N. K. Jemisin

N. K. Jemisin is the first author in the history of the science fiction and fantasy genre to win three consecutive Best Novel Hugo Awards, for her “Broken Earth” trilogy. Her work has also won the Nebula and Locus Awards, and she was a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Ms. Jemisin’s most frequent themes include resistance to oppression, the inseverability of the liminal, and the coolness of Stuff Blowing Up. She has been an advocate for the long tradition of science fiction and fantasy as political resistance and previously championed the genre as a New York Times book reviewer. Ms. Jemisin lives and works in New York City.

Wendy Wolford is the Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, as well as Vice Provost for International Affairs. Her research includes work on international development, land use and distribution, social mobilization, agrarian societies, and critical ethnography. Since 2010, Dr. Wolford has served as the Faculty Director for Economic Development at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, where she co-led CARE-Cornell and Oxfam-Cornell collaborations. She was also co-leader of a three-year theme project on contested global landscapes at Cornell’s Institute for the Social Sciences. As Cornell’s Vice Provost for International Affairs, Dr. Wolford focuses on strengthening the university’s many global connections and interdisciplinary initiatives, including the Migrations Grand Challenge. She holds a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in economics and international development from McGill University.

Anindita Banerjee’s research focuses on science fiction and technocultural studies, environmental humanities, media studies, and migration studies across Russia, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Latin and African Americas. She serves on the faculty advisory board of the Atkinson Center for Sustainability and as the chair of the humanities concentration in the Environment and Sustainability Program. Dr. Banerjee is a steering committee member of the South Asia Program and a participating member of Biology and Society, Media Studies, Visual Studies, and European Studies.

Dr. Banerjee is a founding co-editor of the book series Studies in Global Science Fiction at Palgrave Macmillan, a co-editor of the journal Science Fiction Film and Television at Liverpool University Press, and an editorial consultant for the following journals and book series: Science Fiction Studies, HiLoBooks at MIT Press, and SFF Canon at Palgrave. She is completing a second single-authored book titled “The Chernobyl Effect.”

John Albertson is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. He joined the Cornell faculty in July of 2015, arriving from Duke University, where he was department chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Albertson did his undergraduate work at SUNY Buffalo and received his B.S. in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in structures in 1985. He then practiced as a professional structural engineer for six years in the electric power industry. During that time, Dr. Albertson earned an MBA (Finance) at the University of Hartford and also earned his Professional Engineer license (CT).

In 1991, Dr. Albertson left industry to return to academia, earning a Master’s in Hydrology from Yale University in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Hydrologic Science at the University of California, Davis in 1996. In 1996 he joined the faculty of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. In 2002, Dr. Albertson moved to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University, where he worked until the summer of 2015. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Cork (Ireland), the University of Cagliari (Italy), the University of Padova (Italy), and EURAC (Italy).

Kaushik Basu is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He was earlier the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Basu served as Chief Economic Adviser to the government of India. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and received the title Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards given by the President of India. Dr. Basu’s contributions span development economics, welfare economics, industrial organization, and game theory.

In addition to Cornell, Dr. Basu has taught at the Delhi School of Economics, Harvard, Princeton, and MIT. He has published widely in academic journals and has contributed articles to many widely read magazines and newspapers. Dr. Basu has also written several books, including “Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics” (Princeton University Press and Penguin) and “An Economist in the Real World: the Art of Policymaking in India” (MIT Press).

Dr. Basu holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics. He has received honorary doctorates from several institutes, including IIT in Mumbai, and Fordham University in New York.