03:00 EDT
Plenary 1
Virtual Speakers 
Arts Co-Director, The Nature of Cities
An ecological artist and urbanist based in Korea, Patrick helps re-discover our role as ecological beings through story, film, illustration, and community-centered landscape interventions. Together with Suhee Kang, he founded the creative urban ecology studio called
City as Natu...
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Professor, University of Cape Town
Pippin Anderson, a lecturer at the University of Cape Town, is an African urban ecologist who enjoys the untidiness of cities where society and nature must thrive together.
Artist
Marta Delas is a Spanish architect, illustrator, and videomaker. Concerned about urban planning and identity, her artwork engages with local projects and initiatives, giving support to neighbourhood networks. She has been involved in many community building art projects in Madrid...
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Director, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Prof. Johannes Vogel, Ph.D. (Cantab.)Director General, Museum für Naturkunde BerlinProfessor of Biodiversity and Public Science, Humboldt University, BerlinTasksLeadership of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlinstrategy(inter-)national partnershipsadvocacy and science policyTrack recordstrengthening...
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Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s Asian School of the Environment
Perrine Hamel is Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s Asian School of the Environment. Her research and teaching focuses on urban ecosystem services, ecosystem-based management, and water resource management. Prior to joining NTU, she was a senior scientist...
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Project Manager/ Green Space Planning Unit, City of Munich
Alice Reil (she/her) is an urban geographer who strives to bring more biodiverse, urban nature into public spaces. She led the biodiversity and nature-based solutions team at ICLEI Europe, a global city network, and now works at the City of Munich’s green space planning unit.
Monday April 15, 2024 03:00 - 04:30 EDT
Virtual
09:00 EDT
Plenary 2
Virtual Speakers 
Professor, PUC-Rio
Cecilia Polacow Herzog is an urban landscape planner. She is adjunct Professor at the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, where she is the Chair of the master’s degree on Ecological Landscape Planning and Design. Cecilia...
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Senior Expert for Nature-based Solutions, ICLEI Europe
Senior Expert on Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions. Architect and Urban Planner (University of São Paulo) with a doctoral degree in Landscape Planning (Technical University of Munich). Licensed by the Brazilian Council of Architecture and Urbanism. UNEP GEO-7 Expert Peer Reviewer...
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Director, Greenpop Foundation
Misha Teasdale (Born 1982) is a South African-born environment and social change activist who is the current director of the Greenpop Foundation. Teasdale co-founded the foundation in 2010 with a group of friends, Greenpop is a tree planting organization on a mission to restore degraded...
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Drinkable Rivers
Li An works towards a world with drinkable rivers and founded the charity Drinkable Rivers to raise awareness and to weave this with mobilising people for action. She organises river walks, citizen science and action communities, like Mayors for Drinkable Rivers. Li A walked over...
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Director of the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield
Beth is Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield and is committed to learning how we can put knowledge into action to realise more just urban futures. She has worked with partners around the world to develop collaborative and imaginative methodologies that bring...
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Policy Officer, European Commission
Paola Lepori is a Policy Officer for Nature-based Solutions at the European Commission, DG Research & Innovation. Her core professional objective is building alliances to trigger transformative change towards an inclusive nature-positive future. Before joining the Biodiversity and...
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Artist
I am an artist working in the mediums of (subterranean) sound and visuals. I work on long term collaborative projects often in the Arctic. My work focuses on environmental issues and connection to place.
Tuesday April 16, 2024 09:00 - 10:30 EDT
Virtual
15:00 EDT
Plenary 3
Virtual Speakers 
Co-founder and co-director of the Colombian collective Arquitectura Expandida, Arquitectura Expandida collective
Ana Lopez Ortego is an architect and PhD in territorial history. She is co-founder and co-director of the Colombian collective Arquitectura Expandida, which works, since 2010, exploring experimental urban governance processes at the intersection between art, activism, grassroots and...
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Director de Hábitat y Movilidad Sostenible,, CAF-banco de desarrollo de América Latina
Arquitecto por la Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, República Dominicana, y Máster Europeo en Urbanismo por la Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya, España. En 2010 obtuvo la Hubert Humphrey Fellowship (Fullbright) que le permite certificarse en el programa SPURS del...
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Professor of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida
Dr. Mark Hostetler conducts research and outreach on how urban landscapes could be designed and managed to conserve biodiversity. He works with a variety of students to research ways to conserve biodiversity in urban areas. He also works with many developers in Florida on ways to...
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Intendenta de General Roca, Argentina, Intendenta de General Roca, Argentina
Director, Research and Engagement, Tree Canada
Art therapist and performing artist
Of Versatile praxis, Tamara is a mental health professional, an horticultural therapist and an art therapist, using creative writing and visual arts as primary media. Formerly at NYU Langone Hospital in NYC and at the Parisian psychiatric hospital Sainte Anne, she continues to work...
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Wednesday April 17, 2024 15:00 - 16:30 EDT
Virtual
21:00 EDT
Plenary 4
Virtual Speakers 
Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, University of Virginia
Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities University of Virginia School of Architecture Charlottesville, VA USA Tim Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, at the University of Virginia, where...
