Professor Tim G. Benton is director of the Energy, Environment and Resources Programme and research director for emerging risks at Chatham House. Tim’s areas of expertise include global food security, food systems and resilience, ecology and natural resources, and climate change impacts. He joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow while also serving as dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds. He is one of the authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on climate change and land, and the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017, and has published more than 175 academic papers. Tim holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a BA from the University of Oxford, both in zoology.
Carling Bieg is a PhD candidate at the University of Guelph. Carling is a theoretical ecologist who studies the links between global change and ecosystem structure and functioning. She is particularly interested in the feedbacks between ecosystems and various aspects of food production, such as the dynamics of connected subcomponents in the food system and the interactions between multiple anthropogenic stressors and their effects on ecosystem functioning and food security. Carling’s previous research has ranged from studying socio-economic harvesting dynamics to addressing fundamental questions in food web ecology in the context of a changing world.
Dr Helen Harwatt is a senior research fellow in the Energy, Environment and Resources Programme at Chatham House. Helen focuses on food system shifts to identify pathways towards creating food systems that minimize adverse environmental impacts, maximize public health benefits and address ethical issues. Prior to joining Chatham House, Helen completed a research fellowship at Harvard Law School, looking at options for creating Paris-compliant food systems and remains a visiting fellow. Helen has also completed research fellowships at Loma Linda University in California, and at the University of Leeds’ Sustainability Research Institute and Institute for Transport Studies.
Roshan Pudasaini is a PhD student and an Arrell Food Institute Scholar at the University of Guelph. He is an agricultural researcher interested in biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. His research focuses on exploring scalable agricultural solutions suitable for small-scale and subsistence farmers in Asia and Africa. His past work on homestead agro-biodiversity management and sustainable agriculture kits for hill farmers in Nepal has impacted the lives of an estimated 114,000 families and created models that can be implemented to help many more in the future. Roshan has led several agriculture and livelihood projects with Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD), a Nepal-based NGO. He has an MSc in agriculture from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
Laura Wellesley is a senior research fellow in the Energy, Environment and Resources Programme at Chatham House. Laura’s main areas of research interest are policy strategies to promote healthy and sustainable diets, and approaches to managing systemic risks to global food trade. She has also worked on approaches to delivering an inclusive circular economy in low-income countries, and on innovative alternatives to meat. Laura’s past Chatham House publications include the 2017 report, Chokepoints and Vulnerabilities in Global Food Trade, and the 2015 report, Changing Climate, Changing Diets: Pathways to Lower Meat Consumption. Laura is a member of the London Food Board and, prior to joining Chatham House in 2013, was a researcher for Global Witness. Laura has an MSc in Africa and international development from the University of Edinburgh, and an MA in modern and medieval languages from the University of Cambridge.