GESDA Summit Speakers
PATRICK AEBISCHER
Vice-Chairman, GESDA
PHILIPPE AGHION
Professor, College de France, INSEAD and London School of Economics
ANOUSHEH ANSARI
CEO, XPRIZE Foundation
MICHELLE BACHELET
High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations
RICHARD BALDWIN
Professor, Graduate Institute
GERARD BARRON
CEO & Chairman, The Metals Company
EWAN BIRNEY
Deputy Director General, EMBL; Director, EMBL-EBI
OLAF BLANKE
Professor of Neurosciences, EPFL
ROBERT BLASIAK
Researcher, Stockholm Resilience Center
ANTJE BOETIUS
Director, Alfred Wegener Institut
MAURICE BORGEAUD
Head, Department Science, Applications and Climate, European Space Agency
PETER BRABECK-LETMATHE
Chairman, Board of Directors, GESDA
LIDIA BRITO
Director, UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Sciences, Latin America and the Caribbean
MICHELINE CALMY-REY
Former President, Swiss Confederation
IGNAZIO CASSIS
Vice-President, Swiss Federal Council; Head, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
MARIA CATTAUI
Global Board Member, Open Society Foundations
GEORGE CHURCH
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
CLAUDIA CHWALISZ
Policy Analyst and Author
CHORH CHUAN TAN
Chief Health Scientist, Republic of Singapore; Board Member, GESDA
SEAN CLEARY
Executive Vice-Chair, FutureWorld Foundation
JEAN-PIERRE DANTHINE
E4S Executive Director, University of Lausanne/IMD/EPFL
NEIL DAVIES
Director, University of California’s Gump South Pacific Research Station on Moorea (French Polynesia)
YVONNE DONDERS
Head, Department of International and European Public Law; Commissioner, Netherlands Human Rights Institute, University of Amsterdam
JOSEPH D'CRUZ
Special Advisor, Strategic Planning & Innovation, United Nations Development Programme
MOMAR DIENG
Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
MATTHIAS EGGER
President, National Research Council, Swiss National Science Foundation
REBECCA ENONCHONG
Founder and CEO, AppsTech
JEREMY FARRAR
Director, Wellcome Trust
ALEXANDRE FASEL
Ambassador, Special Representative for Science Diplomacy in Geneva
ELAINE FLETCHER
Editor in Chief, Health Policy Watch
YVES FLÜCKIGER
Rector, University Geneva; President, Campus Biotech Geneva Foundation
NATHALIE FONTANET
State Councillor of the Republic and Canton of Geneva; Representative, GESDA Co-Founders, Switzerland
NICOLA FORSTER
Co-Founder, foraus
FABIOLA GIANOTTI
Director-General CERN; Board Member, GESDA
AMANDEEP GILL
Project Director & CEO, I-DAIR
PHILIPPE GILLET
Chief Science Officer, SICPA
NICOLAS GISIN
Honorary Professor, University of Geneva
PETER GLUCKMAN
President-elect, International Science Council
IAN GOLDIN
Professor, Oxford University
DAVID GOODHART
Journalist, Author and Think Tanker
GERALD HAUG
President, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
NIKLAS HEDMAN
Chief of Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section, UNOOSA
DIRK HELBING
Professor of Computational Social Science, ETH Zurich
MICHAEL HENGARTNER
President, ETH Board
MARTINA HIRAYAMA
Secretary of State for Research, Education and Innovation
ANDRÉ HOFFMANN
Businessman, Environmentalist and Philanthropist, Vice-Chairman, Hoffmann-La Roche
SAMIA HURST
Professor of ethics, University of Geneva
MARCELLO IENCA
Senior Research Fellow, Health Ethics & Policy Unit, ETH Zurich
JUDY ILLES
Professor of neurology, University of British Columbia
NADIA ISLER
Director, SDG Lab
UZODINMA IWEALA
CEO, The Africa Center NY
KASMIRA JEFFORD
Editor-in-Chief, Geneva Solutions
KARIN JESTIN
Strategic Philanthropy Advisor, Philanthropic & Humanitarian Initiatives
SAMI KANAAN
President, Geneva Cities Hub; President, Swiss Youth Commission
ELHAM KASHEFI
Professor of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh
ALAIN KAUFMANN
Director, The ColLaboratory, University of Lausanne
