Visiting staff

The Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) has benefited from working in collaboration with various Visiting Staff from across a range of academic disciplines and vocational backgrounds. Visiting status is conferred by the Faculty, and all staff sit within one of our three key research themes.

SJ Beard

Dr SJ Beard is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, working on the contribution of environmental breakdown to global catastrophic risk and how to mitigate this, including climate change, biosphere disintegration, and geoengineering.

Their work covers a wide range of topics, with a particular focus on the evaluation and mitigation of environmental breakdown as a contributor to global catastrophic and existential risk.

They have published research into the ethics of human extinction and future generations; methods to study extreme, low probability, and unprecedented events; the history, present challenges, and possible future for Existential Risk Studies as a field, understanding and addressing the constraints that prevent decision makers taking action to keep us safe; and building existential hope in the possibility of safe, joyous, and inclusive futures for human beings on planet earth.

Their research interests include: Existential and Global Catastrophic Risk; Foresight and Horizon Scanning; Moral and Political Philosophy.

Nigel Cooper

Rev Canon Nigel Cooper joined the GSI as a Visiting Fellow in 2014. He has been the University Chaplain for ARU in Cambridge since 2005, a post he still holds.

He was Rector of Rivenhall and Silver End, Essex, for many years before that, and a visiting fellow at Essex University. Nigel is an Honorary Canon of Ely Cathedral.

Nigel has combined his ecological and church interests in four main ways: Ecological Consultant to the Church of England; promoting general environmental awareness and behaviour; encouraging a spiritual approach to nature and has led ‘nature and spirit’ retreats; and research into the philosophy of nature conservation and related topics.

Sally Daultrey

Bringing multidisciplinary methods to threat assessment and strategic communications challenges, Sally has advised companies and research teams worldwide, from boardrooms in Singapore to border camps in Central Asia. Her sector knowledge and professional practice spans science diplomacy, defence, technology innovation and research management. Her work has included contributions to the UK Science & Innovation Network, UKTI Mission to India, UN Summit on Water and Mountains, UK Research Councils Science Partnerships with India, Royal Society enquiry on the globalisation of science and NATO CCDCOE.

With 21 years’ experience in science diplomacy and the study of knowledge ecosystems, her research explores three core themes: (1) how people and organisations coalesce around novel insights and new knowledge to create networks that compete for access and influence; (2) how communication methods evolve in complex networks in response to shared risks, threats and opportunities, focusing particularly on the role of trust, the evolution of shared ontologies and the geopolitics of knowledge sharing; (3) how patterns of hierarchy, influence and privilege form around knowledge exchange. Her work on knowledge security and the protection of vulnerable knowledge has included case-studies on indigenous knowledge in marginalised communities, organisational change and geopolitics of information on shared global threats. Sally’s research on threat intelligence sharing is anchored in her role as a Research Affiliate at William & Mary Whole of Government Centre of Excellence, USA. She also serves as an advisor to National University of Singapore FinTech Lab.  She has worked pro-bono since 2008 in the western Himalayas and in Central Asia, advocating for including the role of indigenous and rural knowledge in research scholarship and dialogue on climate security and other global challenges. Her scholarly contributions have included research papers and conference presentations on cultures of knowledge exchange, with particular focus on communities that use non-digital forms of communication. Her pro-bono work has been presented at University of California San Diego, University of Central Asia, Yale University, University of Kashmir, King’s College London and University of Melbourne. She trained at Imperial College London, the Open University and King’s College London.

View Sally's research publications via ORCID.

Bob Evans

In the 1960s Dr Robert (Bob) Evans counted sheep for two years in the Peak District: there were too many of them and they created bare soil and caused erosion.

Bob came to Cambridge in late 1968 to research the use of remote sensing techniques for mapping soils. So started a lifetime of monitoring soil erosion in the UK. Much of the work on erosion in Britain was initiated by a short paper published by Bob in 1971.

In the mid-1980s he organised a scheme monitoring water erosion of arable land in 17 localities in lowland England and Wales. Because, uniquely, there has been much monitoring of erosion in farmers’ fields in Britain, we can compare that information with modelled information and have discovered that models overstate erosion. 

Bob has been an independent consultant since the late 1980s, most of that time also being a Research or Visiting Fellow in Cambridge Universities.

He has worked with government departments, the Environment Agency, a major NGO, companies, farmers and the NFU and on university research contracts, as well as being an expert witness in court.

His work in the uplands helped bring about changes in national grazing policy and he was an advisor to the Royal Commission on environmental pollution when it produced its report on Sustainable Use of Soil in 1996.

Bob now considers that soil erosion, although a problem over the long-term (in causing the loss of a resource) and short-term (causing pollution of water courses by sediment), nutrients and pesticides transported from the land in runoff is the more pressing issue.

Chloë Fiddy

Chloë Fiddy is an Honorary Research Fellow with a particular interest in green skills development.

She has previously worked at senior levels in the manufacturing and retail sectors and in climate and sustainable development planning roles in the public sector. While in the public sector she instigated a number of localised initiatives including active travel projects and home energy efficiency schemes.

Currently she leads on policy and engagement on climate change and energy and social sustainability at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. Within this remit she works on policy advocacy and practice guidance relating to transition planning, delivery, and reporting. These have a particular focus on the transition to a low emission and socially just economy.

She is also a Trustee at Uttlesford Citizens Advice and a District Councillor, with both of these roles giving her valuable hands-on experience of the challenges of negotiating a just transition in the modern economic environment. 

