Maurizio Bona
Senior Advisor to the Director General of CERN for relations with international organizations, parliaments and scientific policy.

Maurizio Bona was born in Milan. He holds an engineering degree (1979) and a Doctor degree on material science (1983) from Politecnico di Milano. Starting in the mid-eighties he participated in the design and development phases of the LHC* superconducting magnets. He led the Technical Group (1998) and the Integrated Safety and Environment Group (2003) of the CERN Safety department. He then led the Safety department from June 2006 until the end of his mandate in December 2008.

From 2009 to end 2015 he was the Advisor to the Director-General, charged with relations with international organizations. He was instrumental to develop the CERN network of relations with other international organizations and to obtain the status of Observer for CERN in the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 2012. From January to September 2016 he served as the Head of Relations with international organization.

Frances Colón
Former Deputy Advisor for Science and Technology to the US Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Senior director for international climate affairs at the Center for American Progress.

Frances Colón is an American science diplomat and environmental policy expert most notably having served at the United States Department of State between September 2008 and January 2017. In her work, she promotes the integration of science and technology into foreign policy dialogues; global scientific engagement for capacity-building; the advancement of women in STEM; and the use of innovation as a tool for economic growth around the world.

Marga Gual
Founder of SciDipGLOBAL 

Dr. Marga Gual Soler  believes in the power of science to break down barriers and build bridges between peoples and nations. She works with governments, universities, NGOs and international organizations worldwide to connect scientists with policy and has trained thousands of emerging leaders to engage at the science-diplomacy nexus. Marga has a PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Queensland in Australia, a master’s from the University of Barcelona, and is an alumna of the Georgetown Global Competitiveness Leadership Program. In 2019 she will join an expedition to Antarctica to promote women in science diplomacy and climate leadership.

Arthur Holland
Associate Researcher, AI and Autonomy, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).

Arthur Holland Michel is a Peruvian-born writer and researcher. He currently serves as an associate researcher for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, where his work focuses on the military applications of artificial intelligence and autonomy, and as a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He has written about drones, surveillance, artificial intelligence, robots, and the arts for Wired, Vice, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic.com, The Verge, Fast Company, Motherboard, Al Jazeera America, Bookforum, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Mashable Spotlight, and an Oxford Research Encyclopedia, among other outlets. His first book, EYES IN THE SKY, about the rise of advanced aerial surveillance technology, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in June 2019. Arthur is a founder of the Center for the Study of the Drone, a research institute at Bard College in New York State where he served as co-director from 2012 to 2020.

Katharina Höne
Research Associate in AI in and for diplomacy at DiploFoundation.

Katharina E Höne is senior researcher and lecturer at the non-profit organisation DiploFoundation (diplomacy.edu). Over the last 3 years, she has focused her work on the intersection of diplomacy and technology, exploring the role of big data and artificial intelligence in and for diplomatic practice. She has more than 10 years of experience in teaching international relations at universities in the UK and Germany, and in delivering in-situ, blended, and online training to diplomatic practitioners. For inspiration and out-of-the-box thinking, she draws on her passion for science-fiction.

Maria Ivanova
International relations and environmental policy scholar.

Maria Ivanova is an international relations and environmental policy scholar. She was born and raised in Bulgaria and arrived in the United States in 1992 to attend Mount Holyoke College. She began studying international environmental policy as an undergraduate and continued in this field as a graduate student at Yale University. She pursued a joint master’s degree in International Relations and Environmental Management and then her PhD at Yale.

Maria is Associate Professor of Global Governance, Director of the Global Governance and Human Security PhD Program, and Director of the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her work focuses on the performance of international institutions, implementation of international environmental agreements, and sustainability. She has been studying the United Nations Environment Programme and her book, The Untold Story of the World’s Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty, was published by MIT Press in 2021. Her current work examines national performance on global environmental conventions, and she engages with countries in East Africa to inform policy.

Nasser Kamel
Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean.

A career diplomat for the Egyptian government, Nasser Kamel held the position of Ambassador of Egypt to the United Kingdom from 2014 to 2018. He was also Ambassador to France in the period 2006-2012, during which he took part in the drafting of the Joint Declaration of the 2008 Paris Summit that marked the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean. Furthermore, between 2012 and 2014, he was Assistant Minister for Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs. From 2004 to 2006, he was the Director of Egypt’s Public Information Service. Prior to this position he served in various embassies, including Washington (1984-1988), Lisbon (1990-1994), Tunis (1994-1998), Brussels (1999-2001) and Paris (2001-2004).

Ilona Kickbusch
Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.

Ilona Kickbusch is the Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. Before returning to Europe, she was head of the global health programme at Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States of America.

