Jacqueline McGlade

Director, Science Division, United Nations Environment Programme

Jacqueline McGlade is currently Chief Scientist and ad interim Director of UNEP’s Division of Early Warning and Assessment. Prior to joining UNEP as Special Advisor to the Executive Director on knowledge management and science, Professor Jacqueline McGlade was Executive Director of the European Environment Agency from 2003-2013. Before this, she was Professor in Environmental Informatics in the Department of Mathematics at University College London, Director of the Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences of the UK Natural Environment Research Council, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, Director of Theoretical Ecology at the FZ Jülich and Senior Scientist at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in the Federal Government of Canada. Professor McGlade has held a number of key advisory roles, including the Environment Agency for England and Wales, Trustee of the Natural History Museum,  European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity,  International Resource Panel  the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research and in various international research programmes on global systems modelling, oceanography and fisheries, governance, climate change and adaptation, indigenous knowledge. She is also a member of a number of environmental prize juries. Her activities continue to be focused on participatory knowledge systems and citizen science, the dynamics of ecosystems and planetary systems, sustainable development and the governance of natural resources, environmental informatics with particular reference to socio-economic transitions, technological innovation and policy analysis. She has over 200 peer-reviewed papers, articles, books and legal submissions to the International Court of Justice and has produced and presented award winning feature films, TV and radio series. As founder of her own software company, she has developed many software systems and applications particularly in the area of fuzzy logic and decision-making under high uncertainty. She has been elected as a fellow of two learned societies (FLS and FRSA) and has received international prizes and honours from Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Romania, Sweden, UK, the USA including the Zayed prize as a team member of the Millennium Assessment and Global Citizen 2013 for her work on environmental informatics and citizen science.