park in Boston, and the French National Institute for Medical Research as Director of Research (INSERM). In parallel to her career at the United Nations, Dr Shamila Nair-Bedouelle has been working since 2000 as Director of Research at the University of Paris V. In 2017, Mrs Shamila Nair-Bedouelle has been nominated First Class Director of Research at INSERM. Her scientific research was in the field of molecular biology and identification of new targets for anti-microbial compounds. She has also published in numerous scientific journals and is the co-inventor of several patents. |
 Ahmed Riad
Senior Director, Strategy and Industry Development, Huawei
Ahmed has more than 13 years of experience in ICT industry within Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, International Telecommunications Union, and currently Huawei technologies. Currently, Ahmed works at Huawei technologies, as a senior director for the standards and industry development team. His role is to assist in leading Huawei's standards team in strategic engagements and partnerships with various organizations, identify key insights of ICT industry trends, and collaborate with partner organizations for a ICT industry development. Previously Ahmed worked at ITU HQ based in Geneva since 2014. He worked at different roles, most recently at ITU-T’s Strategic Engagement Department (SED), in the areas of business development and programme coordination for the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence for Good Global Summit. His job included programming various elements and tracks, on the top of which was creating and leading the AI for Good Innovation Factory, with the aim of identifying AI-centric and innovative solutions that help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and scale them to a global impact. He also worked for ITU Telecom, managing the Small and Medium Enterprises innovation programmes and managing the relationships and participation of many organizations from Middle East and North American at ITU Telecom. Before joining the ITU, Ahmed worked for the Nokia Networks and Ericsson, where he delivered various projects across MEA and Asia regions, mainly in the Mobile Broadband domain as a senior solution architect and senior technical project manager. Ahmed holds a Master of Sciences degree in Telecommunications with Business from University College London, UK, and a BSc degree in Electrical Communications and Electronics Systems Engineering from Egypt.
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 Reinhard Scholl
Deputy Director, TSB, ITU
Reinhard Scholl is Deputy to the Director of the ITU-T Secretariat (TSB) since September 2002. Previously he has been with Siemens in Munich, Germany and with ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois, USA.
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 Thomas Spengler
Professor, University of Bergen
Thomas Spengler is a meteorologist focusing on the combination of theory, observations, and modelling, specialized on scales ranging from meso, synoptic, to large-scale flow. He did his masters at the University of Munich and his PhD at ETH Zurich. After a postdoc at Princeton University, he started as professor in meteorology at the University of Bergen. Since 2015, he is also the director of the Norwegian Research School on Changing Climates in the Coupled Earth System (CHESS). Currently, he is leading research projects focusing on atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in higher latitudes as well as air-sea interactions and cyclone development in the midlatitude storm tracks. In the recent years, he has included machine learning methods to further assess ensemble forecasts as well as explore model parameter spaces. In 2012, he was elected as a member of the International Commission for Dynamic Meteorology and was elected President of ICDM in 2019. From 2015-2019, he was the elected as Chair of the Atmospheric Working Group of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). He was awarded the prize for best lecturer of the academic year 2012/2013 at the Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Bergen and nominated for the IAMAS early career scientist medal in 2013.
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 Andrea Toreti
Senior Scientist/Scientific Officer at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy
He graduated in Mathematics at the University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy) and obtained a Ph.D. in Climate Sciences at the University of Bern (Switzerland). Before joining the JRC in 2013, he was at the: Italian national weather service, Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, University of Bern, University of Giessen as Ass. Professor. His main research interests focus on: climate change, variability, extremes and impacts on agriculture; climate change adaptation for agriculture; extreme value theory; statistical climatology; change point detection and attribution; agro-meteorology. In 2011, he got the MedCLIVAR award for his important contribution to research which addressed issues on climate extremes in the Mediterranean region. In 2020, as member of the MedECC steering committee and leading author of the first Mediterranean assessment report, he got the North-South prize of the Council of Europe. He is author/co-author of more than 60 publications and member of the Editorial board of the Nature's Journal Scientific Reports.
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