Banner for the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award featuring a group exploring a rainforest, a pangolin resting in a person’s hands, and a conservation worker holding young plants in a coastal wetland.

10-Year Anniversary Symposium | Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award

Celebrating a decade of impact of one of the most prestigious environmental prizes in the world for innovators under 40.

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UCLA Luskin Conference Center
Centennial Ballroom

Join UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability for a public symposium marking the 10th anniversary of the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award.

The Symposium brings together past Pritzker Award winners and finalists, UCLA faculty, students, and cross-sector partners for substantive dialogue on the defining environmental challenges of our time. 

A preview of the day’s program is below. Additional panelists and moderators to be confirmed.

Each panel discussion will include an audience question-and-answer session.

Opening remarks by Alex Hall, Director of the IoES and Faculty Director of the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge.

Panel 1

A discussion about conservation as resilience in the face of a changing climate.

Featuring: 

  • 2023 Pritzker Prize Winner Iroro Tanshi, Director of Research Programs and Co-founder of Small Mammal Conservation Organisation (SMCO)
  • Professor Elsa Ordway, Co-director of the Congo Basin Institute and Co-director of the Center for Tropical Research
  • Restoration Ecologist Andy Kleinhesselink, Managing Director of UCLA’s Sage Hill

Panel 2

A look at the energy transition and economic development from a global perspective.

Featuring:

  • 2022 Pritzker Prize Winner Dysmus Kisilu, Founder of Solar Freeze
  • Professor William Boyd, Faculty Co-Director of Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
  • Sebastián Solarte-Caicedo, Fulbright Scholar and PhD Candidate at the IoES

Panel 3

A discussion with 2026’s Pritzker Prize finalists.

Moderated by Nurit Katz, UCLA Chief Sustainability Officer

Featuring:

  • Zuzana Buřivalová, tropical forest conservation scientist and professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Doris Njagi, Founder of Forest Restored
  • Suzanne Pierre, Founder and Executive Director of Critical Ecology Lab

This is a rare opportunity to hear directly from, and engage in dialogue with, some of the world’s most compelling environmental minds at a critical moment for the planet.

RSVP today to secure your spot.

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