Prof. Saleemul Huq
Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)
Professor, Independent University Bangladesh (IUB)
Prof. Saleemul Huq is the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) as well as Associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED) in the United Kingdom as well as the Chair of the Expert Advisory Group for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and also Senior Adviser on Locally Led Adaptation with Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) headquartered in the Netherlands.
He is an expert in adaptation to climate change in the most Vulnerable developing countries and has been a lead author of the third, fourth and fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He also advises the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He has published hundreds of scientific as well as popular articles and was recognised as one of the top twenty global influencers on climate change policy in 2019 and top scientist from Bangladesh on climate change science.
Apl. Prof. Dr. Niko Paech
Economics, Plural Economy, Siegen University
Niko Paech studied political economy at the University of Osnabrück, where he worked as a research assistant in the field of foreign trade and received his doctorate in 1993. He then worked in the Oldenburg city administration as an Agenda 21 representative. In 2005, he habilitated at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, represented the Chair of Production and Environment from 2008 to 2016 and became an associate professor in 2010.
He currently teaches and researches as an adjunct professor in the master's program “plural economics” at the University of Siegen. His research topics include microeconomic theory, environmental economics, consumption theory, climate protection, innovation and diffusion theory, sustainability research, operations research, supply chain management, and post growth economics.
He has received various awards for his activities in the science and media fields, such as the journalism prize "Oldenburger Feder" (2002), the "Kapp Research Prize for Ecological Economics" (2006), the ZEIT-WISSEN Prize "Courage for Sustainability" (2014), the "Leopold-Kohr Prize" (2016), and the "Bad Herrenalber Academy Prize" (2018).
Dr. Suzanna Randall
Astrophysicist, European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Dr Suzanna Randall, born in 1979 in Cologne (Germany), studied astronomy at University College London and was a doctoral student in astrophysics at the University of Montreal in Canada. She is currently working as a researcher at ESO (European Southern Observatory) in Garching near Munich and studies the evolution of stars and works for the ALMA telescope project in Chile. In the course of her career, the Rhinelander has lived and worked on three continents.
Suzanna Randall is inspired by looking at things from various perspectives, especially from a bird's eye view. She strives for new insights, is curious to discover new worlds and wants to become the first German woman to fly into space. Since 2018, she is training part-time to become an astronaut as part of the private initiative Die Astonautin. On the ISS, she wants to focus on physiological experiments on women in weightlessness.
The passionate natural scientist also started a media career. Since September 2020, she has been presenting exciting scientific topics on the ZDF YouTube channel "Terra X Lesch & Co", alternating with Harald Lesch. The focus is on showing women in particular that the natural sciences - and even the path to outer space - do not have to be the exclusive domain of men. She is also a sought-after interview partner and inspiring speaker.
Suzanna Randall is also active as a book author. Together with her trainee colleague Dr Insa Thiele-Eich, she wrote the children's books "Unser Weg ins Weltall" and "Abenteuer Raketenstart", published by Oetinger. In her free time, she enjoys paragliding, mountaineering and diving.
Ece Temelkuran
Journalist and author
Ece Temelkuran is an award-winning Turkish novelist and political commentator, whose journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, New Statesman, Frankfurter Allgemeine and Der Spiegel.
She won the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book award for her novel Women Who Blow On Knots and the Ambassador Of New Europe Award for her book Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy.
She is the author of the internationally acclaimed book How to lose a country.
Her new book Together. 10 Choices for a Better Now is coming out in May 2021.
Waldemar Zeiler
Co-Founder of Einhorn Products, author of “Unfuck the Economy”
Waldemar Zeiler turns the economic world upside down: he is a purpose entrepreneur, serial failure and wannabe speaker.
He gained his first start-up experience at the Berlin incubators Rocket Internet and Team-Europe. In 2010, he founded the company "Digitale Seiten", where he served as managing director for about three years. During a sabbatical in South America, Zeiler started working on ideas for sustainable projects and developed the "Entrepreneur's Pledge" initiative in 2014: its signatories promise to build a sustainable company and invest half of the profits in social projects.
As a result, he founded the "fairstainable" company einhorn products (unicorn products) together with Philip Siefer in 2015, which sells various “down below” products, including vegan condoms, menstrual cups and tampons. His unicorns work self-determined without hierarchies, when they feel like it and from where they want to and determine their salaries themselves as far as possible. That's why the unsaleable company now also belongs to itself.