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Professor Geography - Liberal Arts & Sciences, Portland State University
Professor Vivek Shandas specializes in integrating the science of sustainability to citizen engagement and decision making efforts. He evaluates the many critical functions provided by the biophysical ecosystems upon which we depend, including purifying water, producing food, cleaning...
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Associated Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Tongji University
Researcher, TU Delft), TU Delft & Tongji University
https://ruralfootprints.bloghttp://www.urbanlanguage.org
Assistant Professor, China University of Mining and Technology
Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Harbin Institute of Technology
Thursday April 18, 2024 21:00 - 22:30 EDT
Virtual
03:00 EDT
Plenary 5
Virtual Speakers 
Landscape Architect, Grant Associates
Andrew is a Landscape Architect whose work explores the connection between people and nature. He started his company, Grant Associates, in 1997 which has grown into an international design studio with offices in Bath and Singapore. He uses creative ecological design thinking to find...
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Poet, Trinity College Dublin
Dimitra Xidous is a Research Fellow in TrinityHaus, a research centre in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Engineering that focuses on co-creation and the intersection between the built environment, health, wellbeing inclusion, climate action and sustainability (https://www.tcd.ie/trinityhaus...
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Global Head of Nature-based Solutions Centre, IUCN
Charles Karangwa is the Global Head of Nature-based Solutions Centre at IUCN. He was recently appointed to advise Her Excellency Razan Mubarak, IUCN President and COP28 High Level Climate Champion on Matters related to Nature-based Solutions.Before joining IUCN Head Quarter in Switzerland...
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Professor, TUM School of Engineering and Design
Professor Ludwig’s research is focused on architectural concepts in which plants play a central role. Integrating plants – both functionally and creatively – into construction designs not only provides answers to some of today’s most pressing ecological issues, such as the...
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Scientist, Museum of Natural History, Berlin
Dr Kim Mortega is a scientist at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Her interdisciplinary work focusses on research, environmental education and science communication for biodiversity. The current project ‘Understanding biodiversity – explore and experience nature’ (Vielfalt...
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Arts Co-Director, The Nature of Cities
Hello, I am an artist based in Paris and art curator at The Nature of Cities. I am passionate by all the cultural ways that strengthen our relationships with each other as humans across variety of cultures and practices, as well as with wide diversity of non-human life forms, especially...
Read More →
Arts Co-Director, The Nature of Cities
An ecological artist and urbanist based in Korea, Patrick helps re-discover our role as ecological beings through story, film, illustration, and community-centered landscape interventions. Together with Suhee Kang, he founded the creative urban ecology studio called
City as Natu...
Read More →
Friday April 19, 2024 03:00 - 04:30 EDT
Virtual
15:00 EDT
Plenary 6
Virtual Speakers 
Professor, Stockholm Resilience Centre
Thomas Elmqvist is a professor in Natural Resource Management at Stockholm University and Theme Leader at the
Stockholm Resilience Center. His research is on ecosystem services, land use change, natural disturbances and components of resilience including the role of social institutions...
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Director of Future in Nature, VEAC council member, NATURA Oceania node co-leader, future in nature pty ltd
I weave together work at the science-policy-art interface doing research (mostly urban) on social ecological systems, advising on and contributing to nature-related policy and programs from global to local levels, and using experimental music to highlight the diverse perspectives...
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Tuesday April 23, 2024 15:00 - 16:30 EDT
Virtual
03:00 EDT
Plenary 7
Virtual Speakers 
Steering Board Member (Urban Adaptability), ITA Committee on Underground Spaces
Mahak Agrawal is an urban planner, climate science and sustainability expert, global thought leader and LinkedIn Top (Green) Voice, and former United Nations fellow. As a Shardashish Scholar and Environmental Fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs...
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Glasgow City Council
Gillian is the Manager of Spatial Planning – Research & Development team within the Development Plan Group at Glasgow City Council. She has a BSc (Hons) in Town Planning from Heriot-Watt University and BSc (Hons) in Human Geography from the Open University. She is a chartered member...
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Professor in Digital Landscape Ecology, Leibniz-Universität Hannover
EU Urban Nature Policy, European Commission
Benjamin Caspar is in charge of Urban Nature Policy at the European Commission. He has previously worked on developing sustainable food and food waste reduction policy. Ben joined the European Commission in 2002 to work on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. He then moved on...
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Vice-President at EFB, European Federation of Green Roof Associations
Vera Enzi-Zechner Enzi holds an MSc in Landscape Planning and Landscape Architecture with a strong focus on water-sensitive design, biodiversity, and vegetation engineering on and in buildings and infrastructures. With a career spanning over a decade, she has been a key figure in urban green infra...
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Founder & CEO @BIOTONOMY, BIOTONOMY
Moeins passion for the natural world & architecture goes all the way back to his childhood. His admiration & curiosity for ancient architecture led him to study International Architectural Engineering.After working on some of the largest construction projects in the world, he quickly...
