Speakers

Vanesa Castán Broto is a Professor of Climate Urbanism at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield and she loves the chaotic nature of cities.
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Ankit Kumar is a Lecturer in Development and Environment at the Department of Geography, The University of Sheffield. Ankit’s research interests are situated around climate and energy justice in the global South and driven by critical development studies, postcolonial studies, and environmental geographies. He has published in several journals including Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Social and Cultural Geography, Antipode and Energy Research and Social Science.
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Hita’s research interests lie in the interface of urban ecology, systems thinking, resilience, urban environmental history and urban political ecology as it relates to the evolution, governance, and management of common pool resources in cities of the global south. Her work has been published in reputed peer reviewed journals such as Urban Ecosystems, Society and Natural Resources, and the International Journal of the Commons.
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Prof Solomon Brown is a Professor of Process and Energy Systems at the University of Sheffield and the Director of EPSRC’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Storage and its Applications. He is a Fellow of the Energy Institute, leads the University of Sheffield’s Strategic Partnership with Drax and the Energy Systems Research Pillar in the Sheffield Energy Institute, as well as serving as Interim Chair of IChemE’s CAPE SIG. He has considerable expertise in analysis and design of clean energy processes and the study of energy systems, and has published over 100 papers in top international journals and peer reviewed conferences across energy technology and system levels. He has also worked extensively with Industry partners, to assess new clean energy generation and storage technologies, and their role and value within the wider market and system.
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Ella is a human geographer whose PhD research focuses on community environmentalism and bioregional approaches.
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Bhavani Shankar is Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield. He is an applied economist working at the intersection of food systems, health and sustainability. Much of his work is of an interdisciplinary nature and set in low and middle income countries. He co-leads the 'Food Consumption, Health and Sustainability' pillar of the Institute for Sustainable Food.
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Kristin is a public health consultant with expertise in the overlap of public health, food systems, health inequalities, population diets, and the environment. Kristin is Chair of the Food Special Interest Group for the Faculty of Public Health, which provides public health expertise, resources and networking on the many issues that connect the wider food system and population health. Kristin is currently a PhD candidate and Grantham Scholar at the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, and since 2017 she has also been an Honorary Lecturer in Public Health at the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield.
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Alasdair Cochrane is a leading expert on 'animal politics': which involves thinking not only about how politics impacts upon and harms the lives of non-human animals, but also how the tools of political power might be harnessed to ensure that they can lead flourishing lives. He has published 4 single-authored books on these issues, including, Sentientist Politics, which won the Susan Strange best book prize for 2019.
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Ben Purvis is a fixed term researcher at the Sheffield University Management School. Ben is currently working on the Horizon 2020 project 'A Just Transition to a Circular Economy' (JUST2CE), leading on the scoping of a decision support tool for envisioning pathways to more equitable and sustainable practices. Ben's PhD work focused on the conceptualisation of sustainability at an urban scale.
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Danielle is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield, UK. She is a Director of the Urban Flows Observatory, leading research on understanding the use and stock of resources in cities. She is the principal investigator of the EPSRC funded grant 'multi-scale, circular economic potential of the non-residential building stock and the co-creator of regenerate - a tool that explores 'how circular is my building' - in order to engage design teams to embed circular economy strategies into building design. Danielle is passionate about reducing the impact of the built environment on the planet. She particularly focuses on methods to reduce the demand for new material use, e.g. through increased retrofit to extend building lifetimes and reduce operational carbon, as well as applying circular economy principles to new built environment design.
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Charles is a Grantham Scholar and PhD student in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering. His research sits within the Urban Flows Observatory and considers how we can generate more sustainable housing through the vertical extension of existing buildings.
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I am a Landscape Architect and a Town Planner who hails from West Pokot County, Kenya. I did my honours degree in Landscape Architecture at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya and further got my Masters’ degree in Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Since 2014 I have worked for West Pokot County Government in Kenya as a Chief Superintending Architect in the Department of Public Works. A position I hold until now even as I pursue my doctoral studies at the University of Sheffield on a study leave under sponsorship from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and partly from the Grantham Centre.
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Janet has a PhD in Biochemical Engineering which led to her becoming a Professor and ultimately Dean of Science and Technology at Teesside University - whilst carrying out her research at Durham. She was awarded an OBE in 2000, ‘For Services to Science and Technology’. Janet was also the Chair of several high profile Government committees, a senior examiner and expert in research policy. She delivered several consultancy projects for clients such as The University of Cambridge and the Research Councils. Upon retirement from academia Janet was approached to work as a specialist advisor for the Government working with departments such as UK Trade and Invest (Now Department of International Trade), Health and Defra. As a Grantham Ambassador she hopes to support research excellence and transmit her extensive experience and enthusiasm for multilateral thinking to the students.
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Ambreen is globally recognized for innovative pioneering work on Responsible Business Policies and Practices, Sustainability Risk Management, Ethical Environment, Equity Analysis and Responsible Investments. She founded and co-founded several global & regional organisations / initiatives (e.g. GRLI, SAFORB, SAARB, RBI). She designed frameworks for Ethics, Equity, Environment, Anti-Corruption, Innovative financing and Responsible entrepreneurship and transparent Reporting (SDGs, ESG, SA800, GRI Guidelines, Circularity, Blockchains). Ambreen has also served on multiple governance boards, advisory committees and strategy teams of global multilateral, academic and business organisations (e.g. UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNDP, UN Global Compact, GRI, KAN-SCP, APRSCP, Transparency Int., SAI, AccountAbility, Nike, ESSEC & Wharton Business School, Petrobras). She has extensive experience in integrating Responsibility into Corporate and its Supply Chains (Soccer Ball, Leather, Fertilizer, Sugar, Textile, Packaging etc.).
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David was appointed as Director General for Food, Farming, Animal and Plant Health at Defra in January 2017. Previously he was the UK Department for International Development’s first Director General for Economic Development. He has worked on development finance, strategy and investment at the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He was also the founding Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change, an independent advisory body to the UK Government and Devolved Administrations.
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In the more than 20 years that Dr Gavin Milligan has spent in the food industry, he has amassed considerable experience of the agri-food supply chain from a number of perspectives, in roles up to and including Board level. He has spent ten years delivering the sustainability strategy for a national-scale branded food producer and retailer and its broad range of subsidiaries, and continues to support them. All of this has given him the opportunity to work closely with many of the leading organisations in the field, such as The Institute of Food Science and Technology, The Food and Drink Federation, Food sector Knowledge Transfer Network and many more. He started Green Knight Sustainability Consulting to work with businesses which may not have their own experienced sustainability personnel, to help them with implementing the sustainability strategies that are sought by customers, prospective employees and other stakeholder groups.
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