Professor Kickbusch has had a distinguished career with the World Health Organization, at both the regional and global levels, and was responsible for the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, a seminal document in public health. She developed the “settings” approach and initiated programmes such as Healthy Cities, health-promoting schools, healthy workplaces, health-promoting hospitals and health in prisons. She also initiated WHO’s Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study. She has contributed significantly to developing the concept of health literacy and most recently has spearheaded the field of global health diplomacy.

Robert Kissack
Head of Studies and Associate Professor, IBEI.

Robert Kissack is currently Head of Studies at IBEI, and he teaches at the EU Online Academy since 2009. 

He also occupied the position of LSE Fellow in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics, and before returning to academia worked for two years at the International Labour Organization in the London office. While completing his PhD at the LSE he was co-editor of influential IR journal Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Robert has published in Global Society and Millennium, as well as having forthcoming articles in the Journal of European Social Policy and Jan Orbie & Lisa Torrell (eds.) The European Union’s Role in the World and the Social Dimension of Globalisation (London: Routledge, 2008). He has also published in CFSP FORUM, and working papers for the LSE’s European Foreign Policy Unit. His teaching interests include European Union foreign policy, (especially EU – UN relations), international organisations and international political theory.

Olga Krasnyak
Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations of National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow).

Olga Krasnyak’s research interests lie within diplomatic studies with a focus on science diplomacy and its implementation into a state’s foreign policy agenda.

Previously, in 2014-2019, she worked at Underwood International College of Yonsei University (Seoul). At UIC, she taught number of IR and history courses for students majoring in international studies.

Olga often provides media commentary on diplomacy, foreign policy, and international affairs.

Josep Maria Martorell
Associate Director at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS).

Josep Maria Martorell holds a degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona and has a PhD in Computer Science from the Ramon Llull University. He has more than twelve years of experience in the field of research, including five as the general director of research at the Government of Catalonia. Since April 2016 he has been an associate director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Kimberly Montgomery
Director of International Affairs and Science Diplomacy at AAAS.

Kim Montgomery is the Director of International Affairs and Science Diplomacy. In this role, she advises on bilateral and multilateral relationships and manages the AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy. She also serves as the Executive Editor of the policy journal Science & Diplomacy.

Kim has worked in science policy and international affairs in the U.S. and Austria. In Austria, she managed and advised on international relationships for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and was a scientific consultant for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Her U.S. experience includes six years at the U.S. House of Representatives as professional staff for the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and as a legislative assistant for Representative Rush Holt (NJ-12). Directly prior to joining AAAS in 2021, Kim was a senior program officer at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) in the Scientific and Technical Affairs program.

Pol Morillas
Director, CIDOB.

Pol Morillas is general director and senior research fellow of CIDOB. He is a political scientist, holds a PhD in Politics, Policies and International Relations from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a master’s in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He is also an Associate Professor at the UAB, where he teaches European Foreign Policy and the Theory of International Relations, and a member of the Observatori de Política Exterior Europea. Previously, he has been Head of the Euro-Mediterranean Policies field at the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), Coordinator of the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the EU, and Advisor on External Action at the European Parliament. His numerous published research papers for academic journals and think tanks, like his opinion articles, cover the dynamics of European integration, the institutional developments of EU external action, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU’s security strategies and Euro-Mediterranean relations, among other subjects.

Mona Nemer
Chief Science Advisor to Canada’s Prime Minister, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and Cabinet.

Mona Nemer is a Lebanese-Canadian scientist specializing in molecular genetics and cardiac regeneration. She was formerly a professor of pharmacology at the University of Montreal and the Director of the Cardiac Development Research Unit at the Institut de recherches califiques de Montréal (IRCM) where she held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Cell Differentiation. Her mandate is to provide advice on issues related to science and government policies that support it. This includes advising on ways to ensure that science is considered in policy decisions and that government science is fully available to the public.

Octavi Quintana
Director of the PRIMA Foundation - Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area. Former Director of the European Research Area.

Octavi Quintana trained as a medical doctor in the University of Barcelona. He joined the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission in 2002, serving first as the Director of Health Research for five years and subsequently as the Director of Energy (EURATOM) in the same Directorate-General.

Prior to this, Octavi Quintana-Trias served for two years as Director of International Affairs in the Spanish Ministry for Health and Consumer Affairs and from 1990 – 2000 as Deputy Director General of INSALUD, the organisation which is responsible for the management of the health care system in Spain. He has also served as an advisor to the Pan American Health Organisation, working on health care systems in various Latin American countries (1994 – 2011), he was Vice-Chair of the European Group of Ethics (1994-2001) and Chair of the Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe (1992–1995). Between 1996 and 1998, he was President of the Spanish Society of Quality Assurance on Health Care and Founder of the European Society of Quality Assurance on Health (ESQH).

