WAAS Board of Trustees

Zbigniew Bochniarz

Zbigniew Bochniarz became a WAAS Fellow in 2004 nominated by Harlan Cleveland. His interests within WAAS focus on environmental, economic and social problems and collaboration with South European Section. Zbigniew joined the Evans School faculty as a visiting professor in 2007. His teaching and research focus on sustainable development, comparative environmental policies, microeconomics of competition, and sustainability assessment of the transformation processes in post-communist countries. He is the author, co-author and/or editor of over 100 publications, including 15 books published on three continents in 12 languages. Since 2005, Zbigniew has been affiliate member of the Microeconomics of Competitiveness program at Harvard Business School. He has previously served as a visiting professor and senior fellow from 1986 to 2006 at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He also served on the faculty at the Warsaw School of Economics from 1968 to 1985. He is the founder of the Center for Nations in Transition at the Humphrey Institute, which has initiated more than 20 projects raising $38 million and training 44,000 people in the countries of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Zbigniew served as chairman of Environmental Partnership for Central Europe (Polish Chapter) Board of Trustees, honorary president of the ETP Foundation in Romania, and founding member of the ETP foundations in Bulgaria and Slovakia, the Center for Environmental Studies in Budapest, the Institute for Environmental Policy in Prague, the Institute for Sustainable Development in Warsaw, and the Energy Efficiency Foundation in Poland. Zbigniew holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Warsaw School of Economics and honorary doctorate from the Miskolc University.

Emil Constantinescu

Emil Constantinescu is currently professor at the Bucharest University Doctoral School and was Romanian President from 1996 to 2000.

From 1966, he was assistant, lecturer, at the Faculty of Geology at the University of Bucharest. He is author of 12 specialty books. He published over 60 studies in the most important scientific magazines from Romania and abroad.

Within his civic activities, he engages in the effort to set up the democracy in Romania, to defend human fundamental rights and freedom, and in building the civil society.  Proposed by the University Solidarity and the Civic Alliance, as unique candidate of the RDC for the presidential elections in 1992. After this first political experience, the Democratic Convention elected him as its president. Their party won in 1996 the local and parliamentary elections and Emil Constantinescu was elected through direct vote President of Romania on a four-year term. During his presidential mandate (1996-2000) Romania has engaged in a large-scale process of reform in economy, justice and administration. He opened the crucial way for Romania towards NATO and EU.

Later, Emil Constantinescu resumed his academic career and made further steps to consolidate the nongovernmental organizations role. He launched the XXI European Generation Forum and founded the Romanian Academic Forum. In 2008 founded the New Democracies Forum. He is awarded several prizes, among others the Prize of Romanian Academy; Palmas Academicas; Golden and Honorific medals from Comenius University in Bratislava. He was president of the international commission for supervising the parliamentary elections (2001) and presidential elections (2007) in Senegal and of the parliamentary elections in Tunisia (2011).

He graduated in judicial studies from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest and is assigned as probationer judge at Pitesti Local Court. The political climate forced him to attend the courses of the Geology. He became a doctor in Geology from the University of Bucharest; Doctor ès Sciences from the Duke University, USA.

Jonathan Granoff

Mr. Granoff is the President of the Global Security Institute.

He is an attorney, author, and international advocate emphasizing the legal and ethical dimensions of human development and security, with a specific focus on advancing the rule of law to address international security and the threats posed by nuclear weapons.

He serves on numerous governing and advisory boards including: Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Fortune Forum, Jane Goodall Institute, the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, and Middle Powers Initiative. He is a recipient of the Rutgers University School of Law’s Arthur E. Armitage Distinguished Alumni Award and a 2014 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the Senior Advisor and United Nations Representative of the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates, Ambassador for Peace, Security and Nuclear Disarmament of the Parliament of the Worlds Religions, former Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law, and Chair of the Task Force on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Advisor to the Committee on National Security of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Granoff is the award-winning screenwriter of The Constitution: The Document that Created a Nation and a prolific author. He has been a featured guest and expert commentator on numerous radio and television programs and has presented expert testimony in the Parliaments of Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the US Congress and the United Nations.

Mr. Granoff earned his BA (cum laude) from Vassar College and his Juris Doctorate from Rutgers University School of Law.

