Koundouri Phoebe

Professor Dr. Phoebe Koundouri is a world-renowned pioneer in innovative, human-centric, interdisciplinary systems for the sustainable interaction between nature, society, and the economy. She is included in the Stanford University list of top 2% world scientists and  is a member of the Nominating Committee for the Nobel Prize in Economics. She is Professor at the School of Economics and Director of ReSEES Laboratory, at the Athens University of Economics and Business. She is also Research Professor at the Technology, Management, and Economics Department, at the Technical University of Denmark, and Honorary Visiting Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. She is the  Director of the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) at ATHENA Information Technology Research Center. She is founder and director of the Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Aeiphoria (AE4RIA), linking the research and innovation work of research centers, innovations accelerators, and numerous science-policy networks and scientific academies, which Professor Koundouri leads, directs or chairs, with more than 200 researchers and 100 large, interdisciplinary, competitively funded research projects, with case studies in more than 120 countries. She is chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Global Climate Hub and co-chair of SDSN Europe, with 2000 universities involved.

She holds an MPhil and a PhD in Economics from the Faculty of Economics and Politics, Department of Economics, University of Cambridge and held academic positions at the University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Reading, and London School of Economics and Politics. She has published 19 monographs and edited books, more than 400 scientific papers (and 200 articles in public press) in the following fields of research: Economics and Econometrics, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, Multidisciplinary Sciences and Philosophy of Science,  including publications in Nature, the Lancet, and top-ranked economics, econometrics, and sustainability science journals. She edits and co-edits several prestigious academic journals, including Nature: Climate Action, Environmental and Resources Economics, Frontiers in Environmental Economics. She has organized numerous international scientific conferences, supervised more than 30 PhD students, and gave keynote speeches and public lectures across the world, including spechess in all major multilateral and high-level fora.

Professor Koundouri is an academician, elected fellow of prestigious academies including Academia Europaea, World Academy of Art and Science, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, InterAcademy Partnership, Academy of Engineering and Technology of Developing World, Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences - Fateral Economy Section, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE), European Forest Institute.  In 2020 she received the prestigious European Research Council Synergy Grant, in 2021 she received the EAERE ERC Award of scientific excellence, and in 2023, she was awarded the Academy of Athens Award for Scientific Excellence, awarded every four years to the most impactful scientist of Greece.

In 2019, she was elected President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) the biggest scientific association in the field, with more than 1500 member institutions, from more than 75 countries and she is now chairing the World Council of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists Associations (WCERE), including the USA, the Latin American, the European, the African, the Asian and the Oceanian Associations of Environmental and Resource Economists, with many thousands of member scientists from more than 160 countries.

Professor Koundouri’s international impact is also evident through her advisory work in the multilateral space, including Academia Europaea Representative to S20 Task Force 2 on Bioeconomy of the G20 Heads of States, Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on COVID-19 Recovery, member of the Fraternal Economy of Integral and Sustainable Development of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the European Investment Bank Climate Leaders Network,  the Leading Women for the Ocean (LWO),    the National Board for Research and Innovation (NBRI) of Cyprus, the Special Scientific Committee on Climate Change of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy and its representative in the International Climate Councils Network (ICCN), the Regional Action on Climate Change International Advisory Committee (RACC-IAC) associated with the STS Forum funded by the overnment of Japan; Earth-Humanity Coalition (EHC), EU Climate Pact Ambassador,  Scientific and Conservation Council, Tour du Valat Institut de Recherche pour la Conservation des Zones Humides Méditerranéenne, EAERE observer for the 7^th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and scientific statekeholder to IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, and Ambassator for the European Research Council (ERC). She acts as an advisor to the United Nations, G20, World Bank, European Commission, European Investment Bank, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, OECD, World Health Organization, governments across the owrold, and many others, including public and private international and national companies.

Prof. Koundouri lives in Greece (Athens) with her husband, Prof. Nikitas Pittis, and their three daughters: Chrysilia, Billie and Athena.