Steering Committee

The following group of scientists currently acts as Steering Committee for MedECC. All members are present in personal capacity – they do not represent any institution or country. The Committee will be further extended to ensure better thematic and geographic coverage of Mediterranean environmental science. Wolfgang Cramer, Fatima Driouech and Joël Guiot currently act as coordinators of MedECC.

Current steering committee members

Marie-Claire Boillot

Marie-Claire Boillot

Union for the Mediterranean / Barcelona, Spain

Senior Energy and Climate Change Expert at the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UfMS) since November 2022, Marie-Claire Boillat has working in international cooperation for more than 18 years and dedicated her career to strengthen the security and well-being of populations including their resilience and responses to natural and human threats. She worked for more than 12 years in the Middle East (Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan) promoting initiatives and dialogues towards sustainable institutional reforms and renewable energy programs. Prior to joining the UfMS, she was head of the Global Threats Unit at Expertise France in the Peace, Security and Stability Department.

Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat

Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat

Saint Joseph University / Beirut, Lebanon

Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat is a plant geneticist working on biodiversity conservation. She is head of laboratory Biodiversity and Functional Genomics at the Faculty of Science at the Saint-Joseph University of Beirut. She is the co-founder and President of “Jouzour Loubnan”, an NGO dealing with forest ecosystem restoration.

Ghani Chehbouni

Ghani Chehbouni

Mohammed VI University Polytechnic (UM6P) / Benguerir, Morocco

Dr. Abdelghani Chehbouni the representative in Morocco of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). His main research interests include hydrology and the application of remotely sensed data in land-surface-atmosphere models especially in arid semi-arid regions.

Wolfgang Cramer

Wolfgang Cramer

IMBE / Aix-en-Provence, France

Wolfgang Cramer is an environmental geographer, global ecologist and research director at France’s Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology (IMBE). He has worked with the IPCC in various capacities since their Second Assessment Report. He is currently acting as co-coordinator of MedECC.

Fatima Driouech

Fatima Driouech

University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P) / Benguerir, Morocco

Prof. Fatima Driouech the Executive Coordinator of the Adaptation Metrics and Techniques Cluster at the UM6P. She is Vice-Chair of Working Group I of the IPCC and Co-Chair of the Focus Area I of the Commission Climatology (World Meteorological Organization). She is the MedECC co-coordinator.

Marianela Fader

Marianela Fader

Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) / Munich, Germany

Dr. Marianela Fader is the deputy director if the ICWRGC. She leads studies in the area of climate change impacts on food security, hydrology and irrigation water use (mainly on a global or large scale and using process-based modelling).

Carlo Giupponi

Carlo Giupponi

Ca’ Foscari University (UNIVE) and Venice International University (VIU) / Venice, Italy

Prof. Carlo Giupponi is Full Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Economics, UNIVE and Dean of the VIU. His research activity focuses on sustainability science and global change, with specific interests for valuation methods, scenario analysis and the integrated assessment of natural resources.

François Guerquin

François Guerquin

Plan Bleu / Marseille, France

Mr François Guerquin is the director of Plan Bleu. He has an expertise on water, biodiversity and sustainable development at international level. He was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB), before becoming the Science-Policy Director of the Wetlands Ramsar Convention.

Joël Guiot

Joël Guiot

CEREGE / Aix-en-Provence, France

Joël Guiot is a CNRS researcher emeritus at the European Centre for Research and Training in Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE). His main research work concerns the impact of past, present and future climate change on Mediterranean ecosystems. He is a lead author for the IPCC special report, SR1.5 and the MedECC co-coordinator.

Ethemcan Turhan

Ethemcan Turhan

University of Groningen / Groningen, The Netherlands

Dr Ethemcan Turhan is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Planning. His research focuses on political ecology with empirical attention to environmental conflicts, energy infrastructures, social movements, and climate mobilities mainly in Türkiye, the larger Middle East, and the Mediterranean.

