Stephen Abram, MLS is CEO of Lighthouse Consulting Inc. He is the past executive diretcor of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries. He has been an executive with Gale Cengage Learning, SirsiDynix, the SirsiDynix Institute, ProQuest, Micromedia, IHS, and Thomson.

He is an SLA Fellow and the past president of the Ontario Library Association, SLA and the Canadian Library Association. In June 2003 he was awarded SLA’s John Cotton Dana Award. He received the AIIP Roger Summit Award in 2009 and Outstanding Teacher Award from the U of Toronto iSchool in 2010. He is the author of Out Front with Stephen Abram and Stephen’s Lighthouse blog.

Source: Internet Librarian

Dr Greg Adamson is a global expert in the ethics of artificial intelligence, he researches eXplainable AI, and is an authority on Norbert Wiener, founder of cybernetics. As a health informatics specialist he is an honorary Associate Professor in the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne. His day job at the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning is Chief Information Security Officer, a field he has worked in for more than three decades. His PhD from RMIT University was on Internet adoption.

He has a Master of Commercial Law from Melbourne Law School, and was an early pioneer in blockchain. He chairs the IEEE Standards Association initiative Dignity, Inclusion, Identity, Trust and Agency. His current projects include a committee on power relations and AI, health informatics, and writing a biography of Justice James Staples of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. He is the Technical Activities vice president of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology.

Source: Find an Expert

Leading female Futurist & Ecocentrist, Author, Keynote, Adviser & Presenter

Renegade futurist and ecocentrist K D Adamson deconstructs the techno-optimist narrative, showing tomorrow isn’t a tech problem, it’s a value problem, and other futures are available.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Full member of the Club of Rome, President of the Copenhagen based think tank Nordic Bildung, and co-founder of the Global Bildung Network.

I am an economist, author, futurist, philosopher and bildung activist. After studying business economy for three years, I worked as a substitute teacher before I studied theology. During my studies, I wrote entertainment for Danish television until I decided to quit theology, become a fulltime writer and focus on technological development, big history and the future of humanity.

Since 2005, I have written 20 books and received two Danish democracy awards: Ebbe Kløvedal-Reich Democracy Baton (2007) and Døssing Prisen, the Danish librarians’ democracy prize (2012).

Among my books are The Nordic Secret (2017; new edition January 2024), Metamodernity (2019), relaunched 2023 as Polymodernity, Bildung (2020), What is Bildung? (2021), and Libertism (2022).

Source: Website

Stephan Adelson is the president of Adelson Consulting Services. Based on his publications and presentations, he appears to be an expert in digital public health, particularly in the application of internet-based interventions for health promotion and disease prevention, including HIV and STDs.

He has also been involved in developing national guidelines and providing consultation to various health organizations.

Source: Gemini

Walid Al-Saqaf is a Senior Lecturer at Södertörn University in Stockholm where he specializes in the use of the Internet and media technology for journalism, access to information, freedom of expresssion and public good. As a dual Yemeni/Swedish citizen, his passion is in promoting a strong and open Internet that netizens can build bridges between cultures and promote democratization and free speech across the globe.

As a computer engineering undergraduate student in the mid 1990s at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey, Walid designed YemenTimes.com as the first news website in his home country Yemen. In 2007, he launched YemenPortal.net as the first news aggregator and search engine of its kind in the Arab world to provide Internet users with the ability to get a wide spectrum of perspectives from various news sources on Yemen in Arabic and English. When the website was blocked by the Yemeni government in 2008 due to its open platform that allowed dissident voices to be heard, he developed Alkasir website censorship mapping circumvention solution, which was initially used to access YemenPortal.net, but which soon became widely used by Internet users in many states such as Iran, Syria, China and Saudi Arabia to bypass website filtering in those countries.

Source: Internet Society

Dr Micah Altman is a social and information scientist at MIT’s Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship. (Previously, he served as Director of Research for the MIT Libraries, Head/Scientist for the Program on Information Science, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution; and at Harvard University as the Associate Director of the Harvard-MIT Data Center, Archival Director of the Henry A. Murray Archive, and Senior Research Scientist in the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences.)

Dr. Altman conducts research, provides public commentary, and collaborates in initiatives related to how information technologies change politics, society, and science. He is the author of over one hundred scientific and scholarly articles – as well as a spectrum of books, opinion pieces, databases and software packages. His recently published research establishes requirements for reliable information anonymization and privacy; evaluates the alignment of artificial intelligence and trustworthy science; examines bias in scholarly communication and peer review; critiques the evidence-base for open science; and examines the role of public participation and institutional design in constraining redistricting.

Source: Website

Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur and investor best known as the chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019 (he was briefly dismissed and reinstated in November 2023).  He is also the chairman of clean energy companies Oklo Inc. and Helion Energy.

Altman is considered to be one of the leading figures of the AI boom. He dropped out of Stanford University after two years and founded Loopt, a mobile social networking service, raising more than $30 million in venture capital. In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, and was its president from 2014 to 2019. Altman’s net worth was estimated at $1.1 billion in January 2025.

Professor Victoria Baines FBCS is a leading authority in the field of online trust, safety and cybersecurity. She frequently contributes to major broadcast media outlets on digital ethics, cybercrime and the misuse of emerging technologies, including Extended Reality and Artificial Intelligence. Her areas of research include electronic surveillance, cybercrime futures, and the politics of security.

Victoria has published on cyberspace governance, online surveillance, the future of cybercrime, and the politics of security. Drawing on her Classical education, her book Rhetoric of Insecurity (Routledge, 2021) sheds light on 2000 years of security speak and is a toolkit for understanding why security issues always seem to be so novel, urgent and divisive. She also provides research expertise to a number of international organisations, including Interpol, UNICEF and the Council of Europe.

Source: Gresham webpage

Avi Bar-Zeev has been a pioneer, architect and advisor in Spatial Computing (AR/VR/MR/XR) for nearly 30 years, behind the scenes in the world’s largest tech companies and at large.

In early 2010, he helped found and invent the HoloLens at Microsoft, developing the first prototypes, demos, patents, plans and UX concepts, sufficient to convince his leadership. At Bing, he built first prototypes for developer-facing aspects of AR, sometimes called the “AR cloud.” At Amazon, he helped create PrimeAir as well as Echo Frames. From 2016-2019, he helped Apple on undisclosed projects. In 1999-2001, he co-founded Keyhole, the company behind Google Earth, and helped define Second Life’s core technology. Back in the 1990s, he worked on novel VR experiences for Disney, including “Aladdin’s Magic Carpet” VR Ride, the “Virtual Jungle Cruise” and “Cyberspace Mountain.”

Source: Reality Prime website

John Linwood Battelle (born November 4, 1965)  is an entrepreneur, author and journalist. Best known for his work creating media properties, Battelle helped launch Wired in the 1990s and launched The Industry Standard during the dot-com boom. In 2005, he founded the online advertising network Federated Media Publishing. In January 2014, Battelle sold Federated Media Publishing’s direct sales business to LIN Media and relaunched the company’s programmatic advertising business from Lijit Networks to Sovrn Holdings. He later started NewCo Platform, an “inside out” events company that allowed attendees to visit “new kinds of companies” in more than a dozen cities around the world. In 2019, he co-founded The Recount, which was sold to The News Movement in 2023.

Battelle is the chairman of Sovrn Holdings as well as board director at LiveRamp. He taught at Columbia SIPA from 2018 to 2022, and is currently a Professor of Practice at Northeastern.

Source: Wikipedia

Yoshua Bengio OC FRS FRSC (born March 5, 1964) is a Canadian-French computer scientist, and a pioneer of artificial neural networks and deep learning. He is a professor at the Université de Montréal and scientific director of the AI institute MILA.

Bengio received the 2018 ACM A.M. Turing Award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing”, together with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun, for their foundational work on deep learning. Bengio, Hinton, and LeCun are sometimes referred to as the “Godfathers of AI”. Bengio is the most-cited computer scientist globally (by both total citations and by h-index), and the most-cited living scientist across all fields (by total citations). In 2024, TIME Magazine included Bengio in its yearly list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Source: Wikipedia

Dr. Mara Di Berardo is a seasoned expert in futures studies, communication, and participatory methodologies. She serves as the Communication Director and Italy Node Co-Chair of The Millennium Project, a global think tank with over 70 Nodes dedicated to improving global foresight and collaborative intelligence. Mara has been a vital contributor to the organization since 2007, leading research, events, and communication initiatives.

