Science Committee
Science Committee
Daniel Müller
Chair - Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)
Dr. Daniel Müller is Deputy Head of the Department of Structural Change of Farms in Rural Areas at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), where he leads Land Systems Group. The overarching goal of his research program is to advance understanding of land system change, including its multiple repercussions on human welfare, food production, carbon balance, and biodiversity. Read full bio.
Nick Magliocca
Theme One Lead - Department of Geography, University of Alabama
Dr. Nicholas Magliocca is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Alabama. His work focuses on how people make land-use decisions, how those decisions modify the functioning of natural systems, and how those modifications feedback on human well-being, livelihoods, and subsequent land-use decisions. Read full bio.
Jonas Nielsen
Theme Two Lead - Humboldt University Berlin
Jonas Ø. Nielsen is Professor of Integrative Geography at Humboldt-Universität´s Department of Geography. His research is concerned with human dimensions of global change and in particular climate change and land-use change. Read full bio.
Rachael Garrett
Theme Three Lead - University of Cambridge
Prof. Dr. Rachael D. Garrett is Moran Professor of Conservation and Development at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on understanding the drivers and impacts of land change, primarily in forest landscapes, and the effectiveness and equity of forest conservation policies and practices. Read full bio.
Ariane de Bremond
Chair Organizing Committee/Co-Chair, Scientific Committee - Global Land Programme IPO
Ariane de Bremond is the Executive Director of the Global Land Programme, Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and Associated Senior Research Scientist at the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Her research interests include land tenure and land use and cover change, and the role of science and knowledge production in societal transformations. Read full bio.
Camilo Alcantara
Universidad de Guanajuato
I am a biologist from UNAM, México, with a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I focus particularly on the processes of landchanges and sustainability: climate change, agriculture, and fire dynamics. My favorite ecosystem is the cloud forest. My mission is to communicate my findings and take action to mitigate the negative consequences of our actions. Read full bio.
Veronique Sophie Avila Foucat
UNAM
Professor Véronique Sophie Avila Foucat is Senior Researcher at the Economics Research Institute in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Member of the Board Directors of the National Coastal Resilience Laboratory (LANRESC). In recent years, her research has focused on studying social-ecological systems resilience, particularly the role of sustainable diversification in rural households’ livelihoods, well-being, and development. Read full bio.
Patricia Balvanera
Institute for Ecosystems and Sustainability Research - National Autonomous University of Mexico
Patricia Balvanera was trained in biology, ethnobotany and ecology. Within large inter- and transdisciplinary teams and research networks, she explores the role of biodiversity in contributing to human well-being, and analyzes the dynamics of social-ecological systems, with emphasis on the role of the way nature is valued as a key underpinning driver of such dynamic. Read full bio.
Matthias Baumann
Conservation Biogeography Lab, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
I am a senior researcher in the Conservation Biogeography Lab. I consider myself a Geographer and Land-Use Scientist, primarily interested in reconstructing and understanding land-use processes and establish causal relationships between these processes and the factors that drive them. Read full bio.
Martha Bonilla Moheno
Science Committee & Co-Chair Organizing Committee - Instituto de Ecología, A.C.
Dr. Martha Bonilla-Moheno is a biologist (UNAM, Mexico), with a PhD in Environmental Studies (University of California, Santa Cruz). Her research seeks to understand the impact that humans have as promoters of change in ecosystems, particularly in tropical forests. Read full bio here.
Kim Carlson
New York University
Kimberly Carlson is an Assistant Professor at New York University’s Department of Environmental Studies. As a land systems scientist with a focus on the tropics, Carlson’s expertise spans the disciplines of remote sensing, tropical ecology, biogeochemistry, and land change modeling. Read full bio.
Adriana C. Flores-Díaz
Universidad Iberoamericana
Adriana has a PhD in Ecology by the INECOL, A.C. Her research focuses on rivers and riverbanks, community monitoring of water quality, and local water governance systems. Her work promotes transdisciplinary approaches. Read full bio.
Benedictus (Ben) Freeman
University of Liberia
Benedictus Freeman (Ben) was born and raised in Liberia. He currently teaches at the University of Liberia and coordinates U.S. Forest International Programs’ activities in Liberia. Ben has nearly 10 years’ worth of experience in biodiversity conservation, research, and capacity building. His research interests include conservation biology, forestry, ornithology, restoration ecology, ecotourism, biodiversity informatics, distributional ecology, and climate change biology. Read full bio.
Robert Heilmayr
University of California, Santa Barbara
Robert Heilmayr is an assistant professor of environmental and ecological economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara's Environmental Studies Program and the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Robert combines methods of causal inference from economics with data made possible through advances in Earth observation to answer questions about how society conserves nature. Read full bio
Leonie Hodel
ETH Zurich
Leonie is a PhD candidate at Prof. Dr. Rachael Garret's Environmental Policy Lab, where she works on an interdisciplinary project in the Brazilian Amazon. She is combining computer vision methods and supply chain analysis to better understand cattle ranching and its interaction with private and public zero deforestation strategies. Read full bio.
