Program 2020

Salman Khan is a graduate in Mathematics, Engineering and Information Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and did his master's degree in Business Management at the University of Harvard, after which he started working as a financial analyst. Khan set up Khan Academy in 2008 with an innovative teaching vision. A non-profit organisation with more than sixty million registered users in 190 countries, it offers practice exercises, teaching videos and a personalised learning panel in more than thirty languages, allowing students to learn at their own pace both in and out of the classroom. Like this Salman Khan has made a commitment to universal education and empowerment for people from an early age.

Researcher with CSIC, the Spanish scientific research council, at the CFM materials physics centre in San Sebastián where he leads the Nanophotonics Theory Group.  Javier Aizpurua gained his doctorate in Physics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in 1998 for work on the interaction of rapid electrons and nanostructures. After his pre-doctoral stage, he spent two periods as a post-doctoral researcher, one at Chalmers Technology University in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the other at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In 2004, Aizpurua joined DIPC, the Donostia International Physics Center, as a research fellow, starting to train a nanophotonics group. In 2008 he was awarded a permanent scientific place at the CSIC, taking responsibility for the photonics line of research at CFM, the Materials Physics Centre in San Sebastián, where he has worked ever since.

Rafael Bengoa trained as a doctor at the University of London, where he specialised in Community Health. He has pursued a career at both national and international level. He first made his professional mark in 1991 with several papers on social policy and health management addressed to the Spanish and Basque parliaments (April Report, ESADE Report). He also worked for fifteen years at the World Health Organization, where he headed the Healthcare Systems Directorate until 2007. In 2009 he was appointed minister of healthcare and consumer affairs in the Basque government, where he was in charge of implementing a more sustainable, proactive healthcare model focused on the needs of chronic patients. He is currently co-director, together with Patricia Arratibel, of the Healthcare and Strategy Institute (SIHealth), supporting governments and social and healthcare reforms in different countries. He is a Senior Fellow at Harvard.

Matt McGrath began his career working as the editor of technology journals. In 1997 he joined BBC Radio 5 as a science and technology specialist, and in 2006 he became a science and environment reporter for the BBC, in 2012 taking up his current position as environmental correspondent. In 2010-2011 he spent time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after receiving a Knight Science Journalism scholarship, the most prestigious award in the field of scientific and environmental journalism. As an environmental reporter he has covered a wide range of topics, from the marketing of the first transgenic foods to scientific reports and summits on climate change, a subject which, together with the crisis of biodiversity, he considers a top priority. His journalistic work, on online channels and television, is a point of reference for millions of people all over the world who seek rigorous information about global environmental issues.

Pedro Jordano is a biologist and CSIC researcher at the Doñana Biological Station. His research focuses on studying biodiversity from an ecological and evolutionary standpoint. He has won numerous national and international awards, including the 2018 Alejandro Malaspina National Award for Research into Science and Technology of Natural Resources, the 2018 Luis Balaguer Ecosystems Award, the British Ecological Society's Marsh Award in 2016, the 2014 King James I Award and the Ecological Society of America's Mercer Award in 2008.

Enrique Monasterio: Graduate in Industrial Engineering specialising in energy technologies at the Bilbao Engineering School, part of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), where he also did his doctorate in Thermal Engineering. He also holds a master's degree in Automotion Project Leadership from AIC. His career has always been linked to the energy sector. He is currently head of Development and Innovation at the Basque energy organisation EVE, where he has worked in different positions since 1992. From 2010 to 2016, and then in the first half of 2018, he held the position of general manager of the electric vehicle charging service provider IBIL (in which EVE and REPSOL each have a 50% holding) and its electric car-sharing subsidiary IBILEK.  For some years he combined his work at EVE with lecturing in thermodynamics at the Bilbao Engineering School, part of the University of the Basque Country.

Doctor in Biology, she is a professor and researcher in the Department of Plant Biology and Ecology at the UPV/EHU. In her research, the main objective is to clarify the interaction between the agents of climate emergency and biodiversity and sustainability, focusing on the mountain area.

Ana Galarraga Aiestaran estudió veterinaria y ciencia y tecnología de alimentos, pero ha desarrollado su carrera profesional en la divulgación de la ciencia en Elhuyar. Además de ser redactora de la revista Elhuyar, colabora en numerosos medios de comunicación. También organiza otras iniciativas para la divulgación de la ciencia, entre ellas, las dirigidas a niñas/os y jóvenes: sesiones de participación, certámenes, actividades en directo, cuentos, conferencias... En todos sus trabajos, da especial importancia a la igualdad, el euskera y la colaboración.

Prof. Sanz holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Universidad de Valencia (1991) and has expertise in several scientific areas like Ecophysiology, Air pollution effects, lower and higher plants, Atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, Nitrogen and carbon cycles, Greenhouse Gasses and other related gases, Greenhouse gas inventories, LULUCF and REDD+. She has been strongly involved in the policy dimension of Climate Change, guiding political decisions carried out at centres such as the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) or the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). She has an expertise on multilateral processes, regulatory frameworks, policy measures and instruments of Climate Change Policy, and led the implementation of different programmes with a multidisciplinary-based approach.

Prof. Sanz holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Universidad de Valencia (1991) and has expertise in several scientific areas like Ecophysiology, Air pollution effects, lower and higher plants, Atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, Nitrogen and carbon cycles, Greenhouse Gasses and other related gases, Greenhouse gas inventories, LULUCF and REDD+. She has been strongly involved in the policy dimension of Climate Change, guiding political decisions carried out at centres such as the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) or the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). She has an expertise on multilateral processes, regulatory frameworks, policy measures and instruments of Climate Change Policy, and led the implementation of different programmes with a multidisciplinary-based approach.