A prominent voice in the field, Mara is also the Communication Officer for the Foresight Europe Network, where she connects foresight professionals across Europe through participatory vision-building and strategic action planning. Her research includes an analysis of global futures topics, notably as the Principal Investigator for the 2022 Third Futures Research Grant, resulting in the widely cited study on World Futures Day 2022.

Source: Millennium Project

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, in 1989. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.

He is the co-founder and CTO of Inrupt.com, a tech start-up that uses, promotes and helps develop the open source Solid platform. Solid aims to give people control and agency over their data, questioning many assumptions about how the web has to work. Solid technically is a new level of standard at the web layer, which adds features never put into the original spec, such as global single sign-on, universal access control, and a universal data API so that any app can store data in any storage place. Socially Solid is a movement away from much of the issues with the current WWW, and toward a world in which users are in control, and empowered by large amounts of data, private, shared, and public.

Source: W3 Consortium

Clement (Clem) Bezold, Ph.D., co-founded the Institute for Alternative Futures (IAF) in 1977 with Alvin Toffler and James Dator to encourage “anticipatory democracy” and foresight. During his four decades of leadership at IAF, he worked for international organizations and national governments, the largest corporations and non-profit
organizations, and communities on six continents.

In the process IAF developed the unique “Aspirational Futures” approach to foresight that stresses vision development and scenarios that explore expectable, challenging, and visionary space.

Source: Website

Tsvi Bisk is a futurist whose approach is historical and strategic –how to get from here to there in order to achieve “desired” futures.  His expertise ranges from specific Jewish issues, to global development and environmental issues, to the spiritual future of humanity in the space age.

Tsvi keynotes conferences and gatherings with the aim of clearing away the rubble of conventional thinking and ways of doing things. He creates workshops and seminars geared to releasing the creative energies inherent in organizations and individuals.

In collaborating with other futurists and consultants who wish to expand the services they provide to their clients, Tsvi can enrich their offerings in a variety of areas:

• Mitigating the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and its potential effect on the future of the Middle East:
  economically, culturally, socially and constitutionally.
• The future of Israeli-Diaspora relations and its potential impact on the Middle East as well as American
  and European politics.
• Why there are no limits to growth – how science and technology enable a world population of 12 billion
  to achieve an American standard of living with zero negative environ

Source: Website

Dr. Peter C. Bishop is the Exec Director of Teach the Future, Inc., having retired as an Associate Professor of Strategic Foresight and Director of the graduate program in Foresight at the University of Houston in August 2013.

Before establishing Teach the Future, Dr. Bishop specialized in techniques for long term forecasting and planning, and he has published two books on the subject: Thinking about the Future (2007) and Teaching about the Future (2012), both with co-author Andy Hines.

Source: Website

Greater NYC UX Design Lead at JPMorgan Chase, as well as Medidata, Fidelity, Atmosphere Proximity [BBDO], H4B Chelsea [Havas Health] & Razorfish

Special Interest in AI and machine learning, model visualizations & interfaces (UX designer for JPMC 2019 data science hackathon team, a group I later joined permanently), as well as data-driven, dynamic designs and dashboard analytics displays.

Driven toward innovation through 15 years of NYC industry research projects.

Source: Website

Gary A. Bolles is a globally recognized thought leader and consultant focused on the rapidly evolving landscape of work, education, and organizational transformation in the post-pandemic era driven by exponential technologies. He provides invaluable guidance to individuals, companies, communities and nations looking to navigate uncertainty and flourish in the years ahead.

– Chair for the Future of Work for SU
– Partner at the consulting firm Charrette LLC
– Co-founder of eParachute.com
– Currently focus on strategies for the future of work, learning, and the organization. Deeply committed to helping catalyze inclusive capitalism.
– Formerly, co-founder, SoCap:SocialCapitalMarkets and a dozen other impact initiatives.
– Former editorial director of six technology publications
– Former VP Marketing and COO.

Source: Singularity webpage

Mark Brakel is Future of Life’s Director of Policy, leading our advocacy and policy efforts globally. Previously, Mark was FLI’s regional director for European policy, and served in the Dutch diplomatic service where he was posted to The Netherlands’ Embassy in Iraq.

Mark also authors Not Another Big Tech Stack, a monthly perspective on AI policy (unaffiliated with any of the major AI companies).

Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, and master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He speaks Dutch, English, Arabic and a decent amount of French.

Source: Website

David A. Bray is Chair of the Accelerator at the Loomis Council and a Distinguished Fellow with the Stimson Center. He is also a non-resident Distinguished Fellow with the Business Executives for National Security, and a CEO and transformation leader for different “under the radar” tech and data ventures seeking to get started in novel situations.

He is Principal at LeadDoAdapt Ventures and has served in a variety of leadership roles in turbulent environments, including bioterrorism preparedness and response from 2000-2005.

Dr. Bray previously was the Executive Director for a bipartisan National Commission on R&D, provided non-partisan leadership as a federal agency Senior Executive, worked with the U.S. Navy and Marines on improving organizational adaptability, and aided U.S. Special Operation Command’s J5 Directorate on the challenges of countering disinformation online.

Source: Stimson Center

Timothy William Bray (born June 21, 1955) is a Canadian software developer, environmentalist, political activist and one of the co-authors of the original XML specification.

He worked for Amazon Web Services from December 2014 until May 2020 when he quit due to concerns over the terminating of whistleblowers. Previously he has been employed by Google, Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

Bray has also founded or co-founded several start-ups such as Antarctica Systems.

Source: Wikipedia

Prior to embarking on his career in academia, Jörn held senior leadership positions in a range of commercial enterprises. In these positions, he spearheaded major initiatives such as the formation of entrepreneurial and intrepreneurial business efforts, expansions of enterprise into new markets, and launches of innovative startup companies. His experience includes work with a range of global business icons, including Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Toyota, BMW, and Bang & Olufsen A/S. Working across multiple geographies and cultures has given Jörn a truly international perspective, which informs his thinking about research, process, and execution.

Jörn’s commercial background ensures that his efforts are rooted in human-centered, consumer-focused values and innovations. He has a specific interest in factors that drive new markets, focus on experiential memory constructs and consumption, and leverage co-creation concepts that include various stakeholders.

Dr. Bühring’s current research explores Design Foresight, Strategic Innovation, Vision, and Fiction, within the context of Strategic Design, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Management. Since 2010, he has conducted several major studies in the sectors of luxury hospitality, omnichannel retailing, and financial services; this includes a series of futures studies in wealth management and private banking to the year 2030.

Source: Website

Dennis M. Bushnell is a NASA scientist and lecturer who retired in 2023 after 60 years of service to NASA. As chief scientist at NASA Langley Research Center for more than two decades, he was responsible for technical oversight and advanced program formulation. His work focused mainly on new approaches to environmental issues, in particular to climate issues. Bushnell has received numerous awards for his work. Bushnell has promoted research at NASA into LENR (low energy nuclear reactions, or cold fusion).

In 1998, Bushnell was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for viscous flow modeling and control, turbulent drag reduction, and advanced aeronautical concepts.

Source: Wikipedia

Dr Marcus Bussey is an educator and futurist with more than 40 years’ experience. He has taught widely throughout Australia having spent 5 years at a yoga based neohumanist school, 4 years in an urban community school run by a parent cooperative, 7 years in Montessori primary and high schools, and 20 years at USC where he currently teaches world history and the philosophy of history. He is also heavily involved with supervision of higher degree students and is deeply committed to the University’s goals of increased research capacity and quality research with high impact. Marcus is also the Deputy Head, UniSC Sustainability Research Centre where he is involved with a range of sustainability and environmental communication research projects.

In 2014 Marcus was awarded a Taiwan Fellowship for 2014. This fellowship allowed him to work with colleagues at Tamkang University and the National Taiwan University on developing futures thinking in undergraduate engineering students. The outcomes of this research engagement appeared in the research paper he publishes with Song, Mei Mei Song and Hsieh (Patrick) Shang-Hsien: Anticipatory Imagination as a Tool for Rethinking Engineering Education which appeared in the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice.

His most recent article is entitled: Navigating the Ruins of the Future.

Source: University of the Sunshine Coast

Professor Carmel teaches Information Technology (I.T.) at American University in Washington, DC. He is currently working on a number of research areas: Digital identity; Crypto ethics; Future of work.

He received his Ph.D., in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona; his MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Source: American University page

Robin L. Champ is a visionary leader in strategic foresight and strategy management, currently serving as the Vice President, Strategic Foresight at LBL Strategies and an instructor at Harvard Extension School. She is a Certified Strategy Management Professional (SMP) through the International Association for Strategy Professionals (IASP), where she also serves as Co-Chair of the Government Community of Practice (IASP-GovCoP). With a distinguished career spanning key roles in both the Department of Defense and the U.S. Secret Service, Robin brings unparalleled expertise to the table.