Patrick Hostert
Humboldt University Berlin
Patrick Hostert is the Head of Geomatics Lab, and the Deputy Director of Iri Thesys at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His research is focused on remote sensing of urban environments. Read full bio.
Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald
Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica A.C. (IPICYT)
Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald is Full Research Professor in Ecology and Global Environmental Change and currently Department Head of the Division of Environmental Sciences at the federal research institute Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológiva, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. She has extensive experience in dryland ecosystem ecology, livelihood analysis and resilience assessment of social-ecological systems, complex systems analysis of land degradation and desertification, land use and climate change effects on dryland ecosystem services and integral well-being. Read full bio.
Santiago Izquierdo-Tort
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México - Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas
Dr. Santiago Izquierdo-Tort is an Associate Researcher (akin to Associate Professor) at the Institute for Economic Research at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His research explores the nexus between economic development pathways and forest conservation policies in tropical frontiers. Read full bio.
Tobias Kuemmerle
Humboldt-University Berlin, Geography Department
Tobias Kuemmerle is a professor for biogeography and conservation biology at the Geography Department at Humboldt-University Berlin. The overarching goal of his research is to improve our understanding of where and why land use changes, how that affects species’ habitats and populations, and what characterizes sustainable land systems that balance biodiversity conservation and humanity’s resource needs. Read full bio.
Sharachchandra Lele
ATREE
Dr. Sharachchandra (Sharad) Lele is an interdisciplinary environmental researcher, bridging the natural sciences, economics, and political science to understand the concepts of and pathways to environmentally sustainable and socially just development. Read full bio.
Christian Levers
Thünen Institute of Biodiversity
Christian Levers is a research group leader at the Thünen Institue of Biodiversity (Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute). His research interests lie in identifying pathways toward sustainable human-environment systems in light of global change. He specialises in spatially explicit, quantitative, and large-scale land-system assessments to better understand patterns, determinants, and consequences of land-system dynamics. His regional focus is on Europe and South America. Read full bio.
Matthew Lorenzen
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Iztapalapa Departamento de Sociología
Matthew Lorenzen is a visiting professor at the Department of Sociology of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, campus Iztapalapa, in Mexico City. His research centers on the forest transition and migration in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca; rural gentrification and touristification in central Mexico; and mixed migrations to and through Mexico. Read full bio.
Joss Lyons-White
University of Cambridge
Joss Lyons-White is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Conservation and Development Group at the University of Cambridge. His research is focused on tropical deforestation caused by the expanding production of agricultural commodities such as palm oil. Read full bio.
Miguel Martinez-Ramos
Instituto de Investigaciones En Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, UNAM
Miguel Martínez-Ramos is an ecologist who studies the factors, processes and mechanisms determining tropical forest dynamics in natural and human-modified environments, focusing principally on those in the moist and dry tropical forests of Mexico and some regions of Central and South America.
Matias Mastrangelo
CONICET
Matías Mastrangelo is an Environmental Scientist from Argentina. His research focus is on the human and social dimensions of environmental change, with emphasis on how stakeholders make decisions that make an impact on the environment. Read full bio.
Ole Mertz
University of Copenhagen
Ole Mertz is a Professor of Geography at the University of Copenhagen. His research and teaching responsibilities are focused on global environmental change, land use transitions and food security in the Global South. Read full bio.
Peter Messerli
Wyss Academy for Nature, University of Bern
Peter Messerli is professor for sustainable development and the director of the Wyss Academy for Nature at the University of Bern, Switzerland. As a land system scientist and human geographer, his research interests lie in the sustainable development of social-ecological systems in Africa and Asia. Read full bio.
Patrick Meyfroidt
Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL)
Patrick Meyfroidt holds a PhD in geography (2009) and a degree in sociology from Université Catholique de Louvain (UClouvain) in Belgium. His main research interests are land use and forest transitions, linkages between globalization and land use, theories of land system change, and social-ecological feedbacks. Read full bio.
Daniel Miller
Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Miller’s research and teaching focus on international environmental politics and policy. He is especially interested in understanding the socioeconomic and ecological impacts of conservation funding in tropical countries and the political factors shaping those impacts. Read full bio.
Sofía Nanni
Instituto de Ecología Regional
Dr. Sofia Nanni is postdoctoral researcher at the Instituto de Ecología Regional in Tucumán, Argentina. Her general research interest lies at the intersection of conservation biology, land system science, and human dimensions of wildlife, where she works to understand the links between anthropic land-use and land-cover change and medium-large mammal conservation at different scales, with a special focus on factors promoting coexistence between humans and medium-large mammals. Read full bio.
Quetzalcoatl Orozco Ramirez
UNAM
Quetzalcoatl Orozco Ramirez is a researcher at the Institute of Geography at UNAM. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Davis, in Geography. His research has focused on the interaction between culture and native maize diversity, as well as on the social and environmental processes involved in the changes and conservation of agrobiodiversity. Read full bio.
