Keynote Speaker

Jason Evans is Professor at the Climate Change Research Centre and a Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes at the University of New South Wales. Australia.

Prof Evans’ expertise is in the area of regional climate, land-atmosphere interactions, the water cycle and climate change. His focus is on regional climate change and its impacts. His research program brings together advanced modelling tools with extensive observational datasets, with an emphasis on satellite based, remotely-sensed earth observations. The research finds new and improved techniques to combine data with regional climate and land-surface models, to help solve problems of national and international significance.

Prof Evans is co-chair of the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Hydroclimate Panel (GHP) and AustralAsia region coordinator of the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), both elements of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).

He is the lead modeler on the NSW/ACT Regional Climate Modelling project (NARCliM). This project is producing an ensemble of regional climate projections over south-east Australia for use in impacts and adaptation research. He is also a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on climate change and land.

His research involves general issues of water cycle processes over land, and how we can change them, largely through changes in land use and changes in climate. He focus at the regional (or watershed) scale and study processes including river flow, evaporation/transpiration, water vapor transport and precipitation. The main tools of his research are models including regional climate models, land surface and hydrology models.

Luc Hens graduated as a biologist and received his Ph. D. in Biology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium. Until 2010 He was a professor and Chair of the human ecology department. He currently lectures at the Leuven Universty/Odysee (Belgium), the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy (Sofia, Bulgaria), at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), and at Lisbon University (Portugal).

He was a senior scientific adviser at the “Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek” (VITO), which is Belgium’s biggest environmental research organization. He is currently retired as an emeritus professor. Professor Hens’ specific area of research concerns the elucidation of interdisciplinary instruments for sustainable development. In this framework, he acted as the promoter of over 80 research projects in Belgium and abroad (Vietnam, Cuba, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, Ukraine, and Bulgaria). He promoted master and Ph. D theses works. He participated in Ph. D jury’s in over 10 different universities. Luc Hens is the author or co-author of 130 papers in international peer reviewed journal. He (co-)edited 43 books, and wrote 125 book reviews.

Luc Hens acts as an expert in environmental health policy on several councils in Belgium. Luc Hens is a member of the Belgian Superior Health Council, of which he chairs the the working party on “Chemicals-Environmental health”. He equaly chairs the Federal Belgian Committee for the Market Admission of Biocides. Previously he was a member of different environmental policy advisory boards, among which the Federal Council for Sustainable Development. In this capacity he was member of the official Belgian delegation to the UNCED conference in Rio de Janero (Brazil, 1992) and the WSSD in Johannesburg (South Africa, 2002). These activities allowed following from closely the academic and policy development and implementation of sustainable development both in Belgium and abroad. Luc Hens acted and acts as a member of the council of administrations of the Flemish Institute of Technological Research (2002-2008) and the Dirk Frimout Foundation (1998 – now).

He is the Editor in Chief for the Springer journal “Environment, Development and Sustainability”. He acts as the book editor for the “International Journal of Environment and Pollution”. He holds “Doctor Honoris Causa” awards from the universities of Sofia (Bulgaria) and Sumy (Ukraine).

Mohd Razi Ismail is a professor of Plant Physiology at the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture of the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) since 1989. He was the Program Leader of the “Long Term Research Grant Scheme(LRGS)” of the Ministry of Higher Education-Malaysia for “Food Security:  Enhances Sustainable Rice Production Through Innovative Research” from 2011–2016. Successful completion of the program with several research outcomes already delivered impact to the rice farming society. Continuing from the LRGS results, he is presently the Program Leader of the “Translational Research Initiative 2017” of the Ministry of Higher Education-Malaysia for “Food Security: PadiU Putra: Accelerating Rice Food Security and Socioeconomics for Rice Farming Communities“ to deliver findings for impacting  rice farming community, academia and the target end-users.  The  Padiu Putra research program will contribute to national paddy and rice industry  through technology package that include release of new varieties , improved management system and sustainable cultural approaches will impact national paddy and rice industry. Our active development in  R& D in new rice varieties in particular, is important  as the contribution of new crop varieties to improving food security and reducing poverty is one of the  research activities that will sustain national rice food security.  Apart from research program on rice food security, he also successfully managed and led the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) “Consultancy Project on Sustainable Fruit Production”. Recently, he led preparation of a concept paper for new rice research program “climate ready rice for Malaysia”  and approved by the Ministry of Education for further grant processing. These research programs will impact socioeconomic of rice farmers and contribute towards national rice self –sufficiency. In recognizing his contribution in tropical plant science research.The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture ( SEARCA) awarded him the Professorial Chair for  Food Security in 2014-2015

