Eicke R. Weber is Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and Professor for Physics / Solar Energy at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and at the Faculty of Engineering at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany. The ISE institute is one of the world-leading research institutes in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The focus of Prof. Weber’s research is the analysis of lattice defects in Si and compound semiconductors. Recently he studied specifically how good solar cells can be produced out of upgraded metallurgical (“dirty”) silicon with high impurity content.

Prof. Weber studied Physics at the University of Cologne, Germany where he made his doctorate in 1976 and his habilitation in 1983. From 1983-2006 he lectured at the Faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley - since 1991 as Professor of Materials Science. In 1990 he was appointed visiting professor at the Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan and in 2000 at the Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. In 1994 he received an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. From 2004-2006 he served as the chair of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Graduate Group in Berkeley. He was president of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America (AvHAA) from 2001-2003 and in 2003 he was elected founding president of the German Scholars Organization (GSO). In 2006 he received the Award of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) of the German President.

He is fellow of the American Physical Society. In July 2008 Prof. Weber was appointed Director to the SEMI International Board of Directors. He received the Electronics and Photonics Division Award of the Electrochemical Society ECS in June 2009. In October 2009 he was elected Honorary Member of the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Since 2010 Prof. Weber is Member of acatech - the German Academy of Science and Engineering, Berlin.

AMALIO DE MARICHALAR Y SAENZ DE TEJADA
COUNT OF RIPALDA

Amalio-Joaquín de Marichalar y Sáenz de Tejada. Count of Ripalda. Born in Pamplona (Navarre, Spain) on 13 August 1958.

After completing his secondary education (bachillerato) at the Colegio de los Padres Jesuitas in Burgos (Spain), he studied Law, Political Sciences and Sociology for several years at Madrid’s Complutense University. He then undertook a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Business Management at the IE Business School in Madrid.

Through his professional activities in various business fields, he has promoted a number of highly symbolic and pioneering projects in the Spanish insurance sector, including the Combined Life and Accident Insurance Policy for members of the Spanish Armed Forces, and the Insurance Policy for Peace and Humanitarian Missions for the Spanish Army, both of which are fundamentally social in nature.

Moreover, from his office he runs other pioneering activities in a number of business sectors in the fields of international investment, foreign trade, real estate and innovation.

In the social sphere, he is a member of various private institutions and associations. He is Chairman of the association Foro Soria 21 para el Desarrollo Sostenible (Soria 21 Forum for Sustainable Development), where he works in different ways to support sustainable development.

Having been appointed by the Earth Council, he was a member of the Ministerial Preparatory Meeting for the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Bali in 2002. He also participated in the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, as the official representative of the Provincial Council and City Hall of Soria.

Furthermore, he attends and speaks at a wide range of international conferences and summits, including the summit presenting the Colombian Environment Code in Bogotá, Colombia; the Corporate Social Responsibility Summit in Panama in October 2003, organised by the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank; the 2nd Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico in 2004; the Urbino (Italy) Conference on the Earth Charter; the 3rd Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility in Chile in October 2005; the International Conference on the Earth Charter in Amsterdam in November 2005; the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) International Conference in October 2006 in Amsterdam, where he sat on the high-level working group; the International Town Development Forum of Small and Medium Size Cities/Regions (Territorios 21) held in La Rioja in November 2006; the High-Level Event for Ambassadors on the Environment and Sustainable Development, in parallel with the Global Reporting Initiative on the role of governments and sustainability, held in Aldealseñor, Soria, in January 2007; the IUCN World Conservation Congress, as part of the session on the Earth Charter, in 2008; the preparatory sessions for the Copenhagen Summit held in Geneva in 2009; preparations for the World Forum Lisbon 21 on Water, Energy and Sustainable Development, held in Porto in 2010; and the World Forum Lisbon 21 on Water, Energy and Sustainable Development held in Lisbon in 2011, etc.

He moderates and participates in conferences, colloquia and seminars pertaining to sustainable development in both Spain and abroad, where he continuously analyses, shares knowledge and disseminates information on a range of subjects linked to this field. From the association which he chairs, he also organises occasional meetings, conferences and international fora that enable open and continuous debate, building awareness in favour of sustainable development and laying the foundations for an action plan.

Rainer Griesshammer (1953) is chemist, member of the management board of the Institute of Applied Ecology, Freiburg and director of the future heritage foundation (Stiftung Zukunftserbe). Leader of the research group "Products and Material Flows" at the Institute of Applied Ecology (1992–2002). Managing director of the Institute of Applied Ecology (1985–1991). Research Analyst in the German Bundestag (1982–1984).

He is specialized on product development and assessment. Founder of the product information campaign EcoTopTen. Developer of the PROSA, Product Sustainability Assessment method.

In 2010 Rainer Grießhammer was awarded with the The German Environmental Award of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).

