The ‘M’ of MVRDV, Founding Partner and Principal Architect Winy Maas Ir. Ing (Schijndel, NL - 1959), has received international acclaim for his broad range of urban planning and building projects, across all typologies and scales. These are often self-generated, innovative, experimental, and theoretical. Maas challenges colleagues, clients, as well as students and collaborators at TU Delft’s The Why Factory – an internationally engaged think tank Maas established in 2008 – to challenge the boundaries of established standards to produce solutions that reimagine how we live, work, and play. Aside from his dedicated leadership role at MVRDV and professorship at TU Delft and elsewhere, Maas is widely published, actively engaged in the advancement of the design profession, and sits on numerous boards and juries, including the Spatial Quality Boards of Rotterdam, Eindhoven, and Barcelona. “I advocate denser, greener, more attractive and liveable cities, with an approach to design that centres around user-defined, innovative, and sustainable ideas for the built environment, regardless of typology or scale.” - Maas

He is a lawyer from the University of Guadalajara. obtained a master's degree in International Law from the Tec de Monterrey, He is a Doctor of Law from the University of Guadalajara, completed a diploma in advanced studies in International Law and International Relations at the Ortega y Gasset University Institute in Madrid, Spain. As a researcher, he is part of the CISAN/UNAM Network of North Americanists. He has carried out a research stay at the American University in Washington D.C.; His lines of research are: Climate Change Law, International Economic Law, Sustainable Development Law. As an academic, he has taught at UTEG and Universidad TecMilenio. He has given talks at UNAM and ECOCITY in the City of Vancouver, Canada. His publications are focused on the integration process in North America from a legal perspective. He is a member of the Mexico Sustainable Development Network, has been certified as a Climate Leader by The Climate Reality Project in Atlanta, USA. As a lawyer, he has worked in the area of ​​contracts at the Tec de Monterrey Business School. He is an expert in Mexican Law before the California courts in the US; prepares legal opinions for North American judges and lawyers; Advises and represents our Mexicans living in the US with legal matters in Mexico.

Darshini Mahadevia, Professor and Associate Dean, Arts, School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University has over 25 years of experience in teaching and researching urban studies, human and gender development, poverty and inequality, and climate change. She is a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been the Dean, Faculty of Planning, at CEPT University from December 2012 to April 2016 and headed the Centre for Urban Equity (CUE), a Centre she had set up at the CEPT University till January 2019. She has more than 120 publications as books, chapter in books and journal articles.

My research topics are soil engineering and brown infrastructure in urban areas. I study the impacts of soil artificialisation and soil isolation on (i) earthworm communities (abundance, biomass, richness structure of communities...), and (ii) earthworm communities' contributions to urban soil functions (e.g., water retention, nutrient supply, habitat for microorganisms...). In cooperation with Rennes University and Sol Paysage company, this Ph.D. work's scientific outputs will help draw technical conclusions to improve engineering practices in urban landscapes and favour soil biodiversity in tomorrow's cities. To learn more: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925857421001622 https://www.solpaysage.com/programmeeclas

Maria-Luisa Marsal Llacuna is an Architect (2001) with two Masters (2004, 2011) and two Doctorates (2008, 2013) in the fields of urban planning and applied ICT. She worked for the government in the UK and now in Catalunya, at Government’s of Catalonia Catalan Institute of energy. Before working for public administrations, she spent fifteen years in the academia, in different research and leadership roles in public universities. Her academic career includes the creation and direction of world’s first official scientific master’s program in smart cities; several competitive and commercial research projects in the domains of smart and sustainable cities; postdoc scholarships in Germany (2006) and the USA (2011); a US patent on urban planning standards technology; and, the publication as main author of about twenty papers in top peer-reviewed academic journals. She served as UN Habitat III expert and she held two mandates as a chair at UN’s U4SSC initiative, with her second term focused on exploring blockchain applications for cities. Her expertise on blockchain for governments has awarded her with the leadership of the Barcelona Chapter at the Government Blockchain Association (GBA) and participation in GBA’s leadership advisory committee.