Retired as the Chief of the Enterprise Strategy Division at the United States Secret Service, Robin led the organization’s foresight and strategic planning efforts. Notably, she also co-chaired the Federal Foresight Community of Interest, showcasing her commitment to advancing foresight practices across government.

Source: LBL Strategies page

Vinton G. Cerf has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005. In this role, he contributes to global policy development and continued standardization and spread of the Internet. He is also an active public face for Google in the Internet world.

From 1994 to 2005, Cerf served as the senior vice president of Technology Strategy for MCI. In this role, Cerf was responsible for helping to guide corporate strategy development from the technical perspective. Previously, Cerf served as MCI’s senior vice president of Architecture and Technology, leading a team of architects and engineers to design advanced networking frameworks including Internet-based solutions for delivering a combination of data, information, voice and video services for business and consumer use.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Sangeet Paul Choudary is a business executive, advisor, and best-selling author. He is best known for his work on platform economics and network effects. He is the co-author of the international best-selling book Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You.

Choudary’s work on platform economics has been featured on four occasions among Harvard Business Review’s top 10 management ideas. It is ranked among HBR’s top 10 strategy publications, alongside the works of Michael Porter, Clayton Christensen, A.G. Lafley, and others.

For his contributions to the field of platform economics, Choudary was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2017.

Source: Wikipedia

Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management and Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University. He is also the former President of the International Communication Association (ICA).

Additionally, he is the host of a podcast series titled “Untangling the Web,” where he engages in conversations with thought leaders to explore how the Web is shaping society, and how society in turns is shaping the Web.

Source: Kellogg School of Management webpage

Nikola Danaylov is a Futurist Philosopher, Bestselling Author, and Keynote Speaker.

He translates complex technological trends into simple stories that help clients embrace rather than fear the future, deal with Accelerating Change – aka Future Shock, and give birth to their best ideas.

His Conversations with the Future is an International bestseller and his pioneering Singularity.FM podcast was the first in the world on topics such as AI, which is why Danaylov has been called the “Larry King of the Singularity.”

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

James Allen Dator is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, Department of Political Science, and Adjunct Professor in the College of Architecture, of the University of Hawaii at Manoa; Co-Chair and Core Lecturer, Space Humanities, International Space University, Strasbourg, France; Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Futures Strategy, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Daejeon, Korea, and former President, World Futures Studies Federation.  He is editor-in-chief of the World Futures Review. He also taught at Rikkyo University (Tokyo, for six years), the University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, the University of Toronto, and the InterUniversity Consortium for Postgraduate Studies in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia.

He received a BA in Ancient and Medieval History and Philosophy from Stetson University, an MA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Political Science from The American University. He did post-graduate work at Virginia Theological Seminary (Ethics and Church History), Yale University (Japanese Language), The University of Michigan (Linguistics and Quantitative Methods), Southern Methodist University (Mathematical Applications in Political Science).

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author.

Strong demand for Ross’s expertise has seen him deliver keynote speeches and executive workshops in over 30 countries across six continents. Ross also consults leading organizations worldwide such as American Express, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Dubai Ministry of Finance, EY, Gartner, Google, Macquarie Bank, News Limited, Procter & Gamble, PwC, Star Alliance, Visa, and many other leading organizations.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Future human behaviour, leadership & business strategy

Thimon de Jong (1977) founded WHETSTON, a strategic foresight think tank based in Amsterdam. WHETSTON explores the future of human behaviour, societal trends and generational change. These insights are then applied to leadership and business strategy. Thimon is an experienced (virtual) keynote speaker and leadership trainer and has worked for clients like Morgan Stanley, Vodafone, IKEA, Novartis, Nike, Microsoft, Warner, Tetra Pak and L’Oréal. Thimon also lectures at the social psychology department of Utrecht University. He is a former insights & strategy director at TrendsActive, a researcher at FreedomLab Future Studies and editor-in-chief of RELOAD Magazine. His first book, Future Human Behavior – Understanding What People Are Going To Do Next was published in 2023 by Routledge.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Peter H. Diamandis (/ˌdiːəˈmændɪs/ DEE-ə-MAN-diss; born May 20, 1961) is an American engineer, physician,and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, and the cofounder and executive chairman of Singularity University.

He is also cofounder and former CEO of the Zero Gravity Corporation, cofounder and vice chairman of Space Adventures Ltd., founder and chairman of the Rocket Racing League, cofounder of the International Space University, cofounder of Planetary Resources, cofounder of Celularity, founder of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, and vice chairman and cofounder of Human Longevity, Inc.

Source: Wikipedia

Patrick Dixon is Chairman of Global Change Ltd, author of 16 books on global trends including The Future of Almost Everything, and has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers 50).

Dr. Patrick Dixon has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today *. He has worked with or advised over 400 of the world’s largest corporations on strategy, global trends, innovation, and risk management.  More than 500,000 pages on tens of thousands of websites refer to his work. He is Chairman of Global Change Ltd, a growth strategy and forecasting company, and a physician by first training.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Timothy E. Dolan is principal of Policy Foresight and faculty at DMS Academy. He is an alumnus of the Manoa School of Futures Studies and contemporary of such prominent futurists as Sohail Inayathulla, Wendy Schultz, and Chris Jones.

He is the author of over 35 articles and book chapters on anticipatory public policy. His current project is a book on the biotech revolution and market-driven evolution. He has designed numerous graduate-level courses on various topics relating to foresight/futures studies.

Source: DMS Academy

Esther Dyson (born 14 July 1951) is a Swiss-born American investor, journalist, author, commentator and philanthropist. She is the executive founder of Wellville, a nonprofit project focused on improving equitable wellbeing.

Dyson is also an angel investor focused on health care, open government, digital technology, biotechnology, and outer space. Dyson’s career now focuses on health and she continues to invest in health and technology startups.

Source: Wikipedia

Dave Edwards is a Co-Founder of the Artificiality Institute.

He previously co-founded Intelligentsia.ai, an artificial intelligence market research firm that was acquired by Atlantic Media. Following the acquisition, he continued his work at Quartz, a subsidiary of Atlantic Media.

Before co-founding Intelligentsia.ai, Dave Edwards worked at companies such as Apple, CRV, Macromedia, Morgan Stanley, and ThinkEquity.

The Artificiality Institute, which Dave Edwards co-founded, is described as a non-profit research organization focused on shaping the human experience in a world increasingly influenced by synthetic intelligence. The institute aims to explore the co-evolution of humans and AI through research, design, and public storytelling.

Charles Ess is a distinguished Professor in Media Studies at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo.

He is known for his extensive work at the intersection of philosophy, computational technologies, applied ethics, comparative philosophy and religion, and media studies.

What happened in tech that mattered, and what did it mean? Once a week, I send an email newsletter to close to 200,000 people – I pick out the changes and ideas you don’t want to miss in all the noise, and give them context and analysis.

What matters in tech? What’s going on, what might it mean, and what will happen next?

I’ve spent 20 years analysing mobile, media and technology, and worked in equity research, strategy, consulting and venture capital. I’m now an independent analyst. Mostly, that means trying to work out what questions to ask.

I write essays about things I’m trying to understand, and a weekly newsletter with 175,000 subscribers, and give presentations pulling together these ideas.

What happened in tech that mattered, and what did it mean? Once a week, I send an email newsletter to close to 200,000 people – I pick out the changes and ideas you don’t want to miss in all the noise, and give them context and analysis.

Source: Website

Elizabeth Florescu is Director of Research of The Millennium Project. She has been with the Project since 1997.

Elizabeth is an economist and analyst-programmer with over 20 years of experience in futures research. She was also policy analyst at the European Commission (2016-2019) and has done extensive work in operational research (using fuzzy logic), foreign trade, diplomacy, and security-related domains.

Source: Millennium Project page

Tracey Follows is a professional futurist and works with clients on long-term strategies, including Telefonica, Google, Sky, Farfetch, Conde Nast, and Virgin. She writes and speaks on Futures, appearing in a global list of 50 female futurists in Forbes.

She has spoken at UN HQ, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and at events such as Think With Google. She has appeared on BBC Business Matters, is a go-to futurist for many national press titles, and is a contributor columnist in Forbes.

She was an Adage ‘Woman to Watch’ 2017, Women in Marketing Award Winner for Outstanding Contribution to Marketing 2016, and Inaugural Creative Strategy Jury President at Cannes Lions 2019. In 2018, she was listed by Business Cloud as a Trailblazing Woman in Tech. She is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, World Futures Studies Federation, and a Fellow of the RSA.