Sarah Hafner

Sarah is a research fellow at the ZHAW School of Engineering, where she investigates energy system transitions, applying system dynamics modelling.

In her research, Sarah applies a special focus on the simulation of socio-economic dynamics (e.g. barriers and enablers of different low-carbon energy technologies) and solutions that tackle identified barriers (e.g. new policies, regulations or business models).

Previously, she was a postdoc research fellow at the GSI and contributed to the BEIS-funded research project ‘Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition’.

Sarah has a background in economics (MSc) and system dynamics (MSc). Sarah’s ESRC-funded PhD investigated policy interventions to scale-up green finance into renewable energy infrastructure and the related macroeconomic implications thereof, using an own developed system dynamics energy-economy model.

Prior to her PhD, Sarah has worked at the Swiss Statistical Office and the German ‘Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)’. She has also held a position as lecturer at the Department of Economics and International Business at ARU.

Her key research interests include: Climate Economics; energy-economy modelling; sustainable finance; energy transitions; energy innovation; system dynamics; complexity and systems thinking; socio-technical frameworks. Find Sarah on LinkedIn

Rihab Khalid

Dr Rihab Khalid is a feminist energy researcher, specialising in problem-driven and human-centred research in sustainable energy, climate and housing infrastructure. She primarily investigates the intersections between gender equity, energy access, and spatial justice, operating at the nexus of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 5, 7, and 11. 

Following her PhD in Architecture from the University of Cambridge, Rihab was awarded a three-year research fellowship at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, during which she was the recipient of several research grants and worked on a number of collaborative research projects with international organisations including the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Jordan Green Building Council, the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, Energy Cities, Arnhem Municipality in the Netherlands, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Asian University for Women Bangladesh, Lahore University of Management Sciences, the Housing Research Center at the University of Management and Technology Lahore, UET Peshawar and Women in Energy Pakistan. 

Her research portfolio spans a range of interdisciplinary studies, including investigating gender equity in energy access across Africa and South Asia, studying peripheral urbanisation in low-income neighbourhoods in Lahore, developing an inclusivity framework for energy communities in Arnhem, as well as researching modern methods of construction in the UK and climate action education in Jordan. In all her projects, Rihab has worked towards integrating Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) perspectives. She consistently advocates for socio-technical approaches, employing feminist and intersectional lenses to underscore the importance of equity, inclusivity, and justice in her research.

Rihab currently also serves as an Associate Editor at the Buildings & Cities journal, as a gender and climate specialist for the UNDP in Asia and the Pacific, and as a climate social scientist for the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit UK.

Nick King

Nick King is a chartered earth and environmental scientist working primarily in professional consulting and the energy industry. He has worked with the Global Sustainability Institute since 2018 on subject areas including energy and global risk and is also affiliated with the Schumacher Institute think tank. He has also presented and written opinion pieces about a number of environmental and systems thinking topics.

Nick has worked for multination consulting firms in the UK and New Zealand in the field of environmental pollution assessment and control, and also spent more than 5 years as a specialist engineer in the UK civil nuclear decommissioning industry, remediating and dismantling legacy nuclear sites.

Roberto Pasqualino

Dr Roberto Pasqualino works on the science-policy interface to support systems transformation towards a more just and sustainable society.

Roberto's interdisciplinary background combines extensive training in complexity science, finance, mathematics, computer sciences, dynamic systems modelling, economics and public policy.

Roberto has experience in research projects starting with designing Energy Aware Information Systems within (National Cluster for Intelligent Factories, Ministry of Research & Innovation, Italy), PhD in global system modelling and sustainability (Global Resource Observatory, Peter Dawe Charitable Trust, UK), Researcher Fellow in multi-country financial modelling (CUSP, ESRC funded, UK) and energy policy and innovation (EEIST, BEIS and CIFF Funded, UK).

Roberto's research brings together contributions from the fields of complex theory, finance, dynamic systems modelling and technological innovation, to study the intervention points that trigger self-reinforcing change in systems of governance to catalyse the transition to a sustainable economy.

Gerd Schönwälder

Gerd Schönwälder is interested in how the drive towards climate neutrality is changing societies and economies in Europe and the world, and how research and innovation can support the underlying socio-technical transition processes. He is curious about the role deliberative democracy and greater citizen participation can play in this context and whether this can help address deeper causes of disaffection with public policy-making and politics in general.

An independent researcher and consultant, Gerd previously worked for the European Commission’s Research and Innovation department (DG RTD), where he helped to elevate the profile of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) and liaised with international energy-research partners. Before that, he was an invited researcher at University of Ottawa’s Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) as well as the German Development Institute (GDI/DIE, now IDOS), subsequent to holding senior positions at Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Gerd earned a PhD in Political Science from McGill University for his dissertation on popular movements and local government in Peru.

You can connect and read more about Gerd's work via LinkedIn.

Elta Smith

Elta Smith is an independent researcher, writer and consultant. She is an experienced leader in making better policies for our food systems. Her research focuses on the intersection of food, the environment and human health. She has directed and managed studies for UK, EU and international organisations covering issues not only from ‘farm to fork’, but from ‘lab to fork’, particularly the role of science and technology in transforming the food chain.

Elta is the AFN Network+ Policy and Impact Champion and a trustee of the Food Ethics Council. She was formerly Director of the Innovation, Health and Science Group at RAND Europe; prior to that she led the food chain policy team within the Climate, Environment and Food practice at ICF International. Find out more on Elta's website.