Judges and reviewers

Tasso Azevedo is the Founder and General Coordinator of MapBiomas, a collaborative network of more than 100 organizations in Brazil and 13 other countries that monitor land use and land use change to promote conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. He is also the Technical Coordinator of the Climate Observatory in Brazil, and was the founder and general coordinator of the Brazilian Greenhouse Gas Estimation System. Tasso is a visiting scholar at Princeton University and was the architect of the Amazon Fund and first Director and Chief of Brazilian Forest Service.

Seong Lok Choi leads the Energy Management System (EMS) and Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) at NREL’s Power System Engineering Center. With over 20 years of experience in transmission and distribution, he specializes in generative AI, vendor-neutral EMS/ADMS/DERMS integration, digital twin, cybersecurity, and future control rooms. Choi supports developing countries’ clean energy transition as a member of the G-PST Consortium. He holds a CISSP credential and was previously a certified NERC RC System Operator. Previously, he served as an EMS support and software architect at WECC and PeakRC and was a software developer at Ameren. Choi graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and completed coursework at Seoul National University and KAIST. He is pursuing a Doctor of Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Boris Gamazaychikov is a Senior Manager of Emissions Reduction at Salesforce, where he implements carbon reduction strategies across the company’s value chain to promote a sustainable future. He works at the intersection of sustainability and innovation, having developed Salesforce’s sustainable AI strategy. Boris collaborates with suppliers, customers, and partners to accelerate climate action, publishing tools and resources to support their decarbonization journeys. Previously, he consulted global technology companies on decarbonization strategies and led the Pentagon’s sustainable construction program. Boris holds a degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Aleksandra Faust, Director of Research at Google DeepMind, focuses on safe and scalable autonomous systems for social good, including reinforcement learning, planning, and control for robotics, autonomous driving, and digital assistants. She co-founded the reinforcement learning research program in Google Brain, founded task and motion planning research in robotics at Google, and worked on machine learning for self-driving car planning at Waymo. Aleksandra earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico and a Master’s from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her accolades include the IEEE RAS Early Career Award for Industry and the Tom L. Popejoy Award. Her work has been featured in major publications and received multiple Best Paper awards.

Lucas Joppa is the Senior Managing Director and Chief Sustainability Officer at Haveli Investments, where he oversees sustainability software and AI strategy across operations and investments. With over 15 years of experience at the intersection of economic and environmental systems, he focuses on technology’s role in sustainability. Lucas joined Haveli in 2022 after earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Ph.D. from Duke University.

Aileen Lee is the Chief of Programs for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. She oversees all grantmaking activity, including all program allocations and Adaptive Management and Evaluation. She currently serves on the boards of the Climate and Land Use Alliance, iNaturalist, Legacy Landscapes Fund, and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. She has previously served as chair of the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, the president of the Biodiversity Funders Group, and on the boards of the Coral Reef Alliance and the Western Conservation Foundation. Aleen attended Yale University, where she received a B.A. in political science and East Asian studies. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and is a member of the California bar.

Geoffrey Levene directs NVIDIA’s global AI initiatives and heads the company’s Global Public Sector Remote Sensing for intelligence, climate action, and space accelerated compute workflows. He is responsible for scaling NVIDIA’s platform across allied nations, working across government, private sector and research leaders to accelerate AI, data science, and high-performance computing capacity. Geoffrey is particularly passionate about leveraging technology to address global challenges and drive positive change, with a focus on AI for good, climate action, and bridging the digital divide.

Dr. Kofi Nyarko is a tenured Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Morgan State University and Director of the Center for Equitable Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Systems (CEAMLS). His expertise spans computer vision, machine learning, and applications of generative AI in unmanned vehicles, intelligent buildings, and cybersecurity. Dr. Nyarko has been recognized with the US Black Engineer HBCU STEM Innovation Award and holds three U.S. patents. He leads the Data Engineering and Predictive Analytics (DEPA) research lab and consults for private engineering firms, contributing to the advancement of AI and machine learning in various fields.

Joana Portugal Pereira is an Assistant Professor at IST/ULisboa and COPPE/UFRJ and a specialist on climate change mitigation strategies and their interactions with sustainable development goals. She has authored IPCC assessment reports, including the Emissions Gap Report 2024, and the Global Environmental Outlook. Portugal Pereira has contributed to the establishment of national targets for the Paris Agreement and supports companies in developing climate change mitigation strategies through the Science Based Target initiative. Her prior experience includes roles at the IPCC, UNU-IAS, and ADBi. She holds a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from IST and the University of Tokyo, respectively, specializing in bioenergy and life cycle analysis of alternative fuels.

Dr. Liz Specht, former Senior Vice President of Science and Technology at the Good Food Institute, is a leader in the alternative protein field. She has contributed extensively to analyses of the field, focusing on technology forecasting and innovation translation. Liz has presented to diverse audiences — from scientific conferences to C-suite professionals — and advised research consortia and government agencies on advancing alternative proteins. Her work has been instrumental in bridging scientific innovation with commercial applications in food technology. Specht holds a B.S. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from UC San Diego.

Dr. Veena Srinivasan, Founder of WELL Labs, is dedicated to leveraging data and science for transformational impact on human well-being and environmental conservation. She has received numerous awards, including the 2015 Jim Dooge Award and the 2012 Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award. Veena chairs the Strategic Advisory Group for UN SDG6 monitoring and serves on the IWMI board. Previously, she held the Prins Claus Chair at Utrecht University. In 2022, she was recognized as one of the world’s top-cited scientists in recognition of her significant contributions to water resource management and sustainability.

Greg Ulrich serves as the Chief AI and Data Officer at Mastercard and is a member of the company’s Management Committee. He leads Mastercard’s strategy to integrate AI and data across the business, with a focus on commercializing applications and enterprise-wide governance. With over 25 years of experience, Greg has been instrumental in shaping Mastercard’s trajectory. In his prior roles at the company, he guided Data & Services strategy and innovation and led Data & Services in North America. He is consistently focused on leveraging data and insights to develop innovative solutions and maximize shareholder value.

Alayna Van Dervort is a Climate-Tech Consultant with 25 years of experience bridging technology, conservation, and sustainable development. As founder of The Big Wild she integrates AI, ML, and GIS for large-scale ecological restoration. Alayna has collaborated with the Biden Administration on wetland and freshwater conservation initiatives and worked internationally with local and indigenous communities. Her expertise includes AI-driven environmental solutions, developed through roles with the Hoffmann family foundation and Amazon AWS. With a graduate certificate from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, Alayna is dedicated to advancing innovative climate resilience solutions as a respected thought leader and keynote speaker in climate innovation.