Arnau Queralt Bassa

Arnau Queralt Bassa

Advisory Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS) / Barcelona, Spain

Arnau Queralt Bassa is Director of CADS since October 2011. Since 2017, he is the Secretary of the Interministerial Commission for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Catalonia and, from 2020, member of the Sectorial Commission for the 2030 Agenda in Spain on behalf of the Government of Catalonia.

Piero Lionello

Piero Lionello

University of Salento / Lecce, Italy

Prof Piero Lionello is a physician specialised in atmospheric physics and oceanography. He is the chairman of the MedCLIVAR (Mediterranean CLImate VARiability) network, has been member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ECMWF (European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast). He has been a leading author of the IPCC WG2-AR6 chapters devoted to "Eurpope" and "The Mediterranean"

Maria Carmen Llasat

Maria Carmen Llasat

University of Barcelona / Barcelona, Spain

Prof. María Carmen Llasat is a physician. Her research focuses on the study of natural risks of meteorological origin and the impact of climate change on them, as well as the improvement of citizen awareness and resilience in the face of extreme events.She is the coordinator of the Meterology Research Group of the University of Barcelona.

Manfred A. Lange

Manfred A. Lange

The Cyprus Institute / Nicosia, Cyprus

Dr Manfred A. Lange was the founding Director of the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus (2007-2015). He is the Director of the Future Earth MENA Regional Center. His expertise includes the climate change impacts on water and energy security, renewable energies, and energy and water use efficiency.

Ilias Mavroeidis

Ilias Mavroeidis

UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention Secretariat / Athens, Greece

Dr. Ilias Mavroeidis is a Programme Management Officer (Governance) at the UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan Coordinating Unit - Barcelona Convention Secretariat. He is a chemical engineer with a PhD in atmospheric pollution and has a long experience on environmental management and technology, both from a scientific and a policy perspective.

Shlomit Paz

Shlomit Paz

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa / Haifa, Israel

Prof. Shlomit Paz is the Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Haifa. She is a climatologist and environmental health researcher who investigates the impacts of climate change on the human health and security.

Past steering committee members

Ines Duarte

Ines Duarte

Union for the Mediterranean / Barcelona, Spain

Ines Duarte is a specialist in Climate Finance. She is currently a Project Manager at the Energy and Climate Action Division of the Secretariat of the Union of the Mediterranean.

Arnault Graves

Arnault Graves

Conservatoire du Littoral / Boulogne-sur-Mer, France

Arnault Graves is a North Sea, Chanel Delegate (Délégué Manche, Mer du Nord) at Conservatoire du Littoral. Between October 2017 and September 2021 he was Senior Climate Adviser of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (seconded by the French Ministry for Ecological and Inclusive Transition).

Samir Grimes

Samir Grimes

National High School of Marine Sciences and Coastal Management / Algiers, Algeria

Dr Samir Grimes is a professor at the National High School of Marine Sciences and Coastal Management (Algeria), specialising in marine ecology and biodiversity, non-indigenous species, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and integrated coastal zone management.

Julien Le Tellier

Julien Le Tellier

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) / Beirut, Lebanon

Julien Le Tellier works as Economic Affairs Officer at ESCWA. He was Programme Management Officer in charge of Socio-Economic Affairs at the UNEP/MAP – Barcelona Convention Secretariat in Athens, Greece (2017-2022). Supporting the work of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD), this position followed his long engagement with Plan Bleu Regional Activity Centre (UNEP/MAP) in Marseille, France.

Elen Lemaître-Curri

Elen Lemaître-Curri

CIHEAM / Montpellier, France

Elen Lemaître-Curri is a deputy director of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier (CIHEAM IAMM). She was a director of Plan Bleu between (09.2017-08.2020). Her expertise covers agricultural, environmental and sustainable development, public policies, international cooperation and science-decision interfaces.

Cyril Moulin

Cyril Moulin

Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) / Paris, France

Dr Cyril Moulin is the Deputy Director of the Research and Innovation Strategy Department at the MESRI. He was the Deputy Director of the National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy, INSU-CNRS (2018-2021). He was a researcher at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).