The 2025 Pritzker Lunch & Learn

Event Overview

Join us for a special Lunch & Learn with the finalists of the Ninth Annual Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award. This event offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from three innovators reshaping how the world approaches conservation, sustainability and human–wildlife coexistence.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM PST
UCLA Faculty Club · Hacienda Room

A complimentary lunch will be provided.

About the Event

The Pritzker Lunch & Learn brings together the 2025 finalists in conversation about the ideas and solutions driving their work. From amphibian survival strategies in Australia to fashion supply chains in Indonesia and human–elephant coexistence in India, their projects span continents but converge on one goal: building futures where people and ecosystems thrive together.

About the Finalists

Denica Riadini-Flesch
Founder of the social enterprise SukkhaCitta, Riadini-Flesch is rebuilding the fashion supply chain from the ground up. Partnering with smallholder farmers and rural women across Indonesia, she integrates regenerative farming, natural dyes and cultural heritage into a system that restores ecosystems and creates equitable livelihoods. Her work links soil health to sustainable textiles, reconnecting global markets with local resilience.

Anthony Waddle
A conservation scientist at Macquarie University and Schmidt Science Fellow, Waddle is pioneering new approaches to amphibian survival in Australia. Once decimated by chytrid fungus, green and golden bell frogs are now rebounding under his leadership. From innovative “frog saunas” to vaccine trials and synthetic biology, his work is influencing how the global community tackles wildlife disease.

Seema Lokhandwala
An engineer turned conservation scientist, Lokhandwala leads the Elephant Acoustics Project in Northeast India. By decoding low-frequency elephant communication and building early-warning systems, she helps communities and herds coexist safely. Her work has reduced human and elephant fatalities, maintained genetic diversity and strengthened the cultural ethos of coexistence in one of the world’s most challenging conservation frontiers.

About the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award

The Pritzker Award is the first major U.S. prize designed to spotlight next-generation environmental leaders. Candidates are nominated by established leaders in the field, and a panel of experts selects a winner who will receive a $100,000 prize, made possible by the Anthony Pritzker Family Foundation.

The 2025 winner will be announced at UCLA on October 8.