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CEO, Helix Pflanzensysteme GmbH
artist: videographer and researcher,
iki nakagawa is an artist who practices videography as a means of witnessing, embodying, processing, and transporting ideas, actions and situations in which they thrive. She has been working as a professional archival videographer, and currently documenting stewardship actions around...
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Thursday April 25, 2024 03:00 - 04:45 EDT
Virtual
09:00 EDT
Plenary 8
Virtual Speakers 
Research Social Scientist, USDA Forest Service
My research explores the dynamics of civic stewardship, environmental governance, and sustainability policymaking--with a particular emphasis on issues of social and environmental justice. I create transdisciplinary spaces of collaboration between land managers, scientists, artists...
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Executive Director, CR-Network Ghana
Administrator, development communication specialist, environmental activist and sustainable development advocate with over 20 years of working experience, based in Accra, Ghana.
President, CEO, Canadian Urban Institute
Mary is President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute (www.canurb.org). Animpassioned civic leader with diverse experience in the business, government, not-for-profitand philanthropy sectors in Canada and the US for over 30 years, Mary has been a steadyadvocate and champion for...
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Principal, Arquitectura y Paisaje - Fundación Cerros de Bogotá
Delicate activist at Cerros de Bogotá (www.cerrosdebogota.org), urban ecology designer, Pablo and Gabriela´s mother. Goat cheese producer. Love to dance salsa.Bogotá-based activist, a leader in socio-ecological issues, architect, and designer renowned for her designs in urban...
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Director of Catalytic Communities
Theresa Williamson, Ph.D. is a city planner, community organizer, environmentalist and founding executive director of Catalytic Communities, an award-winning NGO providing strategic support to Rio de Janeiro’s favelas since 2000. She is an advocate for the recognition of favelas...
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Professor of Development Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London
David Simon is Professor of Development Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published extensively on many dimensions of urbanisation and urbanism, the development-environment interface, and the interrelationships between theory, policy and practice. From 2014-19...
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Artist & Educator, The Black Studies Podcast
I am a Black visual artist with a practice combining drawing, installation, printmaking, costume, storytelling, performance and micro-activism. My projects explore and celebrate the ways in which people decipher experience, belonging, create and maintain culture and senses of self...
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Friday April 26, 2024 09:00 - 10:30 EDT
Virtual
03:00 EDT
Berlin Plenary 1
Berlin (in person) Speakers 
State Secretary Climate and Environmental Protection, Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, City of Berlin
Britta Behrendt has been State Secretary at the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate and Environmental Protection since 2023 and is responsible for climate and environmental protection. Her work focusses on a wider range of topics such biodiversity, species protection...
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Senior Expert for Nature-based Solutions, ICLEI Europe
Senior Expert on Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions. Architect and Urban Planner (University of São Paulo) with a doctoral degree in Landscape Planning (Technical University of Munich). Licensed by the Brazilian Council of Architecture and Urbanism. UNEP GEO-7 Expert Peer Reviewer...
Read More →
Scientist, Museum of Natural History, Berlin
Dr Kim Mortega is a scientist at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Her interdisciplinary work focusses on research, environmental education and science communication for biodiversity. The current project ‘Understanding biodiversity – explore and experience nature’ (Vielfalt...
Read More → 
Wageningen University & Research
Marthe Derkzen is a researcher and lecturer with the Health and Society group of Wageningen University & Research. She studies urban nature from a social justice perspective with an interest in participatory greening, climate adaptation, local food, healthy neighborhoods and stewardship...
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Director of Catalytic Communities
Theresa Williamson, Ph.D. is a city planner, community organizer, environmentalist and founding executive director of Catalytic Communities, an award-winning NGO providing strategic support to Rio de Janeiro’s favelas since 2000. She is an advocate for the recognition of favelas...
Read More →
Arts Co-Director, The Nature of Cities
Hello, I am an artist based in Paris and art curator at The Nature of Cities. I am passionate by all the cultural ways that strengthen our relationships with each other as humans across variety of cultures and practices, as well as with wide diversity of non-human life forms, especially...
Read More →
05:00 EDT
Berlin Plenary 2
Berlin (in person) Speakers
Co-founder and co-director of the Colombian collective Arquitectura Expandida, Arquitectura Expandida collective
Ana Lopez Ortego is an architect and PhD in territorial history. She is co-founder and co-director of the Colombian collective Arquitectura Expandida, which works, since 2010, exploring experimental urban governance processes at the intersection between art, activism, grassroots and...
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GenderWise
Ania (they/them) is a queer and trans performer, theatre maker, teaching artist and award-winning clown. A graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre (Professional Training Program), Ania’s recent work celebrates LGBTQIA+ artists with a focus on gender...
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Professor, TUM School of Engineering and Design
Professor Ludwig’s research is focused on architectural concepts in which plants play a central role. Integrating plants – both functionally and creatively – into construction designs not only provides answers to some of today’s most pressing ecological issues, such as the...
Read More → 
Public Health Medicine Physician from Aotearoa New Zealand
Dr Neil de Wet is a Public Health Medicine Physician from Aotearoa New Zealand. He has a medical,environmental, and public health career spanning 30 years of practice and is currently the MedicalOfficer of Health for the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island. With...
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