Margaret Owuor
Wyss Academy for Nature and University of Bern, Switzerland
Margaret is a trained ecologist with keen interest in looking at issues at the intersection of biodiversity, ecosystems both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. She aims to understand real world conservation issues that are facing local communities, working together with stakeholders (community-based groups, academia, students, researchers, Non-Governmental Organizations, County and National Governments) involved in the use and management of natural resources. Read full bio.
Unai Pascual
Basque Center for Climate Change
Unai Pascual is Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Bilbao, Spain, where he leads the Climate and Natural Environment Research line. Prof Pascual carries out research on the interactions between climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem services from an interdisciplinary perspective. Read full bio.
Thuy Thu Pham
Center for International Forestry Research - World Agroforestry Center
Dr. Pham Thu Thuy is a senior scientist who leads the Global program on Climate Change, Energy and Low-Carbon Development team at Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry Center. Her research focuses on the political economy of climate change policies, including low-emission development strategies, payment for environmental services, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, carbon market, biodiversity conservation, just transition and social inclusion. Read full bio.
María Pique-Rodríguez
Institute of Latin American Studies - Freie Universität Berlin
María Pique-Rodríguez is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies. She studies the territorial divergences of trans-national eco-regions in South America and the socio-economic factors that may explain differences in their human-natural systems.Read full bio.
Yann le Polain de Waroux
McGill University
Yann le Polain de Waroux is an Assistant Professor at McGill University, jointly appointed by the Institute for the Study of International Development and the Department of Geography. His research examines the role of people’s livelihood and land use choices as a nexus between social and environmental, and global and local dynamics in rural areas of the Global South. Read full bio.
Alexander Prishchepov
University of Copenhagen
Dr. Alexander Prishchepov is an associate professor in the Geography Section at the University of Copenhagen, and is also affiliated with Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (JLU), Germany. He conducts integrative work to understand the patterns, drivers, and implications of land-cover change, with a focus on agricultural expansion and decline, rural-urban transitions, and the human impact on environmental systems. Read full bio.
Rose Pritchard
University of Manchester
Rose is a Presidential Fellow in the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Her current research focuses on how 'big' environmental data, particularly from remote sensing technologies, are changing the governance of global land systems. Read full bio.
Navin Ramankutty
University of British Columbia
Navin Ramankutty is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change and Food Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. His research addresses issues at the interface of agricultural land use, environmental change, and food security. Read full bio.
M. Isabel Ramirez
Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Isabel Ramírez is Director at the Center for Research in Environmental Geography (CIGA) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Most of her research focuses on environmental conservation and rural development of the monarch butterfly region in Mexico. Read full bio.
Ximena Reuda
Universidad de los Andes
Ximena Rueda is an associate professor of sustainability management and global supply chains at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Her research focuses on the impact of globalization on land use, with special emphasis on tropical commodities. Read full bio.
Birgit Schmook
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
Birgit Schmook works as a researcher in Ecosur (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur), Mexico, in the department for the Observation and Study of the Land, Atmosphere and Ocean. Her interests are on smallholder behavior in Mexico, with special emphasis on shifting cultivation systems, labor migration and its relation to environmental changes in southern Mexico and Nicaragua, the causes and magnitude of tropical deforestation, the social and physical impacts of Climate Change and more recently food security and land tenure regimes. Read full bio.
Laura Schneider
Rutgers University, Geography
Laura Schneider is an associate professor and graduate program Director in the department of Geography at Rutgers University. Specific research interests include understanding tropical forest resilience after disturbances, monitoring and modeling tropical deforestation and re-growth, using biophysical remote sensing to map forest dynamics and socio-ecological vulnerability and resilience in rural settings. Read full bio.
Laura Vang Rasmussen
University of Copenhagen
Laura Vang Rasmussen is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Her research is centered on land use changes, their human and environmental drivers, and the outcomes of these land use changes. Read full bio.
Peter Verburg
VU University Amsterdam; WSL Switzerland
Peter is an interdisciplinary geographer who is a Full Professor and Department Head of the Department of Spatial Analysis and Decision Support at the Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University. Peter has a PhD in Land Use Modelling and is specialized in land-use analysis. The focus of his work is in improving the understanding of human-environment systems for sustainability solutions, especially connected to the development of decision-support tools. Read full bio.
Katharina Waha
University Augsburg in Germany, the Centre for Climate Resilience
Katharina Waha is a scientist at the Centre for Climate Resilience at the University of Augsburg and Professor in Climate Resilience and Human-Made Ecosystems. Dr Waha’s scientific career encompasses climate change impact research, spatial analysis and food security and sustainability studies. Her work aims to advance theory and practice related to agroecological systems analysis and climate change impact assessments, with a particular focus on large-scale regional, national and global analyses and quantitative approaches. Read full bio.
Le Yu
Tsinghua University Beijing
Dr. Le Yu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University. His research has been on the use of geographical information techniques to monitor and model global land use change, especially cropland and to facilitate many applications, e.g., food security, biodiversity conservation, and land system modeling. Read full bio.