Speakers

Eleni Alexandrou is an Associate Professor in Architectural Technology, in the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens with extensive research work on environmental design and energy efficiency of buildings and especially in Historic & Traditional buildings. She is also a Senior Architect Engineer & Environmental Consultant with broad experience in architectural & construction building design and environmental consulting, a due diligence expert and scientific expert on EPBD issues.  Her career also includes work in the United States as a senior architect.

Saskia Buchholz is a researcher specializing in urban and regional climate at the Deutscher Wetterdienst. Since 2011, she has focused on urban climate modelling, and developing adaptation strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change in cities. In June 2024, she became the head of the urban and regional climate services team. Her research also covers urban planning, remote sensing, and air quality management in urban environments. Saskia Buchholz studied Applied Environmental Sciences at the University of Trier, where she received her diploma degree in 2006. Afterwards, she was employed at the Air Quality Assessment Section at the German Environmental Protection Agency in Dessau, Germany. Saskia Buchholz holds a PhD in environmental meteorology with a specialization in air quality modelling and measurement, earned by the University of Trier through a collaborative program (2007-2011) with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) former Centre de Recherche Public Gabriel Lippmann. She is passionate about bridging science and policy to create sustainable and climate-resilient urban spaces.

Nikos Chrysogelos is Deputy Mayor of Athens for Climate Governance and Social Economy. A chemist by training, his political career includes an appointment as a member of the European Parliament where he served as  Vice-chairman of Regional Development Committee (REGI) of the European Parliament and substitute member of Environment, Public Health and Food Security Committee (ENVI)
As a member of the Green Party he was rapporteur in EP for social cohesion policies, regional development, eco-innnovation, bio-economy, smart specialisation, marine spatial planning, eHealth policies, “blue” economy. He is President of the Board of Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal www.anemosananeosis.gr and project manager of the innovative and inclusive Welcommon Hostel in Athens. Mr Chrysogelos is actively engaged in climate action, green transition, combating energy poverty, social economy, social inclusion, intercultural dialogue, sustainable tourism, marine and environmental protection.

Lorena Fiorini is a Researcher in Urban Planning and Design at the Department of Civil, Building-Architectural, and Environmental Engineering (DICEAA) at the University of L'Aquila, where she teaches Urban Planning. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil, Building-Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, earned with a dissertation titled “Land take in Italy: models and trajectories,” and a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering. Her research focuses on sustainable urban development, with expertise in models and techniques for monitoring urban growth, with a focus on settlement dispersion patterns such as urban sprinkling and urban sprawl. She also works on urban configurations, developing indicator systems, and applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

She is actively involved in national and international research projects, often coordinating specific tasks and activities. Currently, she contributes to the LIFE IMAGINE UMBRIA project (LIFE19 IPE/IT/000015), which explores innovative strategies for sustainable territorial planning, aiming to maintain and enhance the connectivity of the Natura 2000 Network.

She has previously taught courses including “Resilience and Urban Risk” and “Environmental Assessment Techniques” in Civil Engineering programs and she lectured to the First-Level Master’s Program “Technical-Administrative Management Post-Disaster in Local Authorities”.

With about 76 scientific publications, she is committed to advancing sustainable urban planning practices. She actively participates in international collaborations and conferences, fostering multidisciplinary research and knowledge dissemination in the field.

Tim Gerstenberger studied civil engineering at the Leibniz University of Hanover with a specialization in the field of transportation - construction and operation of traffic systems. He initially worked as a traffic planner for an engineering company (1998-2013) in Hanover. The focus of activity here was transport development planning for cities and municipalities and the development of multimodal and sectoral mobility, transport and development concepts at a regional, city-wide or small-scale level.

In 2013, joined the administration of the state capital Hanover with the task of conceptual and strategic transport planner in the area of ​​planning and urban development / area of ​​land use planning. From here, management of the inner city dialogue „Innenstadtdialog“ and the development of inner city concept “Mitte neu denken – das Innenstadtkonzept 2035” and the Integrated mobility concept for the city center “Integriertes Mobilitätskonzept Innenstadt 2030+”. Currently head of Smart City I Strategies and Projects in the Department of Urban Development and Construction in the state capital of Hanover.

