User:MaiD0210

= Anantha Kumar Duraiappah = Dr. Anantha Kumar Duraiappah (1958 - Present) is an extremely conscientious, authoritative and pacesetter having 33 years of experience in developing science and evidence based policies for supporting international community for fundamental transformations. Substantial experience and expertise in developing and guiding dynamic trans-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams to address global “wicked” problems viz. climate change, poverty and low quality education. Proven ability to develop networks for the future by integrating and utilizing youth energy for handling contemporary problems of the world. Visionary leader having expertise in focusing/directing the efforts of diverse groups to work towards the common goals by utilizing out of the box creativity, and critical and innovative thinking.

Anantha Duraiappah is the founding director of UNESCO's MGIEP; the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development in New Dehli, India. A member of many scholarly societies such as, DIVERSITAS, The World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and UN Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), Dr. Duraiappah is an academic in pursuit of bridging the science-policy nexus. He is presently leading MGIEP towards becoming a leading research education institute at the forefront of transforming education for humanity using the latest findings from the sciences of learning to student learning.

Dr. Duraiappah began his career at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, in his home country of Malaysia, as an Executive Resident Officer. Going back to school, at the University of Texas, Austin, Dr. Duraiappah graduated with a Ph.D in Economics. Work continued to take him across continents working at universities, research institutions and finally for the United Nations. In 2014 he accepted the challenging role as founding director of UNESCO's first and only Category 1 Institute in the Asia Pacific region located in India.

Early Years
Anantha Kumar Duraiappah was born on March 30, 1958, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Anantha Duraiappah is the second oldest in a family of 4. His mother, Jeyaletchumy Sinnathamby, was a teacher while his father, Kandiah Duraiappah, began as a labor unionist in Malaysia before joining the International Labor Organization of the United Nations till he retired. Anantha spent his early childhood in Kuala Lumpur, before finishing high school in England.

Education
Dr. Duraiappah finished his undergraduate studies at the University of Kent, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Electronics with a specialization in control theory and differential calculus. He then went to University of San Francisco in 1983 to do his MBA with a specialization in finance and strategic management. Anantha Duraiappah moved on to the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 driven by a passion for economics. Graduating with a PhD in Economics, in the field on Optimal Control Theory, Development Economics and Planning built one of teh first global climate change models and produced a dissertation: "Economic Growth and Global Warming: A Holistic Approach to Policy Coordination and International Cooperation"; Committee Chair: Prof. David A. Kendrick.

Executive Resident Officer - The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (Kuala Lumpur)
March 1984 - June 1986

Key achievement: Initiated and established the first electronic payroll system for corporate clients

Research Fellow, European Policy Unit - The European University Institute (Florence)
January 1991 - February 1993

Key achievements:

- Carried out the first evaluation of the IMAGE climate change model for the Environmental Directorate (DGXI) at the European commission

- Designed model simulations to evaluate the robustness of economic instruments for reducing greenhouse gases and to analyze the extent of required North-South cooperation for effective climate negotiations

Senior Research Economist and Head of the Mathematical Modeling Group - Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
April 1995 - April 2000

Key achievements:

- Established a successful capacity building program on the economics of environment and development between research institutes in developing and developed countries

- Produced 15 over peer reviewed papers written collaboratively between scientists from developing country research institutes

Director Economic Policy and Senior Economist - International Institute for Sustainable Development (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
May 2000 - December 2005

Key achievements

- Established a policy research program bringing together Amartya Sen's capability framework of social justice with an ecosystem services approach; developed a program of work on ecosystem service valuation and markets for ecosystem services

- Working closely with Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and developed a framework on ecosystem services as the foundational framework to guide the Agency's environmental and aid policy; and developed the conceptual framework for addressing the poverty-environment nexus for UNEP.

Chief, Ecosystem Services and Economics Unit - United Nations Environment Programme (Nairobi, Kenya)
January 2006 - December 2009

Key achievements:

- Developed and implemented the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment follow up activities and played a key role in integrating ecosystem services approach into UNEP's program of work

- Team leader for the establishment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

- Raised 12 million U.S dollars over three years and established UNEP's first Ecosystem Services and Economics Unit

Executive Director - IHDP, United Nations University (Bonn, Germany)
January 2010 - June 2014

Key achivements

- Established web based crowd sourcing platforms to mobilize social sciences input for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

- Established a popular style magazine bringing global change science to the public - His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales contributed to the second edition

- Was the founding director of the Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR) released at the RIO+20 Global Summit

Director - Founding Director, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (New Delhi, India)
July 2014 - Present

Key ongoing achievements

- Developed an indigenous artificial intelligence driven curriculum and learning platform for K-12

- Chief architect of the I-Hub - an Ed-Tech ecosystem for the state of Andhra Pradesh.

- Developing a set of global guidelines for digital pedagogies.

Books
Duraiappah, A.K and others., The Inclusive Wealth Report 2012, IHDP-UNU and UNEP, Cambridge. University Press, 2012

-  Duraiappah, A.K et.al., Satoyama-Satoumi Ecosystems and Human Well-being, United Nations University Press, Tokyo 2012

-  Duraiappah, A.K and Shahid Naeem et.al., Millennium Ecosystem Assessment., Biodiversity and Human Well-being: Synthesis report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, World Resource Institute, 2005.

-  Duraiappah and others, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment., Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Island Press, 2005.

-  Duraiappah, A.K., Computational Models in the Economics of Environment and Development, Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, Environmental Series, 2003.

-  Duraiappah, A.K., There is a Better Way, A schematic illustration of "Development as Freedom", Mazingira, Kenya, 2003.

-  Duraiappah, A.K., Global Warming and Economic Development: A Holistic Approach to International Policy Cooperation and Coordination, Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993. (Translated into Japanese 1995)

Chapters in Books
-  Duraiappah, A.K., The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Strengthening the science-policy interface, forthcoming in Nunes, P, P.Kumar and T.Dedeurwaerdere, Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Edward Elger, forthcoming 2013

-  Dasgupta, Partha and Anantha Duraiappah, Wealth and Well-being in The Inclusive Wealth Report 2012, UNU-IHDP and UNEP, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

-  Duraiappah, A.K and others, Governing the Provision of Ecosystem Services in Studies in Ecological Economics, Springer Verlag, forthcoming 2012

-  Duraiappah A.K with others in, The Economics of Ecosystem Services, in Naeem et.al, Biodiversity and Human Impacts. Cambridge University Press, 2010

-  Duraiappah, A.K with others in, Valuation of Ecosystem Services, in Naeem et.al, Biodiversity and Human Impacts. Cambridge University Press, 2010

-  Duraiappah A.K in, Operationaziling Capabilities in a Segmented Society, in Alkire et.al, The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008

-  Duraiappah, A.K, Poverty and the Environment, in Economics of Environment and Development by Kumar,P et.al, 2007

-  Duraiappah and others, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment., Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing, Island Press, 2003.