Shinji Kaneko (Chair)
Director, NERPS / Professor, The IDEC Institute, Hiroshima University

Shinji Kaneko is the Executive Vice President for Global Initiatives and a Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Science at Hiroshima University. He graduated from the School of Engineering at Kyushu University majoring in water engineering (Dr. of Engineering). Immediately after the completion of his doctoral program, he joined the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in 1999 as a researcher and conducted research on urban climate policy in Asian megacities for three years. He also worked at the Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) as a Research Fellow for three years from 2005. In 2018, he was appointed as the Director of the Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) at Hiroshima University. He has conducted numerous policy research on natural resources, energy, and the environment in developing countries.

Shobhakar Dhakal (Co-Chair)
Professor and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Asian Institute of Technology

Shobhakar Dhakal is the Professor and Vice President (Academic Affairs) of Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand. His areas of expertise are energy and climate policy, energy-economy-environment modelling, climate change mitigation and the sustainable cities.
He is also a Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) of IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (Mitigation) where he co-led Chapter 2 ‘Emissions Trends and Drivers’, and a member of Scientific Steering Committee of Global Carbon Project– a premier scientific program under the Future Earth. He was CLA of IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (Mitigation) too, and also co-led Second Assessment Report of on Climate Change in Cities of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) at Columbia University.
In the past, he served as Dean of School of Environment Resources and Development of AIT, Executive Director of Global Carbon Project in Japan, Research Scholar of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, and Senior Policy Researcher of Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Japan.
Prof. Dhakal has Ph.D. in Urban Warming and Energy Management from The University of Tokyo, M. Engg in Energy Policy and Planning from AIT, and B. Eng in Electrical Engineering from NIT-Surat India. He has also studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Hongkong. More here: http://faculty.ait.asia/shobhakar

Ayyoob Sharifi (Co-Chair)
Professor, The IDEC Institute and Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University

Ayyoob Sharifi is Professor at the IDEC Institute, Hiroshima University. His research is mainly at the interface of urbanism and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Ayyoob actively contributes to global change research programs such as the Future Earth and has served as a lead author for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Before joining Hiroshima University, he was the Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project (GCP)-a Future Earth core project. There, he was leading the urban flagship activity of the project that is focused on conducting cutting-edge research for supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation in cities. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering (Surveying), a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and a doctorate in Environmental Engineering. He has published extensively on issues related to urban environmental science and is interested in pursuing research at the interface of climate change and urban planning. The ultimate goal of his research is to provide further insights into how to develop sustainable, peaceful, just, and resilient urban communities.

Dahlia Simangan (Co-Chair)
Associate Professor, The IDEC Institute and Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University

Dahlia Simangan is an Associate Professor at Hiroshima University’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences where she teaches Global GovernanceUnited Nations Peace Missions, and Peace, Conflict, and the Environment. She is a former Kanagawa University JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow (nominated by the United Nations University-Centre for Policy Research in Tokyo). She obtained her PhD in International, Political and Strategic Studies from the Australian National University in 2017, her MA in International Relations from the International University of Japan in 2010, and her BA in Sociology from the University of the Philippines, Diliman in 2006. Her research interest in peace and conflict studies includes topics on international peacebuilding, the United Nations peacekeeping operations, and International Relations in the Anthropocene. She is the Assistant Editor of Peacebuilding and a member of the Planet Politics Institute.

Core Members of the Scientific Committee

  • Akira Hibiki, Professor and Head of Policy Design Lab, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University
  • Fumiko Kasuga, Global Hub Director, Japan Hub, Future Earth
  • Vally Koubi, Professor and Senior Scientist, ETH Zürich
  • Paul Shrivastava, Chief Sustainability Officer, Penn State University
  • Hassan Virji, Emeritus Executive Director, START International 

Members of the Scientific Committee for 2023

  • Mokbul Morshed Ahmad, Professor and Head of Department, Department of Development and Sustainability, Asian Institute of Technology
  • Katherine Alfredo, Assistant Professor, University of South Florida
  • Yvette Baninla, Lecturer, Department of Geology, Mining and Environmental Science, University of Bamenda
  • Simon Elias Bibri, Research Scientist, EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
  • Srinjoy Bose, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales-Sydney
  • Joshua Fisher, Director and Research Scientist, Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4), Columbia University
  • Baojie He, Professor of Urban Climate and Sustainable Built Environment, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and the Chair of the Centre for Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Cities, Chongqing University
  • Tobias Ide, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Murdoch University
  • Dipendra KC, Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Thammasat University School of Global Studies, Asian Institute of Technology
  • Ali Kharazzi, Senior Research Scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Systemic Risk and Resilience (SYRR) Research Group
  • Kyoko Kusakabe, Professor, Gender and Development Studies, Department of Development and Sustainability, Asian Institute of Technology
  • Thi Phuoc Lai Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Department of Development and Sustainability, Asian Institute of Technology
  • Vilas Nitivattananon, Professor, Urban Innovation and Sustainability Program, Department of Development and Sustainability, School of Environment, Resources and Development and Dean, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology
  • Rajendra P. Shrestha, Professor, Natural Resources and Management Program, Department of Development and Sustainability, Asian Institute of Technology

Masatoshi Sato (Head of Secretariat)
Senior Assistant to the NERPS Director, Hiroshima University

Masatoshi Sato joined NERPS in February 2021 as Senior Assistant to the NERPS Director after retiring from the Japanese foreign service at the end of March 2020. His main duties include liaising between NERPS and higher education and other institutions NERPS works with.

Maria Kathrina B. Gratuito
Research Associate, Asian Institute of Technology

Ms. Maria Kathrina B. Gratuito is a Research Associate at the Regional Energy Resources Information Center (RERIC) of the Sustainable Energy Transition program of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). She helps handle the publications arm of the program and help manages AIT’s very own International Energy Journal (IEJ) – a Scopus-index academic journal. She is also an experienced international conference organizer having helped managed ten (10) well-attended international conferences of the program. Ms. Kathrina will be helping the NERPS Secretariat coordinate the NERPS Conference 2023 in AIT, Thailand.