Source: Google Books

Lex Fridman (born 15 August 1983) is an American computer scientist and podcaster. Since 2018, he has hosted the Lex Fridman Podcast, where he interviews notable figures from various fields such as science, technology, sports, and politics.

Fridman rose to prominence in 2019 after Elon Musk praised a study Fridman authored at MIT, which concluded that drivers remained focused while using Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving system. The study was criticized by AI experts and was not peer-reviewed. That year Fridman transitioned to an unpaid role at MIT AgeLab, and since 2022 has worked as a research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).] As of February 2024, Fridman lives in Texas but is still paid by MIT and is on campus “regularly”.

Mind Opener, Paradigm Shifter, Narrative therapist

Aline is a visionary thinker and innovator dedicated to fostering “Shifts in Minds for Shifts in Action.” With over 25 years of experience, she empowers individuals and organizations to rethink their mental maps and reshape their landscapes.

Aline’s unique approach equips people with the power and freedom to change how and what they think, thereby asserting their individual and collective agency over the Future. Her expertise lies in challenging commonly held beliefs and perceptions, encouraging the exploration of uncharted territories with imagination and vision.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Professor Jennifer Gidley, PhD
Author, Climate Educator, Psychologist, Futures Researcher.
Forbes “World’s Top 50 Female Futurists” List.

Jennifer is a global thought leader and advocate for human-centred futures in an era of hi-tech hype.

She is unique in the Futures world for her exceptional scholarship, mature wisdom, and grounded understanding of people as they face an increasingly uncertain world. Her inspiring human-centred insights speak to all audiences and enable hopeful, yet practical, strategies for creating better futures.

Jennifer’s most recent project is the founding of Global Futures Education, as a platform to provide high-level online education for professionals and executives. Over several years she has created a series of executive-level online courses on ‘Grand Global Futures Challenges and Solutions’.

Source: Website

Ina Fried (born December 17, 1974), formerly Ian Fried, is an American journalist for Axios. Prior to that, she was senior editor for All Things Digital and a senior staff writer for CNET Network’s News.com, and worked for Re/code.

She is a frequent commenter on technology news on National Public Radio and local television news, and for other print and broadcast outlets.

Source: Wikipedia

Jerome C. Glenn co-founded and directs The Millennium Project, a leading global participatory think tank supported by international organizations, governments, corporations, and NGOs, which produces the internationally recognized State of the Future annual reports for the past 16 years.

Jerome Glenn invented the “Futures Wheel”, a futures assessment technique; Futuristic Curriculum Development, and concepts such as conscious-technology, transinstitutions, tele-nations, management by understanding, feminine brain drain, just-in-time knowledge, feelysis, nodes as a management concept for interconnecting global and local views and actions, and definitions of environmental security, Collective Intelligence, and scenarios.

A graduate in political science and a doctor of sociology, I am director of the center for study, research and consulting in prospective, SAS proGective , and an associate of Yonders .

My main activity is to support decision-makers, both public and private, in their thinking, strategies and forward-looking approaches, in France and abroad.

To achieve this, I conduct prospective research on major topics relevant to evolution. As part of this, I develop and deliver lectures on the topics to which I devote my work. I also write and publish articles, books, and posts.

My passion is exploring uncharted territory. For over a decade, I’ve been working on the Great Transition we’re currently experiencing, and the chaotic, VUCA world it’s creating. Since 2018, I’ve been devoting my last decade of research to the emerging X.0 development model.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a tremendous springboard for the aspirations, creativity, and diverse awareness that have emerged. World X.0 has never seemed so close. I hope to make a significant contribution to its implementation.

Source: Website

Jonathan Haidt (pronounced “height”) is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992.

Haidt’s research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultural and political divisions. Haidt is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis (2006) and of the New York Times bestsellers The Righteous Mind (2012) and The Coddling of the American Mind (2018, with Greg Lukianoff). He has given four TED talks. In 2019 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 2018 he has been studying the contributions of social media to the decline of teen mental health and the rise of political dysfunction. His most recent book is the New York Times #1 bestseller The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

Bill’s Vision

As an aerospace engineer on Apollo, an Air Force officer, a Silicon Valley manager, professor of technology & innovation, and founder of TechCast, I have always been fascinated with the revolutionary power of technology driving us into a high-tech global order. My work is devoted to helping us figure out where this profound transition is heading, what it all means, and how we can get there.

Source: William Halal and Associates Website

Sir Demis Hassabis (born 27 July 1976) is a British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Isomorphic Labs, and a UK Government AI Adviser. In 2024, Hassabis and John M. Jumper were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their AI research contributions for protein structure prediction.

Hassabis is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and has won many prestigious awards for his research work including the Breakthrough Prize, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Lasker Award. In 2017 he was appointed a CBE and listed in the Time 100 most influential people list. In 2024 he was knighted for services to AI.

Source: Wikipedia

Aharon Hauptman is senior researcher at TSF/ICTAF since 1988. Dr. Hauptman has a B.Sc from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and Ph.D in Engineering from Tel-Aviv University (1986).

Specializing in the evaluation of trends in emerging technologies and their impacts, he has much experience in Technology Foresight and its relations with research policy and with various application areas. Examples of past/recent activities: Delphi surveys of emerging technologies; foresight in nanobiotechnology; foresight in the area of future unmanned/autonomous systems, “wild cards” and “weak signals”.

He has been involved in several EU FP6 projects (ELOST, Knowledge-NBIC, SSH-FUTURES) and led central work-packages or tasks in the FP7 projects FESTOS (impact of future/emerging technologies on security), PRACTIS (impact of  future technologies on privacy), iKNOW (wild cards and weak signals shaping the future science, technology and innovation policy) and RACE2050 (future transportation scenarios).

Source: Webpage

Technology Entrepreneur, Advisor, and Investor

Volker is an entrepreneur, executive, and investor who has founded and co-founded a total of 7 companies to date. Most recently, he was the Chief Commercial Officer of the UK’s Medicines Discovery Catapult and a Partner at Amadeus Capital. He is also co-founder of Blue Beck, a 30-strong software development house, and Chairman of Advantage Creative. His investment focuses on health, AI, Med Tech, Digital Health and education technology. Further, Volker is a co-founder of Tech North Advocates, a non-profit focused on promoting the role of tech in the North of England.

Previously, Volker was the Chief Strategy Officer at Scoreloop, a mobile social gaming platform, which he helped grow to 450m users. After the company was acquired by BlackBerry, he served as its Global Head of Business Development – Games.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Dr. Elina Hiltunen – Futurist, Author, D. Sc (business), M.Sc. (chemistry)

Elina Hiltunen is a futurist, D. Sc. (Business administration) from Aalto University, School of Business and M.Sc. (chemical engineering) from Helsinki University of Technology (currently Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering). Forbes has listed her as one of the 50 leading female futurists in the world. She is an experienced keynote speaker who has delivered hundreds of lectures about various topics on the future in Finland and abroad. She studied at the National Defense University, Finland and wrote her second PhD thesis on how to use science fiction in the foresight process of defense organization.

Elina has experience working as a futurist at Nokia, Finland Futures Research Centre and Finpro (Finnish Trade Promotion Association). She has also worked as an Executive in Residence at Aalto University, ARTS.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

The Norwegian-born philosopher, deep-tech investor Anders Indset has been recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the leading thinkers in technology and leadership. Anders is a bridge-builder between humanity and technology, shaping the economy of tomorrow with his practical philosophy. With two decades of experience working with multinational companies, he is a trusted sparring partner for international CEOs and political leaders, and a guest lecturer at leading international business schools.

With his deep understanding of the impact of exponential technologies, Anders demonstrates how and why leadership and its relationship to philosophy are more relevant than ever. He firmly believes that in a world with nearly unlimited access to knowledge, a deeper understanding and the ability to anticipate future scenarios, combined with the development of interpersonal skills, will be the most sought-after qualities for leaders.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and journalist known for her prescient writings on social trends, particularly technology’s impact on humanity. Her new book Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure has been lauded as “remarkable and persuasive” (Library Journal); “deeply compelling” (Kate Bowler); “incisive and timely-triumphant” (Dan Pink); and “both surprising and practical” (Gretchen Rubin).

Nominated for a National Book Award, Uncertain was chosen as the 2024 “Nonfiction Book of the Year” by the Independent Publishers of New England and a Top 25 Nonfiction Book of 2024 by the Next Big Idea Club led by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant and Dan Pink. Uncertain also was named a Top 10 book of the year by Greater Good magazine, the Artificiality Institute, and Library Journal, and a Top 10 Summer Read by Nautilus magazine. The book has been featured in media worldwide. Jackson’s recent lead New York Times opinion piece on uncertainty and well-being drew a quarter-million views.

