IASS Announces 2020 Fellows

One of the founding ideas of the IASS was to bring together multiple sources of ingenuity to address the sustainability challenges of our time. The institute’s Fellow Programme aims to serve as a knowledge hub by providing a constant inflow of new ideas and experiences and an open space for thinking outside the box. The fellows gain a lot from their interaction and cooperation with the institute’s staff and other organisations in the region and take new insights with them as they continue on their career paths.

Fellows come from all walks of life and many different countries, and the IASS actively encourages people from outside scientific organisations to contact us if they are interested in participating in the Fellow Programme. The 2020 Fellow group comprises 17 men and 17 women from 15 different countries. The spectrum of professional backgrounds is also wide, ranging from academics from universities such as Berkeley and Toronto, members of civil society organisations like the Climate Observatory and Mehr Demokratie e.V., as well as employees of governmental agencies such as the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). In addition, were are proud to host several externally funded Fellows, including scholars funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo.

Two Fellows – Kat Austen and Sybille Neumeyer – were recruited as a result of a special call for applications from the arts and culture issued for the first time in 2019. We also look forward to recruiting our second Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow this year.

The following is a list of the new Fellows who have recently joined or will join the IASS in 2020, with information on their current or most recent institution and their research topic:

• Dr Kat Austen, Independent Artist, Germany
  This Land is not Mine.
• Dr Cynthia Browne, Harvard University, USA
  A Matter of Landscape: Tracing the Material Legacies of Mining in the Lausitz
• Dr Gabriel Dorthe, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
  The Curse of Absent Objects: Epistemic, Political and Ecological Explorations of the Transhumanist Movement by an Embedded Researcher    
• Roman Huber, Mehr Demokratie e.V., Germany
  2020 Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change    
• Marek Jaskólski, University of Wroclaw, Poland
  In search for sustainable development of Arctic coastal communities - Study of Expanding Settlements in Cold Regions, under Rapidly Changing Climate    
• Parul Kumar, World Resources Institute, India
  Managing India's Plastic Waste: Lessons from Germany    
• Prof. Bettina von Lieres, University of Toronto, Canada
  Sustaining Informal Democratic Innovations in a Global Climate of Democratic Erosion, Rapid Urbanisation and Contestation over Natural Resources: Lessons from the Global South    
• Dr Flavio Lira, Federal University of the Pampas, Brazil
  The Impact of Jair Bolsonaro’s Presidency on Brazil's Energy Relations with Germany, the US and China    
• Dr Shuhua Monica Liu, Generalization Consulting, USA
  Systemic Risk Modeling through a System of Systems Lens Employing Open Data    
• Dr David Maggs, Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Canada
  Reconfiguring the Role of Cultural Practices in Sustainability    
• Karina Marzano, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Brazil
  Beyond the state: the effects of private climate governance on renewable energy supply chains in developing countries    
• Prof. Jonas Meckling, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  The Politics of Innovation: The Durability and Growth of Low-Carbon RD&D Policy    
• Artur Monteiro, Fundação Vitória Amazônica, Brazil
  Working on Rainforest Protection through Global Funding
• Sybille Neumeyer, Independent Artist, Germany
  Anthropocene & Health
• Minh Anh Nguyen, Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit, Vietnam
  Assessing the Transformational Change Impacts of Energy Mitigation Options within a National Determined Contribution of Vietnam
• Dr Carlos Rittl, Climate Observatory, Brazil
  Conditions to Hold the Government of Brazil Accountable to EU-Mercosur Sustainable Development Standards
• Dr Claudia Schmitt, University of Hamburg, Germany
  Whole Institution Approaches for Sustainable Development at Universities across Europe: Co-create, Align, Synergize
• Prof Shree Raj Shakya, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
  Clean Air Development Assessments and Initiatives for South Asian Countries
• Dr Steven Williams, University of British Columbia, Canada
  Choice in Complexity: Decision making and assessment in transdisciplinary transformative sustainability research

For further information on the IASS Fellow Programme, please see here. For information on all current Fellows at the IASS, please see here. Information on current and upcoming calls for applications can be obtained here.

For inquiries or if you would like to get in touch with any of the new Fellows, please email fellowship [at] iass-potsdam [dot] de.