Shaun Riordan
Former British Diplomat, Director Of The Chair For Diplomacy And Cyberspace At The European Institute Of International Studies And Senior Visiting Fellow Of The Clingendael Institute.

Shaun Riordan is Director of the Chair for Diplomacy and Cyberspace at the European Institute of International Studies and Senior Visiting Fellow of the Clingendael Institute. A former British diplomat who served in New York, Taiwan, Beijing and Madrid, as well as the Counter-Terrorist and Yugoslavia Departments of the Foreign Office, he has taught in diplomatic academies in Armenia, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic and Spain. He is author of “The New Diplomacy” (Polity 2003), “Adios a la Diplomacia” (Siglo XXI, 2005) and “Cyberdiplomacy: Managing Security and Governance Online” (Polity 2019). His latest monograph, “The Geopolitics of Cyberspace: A Diplomatic Perspective”, has just been published by The Review of Foreign Policy and Diplomacy (vol.3,3).

Daria Robinson
Executive Director Diplomacy Forum at Geneva Science & Diplomacy Anticipator, GESDA.

Daria Robinson’s academic background as an Astrophysicist driven by her thirst for understanding and passion for deciphering the unknown, has led her to the forefront of innovation, spending her life strongly connected with space and science, and bridging these worlds with society. She started her career with the European space programmes at the beginnings of collaboration with Russia and the US. Daria then ran consulting businesses in the US and Switzerland where she developed new opportunities for governments, international organizations, and business. With this experience in hand and with the Paris Climate Conference taking shape, Daria turned her focus on sustainable development, working closely with business, NGOs and governments to build transformative solutions to make the world a better place - for the people and the planet.
This is at the center of Daria’s activities since.
Daria has been involved in the development of Food systems transformation, a particular passion of hers. More recently, she has been leading an organisation bringing safe and affordable technologies to developing countries in the areas of health, agroecology, water & hygiene, energy and nutrition. Daria has been serving on Boards of NGOs and philanthropy, where her broad and rich experience brings a unique perspective.
She is also a passionate space and science “interpreter”, building awareness of their importance to society by sharing her professional and personal stories through public speaking.

Charles Roger
Assistant Professor and Beatriu de Pinós Research Fellow at IBEI.

Charles Roger is an Assistant Professor and Beatriu de Pinós Research Fellow at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). His research explores the transformations occurring in our system of global governance and how these are shaping—for better or worse—our ability to address cross-border problems. Substantively, it focuses on informal and transnational institutions in the fields of climate change, international trade, finance, and antitrust.

Charles's recent books include The Origins of Informality: Why the Legal Foundations of Global Governance are Shifting, and Why It Matters (OUP, 2020) and Transnational Climate Change Governance (CUP, 2014; coauthored with Harriet Bulkeley et al.). His research has also been published in journals like Global Policy, International Interactions, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, and the Review of International Organizations.

Alexis Roig
CEO SciTech DiploHub.

Mr. Roig is the Chief Executive Officer of SciTech DiploHub, the Barcelona Science and Technology Diplomacy Hub, the public-private partnership in charge of making Barcelona the world’s first city to implement a Science Diplomacy strategy. He has 10 years’ experience as senior advisor on science diplomacy for ministries of Foreign Affairs, Science, Research and Education across Asia and Europe. He is professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policies at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. Alexis is actively engaged and member of the board in numerous private ventures and nonprofit initiatives in the fields of Engineering, Higher Education and Public Diplomacy. He holds a masters in Computer Science from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, an MBA from Ecole de Management de Normandie, and a Postgraduate degree in Diplomacy from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

Zehra Sayers
Former Chair of the Advisory Committee of SESAME and former President of the Sabancı University. AAAS Science Diplomacy Award 2019.

Dr. Sayers is a molecular biophysicist with research focus on synchrotron X-ray structure analysis of biological macromolecules. She is also interested in implementation of modern pedagogical approaches for teaching interdisciplinary curricula.

She holds a BSc in Physics, from Bogazici University, Istanbul Turkey (1974) and a PhD in Biophysics,from the University of London, UK (1978). She was a post-doc in the UK and Sweden and was a staff scientist at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)Hamburg Outstation (1986-1998), before joining Sabanci University (SU), İstanbul, Turkey, as a founding faculty member (1998). Here she was the Director of Foundation Development Program (2010-2019) and served as the interim President in
2018. Currently she is on a sabbatical at the EMBL Outstation in Hamburg, Germany.

Emilia Sáiz
Secretary General, UCLG.

Emilia Sáiz studied European Studies and Law specializing in international law with a master’s degree in local governance in the information society. She has worked in the founding organization of UCLG, IULA, since 1997. She has lead programmes dedicated to institutional capacity building, women empowerment and decentralized cooperation. She is currently Deputy Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and Co-Chair of the Gender Programme of Cities Alliance.