Source: Website

Chair, onAir Tech Corporation
Curation Director,  onAir Networks
Chair, Future onAir Advisory Board

Interests:  Knowledge Networks, Catalyzing Innovation, Tech Entrepreneurship, Healthy and Sustainable Communities

Pioneer in identifying, developing, and applying new information and communication technologies:

• The first consumer applications of the microprocessor (4bit & LSIs) … for the toy and game industry and for education
• The first internet cafe with online news, games, and computer conferencing
• The first prototype smartphone working with the developers of the Amiga computer, the first graphical computer

My current focus has been on developing the onAir Knowledge Network System, a knowledge sharing software platform with many unique features such as enabling authors to own and share their content across multiple public and custom Hubs.

The 2-minute video  gives an overview of many of the capabilities of the onAir platform and the US onAir network of 50 state hubs and national hub at us.onair.cc.  The nonpartisan nonprofit onAir Networks, a 501c3, oversees the public onAir networks and hubs licensing the onAir software from onAir Tech corporation (formerly AIR Networks, LLC).

Rakesh Kapoor is a researcher, writer, editor and founder-managing trustee of Alternative Futures. Rakesh works on the interface of science, technology, society and the future and on issues of sustainable development. He is Consulting Editor of Futures: the journal of policy, planning and futures studies (www.elsevier.com/locate/futures).

He was Director of the World Futures Studies Federation (www.wfsf.org) – a global community of futurist thinkers, scientists and consultants from 2008 to 2014. See detailed c.v.

Ralph Keeney specializes in the development, use, and dissemination of decision-making concepts and techniques that help policy makers, governments, businesses, and individuals facing important decisions to structure their decisions in a logical manner that will promote better decision-making.

Dr. Keeney has made significant contributions to the fields of decision analysis and value-focused thinking. He applies precepts from operations research, management science and the decision sciences to important and challenging decision problems. His work includes: theoretical, methodological, and procedural contributions to decision analysis, risk analysis, and value-focused thinking and their applications.

He promotes the decision sciences through education and speaking, and service.

Ralph Keeney is President of the consulting firm, U.S. Marketing and Decisions Group, Inc.,  Professor Emeritus at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California.

Steve Kantor is a serial entrepreneur involved with multiple business, creative, and social entrepreneurial ventures as a founder, co-founder/partner, coach, and consultant. He is also the Founder of Bushido Dinners with 200+ people experiencing a Bushido Dinner at his home from 2015-2020 at small inspiring dinner parties of 6-8 entrepreneurs and artists.

From 2006-2019 the main focus was focus on helping top real estate agents grow their business to the next level with our Best Agent Business Virtual Assistant and Calling services based on our Billion Dollar Agent System. Starting in 2020, I have teamed with MyOutDesk to provide solid virtual assistant services.

Previously, Steve was the founder of Gnossos Software, a CRM database software company that was sold in 2004 to Vocus.

Ezra Klein (born May 10, 1984) is an American journalist, political analyst, New York Times columnist, and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly served as the website’s editor-at-large.

He has held editorial positions at The Washington Post and The American Prospect, and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC. His first book, Why We’re Polarized, was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2020.

Psychologist · Futures Strategist · Cultural Innovator

I work at the intersection of systems thinking, ecological intelligence, and moral imagination—helping individuals, organizations, and creative teams design futures that support human and planetary flourishing through applied psychology.

My work bridges research, wellness, technology, and the arts. Whether I’m consulting with leaders on ethical innovation, guiding people into deeper relationship with the more-than-human world, or creating immersive story systems for social transformation, my purpose is the same:

To help us remember how to be fully human in an accelerating world.

Source: Website

William R Kramer earned a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology, master’s in environmental policy and public administration, and doctorate in political science with an emphasis in outer space policy and futures studies.

He spent most of his career as a wildlife biologist with the Smithsonian Institution and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where he spent nearly two decades working on endangered species conservation issues in Hawaii and the Pacific region. He retired as head of the US Endangered Species Recovery Program.

After his first retirement, he assisted the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet for 12 years as a senior environmental scientist, taught bioethics and biology at Hawaii Pacific University, and worked at HDR, Inc. as their extraterrestrial environmental analyst. His experiences include Mission Commander at the Mars Desert Research Station and ground support for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation Facility.

Since 2013, William continues to lecture and lead workshops on outer space exploration and development issues related to futures studies, bioethics, and environmental ethics at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, and other locations.

Source: Blackburn International

Timothy B. Lee writes the newsletter Understanding AI and cohosts the AI Summer podcast. ​

Tim has written about technology, economics, and public policy for more than a decade. Before launching Understanding AI, he wrote for the Washington Post, Vox, and Ars Technica and holds a master’s degree in computer science from Princeton.

“People, Planet, Purpose, and Prosperity” is Gerd’s motto, and helping to design The Good Future is his key objective. Gerd is one of the top-rated contemporary futurists worldwide.

He’s presented at over 2000 leading conferences and events over the past 20 years, working with Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, NBC, Visa, Google, the European Commission, L’Oréal, Audi, Deloitte, and IBM. Gerd has influenced and inspired millions to “Imagine and create a better tomorrow”. Wired magazine named him one of the most influential Europeans, and he is listed as #7 in the global ranking of futurists.

Dr. Colin W. P. Lewis, Ph.D. is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher, although he prefers to call it Machine Intelligence (MI). Most of his work focuses on understanding human intelligence and creating solutions for artificial intelligence that benefits humanity.

He is also an Adjunct Professor and international business and policy advisor, specialized in the social and economic impact of technological change. With specific knowledge of the evolving conditions of technology for productivity growth, development, labor, (in)equality, and competitiveness

Source: Techerati

Emeritus Professor of Strategic Management, London South Bank University

Dr Bruce Lloyd,  Emeritus Professor of Strategic Management, spent over 20 years in industry and finance before joining the academic world twenty years ago to help establish the Management Centre at what is now London South Bank University. He has a Degree in Chemical Engineering; MSc (Economics) / MBA from the London Business School (1968) and a PhD (by published work) for his work on ‘The Future of Offices and Office Work: Implications for Organisational Strategy’.

Since the late 1960’s he has written extensively (about 200 published articles) on a wide range of strategy/futures related issues, including articles exploring the link between Leadership, Power and Responsibility and, more recently, the relationship between Leadership, Wisdom, Knowledge Management and Organisational Performance. He has undertaken over 30 interviews on leadership/management related issues for various journals. He was also the UK co-ordinator for ‘The Millennium Project’ 1999-2005.  Currently he works part-time for the University, particularly on PhD supervision.

Source: Fast Future page

Leading Futurist, visionary and communicator

Liselotte Lyngsø possesses a unique ability to paint mental pictures of how megatrends will affect us. She is a sought-after speaker and strategic advisor worldwide. Host and organizer of the podcast “Supertrends,” where she explores the future technologies that will revolutionize our way of life.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Gary Marcus is a leading voice in artificial intelligence. He is a scientist, best-selling author, and serial entrepreneur (Founder of Robust.AI and Geometric.AI, acquired by Uber). He is well-known for his challenges to contemporary AI, anticipating many of the current limitations decades in advance, and for his research in human language development and cognitive neuroscience.

An Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU, he is the author of five books, including, The Algebraic Mind, Kluge, The Birth of the Mind, and the New York Times Bestseller Guitar Zero. He has often contributed to The New Yorker, Wired, and The New York Times. His most recent book, Rebooting AI, with Ernest Davis, is one of Forbes’s 7 Must Read Books in AI.

Source: Website

Manager of the Public Service Broadcasting and Media with 30 years’ experience in the news, sport and international relations sectors. Trained as a journalist, with a great deal of experience in international companies and organizations (RAI, Euronews, Eurosport, and since 2002, at EBU European Broadcasting Union member of the WBU World Broadcasting Union).

Has worked for all traditional media (press, radio, general interest TV) but also new media (all-news channels, Internet portals). Expert in European and multilateral negotiations.

c3’s Founder and Executive Director, Producer, Writer

“Over 35 years of professional experience in the the arts and the entertainment industries together with a deep interest and study of human potential, consciousness research and future studies has been my inspiration for the creation of c3: Center for Conscious Creativity and the mission we seek to accomplish.

I hold an MA in Consciousness Studies and have been a student and practitioner of creativity, future trends in the arts and media, and meditation for over 40 years.  As an artist, I work as a producer and content creator in a variety of mediums, am a writer, musician, and photographer.”