PhD candidate in HR Psychology at IDOCAL - University of Valencia, Programme Representative for the EMJMD in Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology, head of "sust-EMA-bility - Sustainability beyond cultures" at the Erasmus Mundus Association (i.e., EMA AISBL), and leader the aspiring social enterprise start-up named Go2RAIL. Deeply interested in the promotion of sustainability through behavioral change and the application of the knowledge coming from the field of work and organizational psychology. Creating a positive social impact by using an applied evidence-based approach is what I am aiming at.

Dana May is a recent graduate of the British Columbia Institute of Technology's Environmental Engineering program in Vancouver, Canada. As part of her final year of study, Dana completed a bachelor's thesis on the urban heat island effect in downtown Vancouver, using drones to measure the air temperatures above different urban landscapes. At present, Dana is working in the renewable energy sector as a project coordinator, where she is part of a dedicated team developing community scale wind and solar energy projects for remote northern Canadian towns that rely on diesel for energy. In addition to her most recent degree, Dana also holds a Bachelor of Science in Exercise and Health Physiology, bringing a unique perspective on the intersection of human health and wellness, sustainability, and environmentally resilient communities.

Mr. McElvaney has 27 years of experience using geospatial technologies across diverse sectors to support wise decision-making with particular emphasis on smart city and installation planning, operations, and sustainable development. At Jacobs he focuses on integrating spatial analytics and geodesign processes with planning and design to help clients create a more sustainable and resilient built and natural environment. Shannon has also been an adjunct professor in the Geodesign Program in the Landscape Architecture Department at Penn State University and is the author of the book Geodesign: Case Studies in Regional and Urban Planning. He has written numerous articles on geodesign and is a frequent speaker. He is also an active member of APA’s Smart Cities Advisory Committee. Shannon holds a B.A. in Geography from the University of Hawai'i, and an M.P.S. in Geodesign from Penn State University’s Department of Landscape Architecture.

Dan has been in the geospatial technology industry for almost 20 years. In that time he has worked developing, integrating and applying GIS in support of local, state, and federal government projects and academic research. He has managed GIS/IT projects in spatial data analysis, database design, data management, and web mapping application development. Dan is currently Program Manager for the online Masters Degree in Geodesign at Penn State.

I am an urban researcher interested in understanding the realities and possible futures of African cities, investigating the dynamics of governing informal urbanisation in the face of climate change. I am currently a Post-Doc and Work Package Leader on the Danida-funded 'Pathways to Water Resilient South African Cities' project. I also hold a research fellowship at the Future Water Institute at the University of Cape Town. My research interests are Nature-based Solutions, urban water management, the Water-Energy-Food nexus and governance of sustainability transitions in the Global South.

Kirstin Miller is Executive Director for Ecocity Builders, where she leads their program development, global initiatives and activities. Kirstin works locally and internationally to help cities access ecocity knowledge. She coordinates the development of the organization’s “toolbox” of strategies, such as car-free by contract housing, environmental restoration transfer of development rights, centers oriented development, ecological demonstration projects and ecological zoning overlay mapping. Kirstin specializes in integrating city-based experiences from a diverse range of perspectives. She is an international speaker and presenter on ecocity design, technology, development and citizen participation.

Ar. Amina Qayyum Mirza is the principal architect at AE design firm M/s. Office of Metropolitan Design-OMD, Lahore, Pakistan. Ar. Mirza graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, the USA with a Master of Architecture-Advance Graduate Program-Second Professional Degree in 1991, and received her Bachelor of Architecture with Distinction in First Professional Degree from National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan. Ar. Mirza has extensive experience as the lead architect for various projects of design, research, and assessment. She has across-the-board knowledge in design, development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of projects in a wide range of fields, including architecture, interior, landscape, urban design, and planning. Ar. Mirza has won a number of design competition projects organized by the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners (PCATP). Her office building was awarded ‘The Best Architectural Project of The Year 2021’ in the South-Asian Region by GABA International. Ar. Mirza and her firm have also received other local & international recognition for their professional and academic work. Ar. Mirza is a registered architect with PCATP-Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners, Associate Member IAP-Institute of Architects Pakistan. Former member Senate, PIFD-Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design and the AIA-American Institute of Architects. She has been IAP-Institute of Architects Pakistan, Committee Representative, and member Arcasia ‘Committee on Green & Sustainable Architecture'.