Harini Nagendra, PhD, Azim Premji University, India
Harini Nagendra is Director of Research Centre at the University, and leads the University’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability. Nagendra is known for her research spanning over 30 years on forest conservation, and urban sustainability, with several seminal publications in both areas of work. Her interdisciplinary work on forests combines remote sensing, biodiversity studies and institutional analysis, and is recognised for elucidating the link between pattern and process in the human-dominated landscapes of South Asia. Her work on urban ecology and sustainability highlights the importance of urban ecosystems in contributing critical ecosystem services and impacting urban resilience and human well-being, especially of marginalised communities — an important global gap, especially for the Global South.
Sarel Cilliers, PhD, North-West University, South Africa
Sarel Cilliers is a Professor in Plant Ecology at North West University Potchefstroom Campus. His current research focus is mainly on medium-sized and small urban and rural settlements, investigating biodiversity patterns and processes of fragmented natural areas and home and community gardens along urbanization and socio-economic gradients and social, cultural and legacy effects as drivers of urban biodiversity. More recently a large focus was placed on investigating community gardens as complex social-ecological systems within a framework of resilience thinking. He is also collaborating in projects with town planners and landscape architects in an attempt to apply urban ecological information in the planning and design of sustainable and resilient urban areas.