Anna-Kristin Jolk studied geography at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. Her minor subjects were ecology and political sciences. From 2012 to the beginning of 2024, she worked at the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) in Cologne. After starting as an employee in projects on climate protection and climate adaptation in municipalities, her focus in recent years has clearly been on adapting to the consequences of climate change. As part of the Climate Adaptation and Urban Ecology team, she was also active in project management. Most recently, she assisted the cities of Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe with heat action planning and, as co-project manager, managed the areas of public relations and training at the Center for Climate Adaptation (Zentrum KlimaAnpassung). Since February, she has been Head of Environmental Planning and Climate Change Adaptation at the City of Hanover. In addition to climate adaptation, the topics of air pollution control and environmental education are also coordinated here.

Jonas Koch started his career at the Innovation Centre for Mobility and Social Transformation in Berlin as a consultant for mobility transition and sustainable urban and rural transformation. In 2021, he moved to Hannover to start his PhD at the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) in the field of mobility justice, digital mobility transformation and education for sustainable development. Since 2024 he is part of the Green Office at LUH and coordinates the collaborative project Digitalisation for Sustainable Mobility (DiNaMo). The project aims to promote sustainable mobility behaviour at four higher education institutions in Hannover by developing, piloting and researching various digital mobility solutions.

Dr. Irene Koronaki is a Mechanical Engineer and a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). She is the Director of the Laboratory of Applied Thermodynamics and Refrigeration Technology for Refrigerated Vehicles. Her research focuses on the thermodynamics of refrigeration cycles, heat pumps, and power cycles, aiming at energy savings and energy-efficient building design. Her work has received widespread recognition, with 97 publications in international scientific journals and conferences, and her h-index stands at 24, according to Scopus. She has made significant contributions to the authorship of scientific books and encyclopedia chapters and actively serves as a reviewer for numerous international scientific journals and conferences.

Dr. Koronaki has been honored with distinctions for her contributions, including the Edward F. Obert Award in 2022 from ASME. She was the supervising professor for the NTUA team, which won second place in the ASHRAE International Student Competition in 2021 and third place in 2024. Additionally, she has been recognized as an Outstanding Reviewer by the Journal of Energy Engineering. She actively participates in research projects and committees, including the Center for Renewable Energy Sources, and has contributed to drafting the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulation (EPBD).

She teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate courses at NTUA, including Applied Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer. Furthermore, she is an active member of international scientific organizations such as ASME and ASHRAE and serves on committees of the School of Mechanical Engineering at NTUA.

Johannes Lutter is a researcher and political consultant in the field of urban development and social science and head of the Executive Unit for International Relations and Strategic Partnerships at Vienna’s climate & innovation agency, UIV Urban Innovation Vienna. Prior to that he was head of the “urban development & mobility” department at UIV for many years.

Johannes deals with various facets of city development – ranging from urban development strategies, housing policies, and tourism concepts to questions of participation or local, metropolitan or cross-border governance. In his recent work, strategies towards a sustainable and resilient development of cities have gained much importance.

He studied political science at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Institute of Advanced Studies. For many years he was Deputy CEO at Europaforum Wien – the Center for Urban Dialogue and European Policy in Vienna, and CEO of the multilateral Centrope Agency.

Since 2021, Stephanie Mittrach has been the sustainability officer at Leibniz University and heads the Green Office in this role. The Green Office is the central point of contact for sustainability, climate protection and energy management at the university. It is part of the university's extensive sustainability governance. Previously, Stephanie Mittrach conducted research in the field of education for sustainable development in teacher education.

Pierre Monteyne is a research assistant in the PALM Workgroup at the Institute for Meteorology and Climatology, Leibniz University Hannover. With a Master's degree in environmental modelling, he specializes in turbulence-resolved urban climate simulations focused on adaptation measures for extreme heat events, while also pursuing a doctorate in urban climatology. As both a PALM user and developer, he is actively engaged in various urban climate projects, aiming to enhance the development and application of the model. His work seeks to provide critical insights into effective adaptation strategies to mitigate extreme heat impacts and avoid unintended "lock-in" effects. Pierre emphasizes the importance of adaptation strategies to mitigate extreme heat in the face of the looming climate crisis.