Professor Dr. Ahmad Ismail is a retired professor in wildlife ecology and ecotoxicology at Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). He is currently the President of Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), Council Member of Academy Science Malaysia (ASM), Fellow of Malaysian Society of Applied Biology (MSAB), Fellow of Royal

Society Biology London and Council member of Malaysian Academic Association Congress (MAAC). His fields of interest are wildlife ecology, ecotoxicology and environmental education.

He collaborated with many universities in Japan, Korea, UK, Poland, Indonesia, Thailand etc. as co-researcher as well as visiting professor. He is also members of editorial boards for several international and local journals. He is an active weekly columnist in one of the country’s mainstream newspapers. He has also written and appeared in many other publications, as well as on radio and television regarding science education and conservation of the environment.

Professor Ahmad is among the leading scientists in his field and has pioneered in many important researches in the country including the issues related to climate change.

Professor Fredolin Tangang is a professor of climatology at the Centre of Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, the National University of Malaysia. He is an Expert on climate change and climate variability. Prof Tangang obtained his PhD in 1997 from University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, where he researched and developed a model to forecast the El Nino –Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. Prof Tangang was the Vice-Chair of the Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the Fifth Assessment Cycle (AR5; 2008 – 2015). Prof. Fredolin has a H-index of 25.

Currently he is also a fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and also a Visiting Professor at the Ramkhamhaeng University Center for Regional Climate Change and Renewable Energy (RU-CORE), Bangkok, Thailand. Prof Tangang also serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Team (SAT) of the CORDEX, a programme under the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). At the university level, he is currently the Chairman of the Centre of Earth Sciences and Environment. Prof Tangang current research focuses include climate change and climate variability over the Southeast Asia region. He is the leader of CORDEX Southeast Asia. Prof Tangang has published more than 70 publications in high impact international journals.

Suraj has over 10 years experience in international carbon project development in the South and Southeast Asian region with a sound knowledge on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Suraj leads CCC’s forestry and renewable energy project development across the Asian region.  Prior to joining CCC, he was employed as a Senior Scientific Carbon Associate at Prime Carbon Co Ltd in Vientiane, Laos, where he was entrusted with providing technical support and advice for developing climate change mitigation/adaptation and low carbon projects in Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand, and promoting carbon offsetting for the corporate sector. He was in charge of the overall management of environmental consultancies undertaken by the company as well as providing technical support and advice for Forestry Management and Certification projects in Lao PDR and Thailand. Suraj has been the lead consultant managing the registration of several carbon sequestration projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), American Carbon Registry (ACR) Standard and the Gold Standard for Afforestation/Reforestation. He was the Carbon Specialist for the Laos Public/Private Sub-National REDD Project (SN-REDD).

Suraj has also held positions at Worldview International Foundation (WIF) in Myanmar where he oversaw the development of a 2,265 ha VCS project that involves the reforestation and restoration of mangroves in the Ayarwaddy Region. He has also played a key role in creating awareness and strengthening the capacity of the local and indigenous communities in Sri Lanka to implement community-based REDD+ (CBR+) programmes in the country under the project titled “Knowledge Management and Capacity Building of CSOs/CBOs under Community-Based REDD+ Programme, Sri Lanka”.

He is also the senior technical expert for two World Bank funded projects for the development of a National Carbon Registry and the development of a National MRV system for Sri Lanka. Suraj is also the Carbon Finance Consultant to the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Laos and the consultant in the Resource pool for MRV on the Forestry Sector in Sri Lanka.