Scientific and Technical Committee

ELISABETH AYRAULT

Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Executive Board of CNR from 2013 to September 2021, Elisabeth Ayrault founded IAGF with Erik Orsenna. She is also Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of SNCF Réseau.

She is the author of the book Les Leçons du Rhône: Que serions-nous sans les fleuves? (Lessons from the Rhône: What would we be without rivers?), published by Actes Sud (2021). Convinced that political action alone is not enough to meet climate and environmental challenges, she advocates for businesses to take a more important role in the energy transition and the preservation of ecosystem balance.

JEAN JALBERT 

Director General of the Tour du Valat

After gaining professional experience in the fields of the environment, agriculture, business management and professional training, Jean Jalbert joined the Tour du Valat in 1994 as a project manager. In 1998, he was appointed Director of Conservation, then Director General in 2004. Over the years, he has taken an interest in various subjects such as training engineering, the development and management of local, national and international projects, the development of partnerships and networks, strategic planning, team management and business development. He is a member of the steering committee of the MedWet Initiative and a director of several nature conservation organisations such as Eurosite, Wetlands International European Association, the Society for the Protection of Prespa (SPP – Greece), the Conservatoire du Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres, the French Committee of the IUCN and the Ramsar France association.

KATHERINE DANIELL

Doctor, researcher and professor at the Australian National University. Director of the Australian National School of Cybernetics.
Member of the Australian National Water Engineering Committee; Specialist in water governance and participatory processes.

Katherine Daniell has worked in France, Australia, Bulgaria and the Pacific on projects related to water governance, risk management, community resilience, urban development, climate change adaptation and international scientific and technological cooperation. She is the author of numerous publications and has received various awards and distinctions for her work.

PASCAL BOURDEAUX

Historian, Director of Research at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Religions of Southeast Asia).

Specialist in the religious and cultural history of Vietnam (19th-20th centuries); he contributes in particular to research projects on the hydraulic development of the Mekong Delta and the development of a riverine civilisation, combining historical documentation and field surveys.

CORINNE CASTEL 

Archaeologist, Director of Research at the CNRS, Director of Archaeological Missions in Al-Rawda (Syria) and Bat/Al-Arid (Sultanate of Oman) attached to the ‘Archéorient. Environment and Societies of the Ancient East’ laboratory at the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée (Lyon).

Specialist in the Pre-Classical Near East (Bronze Age), her research covers various topics related to riverine societies in the Near East: Urbanisation in Syro-Mesopotamia, early cities / Housing and urban planning / Religious architecture / Human adaptation strategies in steppe areas / Nomads and sedentary peoples on the arid margins of the Fertile Crescent.

DOMINIQUE BEROD

Head of the Earth System Monitoring Division of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)

He is responsible for WMO activities related to monitoring and information systems for hydrology, the cryosphere and the oceans, supporting member countries and relevant organisations in the development and operation of measurement networks and information systems, including through innovative approaches. He also manages relations with UN bodies and other international organisations, basin commissions and other regional institutions.

GILLES MULHAUSER 

Ecologist, biologist, former Director General of Water for the State of Geneva

Working professionally since 1987 in impact studies, wetland ecosystem management and environmental services in agriculture, Gilles was responsible for 25 years for the Geneva Water Authority, the public administration in charge of nature and landscape. He managed around 100 employees responsible for implementing public water policy and, in this capacity, chaired the operational committee of the International Commission for the Protection of Lake Geneva (CIPEL) until 2019.

CAROLA HEIN

Professor of Architectural History and Urban Planning at Delft University of Technology, Leiden University and Erasmus University, Director of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus PortCityFutures Centre

Carola Hein holds the UNESCO Chair in Water, Ports and Historic Cities and heads the LDE PortCityFutures Centre. She has published extensively in the field of architectural history, urbanism and planning, linking historical analysis to contemporary development.

Among her recent (co-)edited works are: Port City Atlas (2023), Oil Spaces (2021), Urbanisation of the Sea (2020), Adaptive Strategies for Water Heritage (2020), and The Routledge Planning History Handbook (2018).

TAMSIR NDIAYE

Former Managing Director of the Manantali Energy Management Company (SOGEM) in Mali.

A Senegalese national, Tamsir Ndiaye is a design engineer specialising in mining and geology. He was Managing Director of the Diama Management and Exploitation Company (SOGED) and Director of Environment and Sustainable Development at the Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS) before becoming Managing Director of the Manantali Energy Management Company (SOGEM) until 2021. He was responsible for coordinating numerous projects relating to water use management and the impacts of hydroelectric developments in the Senegal River basin. For more than 10 years, he was also Coordinator of the African Network of Basin Organisations (ANBO) and a member of the Liaison Bureau of the International Network of Basin Organisations (INBO).

JAMES SPALDING HELLMERS

Chief Executive Officer of ATOME Energy, Former Paraguayan Chief Executive Officer of Itaipu Binacional

James Spalding Hellmers has held numerous senior positions within the Paraguayan government. He served as Minister of Finance (2002) and Ambassador of the Republic of Paraguay to the United States (2009). He was Paraguayan Managing Director of Itaipu Binacional, a joint venture between Paraguay and Brazil responsible for the management and operation of the hydroelectric power plant of the same name, from 2013 to 2018. He is currently the CEO of ATOME Energy, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange and dedicated to the large-scale development of green hydrogen.

He regularly speaks in Paraguay and internationally on various topics related to hydroelectricity, economic globalisation and regionalisation, and international relations.