Who are the members of the prize advisory board? 

Advisory board

Acting as a sounding board for the prize, the advisory board helps direct the medium and long-term direction, and strategy of the Frontiers Planet Prize.

Jakob
Lundberg

Deputy Director

  • Jakob Lundberg, Ph.D., is an expert in sustainability science with extensive experience working at the intersection of science and policy, particularly in food systems and global sustainability. He is the Deputy Director of the Future Earth Global Hub Sweden, part of the world’s largest network of sustainability scientists, and holds a doctorate in Natural Resource Management from Stockholm University.

    Jakob has conducted research on urban sustainability and environmental change at Stockholm University and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. He previously headed the Nordic Office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and has led policy and development work for We Effect and Vi Agroforestry. He also served as Head of Prize for the Food Planet Prize, a global initiative recognizing innovative solutions for sustainable food systems.

    Jakob is Chairman of Albaeco, an organization translating complex sustainability science into strategic insights and communication for the public and private sectors. He has served on several boards of Swedish and international organizations and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ Environment and Energy Committee as well as a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.

Peter
Gluckman

President

  • Peter Gluckman is an internationally recognized biomedical scientist, and currently heads Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland. From 2009-2018 he was first Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and from 2012-2018 Science Envoy for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was foundation chair of the International Network of Government Science Advice (INGSA) from 2014-2021. He trained as a pediatrician and biomedical scientist, publishing over 700 papers and several academic and popular books in animal science, developmental physiology, growth and development and evolutionary biology and evolutionary medicine.

    A key theme of his research has been on understanding how a baby’s environment between conception and birth determines its childhood development and life-long health – and the impact that this knowledge has for individuals and whole populations. He co-chaired the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (2013-2017). He is chief scientific officer of the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences. Peter Gluckman has written and spoken extensively on science-policy, risk assessment, science-diplomacy, and science-society interactions. In 2016 he received the AAAS award in Science Diplomacy. He has received the highest civilian and scientific honours in New Zealand.

    He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, of the Royal Society of New Zealand a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (USA). He holds a Distinguished University Professorship in the University of Auckland, New Zealand and honorary chairs at the University College London, University of Southampton and National University of Singapore.

Lee
Howell

Executive Director

  • Lee Howell is the founding Executive Director of the Villars Institute, a Swiss

    nonprofit foundation dedicated to accelerating the transition to a net zero and nature positive economy by promoting systems leadership and intergenerational collaboration. He is also a Titular Professor at the University of Geneva’s School of Economics and Management (GSEM), where he created their courses on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Disruptive Technologies for undergraduate, masters, and executive MBA students.

    Lee was previously the Managing Director at the World Economic Forum (WEF) responsible for the editorial and operational leadership of the Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland from 2009 until 2021. As head of global programming, he was also responsible for the design and development of the Annual Meeting of New Champions in China, the Sustainable Development Impact Summit in the United States, and the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils in the United Arab Emirates. Lee was also the Senior Director for Asia (2004-2009) and Editor-in-Chief of the WEF’s Global Risk Report (2012-2013).Prior to joining the WEF, Lee worked on global issues at the United States Agency for

    International Development (USAID), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Japan Society of New York, and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Lee currently serves on the Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate (IB), an international foundation providing educational programs, including the IB Diploma, to more than 1.95 million students aged 3 to 19 across over 5,600 schools in 159 countries.

    He also serves on the advisory board of the Global Learning Council, which focuses on the effective use of technology for systems-level solutions to improve learning outcomes for people of all ages and backgrounds. Lee is on the Board of Trustees of the EAT Foundation, a science-based global platform for food system transformation that supported the seminal research published by the EAT-Lancet Commission which introduced the concept of a Planetary Health Diet.

Sybil
Seitzinger

Professor

  • Sybil Seitzinger is an interdisciplinary Earth system scientist and organizational leader. Most recently she was the Executive Director of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (2015-2022), a multi-university collaboration where she led the development and implementation of a transdisciplinary research approach, engaging research partners with government and private sector partners to co-design, co-develop and co-deliver impactful climate solutions for British Columbia, Canada, and beyond. Previously she was the Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere programme (IGBP), based in Stockholm, Sweden which brought together a network of researchers from across Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe to foster international collaborative research and synthesis on global change (2008-2015). Dr. Seitzinger was Director of the Rutgers/NOAA Cooperative Marine Education and Research Program (1994-2008) and Visiting Professor in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University; during that time she also worked at UNESCO for one year.

