People

Steering Committee

The UCCRN receives guidance and support from a steering committee composed of leading researchers who specialize in different aspects of urban climate change research:

Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Head of Climate Impacts research group, NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies (New York City)

Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies where she heads the Climate Impacts Group. She recently co-chaired the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the Mayor to advise the City on adaptation for its critical infrastructure. She co-led the Metropolitan East Coast Regional Assessment of the US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, sponsored by the US Global Change Research Program. She was a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report, and served on the IPCC Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she joins impact models with climate models to predict future outcomes of both land-based and urban systems under altered climate conditions. She is a Professor at Barnard College and a Senior Research Scientist at the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Source: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/crosenzweig.html

Dr. Stephen Hammer, Director, Urban Energy Project, Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy, Columbia University (New York City)

Dr. Stephen A. Hammer is the Executive Director of the Energy Smart Cities Initiative, a project of the Joint US–China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), which runs energy and climate policy training and technical assistance programs for local governments around China. Stephen joined JUCCCE in January 2010 after serving as director of the Urban Energy Program at Columbia University’s Center for Energy, Marine Transportation, and Public Policy. He has authored or co-authored dozens of policy studies and journal articles on urban sustainability planning, urban energy systems, distributed generation technology, and the impacts of climate change on local and regional energy networks. In addition to his work at JUCCCE, Stephen is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University; a member of New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s Energy Policy Task Force; a consultant to the State of New York on microgrid and climate change adaptation issues; and a policy advisor on urban energy efficiency to the World Bank.
Source: http://sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/sh2185-fac.html

Dr. William Solecki, Director, Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York (New York City)

Dr. William Solecki is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Hunter College, City University of New York. He has led or co-led numerous projects on the process of urban environmental change and transformation. As Director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, he has worked extensively on connecting cutting-edge urban environmental science to everyday practice and action in cities. He most recently served as Co-Chair of the New York Panel on Climate Change. He is also a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Urban and Global Environmental Change core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme.
Email: wsolecki@hunter.cuny.edu

Dr. Ademola Omojola, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Dr. Omojola is on the the Steering Committee of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) and a coordinating lead-author for the “Mayors’ IPCC”. He is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria. He has conducted, supervised, and published various research projects that use remote sensing and GIS applications for environmental studies in Nigeria. He has also been advising the government and the private sector in the application of remote sensing and GIS in Nigeria. Dr. Omojola has completed a B.Sc. Degree in Geography from the University of Ibadan in 1982, an MA Geography with specialization in Hydrology and Resource Analysis in 1985 and Ph.D in Geography with specialization in Remote Sensing and GIS for environmental change detection, University of Lagos in 1997.

Dr. Albert Bressand, Director, Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy, Columbia University (New York City)

Dr. Albert Bressand is the Director of the Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy at Columbia University. Formerly, Dr. Bressand headed the Global Business Environment department in Royal Dutch Shell’s global headquarters in London from 2003-2006, where he was most notably responsible for designing a new generation of Shell Global Scenarios around an enhanced, original methodology for risk and opportunity assessment. Dr Bressand is also Special Adviser to the EU Commissioner in charge of energy in Brussels. Previously, he was managing director and cofounder of Prométhée, a nonprofit, Paris-based think tank specializing in the emerging global networked economy and its implications for corporate strategies, capital markets, and international economic relations. Dr. Bressand served as Economic Advisor to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and held key positions with the French Institute for International Relations and the World Bank. He is a member of the faculty of the World Economic Forum, and has chaired a number of sessions at the Davos Annual Meetings. Dr. Bressand earned advanced degrees in both mathematics and engineering at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and an MPA and a PhD in Political Economy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University.
Source: http://sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/ab2816-fac.html

Dr. Alice Grimm, Associate Professor, Universidade Federal do Parana (Curitiba)

Dr. Alice Grimm is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil. She is currently visiting at the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) at Columbia University, where she is conducting research on climate variability and the performance of climate models in Southern South America during El Niño and La Niña events. Dr. Grimm’s early training was in physics and geodetic sciences (Fed. Univ. of Paraná), and she has a Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of São Paulo. Dr. Grimm’s research interests include diagnostic and modelling studies related to climate variability on several time scales. Her current research activities includes the assessment of the impacts of El Niño and La Niña events over the climate of Brazil and southern South America, and the detection and description of intraseasonal oscillations in precipitation and circulation over South America. Dr. Grimm is also studying the remote influence of tropical heat sources, through the generation and propagation of Rossby waves.
Source: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/IAI/Inst1999/leaderbios99.html