Source: Website

Dr. Thomas Mengel, APF
Retired Professor of Leadership Studies, Renaissance College (RC), University of New Brunswick, Canada

Thomas is a professional futurist, a writer, and a scholar of leadership studies. He has been facilitating learning around leadership and project management for over 30 years. His degrees are in theology, adult education and psychology, history, and computer science (minor in business administration).
Before joining academia, Thomas has held project management and leadership positions in Europe and North America. He is particularly interested in the connections between futures studies and leadership education. As an active member of the International Leadership Association (ILA), the World Future Society (WFS), the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF), and the Association of Professional Futurists (APF), Thomas tried to imagine and conceptualize what implications learning about the futures might have on learning about and preparing for leadership processes and positions.

At RC, Thomas had included futures perspectives and futures-oriented learning opportunities into his leadership courses. For example, in addition to imagining what leadership in the future might look like, learners engage in questioning their assumptions about the future and in creating personal and professional alternative scenarios.

After his recent retirement from the University of New Brunswick, Thomas co-founded the Killick Coast North Seniors Co-operative and the Sunrise Funeral Co-operative, thereby actively contributing to the implementation of futures-oriented community designs that he continues to reflect and write about.

Source: T. Mengel

Jerry Michalski is an American technology consultant, futurist, and thought leader known for his work on the impact of technology on society and business, particularly in the areas of trust and relationships.

In essence, Jerry Michalski is a visionary who explores the profound ways technology shapes human interactions and societal structures. He challenges conventional thinking about consumers and trust, advocating for a future where relationships and genuine connections are central to a thriving economy and society.

Source: Gemini

Danil Mikhailov, Ph.D. is a computer scientist and social scientist and a world-leading expert in the application of technology and data innovation for social impact. Danil’s main research interests are in Science and Technology Studies, including social media, AI, and misinformation; technology and AI ethics, particularly where informed by non-western cultural context; development of methodologies of responsible data science and AI programs, particularly in lower-and-middle-income countries and settings; and the anthropology of interdisciplinary science and technology teams. A second, unrelated area of research interest is the history, philosophy, and practice of traditional Chinese martial arts.

In parallel to his research Danil serves as the Executive Director of data.org, where Danil launched global data for social impact programs in climate, health, and financial inclusion to build digital public goods, train a new generation of purpose-driven data practitioners, and design sustainable data ecosystems in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the US.

Source: Data.org webpage

Professor of Economics at University of Nairobi

Leopold P. Mureithi is co-chair of The Millennium Project (TMP) Kenya Node, a consultant on technology, employment, and related development matters, and a member of World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF). A long-time Professor of Economics at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, he has been on fixed-term assignments of limited duration (ALD) as Policy and an issues analyst at UNDP’s African Futures (AF) regional project  to promote long term perspectives thinking in Africa, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Lweopold has carried out research at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), and served as a founding team leader, for the Policy Analysis Support Unit (PASU) of the Organization of African Unity (OAU/AU) to build capacity for the African Economic Community, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Source: Fast Future

Futurist, Business Strategist, Public Speaker, Businessman and Entrepreneur

Anton is a Co-Founder of FutureWorld International – having joined the global FutureWorld network in 1991.

His passion is to engage senior executives in challenging debates about the many forces, technologies, and market dynamics driving future business success. Few leave Anton’s sessions thinking about anything similarly; instead, they are fuelled with new, exciting, action-shifting insights.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Source: Space for Humanity page

Chief Communications Officer, onAir Networks

Public Policy for Digital Technology, Internet & Telecommunications, Innovation and Technological Emergence

My goal is to help shape policies and strategies around information technologies that empower people throughout the world. My interests include information and communications technologies, Internet & telecommunications policy, technology innovation policy and technology forecasting. I am also interested in spiritual development, electronic art and music, and video games. Technology can bring both great promise and peril, and I thrive in expanding the former and minimizing the latte

Educational background:
Engineering on Industrial electronics and electricity, Engineering on energy resources

Work Experience:
30+ Years Technical trainer, nearly 25 Years Industrial robotics engineer, 25+ years technical translator, 20+ years investigating on future of technology and its integration on society. Further experience on Solar power, Laser technology, Industrial electronics.

Source: British Interplanetary Society

Joseph N. Pelton, Ph.D., is the Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for Collaboration in the Exploration of Space (ACES Worldwide). He is the Dean emeritus and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International Space University. He is the Founder of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation and the founding President of the Society of Satellite Professionals International—now known as the Space and Satellite Professionals International (SSPI).

Dr. Pelton currently serves on the Executive Board of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety. He is the Director Emeritus of the Space and Advanced Communications Research Institute (SACRI) at George Washington University, where he also served as Director of the Accelerated Masters’ Program in Telecommunications and Computers from 1998 to 2004.

Professor, Department of Sociology and social research at the UniTrento Digital University.

Expertise: Anticipation theory, Epistemology, Future studies, Innovation studies, Philosophy of science, Philosophy of the social sciences, Social sciences, Systems theory

B.A. in Sociology, with honours, at the University of Trento (1980).
Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) in 2001.

Memberships in societies and scientific committees
AFI-Associazione dei Futuristi Italiani (President)
-skopìa (President)
Editor in chief of Axiomathes (Springer)
Member of the editorial advisory board of the journals Futures and European Journal of Futures Research
Editor of the series Anticipation Science (Springer)

Source: UniTrento Digital University

Lee Rainie is a prominent researcher who has extensively studied the social impact of the internet and technology.

He is the Director of the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University (since early 2024). In this role, he leads an initiative focused on exploring the future impacts of digital change.

For 24 years, he was the founding director of Internet and Technology Research at the Pew Research Center. During his tenure, his team produced over 850 reports on the social, political, and economic effects of the internet, mobile connectivity, social media, and artificial intelligence revolutions.

Futurist, Prospectivist, Atemporalist. Mentor, Business Consultant, and Educator.
Prospective Human Talent Management.
Training Conscious Leaders, Bearers of the Future.
Transpersonal Development – TRANSNOIA Method

With over 40 years of personal development and spiritual experiences in countries across Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Latin America, he holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Management (MBA) from the University of Santiago de Chile – USACH. Professor and Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina. Director of TransformAcción – Center for Human Development. Founder and Director of the Center for Prospective Studies of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the National University of Cuyo. President of the Cuyo Center for Prospective Studies Civil Association. Member of the Scientific Council of the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute.

Creator of the TRANSNOIA Self-Transformation Method: A Practical Path to Personal Realization for the 21st Century. Guide through disruptive and liberating experiences that impede Transpersonal Development and the encounter with Witness Consciousness.

Source: LinedIn

I am a passionate futurist. My mission is to help us better understand our future.

As President of Swissfuture (Swiss Association for Futures Studies), I am also committed to futures studies as a discipline.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

Paul is a forecaster with over three decades experience exploring the dynamics of large-scale, long-term change. He teaches forecasting at Stanford University and advises organizations worldwide. Paul is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Paul serves on a variety of not-for-profit boards including the Long Now Foundation, and the Millennium Project.

Paul’s essays have appeared in a wide range of publications including The Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Foreign Policy, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. Paul holds degrees from Harvard College, Cambridge University and Stanford University.

Source: Website

Alexandra Samuel is an authority on the digital workplace. A speaker and data journalist, she is the co-author of Remote, Inc: How To Thrive at Work….Wherever You Are (Harper Business, 2021) and the author of Work Smarter with Social Media (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015).

Alex’s keynotes and trainings help organizations navigate the transition to the new hybrid workplace, which combines remote + office, and humans + AI.  Her writing on the workplace, business and technology appears frequently in The Wall Street Journal and The Harvard Business Review, and she is the AI columnist for JSTOR Daily.

The co-founder of groundbreaking digital agency Social Signal, Samuel creates data-driven flagship reports and workshops for companies like Google, Discovery and Sprinklr. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and works remotely from Vancouver, Canada.

Source: Website

Eric Saund is a researcher in Cognitive Science and a consultant in AI and Machine Learning.

Previously, Eric spent nearly 30 years working at Xerox PARC as a senior researcher and is an expert in natural language processing and cognitive architecture.

Eric has a degree from CalTech, and a PhD from the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT.

My mission is to advance the science of consciousness, and to use its insights for the benefit of society, technology, and medicine.

I am Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, where I am also Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science. I am also Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness.

I  was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness (Oxford University Press), a role I served from 2014-2024. I currently serve on the Editorial Board of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and on the Advisory Committee for 1907 Research and for Chile’s Congreso Futuro. I was Conference Chair for the 16th Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC16, 2012) and was an ASSC ‘member at large’ from 2014-2022.  I previously co-directed the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme: From Sensation and Perception to Awareness, and I was an Engagement Fellow with the Wellcome Trust (2016-2020).

