Appendix C
Biographical Sketches of Steering Committee Members and Presenters
CHRISTOPHER SCOTT (Chair, Workshop Steering Committee) is director of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona, where he is also professor of water resources geography. He is also director of the Consortium for Arizona-Mexico Arid Environments, a consortium that supports applied research in the binational U.S.-Mexico drylands. Previously, he was the Asia regional director of the International Water Management Institute. His work has addressed water resources and policy, water reuse, the water-energy-food nexus, transboundary water and climate adaptation, and global change. He is the founder of the AQUASEC Center of Excellence for Water Security, a virtual center and network of researchers and decision makers. He has a B.S. and a B.A. from Swarthmore College and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in hydrology from Cornell University.
LAUREANO ALVAREZ (Presenter) is a project manager at the North American Development Bank (NADB). In that capacity, he has worked as a process engineer at three major firms in Mexico and participated in the development of more than 70 environmental assessments and 15 other studies related to environmental permits and industrial process rick analyses. Previously at NADB, he coordinated the development of a scope of work for compliance with the Border Environmental Infrastructure Fund Program requirements. He has overseen the development of water and wastewater management systems in cities throughout Mexico, as well as projects in Argentina, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica. He has a B.S. in chemical engineering from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and is a certified wastewater treatment plant operator.
ISMAEL AGUILAR BARAJAS (Presenter) is a professor and researcher in economics and sustainable development at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, where he coordinates a research group related to economic issues on Mexico’s northern border. His research themes have included environmental sustainability, diagnostics related to water infrastructure, and water and agricultural productivity, as well as a study on the economic integration of the northeast of Mexico with Texas. Previously, he was a professor and researcher at the Colegio de México and consulted for a variety of private- and public-sector entities. He is a recipient of the Rómulo Garza award for social science and humanities research. He has a B.S. in civil engineering from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in regional and urban planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
JOSÉ LUIS CASTRO RUÍZ (Presenter) is a professor and researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Monterrey, Mexico, where he also serves as academic affairs director and head of the Urban and Environmental Studies Department. His research focuses on urban development and the comparative water management along the U.S.-Mexico border. Previously, he taught at San Diego State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Nuevo León, and El Colegio de San Luis. He has also done consulting work for various government agencies, in both Mexico and the United States. His latest research projects have focused on integrated water resources management at the watershed level and water resources and sustainability management strategies for transboundary watersheds along the U.S.-Mexico border. He has a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the University of Southern California.
ALFONSO CORTEZ LARA (Member, Steering Committee) is a professor of urban and environmental studies at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) in Mexico. He is also an international consultant on environmental and water management and projects for the World Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the North American Development Bank, the Commission for Border Ecological Cooperation, Baja California State Water Commission, Tahal CONTEC Association (Israel-Ecuador) and the Ford Foundation. Previously, he served as COLEF’s regional director in Mexicali. He has authored and coauthored numerous articles on climate change and on binational water management between the United States and Mexico. He has a Ph.D. in resource development from Michigan State University.
HALLIE EAKIN (Member, Steering Committee) is a senior sustainability scientist and associate professor in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute
of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Her recent research has investigated economic globalization, agricultural change, and rural vulnerability to climate in the context of comparative international projects; it involved case studies in Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala, and Honduras. She has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on projects in agricultural development, the use of seasonal forecasting in drought risk mitigation, and adaptation to anticipated climate change impacts on urban water availability. She has a B.A. in environmental studies from Brown University, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Arizona.
ANA ESCALANTE HERNÁNDEZ (Presenter) is director of the National Laboratory of Sustainability Sciences at the Instituto de Ecología at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her work focuses on the value of biodiversity and the consequences of its disturbance at the global level, using molecular tools for the taxonomic, genetic and functional characterization of communities or populations. She has developed collaborations with biotechnologists to study the diversity-function relationship in microbial communities and other biochemical processes. She has received several honors and has coauthored articles in many scientific journals. She has a B.S. in biology and a Ph.D. in ecology, both from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
JOSÉ FRANCO (Presenter) is the chief coordinator of the of the Foro Consultivo Científico y Tecnológico, and Professor at the Institute of Astronomy at UNAM (IAUNAM). He was head of UNAM’s Directorate for the Dissemination of Science, and served as director of IAUNAM for eight years. His work focused on star formation and the promotion of astronomy on the national and international level. He is a recognized researcher, a very active organizer of international scientific meetings and an enthusiastic promoter of science in Mexico, especially among young people. He was appointed president of the Mexican Academy of Sciences from 2013-2014 and has won several awards, including L’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, a French award given to scientists who work to promote education. He has also organized an annual nationwide program called Night of the Stars, which encourages the public to take part in astronomy, and has attracted nearly two million people to observe the stars in its ten editions. He received his B.S. in physics from UNAM, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
JEFF HERRICK (Presenter) is a soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Las Cruces, New Mexico,
and he holds adjunct faculty appointments at New Mexico State University and the University of Colorado Boulder. He works closely with the federal agencies on the development and application of rangeland assessment and monitoring protocols. He also serves on the Internal Resource Panel of the U.N. Environment Program, is the U.S. science representative to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, and leads development of the global Land-Potential Knowledge System of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He has a B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College, an M.S. in agricultural science from Lincoln College in New Zealand, and a Ph.D. in agronomy from Ohio State University.