Dr. Richenda Connell, CTO/Co-Founder, Acclimatise (London)

Dr. Richenda Connell is the Chief Technical Officer and Co-founder of Acclimatise, a specialist risk management company bridging the gap between the latest scientific developments and real world decision-making. She manages the development of their products and services, ensuring that the company remains at the cutting-edge of best practice in climate risk management. Dr. Connell has 15 years of expertise working at the interface between decision-making and scientific issues, on climate change, air pollution and environmental impact assessment. She was formerly Technical Director at the UK Climate Impacts Programme, where she co-developed the world’s first web-based climate adaptation tool and the UKCIP climate risk management framework, now recommended in UN and World Bank guidance. She has also helped several hundred UK public and private sector organizations assess and manage their climate risks. She holds a doctorate in atmospheric chemistry from Oxford University.
Source: http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/the-team/dr-richenda-connell

Dr. Claudia E. Natenzon, Professor, Humanities School, University of Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires)

Dr. Natenzon is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Buenos Aires Interdisciplinary Program on Climatic Change, the Executive Committee of the Argentinean International Human Dimension Program (IHDP), and the Steering Committee of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN). Since 1988, she has led the Natural Resources and Environmental Research Program (PIRNA) at the University of Buenos Aires, where her research focuses on the analysis of catastrophic floods and social vulnerability with a focus on social theory of risk. Dr. Natenzon has served as the lead researcher for several projects with the National Science Foundation, and is presently a co-researcher in UNESCO’s Conflict to Co-operation project for Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Natenzon holds a Ph.D in Geography from the University of Sevilla, Spain, and has published over fifty book chapters and papers.
Email: natenzon@filo.uba.ar

Dr. Peter Droege, Professor, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle (Australia)

Dr. Peter Droege is an expert on the role of renewable energy within the fields of urban design, development and urban infrastructure with a wide variety of experience and responsibility. He has directed and developed Solar City, a research development effort conducted under the auspices of the International Energy Agency as well as carrying out academic roles at major universities in the United States and Japan. He is presently Senior Advisor, Beijing Municipal Institute for City Planning and Design, Steering Committee member, Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), Conjoint Professor, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Visiting Professor and Director, Centre for Sustainable Urbanism, School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, Beijing University and Chair, World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) Asia Pacific. He is a Chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy, for Asia Pacific, and directs Epolis, a Sydney-based consultancy active in sustainable urban change worldwide. He is the author of the recent book on transforming the urban energy system from fossil to renewable, The Renewable City.
Source: http://www.suesupriano.com/article.php?id=127
Source (of picture): http://www.renewablecity.org/

Dr. Saleemul Huq, Head, Climate Change Group, International Institute for Environment and Development (London)

Source (of picture): www.southsouthnorth.org/abouttheteam.asp
Dr. Saleemul Huq is Head of the “Climate Change Group” in the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). He is a specialist of links between climate change and sustainable development, particularly from the perspective of developing countries. He works on research into vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in the least developed countries, and is the lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Coordinating Lead Author of chapter on Adaptation and Mitigation in the IPCC’s fourth assessment report. He was formerly Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, and advises the LDC Group in UNFCCC negotiations. Dr. Saleemul Huq completed his PhD in Plant Sciences from Imperial College, London, United Kingdom.
Source: http://www.iddri.org/L’iddri/Intervenants-auteurs/Saleemul-Huq

Eva Ligeti, LLB/LLM, Executive Director, Toronto Clean Air Partnership (Toronto)

