Our Speakers
THOMAS
DERMINE
State Secretary for Economic Recovery and Strategic Investments, in charge of Science Policy
As a member of the federal government, he has overseen the creation of Belgium’s Recovery Plan which is one of the greenest national investment plans according to the European climate tagging criteria. Thomas Dermine pleads for a 5.000 Billion green plan, as public investments in infrastructure, research and human capital are key to accelerate the just transition.
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In his competency of federal Science Policy, he is also at the origin of the Belgian Climate Centre, which was created in November 2022.
VALERIE
MASSON-
DELMOTTE
Climate Scientist, Research Director
Former Co-Chair IPCC WGI AR6
Award-winning climate scientist with a background in fluid physics (Ecole Centrale Paris) and climate science. Her research is focused on quantifying and understanding past changes in climate and atmospheric water cycle, using ice cores, tree-rings as well as present-day monitoring, and climate modelling for the past and the future.
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Director of Research at the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA), IPCC author and former Co-Chair of IPCC WGI AR6.
JAN
ROTMANS
Mathematician, Professor, Doctor, Engineer
Captain of Transition
Professor in Transitions and Sustainability at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and international authority in this field, he provides governments, businesses, and most importantly, you – the individual – with the solution to the chaos and crises that we all feel.
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Jan Rotmans is the first person in the world to successfully develop an integrated climate model (IMAGE – Integrated Model to Assess the Greenhouse Effect) that can model the causes, mechanisms, and effects of human behaviour.
CLAIR
BARNES
Environmental statistician at Imperial College London
World Weather Attribution
Clair Barnes is a statistician who developed models for quantifying uncertainties associated with multi-model ensemble forecasts of weather and climate.
Since 2022, she has worked as a Research Associate with the World Weather Attribution initiative, based at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London. Her work involves understanding how changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are linked to climate change. Her research focuses on ways to improve probabilistic attribution methodologies to obtain more robust results and understand more about the factors driving changes in extreme weather events.
BAS
SMETS
Architect and Professor
Augmented Landscapes
Bas Smets has a background in landscape architecture, civil engineering and architecture. With his team, he has completed more than 50 projects in more than 12 countries since 2007. In 2022, he won the international competition for Les Abords de Notre-Dame in Paris. Each project is part of an interrelated research into the possible role and ambition of landscape projects. The aim is to invent ‘Augmented Landscapes’ by using the logics of nature. These augmented landscapes produce a new microclimate while providing new atmospheres.
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Bas Smets was appointed Professor in Practice at the GSD of Harvard University in 2023.