My research has been supported by the EPSRC (Leadership Fellowship), the European Research Council (ERC, Advanced Investigator Grant), the Wellcome Trust, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).  Check out these profiles of me and my research in The Observer, The New Statesman, and Quanta.

Source: Website

Source: Amazon Books

Dawn Song is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. Her research interest lies in deep learning and security. She has studied diverse security and privacy issues in computer systems and networks, including areas ranging from software security, networking security, database security, distributed systems security, applied cryptography, to the intersection of machine learning and security.

She is the recipient of various awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the MIT Technology Review TR-35 Award, the George Tallman Ladd Research Award, the Okawa Foundation Research Award, the Li Ka Shing Foundation Women in Science Distinguished Lecture Series Award, the Faculty Research Award from IBM, Google and other major tech companies, and Best Paper Awards from top conferences. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining UC Berkeley as a faculty, she was an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University from 2002 to 2007.

Source: Berkeley website

In 2009, Frank founded Kedge – a global foresight, innovation, and strategic design firm which pioneered TFSX. Throughout his career, Frank has worked  as a leadership coach and developer with entrepreneurs, social communities, networking initiatives, and SMEs, helping them in areas such as development, innovation, and networking.

He holds a Master of Arts in Strategic Foresight from Regent University. With a strong background in both business and academic foresight, Frank was the creator and lead instructor of The Futures Institute: Shaping The Future Now at Duke University’s Talent identification Program Institute, teaching students to use Futures Thinking and foresight to develop transformative solutions to grand challenges (2010, 2011).

He has worked on Strategic Foresight projects for companies such as Kraft, Mars, Marriott, and The Walt Disney Company. He is a prolific speaker, having delivered presentations to groups and conferences around the globe for over the last 20 years. Frank holds memberships in World Futures Society (WFS) and Association for Professional Futurists (APF).

Source: Website

Source: Website

Luke established an independent strategic foresight practice in 2021, building on two decades of “been there, done that” service in the transport and agrifood domains of the Singapore public sector – across a breadth of leadership and foresight-focussed roles in policy, planning, international relations, national security, operations, infrastructure, risk management, corporate governance, strategic communications, and people development.

Luke’s work has involved engagement with a plethora of political, policy, enterprise, and civil society actors and organisations across Southeast Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania, as well as at international bodies including the G20, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UNDP, APEC, and ASEAN – imparting perspectives and experiences which have spurred his passion to advance international and cross-sectoral dialogue and collaboration for sustainable development.

Source: Chandler page

Dr. Evelyne Tauchnitz’s expertise focuses on how digital technologies can be employed to build, support, and maintain peace through non-violent methods of conflict transformation. She is employed as a Senior Researcher Fellow (Post-Doc) at the Lucerne Graduate School in Ethics (LGSE), University of Lucerne, where she is writing her ‘Habilitation’ on PeaceTech – exploring the impact of the digital transformation on peace & war from an ethical and human rights point of view.

Evelyne is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs (CTGA), University of Oxford, where she is co-coordinating the Global PeaceTech project. She holds a PhD in International Relations with a specialization in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva and was a Visiting Fellow (Post-Doc) at the Department of Political and Social Sciences (SPS), European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy, where she conducted research on international norms and negotiation strategies.

Source: Lucerne Webpage

Max Erik Tegmark (born 5 May 1967) is a Swedish-American physicist, machine learning researcher and author.

He is best known for his book Life 3.0 about what the world might look like as artificial intelligence continues to improve. Tegmark is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the president of the Future of Life Institute.

Antonio Yukio Ueta received his BSc in Physics from University of São Paulo (1978-1981), MSc in Plasma Physics from University of São Paulo (1982-1985), PhD in Semiconductor Physics from Johannes Kepler Universitaet-Linz, Austria (1993-1997). From July 1985 to May 2018 he was a federal civil servant of the National Institute for Space Research-INPE, where he had the opportunity to work in the areas of space technology, material research and management.

He was responsible for the implementation of the Chemical Contamination Analysis Laboratory of LIT/INPE (1985-1991); Senior Technologist at the Associated Laboratory of Materials and Sensors – LAS/INPE (1991-2003); Technical Assistant to the Director of INPE (2003-2006); Technical Advisor to the Director of INPE (2006-2016). During his career at INPE, he participated of training at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences-ISAS, Japan, from September to December 1989, having followed the final phase of integration of the MUSES-A micro satellite and the MUSES-A Lunar Orbiter. He was a participant of the Summer Space Program-SSP07 of the International Space University-ISU, China (2007), having participated in the “Space Traffic Management” team project. He also has an MBA-FGV in Strategic Management of S&T in Public Research Institutions-IPP’s (2008-2010).

He was Deputy Academic Coordinator of the Space Studies Program-SSP10/ISU, France (2010); Academic Coordinator of the Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program-SHSSP/ISU, Australia, in 2011 and 2012 and Co-Chair of the Space Applications department of the SSP21/ISU, France (2021). He is an Adjunct Faculty at the International Space University. He was a member of the Organizing Committee and speaker of the 2018 and 2019 Winter Course of Introduction to Space Technologies at INPE. He gives lectures for students in elementary, middle and higher education, as well as the general public, on topics related to futures studies and space applications. He is a member of the World Futures Studies Federation and Association of Professional Futurists.

Source: LinkedIn

Thomas Valone is a physicist and licensed professional engineer with 30 years professional experience, is a patent examiner, research engineer, instrumentation designer and also an author, lecturer, and consultant on future energy developments. He is President and founder of Integrity Research Institute and formerly a community college teacher and a Research Director for Scott Aviation-ATO, Inc.

He helped design the HullCom® for naval intraship communication, a 60 Hz gaussmeter , four bioelectric therapy devices, and an ionizer-precipitator. He is editor of Future Energy, Energetic Processes Vol. I & II, Turning the Corner: Energy Solutions for the 21st Century and a few conference proceedings, as well as author of The Future of Energy: An Emerging Science, Zero Point Energy: The Fuel of the Future, Harnessing the Wheelwork of Nature, Practical Conversion of Zero-Point Energy, Homopolar Handbook, Electrogravitics Vol. I & II, Bioelectromagnetic Healing, Bush-Cheney Energy Study, Clinton Administration Energy Study, Nikola Tesla’s Electricity Unplugged and about 100 published reports and articles.

He has also served as an expert witness, an expert declaration writer for court cases and appeared on CNN, A&E, and the Discovery Channels, besides a few commercial energy videos. He has been a keynote speaker for both the Earth Transformation and the Whole Person Healing Conferences. Currently, Dr. Valone is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Bioelectromagnetics Society, the National Space Society and the Union of Concerned Scientists. He is also a Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation. His works have been published in German, French, Russian, Romanian, Korean and English.

Integrity Research Institute, 5020 Sunnyside Avenue, Suite 209, Beltsville MD 20705 at 301-220-0440 and www.IntegrityResearchInstitute.org

Specialties: popular scientific lectures on energy, propulsion, bioenergetics and modern meditation; book authoring

Source: LinkedIn

Sesh Velamoor, recognized as a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, has had a unique and distinguished career in three different fields spanning over nearly 45 years: in business, as a member of boards, chief executive and consultant in the electromechanical manufacturing industry; as a lecturer in business administration at university level; and as a trustee and director of programs at the non-profit Foundation For the Future with responsibility for planning, designing, and conducting conferences, seminars, workshops and onstage interviews involving several hundred scholars of world renown, exploring the long term future of humanity on a wide array of themes such as climate change, energy, water, cultural evolution, future of humans in space, demographics, genetics and society, future humans, education etc.

He is a regularly invited panelist in global seminars and conferences, as a speaker at numerous global forums on aspects of the future. He has also published articles and essays in several different journals of Future Studies.

Source: Bellevue Ro

I am a Professor (Research) at Vision Research Institute. After completing B.E. (Electrical Engg.) at M.A.C.T. Bhopal and Part I of M.Tech. at I.I.T. Kanpur in India, I moved to USA to do M.S. (Computer Science) at Iowa State University, Ph.D. (Biophysics) at University of Illinois, and postdoctoral fellowship in color vision psychophysics at University of Chicago.

Further researches in visual psychophysics, neuroscience, and fMRI were at York University (Canada), New England College of Optometry (Boston), and Harvard Medical Schools (Schepens Eye Research Institute and McLean Hospital).