Memberships:
Member of the Advisory Council on Global Change – WBGU (2004 – 2008)

Member of the board of trustees of the consumer protection agency Stiftung Warentest (since 2003)
Member of the Enquete-Commission "Protection of Man and the Environment" of the German Bundestag (1992-1994)

Gerhard Knies, 1937, Dr. rer. nat., research in elementary particle physics at DESY (Hamburg), CERN (Geneva), SLAC (Stanford) and UCBerkeley. 2001 retired. Father of 2 children and grandfather to 5 neat kids.
Articles on ecology and peace: Vulnerability of Industrial Civilization as Reason for Peace (1986); 1987, Analysis of SDI – the unequal race between defence and offence (1987); The Global Development Crisis and Democracy (1993),
Work on Sustainability: Co-founder of Hamburg Climate Protechtion Foundation (1995); Initiator and coordinator of the “Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation TREC”, a network of about 50 experts in renewable energies from 6 European and 10 MENA countries (2003 – 2007); creation of the term DESERTEC (2006), development of DESERTEC concept (www.desertec.org). with TREC, Club of Rome and DLR (2007); advisor to French Presidency for the Solar Plan of Union for the Mediterranean (2008); proposal of a DESERTEC Industrial Initiative (Dii GmbH) to the Munich Re-Insurance (October 2008), Co-founder of the DESERTEC Foundation (January 2009) and of DESERTEC University Network DUN (October 2010).

AntonioLuque (b. 1941) is Dr. Engineer in Telecommunication. Chair Professor of Electronic Technology at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, since 1970, in which he leads the Institute of Solar Energy, he founded in 1979. His research activity is mainly devoted to the photovoltaic conversion of solar energy. He invented the bifacial cell in 1976. This cell was fabricated by Isofotón, a company he created in 1982, today present in more than 50 countries. More recently (1997) Prof. Luque has proposed the new intermediate band solar cell —a concept that might overcome the fundamental efficiency limitations of conventional solar cells— and is working in developing this concept. He is also involved in Concentrator Photovoltaic Research and he inspired the creation of the Institute for Concentrator Photovoltaic Systems in Castilla La Mancha, whose Scientific Advisory Board he chairs and in Silicon ultra-purification research as CEO of the university-industry joint company CENTESIL for a pilot plant in this sector. He has published more then 250 scientific papers in English language as well as some books and holds over 20 patents. He has obtained, among others (twice), the Spanish National Prize for Technology (1989 and 2003), granted by the King of Spain, the Alexander-Edmond Becquerel Prize in PV research, granted by the EC (1992) and the William Cherry Award to PV research granted by the IEEE (2006). He is Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain (since 1995), Doctor Honoris Causa by two Spanish Universities (Carlos III and Jaen, both 2005) and Member of Honour of the Ioffe Institute (since 2002).

Marcello Palazzi, BSc, MSc, MBA is a serial innovator and entrepreneur working in and across business, philanthropy, civil society, government and international organizations. In his early 20s, he and his engineer father started 2 companies in environmental diagnostics in the UK and Italy, which he grew internationally during a 10-year period and then sold. In his early 30s, he co-founded Progressio Foundation in Rotterdam with Dr. Paul Kloppenborg with whom in 1989-90 he co-authored and edited 2 books pioneering the "civic economy" and "civic enterprise". Through Progressio he has led 200 projects and ventures in 33 countries, in the pursuit of "civic and entrepreneurial" solutions to the key challenges of sustainable development, smart growth, creative societies, poverty eradication, among others (see www.progressio.org). He has and continues to be involved in several public-benefit organizations, for profit and not-for-profit in the USA and Europe, particularly Tallberg Foundation in Sweden (see www.tallbergfoundation.org).

By education, he is an economist (University of Buckingham), a public and foreign policy scholar (LSE) and a business manager (LBS, MIT and RSM), completing his secondary education in Italy, Switzerland and the UK. He won The Economist Prize for the Best MBA Project at LBS on strategic philanthropy and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in London.

Simon Trace is the Chief Executive of Practical Action (formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group, founded by E.F. Schumacher in 1965). He has nearly thirty years’ experience in international development and took up his current post with Practical Action in 2005.

A Chartered Civil Engineer with an MA in the Anthropology of Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, his career has focused on the practice of technology in sustainable development.

Prior to joining Practical Action he spent 20 years working for the NGO WaterAid, firstly on soil and water management, drinking water and sanitation in South Asia and then on a series of posts at its headquarters, including six years as International Operations Director. His career at WaterAid included a number of years seconded as an advisor to other organisations, including CARE and Unicef. He has worked across East, West and Southern Africa, South Asia and Latin America.

Simon is a trustee of the charity EnergyAid and the Chair of the boards of Practical Action Consultants and Practical Action Publishing.

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, born 1939, is Co-Chair of the International Panel on Sustainable Resource Use. He worked as professor for Interdisciplinary Biology; also he was the founding president of the University of Kassel.

From 1981 to 1984 von Weizsäcker was Director of the UN Centre for Science and Technology for Development, from 1984–1991 Director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy, Bonn, London, Paris. From 1991–2000 von Weizsäcker was Founding President of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy.

Von Weizsäcker has been a Member of the Bundestag (German Parliament), SPD for twenty years, he was Chairman of the Bundestag Study Commission on Economic Globalisation. From 2006–2008 he was Dean of the Donald Bren School for Environmental Science and Management, UCSB, Santa Barbara, California, USA.

Von Weizsäcker is puplisher of several Publications, his latest is “Factor Five” (2010). www.ernst.weizsaecker.de