    Dr. Seitzinger holds a PhD in biological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island and an honorary doctorate from Utrecht University, The Netherlands. She is Professor Emerita in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada. Dr. Seitzinger is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and chair-elect of the College of Fellows, and a past-President of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. She serves on the International Sustainability Advisory Board of Utrecht University, and on the Steering Committee of the UN Global Climate Observing System working to advance use of global observations for climate change adaptation. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Climate Institute which helps shape evidence-based public policies to advance a net-zero future and adaptation to climate change.

    Professor Seitzinger is highly cited, with more than 130 peer-reviewed publications to her credit. Her research has centered on nutrient biogeochemistry in coastal marine and freshwater ecosystems, spanning a range of spatial scales from molecular level organic chemical characterization to models at global scales, with the impact of human activities being a common theme. Through an international collaboration, she led the development of a spatially explicit, multi-nutrient, watershed model, Global NEWS, which has been applied to watersheds globally under a range of policy and development scenarios. She has also dabbled in atmospheric chemistry, including aqueous phase secondary organic aerosol formation. She received the A.C. Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (2020), the President’s Distinguished Achievement award from the University of Rhode Island (2011), and the Certificate of Special US Congressional Recognition (2011).

Lise
Korsten

Former President

Chairman of African Planet Prize

  • Professor Korsten is the Co-Director of the Department of Science and Innovation, Centre of Excellence in Food Security. She is also responsible for the food safety and regulatory control programmes within the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security and actively interacts with other researchers in various institutes. She holds the position of chair in the Global Task Force of Food Security for the International Society for Plant Pathology. Prof Korsten has addressed the South African Parliament on Food Safety Control and has developed a national framework for government to develop a Food Control Authority.

    She has been able to attract extensive national and international long term funding such as the Water Research Commission solicited research projects “Measurement of water pollution determining the sources and changes of microbial contamination and impact on food safety from farming to retail level for fresh vegetables”, “An investigation into the link between water quality and microbiological safety of fruit and vegetables from the farming to the processing stages of production and marketing” and “Evaluation of the risks associated with the use of rain water harvested from roof-tops for domestic use and homestead food gardens, and groundwater for domestic use and livestock watering”, as well as the 7th EU Framework project “Impact of climate change andglobalisation on safety of fresh produce - governing a supply chain of uncompromised food sovereignty.

    Prof Korsten developed South Africa's first biocontrol agent for fruit and established a biocontrol research group at the University of Pretoria (1992). She has also established a fresh produce health group that focusses on food safety of fresh produce and on Sanitary and Phytosanitary aspects related to international trade.

    Prof Korsten has focussed her research mainly on the complementary fields of postharvest technology and food safety as related to international trade in fresh produce. As a team the Plant Health and Safety research group has been able to develop several innovative technologies to reduce disease and prevent product contamination. The value of her research programmes (Produce Quality and Safety (PQS) and Postharvest Innovation Research) is best illustrated by sustained industry financial support, intensive student training and publications. Prof Korsten has established a core of researchers and support staff that has been with her for the past 20 years totally funded by the Industry. She has supervised 51 MSc students, 20 PhD students and 11 Postdocs.

Ian
Miller

Chief Science & Innovation Officer

  • As Chief Science and Innovation Officer at the National Geographic Society, Ian Miller oversees the Society’s scientific and conservation functions to ensure that science and conservation continues to be foundational to the organization’s programs for impact and illumination.

     

    Before joining the Society, Miller spent 15 years at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, most recently serving as the director of Earth and Space Sciences. During this time, he studied fossil plants, paleoclimate, paleoecology and tectonics, and co-led the Snowmastodon Project, which provided a new benchmark for understanding Pleistocene climate change in the American West.

    Throughout his academic career, Miller has conducted research across all seven continents and served as a lead scientist on major field expeditions in Madagascar and the western United States. He has authored scientific articles and books on paleobiology and geology, and continues to collaborate on research focused on the recovery of life following Earth’s last mass extinction. Beyond his scientific contributions, Miller has spearheaded museum initiatives designed to deepen public connection with the natural world and identify the emerging audience trends that are currently defining the future of museum experiences.

    Miller received his Ph.D. and master’s degree in geology and paleobotany from Yale University, and a B.A. in geology from Colorado College.