Garry Jacobs

Garry Jacobs is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Academy; Chairman of the Board & CEO of World University Consortium; Managing Editor of Cadmus Journal; President of The Mother's Service Society (MSS), a social science research institute in Pondicherry, South India; and Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Person-Centered Approach Institute, Italy. Garry is an American-born international consultant on management and economic development. He has been a Fellow of WAAS since 1995 and a member of the Board of Trustees since 2005, serving as Chairman of the Board 2011-2013 and as CEO since 2011. From 1972 he has been engaged in research at MSS on economic, social development, employment, organizational theory, psychology, education and psychology and development strategies for the Government of India. In 1989 he founded the International Commission on Peace and Food and served for five years as its Member-Secretary, convener of ICPF’s working groups on Employment and on Transition in Eastern Europe, coordinator of the ICPF research team that evolved a strategy to generate 100 million new jobs in India, and editor of the Commission's report to the UN entitled Uncommon Opportunities: Agenda for Peace and Equitable Development. Garry is also a management consultant and partner since 1987 in Mira International, a consulting firm providing management guidance to firms in a wide range of industries in the USA, Europe and India. His work includes assignments for small, medium and large corporations on strategies to elevate corporate values, accelerate growth, and improve profitability. He is author of hundreds of articles on economic, business and global affairs and co-author of two business books on the process of corporate growth, a book on Indian development and a novel on spirituality and business. He is also member of the Club of Rome. 

Donato Kiniger-Passigli

Donato Kiniger Passigli is Vice President of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) and is the WAAS Representative to the UN in Geneva. He currently serves as Senior Advisor for Peace and Security at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

He is a journalist and a member of the Italian Press Federation. Donato is an expert in crisis resolution, development cooperation, public and labor affairs. Until recently, he coordinated the Fragile States and Disaster Response Group at the International Labour Organization (ILO). Donato specialized in promoting crisis response programs and initiatives in the wake of major humanitarian crises, addressing governance and employment deficits.

In his over 30 years at the United Nations, he was also a spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office (OCHA) and head of the Media and Public Affairs branch of the Hague-Based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Donato also served as chief of staff for the UN mission in Western Sahara and was head of external relations at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former-Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Previously, he acted as head of office in Belgrade for the UN peacekeeping mission and, as an economic affairs officer, managed large UN development programmes.

Donato specialized in humanitarian action and governance, conflict analysis, risk management, disaster needs assessment, business continuity and partnership-building. He authors articles, delivers lectures and training on the above subjects.

Rajendra Pachauri

Rajendra K. Pachauri is the President, World Sustainable Development Forum and Former Director General of the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, India, a major independent research organization providing knowledge on energy, environment, forestry, biotechnology, and the conservation of natural resources. He is recognized internationally for his efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change. He received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 and remained the Chairman of this organization from April 2002 to February 2015. He was the Founding Director of the Yale Climate and Energy Institute, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, during the period from July 2009 to June 2012 and then Senior Adviser to this Institute between July 2012 and June 2014. He is active in several international forums dealing with the subject of climate change and its policy dimensions. He was awarded the second-highest civilian award in India, the Padma Vibhushan, by the President of India in January 2008 and received the Officier De La Légion D'Honneur from the Government of France in 2006. Also, he was conferred with the Commander of the Order of Leopold II by the King of the Belgians in July 2009; the Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland by the Prime Minister of Finland in February 2010; the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by His Majesty Akihito, the Emperor of Japan, in April 2010; the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle by the President of Mexico in June 2012; and the Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy by the President of the Republic of Italy in February 2014. He has been awarded 25 honorary doctorates from the universities across the globe.

Remus Pricopie

Remus Pricopie is a professor and Rector of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, since March 2012.

His activity within the Romanian Ministry began in 1996, and includes positions such as Spokesperson, Director, Secretary-General and Deputy Minister (Secretary of State) for Higher Education, International Relations and Teacher Training. Also, he has extensively collaborated with many international organizations – UNESCO, UNICEF, EU, OECD, World Bank, United Nation University, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie – and ministries of education / higher education and research from more than 100 countries. From December 2012 to December 2014 he served as Minister of Education and Research in Romania.

Prof. Pricopie holds a Ph.D. in Political Science at the SNSPA and he is a Fulbright New Century Scholar alumnus, a World Academy of Art and Science Fellow, a member of the Romanian Chapter of the Club of Rome, and a member of the Atlantis Group.

