Draft:Roland Kupers



Roland Kupers is a Dutch physicist working on complexity science as it applies to public policy and the energy transition. He is a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University and is a global advisor on methane to the International Methane Emissions Observatory of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Corporate and Advisory work
Kupers studied theoretical physics and later worked at Shell where he became Vice President for Sustainable Development and Vice President for Global Liquified Natural Gas, LNG. He helped to launch the International Methane Emissions Observatory and is an author of UNEP’s annual report “An Eye on Methane”. Kupers is on the board of trustees of the Environmental Defense Fund in Europe.

Academic and Policy work
Kupers was an associate fellow at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment and a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Amsterdam. He wrote about resilience and risk in the World Economic Forum 2018 Annual Risk Report, about the history of foresight in the Harvard Business Review as well as policy editorials for Project Syndicate.

Currently Kupers is studying the climate impact of hydrogen emissions. In 2024 he was awarded a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.

Works
Kupers, R. "A Climate Policy Revolution: What the Science of Complexity Reveals about Saving the Planet" Harvard University Press, 2020

Colander, D; Kupers R. "Complexity and the Art of Public Policy - Solving Society's Problems from the Bottom-up." Princeton University Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780691169132

Wilkinson, A; Kupers R. "The Essence of Scenarios" Amsterdam University Press, 2014 DOI:10.1515/9789048522095

Kupers, R., "Turbulence: A Corporate Perspective on Collaborating for Resilience", Amsterdam University Press, 2014.

Personal life
Roland Kupers lives in Amsterdam. In 1989 he married designer Hester van Eeghen she died in 2021.