Source (of picture): www.brantfordpower.com/corporate/board.shtml
Eva Ligeti is the Executive Director of the Toronto Clean Air Partnership and co-chair of the GTA Clean Air Council. Ms. Ligeti’s goal is to build programs, policies and practices that facilitate sustainable urban environments. She develops market and community-based research and strategies for: healthy, clean air; climate adapted, resilient cities; a sustainable built environment that reflects livable, sustainable urban planning, with convenient, accessible, public transit and active forms of transportation. Ms. Ligeti serves on numerous boards and committees including, Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund’s Council, Brantford Power Inc. and the Advisory Council of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. She is a member of the Province of Ontario’s Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation and a co-chair of the Greening Greater Toronto. Ms. Ligeti is a lawyer and she teaches environmental law in the University of Toronto, Graduate Program in Environmental Science. Ms. Ligeti was Ontario’s first Environmental Commissioner from 1995 until 1999. She was the Principal, Sheppard Campus, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology and Chair, School of Legal and Public Administration.
Source: http://www.torontocat.ca/main/bikesummit2009/speakers

Dr. Niels Schulz, Research Associate, Imperial College (London)

Dr. Niels Schulz1 joined the Global Energy Assessment in June 2008. He is a Research Fellow and Team Leader of the Urban Energy Systems Project at the Energy Futures Lab, Imperial College London. Before joining the Energy Futures Lab, he worked for two years as postdoctoral fellow at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) in Yokohama, Japan. At UNU-IAS he worked with the ecosystem and people program and conducted research and capacity building programs to address urban environmental challenges of cities in the Asian-Pacific region. In particular he worked on indicators of sustainable production and consumption at the urban scale. Dr. Schulz holds a PhD in ecology from Vienna University, where his research examined changes in energy use and resource consumption during the industrial transformation of the United Kingdom. Past research has also included an examination of integrated measures for land-use and land-cover change such as human appropriation of net primary production, ecological footprint analysis, and other measures of society’s material and energy metabolism.
Source: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/cgi-bin/ifinger?login:^schulz$:11:383

The Global Management team

Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Head of Climate Impacts research group, NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies (New York City)

Dr. Stephen Hammer, Executive Director, Energy Smart Cities Initiative (New York City)

Dr. William Solecki, Director, Institute for Sustainable Cities, Hunter College, City University of New York (New York City)

Shagun Mehrotra, Managing Director of Climate and Cities, Columbia University (New York City)

Shagun Mehrotra is Managing Director of Climate and Cities, an international policy advisor facility at Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research. As a Columbia University Faculty Fellow, he provides research and policy advice focusing on infrastructure economics and finance, development economics, and poverty reduction in slums. He has developed a comprehensive framework for city climate risk assessment that combines hazards, vulnerabilities, and agency. Previously, Shagun was on the staff of the World Bank, leading infrastructure reform of state- owned utilities in Africa. Over the past decade, his advice has been sought by national and local governments in East Africa, Southeast Asia, China, and India, as well as the United Nations’ Human Development Report, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Columbia Earth Institute. The President of India recently launched Shagun’s co-authored book Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed, with a foreword by the Prime Minister of India.
Email: svm2103@columbia.edu
http://www.shagunmehrotra.org

Somayya Ali, Project Manager, Center for Climate Systems Research, and Earth Institute at Columbia University/NASA GISS

Somayya Ali is the Project Manager of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), hosted at the Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR) and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In this role, she manages the publication of the UCCRN Assessment Reports on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3), an ongoing series of comprehensive studies detailing the risks global cities face due to a warming world and explaining how urban populations are working to reduce their emissions and prepare for climate change impacts. The first assessment report, published in May 2011 by Cambridge University Press, includes contributions from 110 authors in 50 cities. Somayya is a graduate of the Masters program in Climate and Society at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, prior to which she received a B.Sc. in Management Sciences and a Masters in Business Administration. In addition to working on urban climate issues, Somayya has an interest in integrating microfinance into climate change adaptation and disaster risk reductive initiatives, to reduce the vulnerability of the poor to environmental impacts.
Email: sa2619@columbia.edu

Joe Gilbride, Former Project Manager of the First UCCRN Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities

Joe Gilbride is the former Project Manager of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) First Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3). He worked for two years on microfinance for Small Enterprise Development in Cameroon, and has over 3 years of experience in private sector while he was based out of Boston and later in Ohio. Mr. Gilbride has a Masters of Public Administration with a specialization in Urban Policy and Environmental Policy from School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Mr. Gilbride received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Boston University.
Email: jmg2172@columbia.edu