Martin Parry is Visiting Professor at the Grantham Institute and Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. He was Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Impacts and Adaptation Assessment (Working Group II). Formerly he was Professor of Geography at the Universities of Oxford, University College London and Birmingham; and Professor of Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia. He has published about 140 scientific papers and 5 books on climate change impacts. His specific research interests are on climate change and agriculture.

Thomas E. Downing has a PhD in Geography from Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. He is Executive Director of the Oxford office of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Chairman of the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership. He was formerly Reader in Climate Policy in the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford, and has been science adviser to the United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme and International Development Committee in the House of Commons, MunichRe Foundation chair in social vulnerability with the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, and research fellow in the University of Birmingham and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Currently he is visiting professor at Oxford University in the School of Geography and Environment and in the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House.

Laban Ogallo is currently the Director of a regional Intergovernmental climate risk reduction centre in the Greater Horn of Africa known as IGAD Regional Climate Prediction and Application centre for IGAD (ICPAC).

Atiq Rahman is Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, a leading think-tank in South Asia.

He is a visiting Professor of International Diplomacy and Sustainable Development at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston, USA, and Chairman of Climate Action Network South Asia. He is also the Bangladesh Focal Point of South Asian Poverty Commission follow-up actions and the current Chairperson of International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Bangladesh.

Atiq Rahman received the UNEP Champion of the Earth 2008 award for Asia and the Pacific for his national and international experience in sustainable development, and environment and resource management. He also received the Paribesh Padak 2008 award from the Government of Bangladesh.

Atiq Rahman was a lead author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

Prof. Amadou Thierno Gaye is the Head of LPAO-SF since 2002. He graduated in Physics at the University Paris XII in 1990 and earned his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Physics at UCAD in 1994. In 2002 he obtained his Doctorat d’Etat that is equivalent to the French “Habilitation”. Dr Gaye has published many papers, among which are some on results using RCMs and has supervised many BSc, MSc, and Ph. D. theses LPAO-SF. He is/was a member or principal investigator (PI) of many international organisations, projects, and initiatives regarding climate change, climate risk assessment and water resources. The most noteworthy are: Lead Author in the WG1 of the 4th IPCC Assessment Report; Member of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP)/GEWEX Science Steering Group; Co-Chair of the African Committee (CSAM) of AMMA, Member of the AMMA International Science Steering Committee (ISCC), and Member of Senegal National Climate Change Committee, PI of AIACC /START/UNDP/TWAS (AF 20 Project) “Assessing Regional and Global Climate Change scenarios for West Africa, and coordinator and expert of CCAA/IDRC training workshop in Integrated Climate Risk Assessment (ICRA).

Jürgen Lefevere is Policy Coordinator-International Climate Change at the Environment Directorate-General of the European Commission in Brussels, coordinating the Commission’s input in international climate change negotiations as well as relations with third countries. Prior to joining the Commission in 2003, Jürgen worked at the London-based Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development. He was also Policy Coordinator-International Climate Negotiations (UN climate negotiations). From 1993 to 1998 Jürgen was a research associate on EU environmental policy at Maastricht University.

Jürgen has a law degree from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, with specialization in Dutch Administrative Law and European Law and Languages (1998). He regularly lectures on EU and international environmental law at a number of universities, including London, Leuven, Amsterdam and Florence.

Jürgen’s particular interests are climate change, environmental law, international law, international negotiations, european law and policy.

Dr Tara Shine works on environmental issues in developing countries – ranging from community-based approaches to national level policy and planning. She specialises in adaptation to climate change and its impacts on poverty reduction and development cooperation. She also has expertise in natural resource management, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity conservation and development processes. With over 12 year’s experience in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, Dr Shine acts as an adviser to European Governments, the World Bank, the OECD and the United Nations.
Tara Shine has been advising Irish Aid on environmental sustainability since 2003 – with a focus on environment and climate change mainstreaming. She is a regular member of the Irish delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and an active member of the EU Expert Group in Adaptation. Dr Shine has presented several TV documentaries including ‘Lost Crocodiles of the Pharaohs’ and ‘Expedition Borneo’ for the BBC.