Source: Vision Research Institute

Dr. Karina Vissonova is the founding director of the Advanced Design Studies Institute and a researcher in design philosophy, specialising in future material wellbeing, sustainable societies, and the evolution of design education. With a Ph.D. in Design from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and over 25 years of experience in research and development, her work contributes to advancing design education through transdisciplinary frameworks. She currently lectures at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest and serves as a research fellow at the MOME Foundation, where she bridges futures studies and speculative design methodologies.

Dr. Vissonova curates interdisciplinary art-science exhibitions, and her publications include peer-reviewed papers, contributions to journal special issues on sustainable design futures, book chapters, and two books published through her institute. A member of the World Futures Studies Federation, she researches at the intersection of speculative design, sustainability studies, and design philosophy.

Physicist; ex-Netscaper;
Futurist, Strategic Foresight: Researcher, Analyst, Consultant, Educator, Speaker

Dr Joseph Voros holds a PhD in theoretical physics on mathematical extensions to the General Theory of Relativity (predominantly Einstein’s own ‘non-symmetric unified field theory’). He then spent several years in internet-related companies, including a stint at the legendary Netscape Communications Corporation in Silicon Valley, California, in the latter 1990s, and has been a professional futurist for over 25 years.

Dr Voros started at Swinburne in 2000 as a project consultant in the former Australian Foresight Institute. Then appointed as a strategic foresight analyst in a top-level strategic planning unit at Swinburne, he was involved in the building of an organisational strategic thinking capacity based on foresight concepts and methodologies, forming strong links with the strategic foresight teaching program, attending every class and providing a practitioner’s perspective in many invited lectures.

He is a member of the World Futures Studies Federation, and the Association of Professional Futurists, and was a founding member and former Board member (2012-2017) of the International Big History Association. He serves on the editorial boards of the UK journal Foresight, the European Journal of Futures Research, the Journal of Futures Studies, and the Journal of Big History.

Source: The Voroscope webpage

Julien Wacquez trained in cultural sociology and social studies of science at EHESS (M.A, Ph.D). During his PhD, he was appointed with 2 international fellowships: one at the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2015-2016), and another at the CEFRES in Prague, Czech Republic (2017-2019). He later worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire d’Excellence les passés dans le présent, the Université Paris Lumières, and Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University, Prague.

Currently, he conducts research within the Neurocybernetics Team of the ETIS Lab, under the AS3 project “Decision, Learning, and Social Interaction” of the PEPR O2R program. He collaborates closely with social anthropologist Joffrey Becker and contributes to the Maison des Humanités Potentielles.

Julien Wacquez has been a member of the World Futures Studies Federation since 2023, sits on the scientific committee of the journal Terrain, and has been editor-in-chief of Angle Mort, a science fiction magazine, since 2014. The magazine received the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire’s “Special Prize” in 2014 and was named “Best Science Fiction Magazine of the Year” by the European Science Fiction Society in 2018.

Source: ETIS page

Eleanor ‘Nell’ Watson, a trailblazer in emerging technologies such as machine vision and A.I. ethics, dedicates her work to protecting human rights and infusing ethics, safety, and values that elevate the human spirit into technologies like Artificial Intelligence.

As IEEE Ethics Maestro, Chair IEEE’s ECPAIS Transparency Experts Focus Group, and Vice Chair of P7001 Transparency of Autonomous Systems committee on A.I. Ethics & Safety, Nell is engineering mechanisms into A.I. to help safeguard algorithmic trust.

She also leads several prominent organizations such as EthicsNet.org, teaching machines prosocial behaviors, CulturalPeace.org, crafting Geneva Conventions-style rules for cultural conflict, Endohazard.org, a hazard symbol project for informing consumers of endocrine disruptors, and Pacha.org, connecting a network of service providers to help enable the automated accounting of externalities (shifted costs) such as pollution.

Source: Website

Corporate Futurist residing in Brazil, expert in Futures Studies and Strategic Foresight (most influential reference in Foresight and Corporate Cases in Brazil).

Jaqueline’s vision is strategic, and the narrative connects multiple futures with different current realities, above all, it shows HOW leaders and professionals can drive change in the new century.

Source: Gerd Featured Colleagues

David Weinberger (born 1950) is an American author, technologist, and speaker whose work explores how technology, particularly the internet and machine learning, shapes our ideas.

Trained as a philosopher with a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Weinberger’s career has spanned academia, technology consulting, and writing. He taught philosophy before transitioning to the tech industry, where he held marketing and executive roles.

He is perhaps best known as a co-author of the influential Cluetrain Manifesto (2000), which offered early insights into the social nature of the internet.

Weinberger has been affiliated with Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society since 2004, holding positions as a Fellow, Senior Researcher, and member of the Fellows Advisory Board. He has also been involved with the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy.

More recently, his work has focused on the philosophical and ethical implications of machine learning, resulting in his 2019 book, Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility

Source: Gemini

Paul Werbos is best known (and most cited) for the original discovery of backpropagation, and for the theorem establishing its validity, as part of his PhD thesis in Applied Mathematics for Harvard in 1974. Even before 1974, he had developed backpropagation as one element of a more general approach to reinforcement learning, which combined a new way to learn to approximate dynamic programming with key insights from Freud’s theory of how learning works in neurons of the brain.

He inaugurated the field which we now know of as RLADP, Reinforcement Learning and Approximate Dynamic Programming, building on this earlier work, his later papers, and on the research area of Adaptive and Intelligent Systems at NSF which he led from 1988 to 2015. This included neural networks, adaptive fuzzy logic, and a major paradigm shift in how to understand intelligence in the brain, which has passed tests on the best real-time brain data (Werbos and Davis 2016).

Source: Regulating AI

Rabia is an expert on digital commerce and developing thought leadership relating to this dynamic and increasingly significant subject.

In addition to insights-based content, Rabia works as an internal expert on research design and innovation and has been global project lead for travel and digital consumer research, where she has crafted and managed various sector indices, ensured global data quality and driven thought leadership.

With experience in strategy, research, and insights, Rabia advises clients on digital commerce strategy across a wide range of industries, including retail, fmcg, travel and consumer finance. Her interest in digital technologies and innovation as a denominator to transform and accelerate wider industries enables her to offer cross-vertical strategic insight.

Source: Euromonitor

Amy Zalman is an internationally recognized futurist, author, and educator who advises government and business leaders on anticipating and navigating future change.

Current Roles:

• Advisory Specialist Leader, Defense, Security and Justice at Deloitte: She helps defense and civilian clients develop strategies to thrive in the evolving global information environment.
• Founder and CEO of Prescient LLC: A foresight consultancy that assists Fortune 500 companies, governments, and non-profit organizations in preparing for the future.
• Founder and Director of the Foresight Sandbox: An executive education program providing strategic foresight training.
• Part-time Professor of Strategic Foresight at Georgetown University.

Source: Gemini

Dr. Lior Zalmanson is a senior lecturer (assistant professor) at the Technology and Information Management Program, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University.

His research interests include social media, user engagement, internet business models, human-AI interaction, and algorithmic management. His research has won awards and grants from Fulbright Foundation, GIF (German-Israeli Foundations), Grant for the Web, Dan David Prize, Google, Marketing Science Institute, Social Informatics SIG, among others. His works were published in top venues such as MIS Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Information Systems, and MIT Sloan Review.

His studies were covered in The Times, Independent, HBR, PBS, Fast Company, including numerous mentions in the Israeli media. In 2021, he received the Association of Information Systems Researchers’ Early Career Award, acknowledging a combination of research, teaching, and service to the community. He also received multiple teaching awards for his experiential courses in user engagement and online communities. Formerly he was an assistant professor at the University of Haifa, a postdoctoral Fulbright fellow at NYU, and a research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum Media Lab. Lior is also the founder of the Print Screen Festival, Israel’s digital culture festival, which connects internet researchers, activists, and artists. Furthermore, he is a grant and award-winning digital artist, playwright, and screenwriter. His most recent VR work (about the bystander syndrome) debuted at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

Source: Coller webpage

Founder, Modern Polymaths Institute, Polymath’s Place, and Prison Transparency Project,
Author, Coach, Consultant
Ed.D George Washington University 
School of Education and Human Development  2015 – 2018

Dr. Angela Meyers is an internationally recognised as the creator of Modern Polymathy studies, at the core of my work is a deep-seated desire to reduce human suffering by enhancing human thriving. To me the key to that freedom is through actualising our innate human polymathy.

Through my career, which spans professional roles at the Executive Office of the President and managing educational programs and organizational development interventions for leaders from across the federal government, I have been fortunate to blend my passion for leadership, learning, innovation, and interdisciplinary thinking.

Having built an extensive network across government, academia, and among the world’s polymaths has allows me to engage with many of the world’s brightest minds.