ELISABETH HUBER-SANNWALD (Member, Steering Committee) is an associate professor in the Division of Environmental Studies at the Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (IPICYT). Prior to joining IPICYT, she held positions at the Technische Universität München in Weihenstephan, Germany, and at the Instituto de Ecología at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina. Her current research activities include analyzing ecosystem response and feedback mechanisms to variable abiotic and biotic environments at different spatial and temporal scales in the semi-arid and arid regions of Northern Mexico and conducting integrated assessment of biophysical and socioeconomic factors and drivers that cause desertification and land degradation in socioecological systems. She has an M.S. in biology and botany from the University of Innsbruck in Austria and a Ph.D. in range ecology from Utah State University.
DOUG LIDEN (Presenter) works at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he is responsible for developing U.S. and Mexico jointly financed wastewater, drinking water, and stormwater projects in Mexico’s southwest border region. He also manages EPA-funded research of stormwater-generated erosion in the Tijuana watershed. Previously, he taught classes in Costa Rica for the Ministry of the Environment and the National University. He also wrote federal wastewater discharge permits for sewage treatment plants, ocean desalination plants, coal and copper mines, tuna canneries, paper mills, oil refineries, and power plants. He has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
CONSTANTINO MACÍAS GARCIA (Member, Steering Committee) is a researcher in the ecology department and the director of the Instituto de Ecología at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). His work has focused primarily on sexual selection, trying to help understanding of the origin and consequences of male ornamentation, which he studies in fish and in birds. More recently he has also studied the evolutionary consequences of animals’ adaptation to the human-created conditions in
the environment, such as noise pollution and the omnipresence of rubbish. He writes extensively on these topics. He has a B.S. and an M.S. in biology from UNAM and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.
MARÍA AMPARO MARTÍNEZ ARROYO (Member, Steering Committee) is director of the Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Cambio Climático. The major focus of her work is in the analysis of environmental problems, as well as in the relations between science and society. She collaborated in the design of the National Clean Beaches Program and in the development of a scientific strategy for the construction of networks of marine protected natural areas in North America in the face of climate change; and has spearheaded the topic of climate change in the Citizen Agenda of Science, Technology and Innovation. Previously, she served as director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) where she was also principal investigator and coordina tor of the Atmospheric Aerosol group. While at UNAM, she designed and launched the University Network of Atmospheric Observatories. She has a B.S. and an M.S. in biology from UNAM and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Barcelona.
NATALIA MARTÍNEZ TAGÜEÑA (Member, Steering Committee) is a researcher and professor at the Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica. Her work has concentrated in the Sonoran desert, where she has specialized in analysis and identification of plants to understand subsistence and climate in the past. She participated in several research projects in Costa Rica and Mexico studying early settlers and agriculture, as well as coastal adaptations and human impacts on the environment. She has collaborated with members of indigenous communities to map their cultural landscape. She is currently codirecting a paleoclimate and archeology project on the coast of Sonora and is a collaborator on a project on the residency of socioecosystems in the dry areas of Mexico. She has a B.S. in anthropology with a specialization in archeology from the University of the Americas, Puebla, Mexico, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in environmental anthropology from the University of Arizona, Tucson.
ANGELINA MARTÍNEZ-YRIZAR (Presenter) is an ecosystem ecologist at the Instituto de Ecología at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She analyzes the biodiversity of tropical dry forests and their resilience to extreme weather events, such as frost and hurricanes. Much of her research has focused on the Sonoran desert, including estimates of phytomass and comparisons between ecosystems at the local and regional scale. She is a member of the Mexico branch of the Long-Term Ecological
Research network. She has a B.S. and an M.S. in biology from UNAM and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Cambridge, England.
