Uncertainty, Transparency and Robustness in Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling and Assessments Webinar

Sondoss Elsawah is an Associate Professor of Systems Engineering and Information Technology, and the Director of the Capability Systems Centre at University of New South Wales. Her research program focuses on understanding the behavior of large complex problems and systemic risks that arise from the interactions between social, technological, and environmental systems. She is an expert on the application of systems thinking and system modeling methodologies to support decision making and education. Building on her academic achievements, Sondoss been recognized as a thought leader in her scientific fields in Australia and internationally. For example, she is the Vice President of the Australian Society of Operations Research (ASOR) and was elected a distinguished Fellow of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand (MSSANZ). Sondoss is a senior editor of the Journal of Environmental Modelling and Software (A*) and the journal of Group Decision and Negotiation (A*).

Dr. Jan Bakkes specializes in assessing and processing environmental information for decision-making. He is vice president of The Integrated Assessment Society and past senior project leader for PBL, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Since 2010, he has been assisting the China Council for International Collaboration on Environment and Development as a member of high-level Task Forces and Policy Studies. He has worked with the OECD and the World Bank and was associated with UNEP (Nairobi) for a long period. He has helped these organizations kick-start broad-based assessments and future outlooks, such as the OECD Environmental Outlook. He fulfilled key roles in a range of science-policy interface projects for the European Commission and other EU organizations, such as Cost of Policy Inaction; Beyond GDP; and EU Resource Efficiency in a Global Context.

Dr. Andrea Saltelli is with the Open Evidence Research, Open University of Catalonia where his research focuses on sensitivity analysis of model output, a discipline where statistical tools are used to interpret the output from mathematical or computational models, and on sensitivity auditing, an extension of sensitivity analysis to the entire evidence-generating process in a policy context. He led a European Commission unit of econometrics and applied statistics between 2005 and 2015 and was adjunct professor at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT) - University of Bergen (UIB) from 2016 to 2020. His most recent papers have tackled sensitivity analysis and auditing, the ecological footprint, the future of statistics, the rational of evidence-based policy, the crisis of science, and the post-truth discussion. 

Veronica Gaffey is Chair of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board of the European Commission and has over 20 years experience within the Commission, including directing the Budget and General Affairs as well as Innovative Actions units within the Directorate-General  Regional and Urban Policy. The Board provides quality control and support for impact assessments and evaluations of the Commission at early stages in the legislative process. It also reviews and issues its views and recommendations on all the Commission's draft impact assessments, fitness checks, and major evaluations of existing legislation. 

Arthur Petersen is Professor of Science, Technology and Public Policy in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London (UCL). He specializes in the philosophy of science, international relations (science diplomacy and soft power), science & religion, and philosophy of culture. Most of his research is focused on dealing with uncertainty. Prior to joining UCL in 2014, he spent more than 13 years as scientific adviser on environment and infrastructure policy within the Dutch Government and as Chief Scientist of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency PBL (2011–2014). Professor Petersen is editor-in-chief of Zygon, Journal of Religion and Science.