Dr. Michael Jacobson is a professor of Forest Resources in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Penn State. He teaches courses in forest economics, global agricultural systems, agroforestry and international forestry. He has received over 70 grants and contracts and over $4 million in external funding in topics related to forest economics and finance, agroforestry, and bioenergy, invasive species, and land restoration. He has a significant presence in international activities, including experience working in over a dozen countries in Africa. He is an extraordinary professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, in addition to having current projects in Kenya, Morocco, and Zambia.

Dr. Konak’s primary research interest is in the modeling, analysis, and optimization of complex systems using computational intelligence combined with techniques from probability, data sciences, and operations research.  Dr. Konak published numerous academic papers on a broad range of topics including network design, system reliability, cybersecurity, facilities design, green logistics, production management, and predictive analytics.

Alina Rodriguez is an undergraduate student studying Information Technology at Penn State Berks University, USA. Her research interests are in water source protection, machine learning, web development, and humanitarian aid. She has previously engaged in a project studying water points in Africa for the Nittany AI Competition run by Penn State University, as well as conducted summer research on disaster resilience.

Dr Ozkan is an interdisciplinary energy economist and the head of Centre for Energy Systems and Strategy After completing a BSc (Hons) in Urban and Regional Planning (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey) and a MSc in Regional Planning (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey), Dr Ozkan undertook her PhD research in Regional Planning with specialisation on Environmental Economics (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), U.S.A.). She then worked as a post doctoral researcher at Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at UIUC. Between 2005 and 2014, she worked as a Senior Research Fellow at Policy Studies Institute at University of Westminster where she led a number of research projects. She is a member of British Institute of Energy Economics.

Dr. Huo received the B.Eng. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Bath, UK, and in electrical power engineering from North China Electric Power University, China. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Bath, UK, focusing on the optimisation of multi-vector community energy systems. He then worked as a research associate at Newcastle University for a Horizon Europe project on flexibility management in power distribution systems. Dr Huo’s research covers the operation and planning of flexible resources, distribution systems, and whole energy systems in facilitating the transition towards net-zero from the perspectives of network security, cost-effectiveness, reliability, and resilience.

After completing her B.Architecture (Gauhati University, Assam) and her M.Town and Regional Planning (Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur, West Bengal), Tanaya worked as an Assistant Professor of Architecture. She then undertook her Ph.D. research in Critical Infrastructure Protection in an Urban Flood Prone Area (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal). Before joining Cranfield University, Tanaya worked with GeoHazards Society India and Resilience Innovation Knowledge Academy (RIKA) India on various projects related to Disaster Risk Management, in tandem with Urban Planning.

Elisabeth joined Cranfield from the University of Birmingham, School of Civil Engineering. A key feature of her work is the integration of justice thinking into new infrastructure systems. She has worked on a range of infrastructure projects usually around climate and weather change and disaster risk reduction and has an interest in looking at these systems from a socio-technical and WEF perspective. Before her PhD, Elisabeth gained a Master’s degree in Disaster Management and Resilience including study in South Africa on the run up to Day Zero and a project on flood risk mitigation in UK coastal communities. Prior to this Elisabeth was a Senior Partner in a national law firm specialising in risk and crisis management.

Professor of environmental risk assessment and risk management in the Department of Environmental Health at the School of Public Health, the University of São Paulo since 2001. She is the leader of the Center for Research on Risk Assessment and is a member of the Center for Research on Disasters (CEPED) of the University of São Paulo. Her research focuses on environmental risk assessment with emphasis on disasters, urban environmental factors, access to safe water and sanitation, urban pollution and noise, and their respective impacts on population health. She is also interested in disaster resilience studies; nature-based solutions; integrated management of natural resources and public health.

All my career activities have been focused on environmental health, especially in (re)emerging pathogens in environmental matrices and in AMR genes circulation in environment, which is closely related to the topic of this research proposal. After receiving my PhD in the area of Public Health, I was the coordinator of the Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology of SENAI Mario Amato, and then started my position as Associate Professor in Environmental Health at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in the Environmental Health Department. At USP I am the head of the Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology and Antimicrobial Resistance (MicroRes) and the head of the Center for Environmental Risks Analysis (NARA ).

BEng Water Resources (FICH/UNL, Argentina), M Sc and PhD in Water Resources (IPH/UFRGS, Brazil) and BMBF Senior Postdoc at CESR/Univ Kassel, Germany, Mendiondo has recognized experience as a science-policy expert on hydrology and humanitarian engineering for Water Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (WDR3), acting with multidisciplinary teams on: Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB), Observations from Under-Represented Sensors (OURS), Unsolved Problems in Hydrology (UPH), linking WDR3 to social memory and citizen science through the Socio-Hydrological Observatory for Water Security (SHOWS). His interests focus on empirical, numerical and hybrid approaches to water-social inequalities, co-evolution, patterns, feedbacks and paradoxes, with WDR3-SHOWS modules linked to: Sendai DRR, Paris COP21, IPCC, and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Doctor in Sciences with emphasis in Hydraulic and Sanitation Engineering, in the Department of Hydraulics and Sanitation at the University of São Paulo (USP), with a research internship abroad at Monash University – Australia, in the period 2019 – 2020. Master in Sciences with emphasis in Hydraulic Engineering and Sanitation at the University of São Paulo (USP). During this period have worked with urban drainage, Low Impact Development practices, water and river pollution and environmental services. Have an Environmental Engineering degree from the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU). Have completed the 3rd year of the engineer cycle (3ème année du cycle ingénieur) at the Ecole National Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes – France in 2012 – 2013. Experience in the area of planning, sustainable mobility, soil chemistry and water treatment (company internship – VEOLIA EAU).

Master in Agricultural Engineering. PhD student in Hydraulics and Sanitation at the University of São Paulo. Areas of expertise: sanitary engineering, water and environmental resources, water quality, climate change adaptation. Currently is developing an insurance model as an adaptation strategy to non-stationary quali-quantitative water scarcity faced by water utility companies.