JORGE MORÁN ESCAMILLA (Presenter) is a professor and researcher at Catedrás-Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) within El Colegio de San Luis. His research focuses on risks and disasters in urban spaces, socio-environmental concerns in children from rural areas, and urban megaprojects. He is currently working on a project on strengthening social capacities in the face of hydrometeorological risks. He is a member of the Network of Disasters Associated with Hydrometeorological and Climate Phenomena at CONACyT. He has a B.S. in economics from Instituto Politecnico Nacional and an M.S. in urban studies and a Ph.D. in social science with specialization in sociology from El Colegio de México.
IGNACIO RODRIGUEZ-ITURBE (Member, Steering Committee) is the James S. McDonnell distinguished university professor and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University. He is also a distinguished research professor in the Engineering Experiment Station at Texas A&M University. His research focuses primarily on the dynamics of the interaction between climate, soil, and vegetation and he also studies ecohydrology, hydrogeomorphology, and surface hydrology. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Vatican Academy of Sciences, the Spain Royal Society of Sciences, the Mexican Academy of Engineering, the Venezuelan Academy of Engineering, the Instituto Veneto di Scienze, the Lettere de Arti, the Third World Academy of Sciences, the Water Academy (Uppsala, Sweden), and the Latin American Academy of Sciences. He has an M.S. from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from Colorado State University.
MARIA DEL ROSARIO SANCHEZ FLORES (Presenter) is a senior research scientist in the Texas Water Resources Institute at Texas A&M. As a research scientist for the institute, she is working on the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act Program to integrate research and data on transboundary aquifers between Mexico and Texas. More broadly, she has focused on transboundary issues between Mexico and the United States in all her academic and work positions. She is the editor of Texas Water Journal and has published widely on transboundary water issues. She has a B.S. in international relations from Monterrey Tech, an M.S. in diplomatic affairs from the Matias Romero Institute, and a Ph.D. in water management and hydrological sciences from Texas A&M University.
JURGEN SCHMANDT (Presenter) is professor emeritus at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he directed the Mitchell Center for Sustainable Development at the Houston Advanced Research Center, where he worked closely with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in developing its sustainability program. He also founded and directed two nongovernmental organizations—the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Coalition and the Paso del Norte Water Task Force. He also worked at the University of Bonn, the German Academic Exchange Service, OECD, Harvard University, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His work focuses on water policy, impacts of climate change, and sustainable development. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a distinguished fellow of the Houston Advanced Research Center. He is the editor-in-chief of a forthcoming Cambridge University/UNESCO book on sustainability of engineered rivers in arid lands. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Bonn in Germany.
KELLY TWOMEY SANDERS (Member, Steering Committee) is an assistant professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California. Her research aims to ease tensions between human and natural systems through technical, regulatory and market intervention, with particular emphasis on reducing the environmental impacts of providing energy and water services. She has authored more many publications and has given invited talks on topics at the intersection of engineering, science, and policy. Her research and commentary have been featured in media outlets such as Forbes, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American. She has a B.S. in bioengineering from the Pennsylvania State University and an M.S.E and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and environmental engineering, respectively, from the University of Texas at Austin.
ROBERT WASHINGTON-ALLEN (Member, Steering Committee) is an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. Previously, he taught and conducted research on geology, ecosystem science and management, and environmental studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Texas A&M University, and the University of Virginia. His work focuses on the environmental monitoring and assessment of ecosystems through the application of remote sensing technologies of which he has extensive experience. He has collaborated on grant-funded projects for several agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. He has
a B.S. in zoology from Ohio State University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in range ecology from Utah State University.
ELIZABETH WEIGHT (Presenter) is a regional drought information coordinator for the National Integrated Drought Information System of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado. She has worked extensively in the application of research to improve water management for better environmental and financial outcomes. That work has been carried out in 14 countries in Asia and Africa for the United Nations, nonprofit organizations, and the International Water Management Institute and the Water, Land and Ecosystems global research-for-development programs of CGIAR. She has a B.A. in international relations from Connecticut College and an M.S. in environmental management from Duke University.
JADWIGA (“JAD”) ZIOLKOWSKA (Presenter) is an assistant professor and environmental economist in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma and manager of the Water-Energy-Food Institute. Previously, she was a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, Berkeley, and a Marie Curie fellow of the European Union in the 7th Framework Program. Her work specializes in policy evaluation and decision-making support in the field of natural resource, environmental, bioenergy, agricultural economics, and sustainable resource management, and she has published widely. Her current research focus is on optimizing water management systems, desalination, biofuels, and socioeconomic implications of drought. She has both a Ph.D. and a habilitation degree in agricultural economics and policy from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.