BRIAN KENNEDY
Distinguished Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
SAMIRA KIANI
CEO and Founder, GenexGen; Director, Tomorrow Life Initiative
SIR PETER KNIGHT
Emeritus Professor, Imperial College London
PUSHMEET KOHLI
Head of AI for Science, DeepMind
JÜRG LAUBER
Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations and to the other international organisations in Geneva
ENRICO LETTA
Secretary, Italian Democratic Party; President, Jacques Delors Institute
MATHIAS LINK
Director, European Space Resources Innovation Centre
KATHERINE LITTLER
Co-Lead, Global Health Ethics & Governance Unit, World Health Organization
CHRIS LUEBKEMAN
Leader, Strategic Foresight Hub, ETH Zurich
ADRIANA MARAIS
Director, Foundation for Space Development Africa
KAMILA MARKRAM
Co-Founder & CEO, Frontiers
TANJA MASSON-ZWAAN
Assistant Professor and Deputy Director, International Institute of Air and Space Law
PETER MAURER
President, International Committee of the Red Cross
ANDERS MEIBOM
Professor, Laboratory for Biological Geochemistry, EPFL
SU MENG
Founder, Origin Space Corporation
JOËL MESOT
President, ETH Zurich; Co-Chair, GESDA Academic Forum
JANE METCALFE
Co-Founder WIRED; Founder, NEO.LIFE
PATRICK MICHEL
Senior Researcher, The French National Centre for Scientific Research
MAMI MIZUTORI
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction; Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
MAIMUNAH MOHD SHARIF
Executive Director, UN-Habitat
MICHAEL MØLLER
Chairman, GESDA Diplomacy Forum
KATIA MOSKVITCH
Communications Lead Europe, IBM Research
SERGIO MUJICA
Secretary-General, International Organization for Standardization
GEOFF MULGAN
Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation, University College London
ALONDRA NELSON
Deputy Director, Science and Society, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
SIMON NIEMEYER
Director, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra
NINIANE PAEFFGEN
Managing Director, Swiss Digital Initiative
NALEDI PANDOR
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, South African Government
JANOS PASZTOR
Executive Director, Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative C2G
MAMOKGETHI PHAKENG
Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town
MARC PICTET
President, Fondation pour Genève
WENDY LEE QUEEN
Tenure Track Assistant Professor, EPFL
DIDIER QUELOZ
Professor of Astronomy, Cambridge University and ETH Zurich; 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics
VLADIMIR RYABININ
Executive Secretary, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, UNESCO
GUY RYDER
Director-General, International Labour Organization
MARIE-LAURE SALLES
Director, Graduate Institute
NANJIRA SAMBULI
Policy Analyst, Advocacy Strategist
KATHELINE SCHUBERT
Professor, Academic Affairs, Paris School of Economics
ATSUSHI SEIKE
Executive Advisor, Academic Affairs, Keio Research Information Systems
NIKHIL SETH
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, Executive Director, UNITAR
JIM HAGEMANN SNABE
Chairman, Siemens AG
MARGA GUAL SOLER
Founder, SciDipGLOBAL
MARIA-FRANCESCA SPATOLISANO
Assistant Secretary-General, Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs
ACHIM STEINER
Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
SOUMYA SWAMINATHAN
Chief Scientist, World Health Organization
DAREN TANG
Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization
MATTHIAS TROYER
Distinguished Scientist, Microsoft Quantum
RÜDIGER L. URBANKE
Professor of Communication Theory, EPFL
TATIANA VALOVAYA
Director-General, United Nations
EFFY VAYENA
Professor of Bioethics, ETH Zurich
WENDELL WALLACH
Senior Advisor, The Hastings Center
AMBROISE WONKAM
Professor and Senior Medical Genetics Consultant, University of Cape Town