Thomas Reuter

Prof Thomas Reuter was born in Germany in 1961 and migrated to Australia in 1981. After BA studies at the University of Melbourne (UoM), he obtained a PhD from the Australian National University in 1997. He first taught at Heidelberg University in his native Germany, before taking up post-doctoral and QE-II Fellowships at UoM, a Research Fellowship at Monash University, and an ARC Future Fellowship back at UoM. He is currently a Professor in Asian Anthropology at UoM’s Asia Institute. He was President of the Australian Anthropological Association (2002-2005), executive member and chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (2004/2008-2012), Senior Vice-President of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (2008-2018), and has been a leading figure in the internationalisation of his discipline. He then was elected to the executive of the International Social Science Council (2013-2018), as it merged with ICSU to form the new International Science Council (ISC). He has served as an expert advisor to IPCC, IPBES, WSDR, UNESCO and several national governments. He is currently a member of the board of WAAS and also of Future Earth (Asia Regional Center), as well as a fellow of the European Academy of Science (EASA) and Academia Europaea (EA). Twenty-five years of research in Asia (Indonesia) have focused on indigenous people, social movements, religious change, political and economic elites, ecology, climate change, food security, and globalisation. Prof Reuter has published fifteen books and over 150 articles.

Marcel Van de Voorde

Prof. Marcel Van de Voorde has Ph.D. degrees in natural and technical sciences. He is a professor from the University of Technology, DELFT (NL), and visiting professor at recognized universities worldwide. He also had research direction functions at CERN (European organization for nuclear research), Geneva in Switzerland, European Commission Research in Brussels, and Max Planck Institute at Stuttgart in Germany. He is co-founder of IMEC, a technology Centre in Leuven, Belgium with 2000 science employees. Prof. Van de Voorde is a senator of the European Academy for Sciences and arts in Salzburg and a trustee at the world academy for sciences in the US. He is a member and/or chairman of multiple research councils and management boards all over the world. He is an expert in nanoscience and nanotechnology and recently edited an encyclopedia of 15 volumes published by Wiley Germany in 2017. He also co-authored a study book on Engineering, Medicine, and Science at the nano-Scale with prof. Stephen Fonash of Pen State University and director for nano-education at US-NSF in Washington

Moneef Zoubi

Working for Peace and Prosperity at the Global Level

Dr. Moneef R. Zou’bi has been an advocate of Science and Technology for Development for around 30 years. Born in Amman, Jordan, he studied for his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Civil Engineering Technology and Management Brighton and Loughborough Universities in the United Kingdom, 1980 - 1987. After becoming involved in global development issues, he successfully pursued further post-graduate work at the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Malaya. 

Moneef joined the Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) (an international scientific NGO based in Jordan and affiliated to the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC)) in 1990, embarking on a career in international scientific and technological collaboration involving more than 57 countries. After serving in various capacities at the IAS, he was appointed by the IAS Council as Director General, IAS, in May 1998. He also serves as the Science Advisor to the InterAction Council (IAC) which is an independent international organization that mobilizes the experience and international contacts of a group of statesmen who have held the highest office in their own countries.

Over the last three decades, he has been involved in scientific missions in more than 30 countries. He has, since the mid-1990s, devoted all his energies to science and innovation advocacy at all levels, and to promoting the role of science and academies of sciences in particular in bridging scientific and technological, development, and evenpolitical divides between countries, cultures and civilizations. 

He has written extensively on science and technology issues, science education and sustainable development, as well as on water issues from a Middle Eastern perspective, and has given lectures on such topics in over 25 countries including Canada and the United States. He has published over 60 publications and edited and co-edited 10 books on topics suchhigher education,the environment as well transformational technologies. In 2010, he co-authored the ground-breaking Arab States Chapter of the 2010 UNESCO Science Report that foresaw the advent of the Arab Spring and the associated turmoil in the Middle East. In 2015, he was commissioned again to be lead author of the Arab States Chapter of the 2015 UNESCO Science Report, which has been published in English and Arabic.

Apart from his work-related interests, he is interested in the history and politics of the Middle East, the history of science especially the history of academies of sciences, the science and religion nexus, science diplomacy as well as sustainable development and water issues in the developing world.

Moneef has visited more than 60 countries and enjoys high-level contact in most; he speaks Arabic, English and some French, and is a member of many international organizations including the UNESCO International Centre for South-South Co-operation in Science, Technology and Innovation (ISTIC), Malaysia; the New York Academy of Sciences; World Academy of Art and Science and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology; and is a Founding Fellow, of the Academy of Engineering and Technology for the Developing World (AETDEW), based in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Rosenberg International Water Forum, USA, since 2007; member (Ex-Officio) of the Council of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences, since 2009; member of the Advisory Board, Muslim-Science.Com, since 2011, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), since 2013; member - Board of Judges for the Templeton Prize involved in the selection of the Templeton Prize Laureate for 2018, 2019 and 2020.