Prof. Halina Brown and Dr. Philip J Vergragt
Prof. Halina Brown
Halina Szejnwald Brown was a keynote speaker on a 2015 conference regarding urban sustainability.
Brown is a Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at Clark University. With a doctorate in chemistry, during the 1980s she was a chief toxicologist at Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Brown’s research and teaching at Clark University has evolved: from cancer research to risk assessment of environmental pollutants, to environmental health policy and corporate environmental management, to institutionalization of sustainability reporting, to socio-technical transitions and sustainable consumption. She was a visiting professor at several European universities; served on numerous committees of the National Academy of Sciences; and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the International Society for Risk Analysis. Her academic publications include three books and over 60 articles. Brown is also an energy activist in her home city of Newton, Massachusetts. Currently, Brown explores the interaction of technology, policy and culture in a transition to sustainable and prosperous future. She co-founded the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), a knowledge network of professionals working at the interface of material consumption, human fulfillment, and technological change.
Dr. Philip J Vergragt
Philip J Vergragt PhD is an academic and activist; a Fellow at Tellus Institute, Boston; and a Research Professor at Marsh Institute, Clark University, Worcester, MA; he is a Professor Emeritus of Technology Assessment at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. He has co-authored more than 80 scientific publications and three books. His main research interests are sustainable technological and social innovations in transportation, energy, and housing; grassroots innovations; socio-technical transitions; sustainable consumption and production; and technology assessment of emerging technologies. In the last five years, he has been the co-founder of SCORAI, the North American (and European) Sustainable Consumption and Action Initiative; of NARSPAC, the North American Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption; of WoHEC, the Worcester Housing, Energy, and Community group; and of GRF-SPaC, the Global Research Forum on SPaC, which held its inaugural meeting in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.
Dr. Vergragt obtained a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, in 1976.