Dr. Serge Salat is an architect, urban planner and expert in the field of spatial planning, urban energy planning, urban policy and finance. He advises international organizations in the field of urban development, including the IPCC, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP-SBCI and UNEP-FI), as well as development banks (The World Bank, Asian Development Bank), national governments and local governments. He is a member of the IRP’s Cities II working group.

Serge Salat holds three PhD degrees in Architecture, Economics and History & Civilizations from Ecole d’Architecture de Paris La Villette, Université Paris IX Dauphine, EHESS, as well as Master of Public Affairs and Master of Engineering from Ecole Nationale d’Administration and Ecole Polytechnique.

He is the author of two books: Cities and forms, On Sustainable Urbanism (2012) and The Sustainable Design Handbook-China (2008).

Dr. Christopher Whitman is a British architect with 20 years of experience both in practice and academia. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art with a six month Erasmus exchange at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and an ILAUD summer school in Venice. He has worked with Building Design Partnership, Shepheard Epstein Hunter, and for seven years was a director at Edward Cullinan Architects (now Cullinan Studio).

In 2007 Christopher moved to Chile where he worked at the Universidad Central de Chile, Universidad Andrés Bello; and Universidad Católica de Temuco. At these universities he worked as lecturer, design tutor and researcher. His research focused on vernacular and indigenous architecture, energy efficiency and post occupancy evaluation with a special interest in natural, low carbon building materials. In addition he was an invited lecturer in postgraduate programs at the Universidad Bio Bio in Concepción and the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago.

Currently he is a lecturer and Deputy Course Leader of the MSc Sustainable Building Conservation, at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, where he has recently completed his PhD. He was the winner of the Association for Preservation Technology International Martin Weaver Scholarship in 2015 and winner of their Oliver Torrey Fuller Award in 2017. He has also recently contributed to the upcoming 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World.

Nicola Borregaard was born in Germany, but started working in Chile in 1993. She’s an economist by profession and holds a PhD in Land Economy from Cambridge University, England. She has more than 20 years experience in coordinating both inter and multidisciplinary teams in the development, planning and management of projects towards sustainability, renewable energies, energy efficiency and climate change.

Nicola Borregaard is currently the Executive Director at EBP, Chile. During her career, she has worked as Head of the Department for Environmental Economics at the Chilean National Commission on Environment, as a researcher and consultant for international and national agencies, and as lecturer in Chile and in Germany.

Nicola Borregaard also served as an assessor for the Minister of Economy and Energy from 2004 until 2008. During this time, she was in charge of the Programa País de Eficiencia Energética, developing its strategy and action plan.

She was also the head of the Sustainable Building Division, where studies were held in order to develop strategies and action plans towards sustainability.