Anna Pape works at the interface of architecture, urban design, graphic design and art. Since 2023 she has been a researcher at the Chair of Territorial Design and Urban Planning at the Leibniz University of Hannover, where she is mainly responsible for the CiD Circular Design Innovation Alliance project. She has also been working as a freelance architect since 2021. Her research and practice focus on the concept of the ‚just city‘, addressing ecological, economic and social dimensions. In collaboration with raumlaborberlin, she co-published the research „Urbane Optionsflächen“ in 2021 and has since been developing ideas for a fair space policy in partnership with the city of Berlin. From 2024 she is also part of a climate-community land trust initiative.

Nicole Pascucci is a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering and a research fellow at the Department of Civil, Building-Architectural, and Environmental Engineering (DICEAA) at the University of L'Aquila, specializing in Geomatics. In 2023, she was a Ph.D. visiting scholar at Purdue University, USA, where she collaborated with the Digital Photogrammetry Research Group (DPRG) on LiDAR data processing for infrastructure and transportation corridor monitoring. Nicole earned her Integrated Master’s degree in Building-Architecture Engineering in the 2019/2020 academic year and participated in the Erasmus+ program in 2018 at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Her thesis, focused on innovative methodologies for urban planning and seismic risk mitigation, was awarded first place in the “Ilaria Rambaldi Prize.” Currently, she contributes to teaching courses such as Topography, Elements of Topography, Surveying and Cartography, and Geomatics for Civil and Environmental Engineering, Building Engineering, and Architecture, as well as the Civil Protection and Territorial Security Techniques course at the University of L'Aquila. She is actively involved in national and international research projects, including the European EuMAP project, with a research period at GEOSYSTEMS HELLAS in Athens, Greece. She regularly attends international conferences organized by ISPRS, IEEE, and SAI. A licensed engineer since 2021 and registered with the Order of Engineers in Rome, Nicole is an associate member of the INU (National Institute of Urban Planning) for Abruzzo and Molise and an individual member of the Italian Society of Photogrammetry and Topography (SIFET).

Anja Ritschel is Head of Economic and Environmental Affairs for the City of Hannover. She holds a degree in landscape and open space planning. From 2016 to 2020, she was Head of Environmental Affairs for the City of Bielefeld, where she managed a department with around 2,000 employees, which also included the areas of public order, health and the fire department. Before moving to Bielefeld in 2008, she was Head of Forestry, Landscapes and Nature Conservation at the City of Hanover (in the Department of Environment and Urban Greenery). From 1998 to 2000, she was managing director of the Green Party parliamentary group in Hanover.

Jörg Schröder is full professor and Chair for Territorial Design and Urban Planning at Leibniz University Hannover. He is Dean for Research of the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape; in the board of EAAE, the association of Architecture Schools in Europe; and he is a member of the German Academy of Urbanism and Planning DASL. As an architect and urban planner, his research focuses on urbanism for sustainable transition and territorial innovation, he is particularly interested in new methodologies linked to design-driven research and circular thinking. Currently, he is the coordinator of the Circular Design Innovation Alliance, funded by the European Union, and participates in the project reCITYing, funded in the Creative Europe Programme. His publications include the books Circular Design (2023, with Jovis publisher in Berlin), Cosmopolitan Habitat (2021), Creative Food Cycles (2020), and Dynamics of Periphery (2017).

Prof. Dr. Elke Katharina Wittich is Managing Director of the Central Institution for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning.  At LUH, she has developed Ai Micro Degree Programs together with the Leibniz AI Academy. She also uses these innovative formats for the European University Alliance EULiST European Universities linking Society and technology. The Central Institution for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning at LUH offers various programs in the field of sustainability and transformation of energy systems, such as the 6-month continuing education program “H2 - Hydrogen for specialists and managers” and the “SOLAR Summer + Winter Schools”.