Speakers

Professor Burch is uncovering the pathways cities follow as they shift towards more resilient, low-carbon futures. She is the head of the Sustainability Policy Research on Urban Transformation (SPROUT) lab, director of the international partnership-based research project TRANSFORM, and a Lead Author with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Angela Carter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Balsillie School of International Affairs Fellow.

Dr. Claudio Cañizares is a University Professor, Hydro One Chair, and the WISE Executive Director at the University of Waterloo, where he has been since 1993.  His highly-cited research focuses on modeling, simulation, computation, stability, control, and optimization of power and energy systems.  He is the IEEE Trans. Smart Gird EIC; Director of the IEEE and PES Boards; a Fellow of the IEEE, the Royal Society of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering; and has received the 2017 IEEE PES Outstanding Educator Award, the 2016 IEEE Canada Electric Power Medal, and multiple awards and recognitions from PES technical committees.

Eric Croiset, a Professor at the University of Waterloo and the former Chair of the Chemical Engineering Department.

Susan Elliott is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management and University Research Chair in Medical Geography at the University of Waterloo.

Monica Emelko is the Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology & Policy, and Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where she is also the Associate Director of Climate Risk, Resilience, and Adaptation at the Waterloo Climate Institute. Her research is focused on drinking water treatment and risk analysis for public health protection and has informed water regulations globally including the U.S. Surface Water Treatment Rules and their international equivalents. Monica is the Scientific Director of the forWater NSERC Strategic Network & co-leads the Southern Rockies Watershed Project. Monica and her research group have investigated the effects of climate-exacerbated land disturbances on hydrology, water quality, ecology, and treatability for over 18 years. They were the first globally to be cited by the IPCC for identifying climate change-associated threats to drinking security through water quality and treatability.

Komal is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED).

Nadine Ibrahim is a Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and holds the Turkstra Chair in Urban Engineering. She comes from a cross-section of industry and academia in the areas of urban infrastructure, sustainable cities, and sustainable development, in addition to engineering education scholarship and pedagogy. She has taken an interdisciplinary approach to her education and career. Transcending the boundaries of Civil Engineering, she combines environmental engineering, and incorporates non-engineering fields including architecture, economics and governance.

Kelsey Leonard is a water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, writer, and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation. Her work focuses on Indigenous water justice and its climatic, territorial, and governance underpinnings for our shared sustainable future. She represents the Shinnecock Nation on the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean, which is charged with protecting America's ocean ecosystems and coastlines. She also serves as a member of the Great Lakes Water Quality Board of the International Joint Commission. She has been instrumental in safeguarding the interests of Indigenous Nations for environmental planning, and builds Indigenous science and knowledge into new solutions for sustainable water and ocean governance.

Dr. Jennifer Lynes is an associate professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED). She is Chair of the non-profit organization Residential Energy Efficiency Program (REEP Green Solutions) and co-founder of the North American Sustainable Concerts Working Group. With an educational background in both marketing and environmental studies, her expertise intersects business and the environment, where she focuses on investigating the marketing of sustainability. Her key research interests include social and community-based green marketing, residential energy conservation behaviour and engaging youth in environmental issues.

Dr. Rebecca K. Saari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Saari studies the consequences of climate change and climate policy on human health and environmental inequality. She has 11 years of post-graduate experience in air pollution and air quality modelling at the University of Toronto (2), AECOM (3), Environment and Climate Change Canada (1), and MIT (5). As a professional air quality engineer in Ontario, she completed projects in seven Canadian provinces and territories. Dr. Saari has employed economic models, emissions models, atmospheric chemical transport models, and health response models to assess the costs and co-benefits of climate policy, energy policy, and transportation policy. She has been invited to speak at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, Carleton University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Washington. Her work has been published in Nature Climate Change, and covered in over 16 news outlets including CBC, NBC, and the New York Times. She directly informs policy through invited presentations to state-level policymakers and the U.S. EPA Climate Change Division, and she was cited in an amicus brief submitted by leading climate scientists to the D.C. Circuit Court evaluation of the U.S. Clean Power Plan – the Obama Administration's centrepiece climate policy.

Professor Kelly Skinner is the CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in healthy environments for climate change and food security in northern Canada. Professor Skinner's main research focuses on community-based health and social projects related to food, nutrition, food security, and the broader context of food systems and environments. This research has primarily been with people living in northern locations in Canada and more recently with Indigenous organizations located in urban settings. This work has involved dietary assessment with youth, program evaluation, and community development and has, in the past several years, begun to move towards social justice and social policy for improving food security and advocacy for food sovereignty.

Professor Thistlethwaite's research focuses on innovative strategies designed to reduce the economic impacts of extreme weather and climate change. He explores the role of insurance and government risk-transfer in promoting climate change adaptation and reducing economic vulnerability. To inform this work, he has worked directly with business and government leaders in the insurance, banking, real estate, building, and investment industries. Professor Thistlethwaite is also a frequent speaker, media contributor on Canada’s growing vulnerability to extreme weather, and a self-described “weather geek."

Dr. Van Cappellen’s research combines detailed micro- and mesocosm studies with field observations and theoretical modeling to better understand and predict how natural processes and human activity control water quality and the environmental flows of nutrients and contaminants from the local to global scale. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Geochemical Society, and the President of the International Society of Environmental Biogeochemistry. He received his BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Brussels, and his PhD from Yale University. He was a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States and Utrecht University in The Netherlands, before joining the University of Waterloo in 2011 as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ecohydrology.