Eliane Ubalijoro

Research Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University; Global Hub Director, Canada, Future Earth; Executive Director, Sustainability in the Digital Age

Eliane’s decades of experience span academia, science-policy and the non-profit and international development sectors. She is a Professor of Practice for Public-Private Sector Partnerships at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development, and a Research Professor at Concordia University in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment. She is a member of Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council and has been a member of the Presidential Advisory Council for Rwandan President Paul Kagame since its inception in September 2007.

Eliane is an invited member of the External Advisory Committee to the Chief Statistician of Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada on Canada’s first Census of Environment. Eliane is a member of the: Impact Advisory Board of the Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet; Expert Consultation Group on the Post COVID-19 Implications on Collaborative Governance of Genomics Research, Innovation, and Genetic Diversity; African Development Bank’s Expert Global Community of Practice on COVID-19 Response Strategies in Africa; Capitals Coalition Supervisory Board; Global Crop Diversity Trust Executive Board; China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Eliane’s career path was featured in Forbes in celebration of International Women’s Day 2019. She is one of the recipients of the International Leadership Association’s 2022 awards in women and leadership for outstanding practice with broad impact.

Jason Lewis 

Professor of Design and Computation Arts; University Research Chair in Computational Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary

Jason Edward Lewis is Full Professor of Design and Computation Arts. He is a digital media artist, poet and software designer. He founded Obx Laboratory for Experimental Media, where he directs research/ creation projects using virtual environments to assist Aboriginal communities in preserving, interpreting and communicating cultural histories, devising new means of creating and reading digital texts, developing systems for creative use of mobile technology. He is the director of the Initiative for Indigenous Futures, a seven-year SSHRC-funded Partnership focused on how Indigenous communities imaging themselves seven generations hence. Lewis co-founded and co-directs the Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace research network that is investigating how Aboriginal people can participate in the shaping of our digital media future, and co-directs workshop combining traditional stories and game design at the Kahnawake First Nations' high school. He is deeply committed to developing intriguing new forms of expression by working on conceptual, creative and technical levels simultaneously. Lewis' creative work has been featured at the Ars Electronica Center, ISEA, SIGGRAPH, Urban Screens and Mobilefest, among other venues, his writing about new media has been presented at conferences, festivals and exhibitions on four continents and his work with Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace has won multiple awards.

He received his MPhil from the Royal College of Art for Dynamic Poetry: Introductory Remarks to a New Medium.

Damon Matthews 

Professor and Concordia Research Chair in Climate Science and Sustainability, Geography, Planning and Environment

Damon Matthews is a Professor and Research Chair in Climate Science and Sustainability at Concordia University. Damon holds a PhD in climate science from the University of Victoria, and is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada and a Review Editor for the upcoming Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has published more than one hundred research papers on topics ranging from quantifying the remaining carbon budget to assessing equitable approaches to allocate emission allowances to individual countries. He is internationally recognized for his work in policy-relevant climate science, as well as for initiatives such as the Climate Clock that use digital visualization andweb-based technologies to motivate and accelerate climate action. Damon is the Scientific co-Director of Sustainability in the Digital Age, and directs the NSERC CREATE in Leadership in Environmental and Digital Innovation for Sustainability (LEADS) program, which aims to train graduate student researchers at the intersection of sustainability science and digital innovation.