Renowned for her work in environmental science, economics, and mathematics, Graciela Chichilnisky is proud of the impact of her contributions to the fields. Some of her most notable achievements include proposing and designing the carbon credit emissions trading market underlying the Kyoto Protocol, and being a lead author on the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Prize. She also co-founded Global Thermostat, LLC, in 2010, is the company’s CEO and managing director, and is an active scientist who serves as a special adviser to several U.N. organizations and heads of state. Her pioneering work uses innovative market mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions, conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. She previously founded and headed two successful technology companies in the financial telecommunications area, based on the IP she created, patented, and sold in Japan and in the U.S.
On the academic side of the spectrum, Dr. Chichilnisky currently works as a visiting professor at Stanford University, and was a senior advisor to the president at the University of Arizona, and a Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Professor at Monash University in Australia, as well as a professor of economics and mathematical statistics, the director of the Columbia Center for Risk Management and the Program on Information and Resources, a UNESCO chair, and a university senator at Columbia University. Prior to these positions, she has worked as a lecturer in the Department of Economics and a fellow at the Harvard Institute for International Development at Harvard University, a professor missionaire at the University des Antilles et de la Guyane, a distinguished guest professor at the University of Nankai and Beijing Normal University in China, and a visiting scholar at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. She also taught at the University of Essex, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, and the University of Sienna in Italy.
Over the years, Dr. Chichilnisky shared the knowledge she’s acquired in more than a dozen books and at least 330 research papers, and has spoken extensively on globalization and the global environment. Most recently, in 2017, she authored “The Handbook of Economics of the Global Environment,” in 2010, she authored “The Economics of Climate Change,” and in 2009, she authored “Saving Kyoto.” Other books include “Environmental Markets: Equity and Efficiency,” “Sustainability: Dynamics and Uncertainty,” “Mathematical Economics,” “Topology and Markets,” and “Markets, Information and Uncertainty.” From 1976 to 1986, she was a writer and associate editor of the Journal of Development Economics and other journals.
As a testament to her success, Dr. Chichilnisky has been named among the 10 Most Influential Latinos in the U.S. by Hispanic Business since 2006, and has been a grantee of the National Science Foundation since 1974. She has also received the Great Immigrants, Great Americans Award from the Carnegie Foundation in 2017, the CEO of the Year Award from the Americas Renewable Energy Institute in 2015, the Global Leadership Award from the Americas Renewable Energy Institute in 2014, and the Speaking Out Prize from the National Women Studies Association in 2007. Further, Dr. Chichilnisky was honored as a Sir John Mathewson Distinguished Professor at Monash University and as the Global Citizen of the Year by Athens, Greece, and with the Leif Johansen Award from the University of Oslo and the International Relations Award from the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. She was a special fellow of the U.N. Institute of Training and Research and a fellow of Banco Central Republica Argentina and the Ford Foundation.
Dr. Chichilnisky’s professional designations include a PhD in economics, a PhD in mathematics, and a Master of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976, 1971, and 1970, respectively. She completed graduate coursework at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1967 and 1968, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. In her free time, Dr. Chichilnisky enjoys pursuing hobbies like windsurfing. She also maintains affiliation with the Americas Renewable Energy Institute, the National Women’s Studies Association, the Social Health and Welfare Society, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.