Sustainable Food Systems: A Mediterranean Perspective

Jeffrey D. Sachs

Professor

Columbia University

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time Magazine “the world’s best known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist Magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade. Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, overcoming macroeconomic instability, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more than thirty years he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He was among the outside advisors to Pope John Paul II on the encyclical Centesimus Annus and in recent years has worked closely with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on the issues of sustainable development. Professor Sachs is the Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) which launched in 2012, bringing together scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society and the private sector to support and promote sustainable development problem-solving at local, national and global levels. The design and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is an important part of its work.

Alessio Cavicchi

Full Professor in Agribusiness, Rural Development and Branding

University of Macerata (Italy)

Alessio Cavicchi received his PhD in Economics of Food and Environmental Resources from University of Naples Parthenope. He is a Full Professor in Agribusiness, Rural Development and Branding at the University of Macerata (Italy). Previously he got a Master of Science (MSc) in Food Economics and Marketing from University of Reading (UK). His main fields of interest and research are consumer food choice, economics of food quality and safety, sustainable tourism and innovation in the agro-food sector.

Sonia Massari

Director

Gustolab International Institute for Food Studies

Stefano Pascucci

Professor

University of Exeter

Amr Helal

CEO

Health Tech (Egypt)

A. F. Abou Hadid

Associate Professor

Ain Shams University

Eissa Ali Abdelaziz

Vice President, Post Graduate Studies and Research

Ain Shams University

Riccardo Valentini

Director of the Division of Climate Impact

Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Changes

Gabriele Riccardi

Professor

Federico II University

Maite Aldaya

Collaborator

Water Observatory (Spain)

Sarra Arboui

Research Assistant

High Agronomic Institute of Chott Mariem

Phoebe Koundouri

Professor

Athens University of Economics and Business

Professor Dr. Phoebe Koundouri is a world-renowned pioneer in innovative, human-centric, interdisciplinary systems for the sustainable interaction between nature, society, and the economy, included in the Stanford University list of Top 2% world scientists. She is Professor at the School of Economics, and Director of ReSEES Laboratory, Athens University of Economics and Business. She is also Research Professor at the Technology, Management and Economics Department, Technical University of Denmark. She is Director of the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) at ATHENA Information Technology Research Center.

She holds a MPhil and a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge, held academic positions at University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Reading, and London School of Economics. She has published 18 books, more than 600 scientific papers, including publications in Nature, the Lancet, and top ranked economics, econometrics and sustainability science journals. She co-edited several prestigious academic journals, including Nature: Climate Action and Environmental and Resources Economics. She organised numerous international scientific conferences, supervised more than 30 PhD students, and gave keynote speeches and public lectures across the world.

Professor Koundouri is an academician, elected member of Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) , InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) , and member of the Nominating Committee for the Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences.

In 2019, she was elected President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) the biggest scientific association in the field, with more than 1500 member institutions, from more than 75 countries and she is now chairing the World Council of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists Associations (WCERE). In 2022 she received the prestigious European Research Council Synergy Grant, and in 2023, she was awarded the Academy of Athens Award for Scientific Excellence.

She is the director of the Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Aeiphoria (AE4RIA), linking the research and innovation work of 5 research centres, 5 innovations accelerators and numerous science-policy networks, with more than 200 researchers and 100 large, interdisciplinary, competitively funded projects (with applications in more than 120 countries). She is chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Global Climate Hub and co-chair of SDSN Europe, with 2000 universities involved.

She is Academia Europaea Representative to S20 Task Force 2 on Bioeconomy of the G20 Heads of States, Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on COVID19 Recovery, member of the Fraternal Economy of Integral and Sustainable Development of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and member of the European Investment Bank Climate Leaders Network. She acts as an advisor to the UN, World Bank, European Commission, EIB, EBRD, OECD, WHO, and many others, including public and private international and national companies.

Angelo Riccaboni

Professor

University of Siena-Italy