Following a competitive call for applications, a group of motivated and excellent applicants from around the world have been chosen as this year’s Early Career Champions to attend and support the Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress 2021 (SRI2021). Five Champions will speak during the closing plenary alongside Imme Scholz and John Agard, Co-chairs of the Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, preparing the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report.
Supporting and elevating the next generation scholars and thought-leaders is one of the key objectives of SRI2021. Early Career Researchers play a vital role in advancing sustainability science and innovation and their dynamic and innovative views will be of central importance for SRI2021. The SRI2021 Early Career Champions Program was developed in collaboration with the Global Young Academy.

Morakane Madiba

Ana Carolina Esteves Dias

Dr Renuka Thakore

Glenn Fernandez

Gaby Langendijk
Previously Gaby worked at the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) secretariat, at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Gaby takes active part in the Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) community, and the Early Career Researchers Network of Networks (ECR NoN). Through these networks, Gaby engaged with Future Earth over the last ~5 years. Particularly, Gaby was part of the Future Earth Implementation Team during the last year.

Amy Then

Andrew Kadykalo

Ma. Laurice Jamero

Ritodhi Chakraborty
I am a broadly trained environmental social scientist, educator and activist focusing on issues of ethical research, climate/environmental justice, indigeneity, politics of science, rural transformation, masculinity and land governance. I have worked with and learned from rural and indigenous communities in India, Bhutan, China and Aotearoa NZ and incorporate conceptual tools from political ecology, STS and Anti/Decoloniality in my praxis. My current work explores plural knowledge platforms for addressing questions of equity and justice in multi-functional land governance. I am currently a post-doctoral fellow at Lincoln University’s Centre for Excellence- Designing Future Productive Landscapes in Aotearoa NZ.

Faten Attig Bahar
Faten is serving on several continental committees including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), WMO Research Board on Weather, Climate, Water and the Environment, Future Earth, Steering committee of the FE Nexus Knowledge-Action-Network and the FE African community, the International Support Network for African Development (ISNAD-Africa), and InnovAction Idea2Market Africa for which she also served as an Expert and mentor/coach. She is also an Executive Committee member of the Young Earth System Scientists.
Author of several published children’s books (19 published books in the Arabic language), Faten has received several awards as an outstanding youth author in Tunisia.
