Ali Kharrazi

Biography

Ali Kharrazi is a senior research scholar in the Advancing Systems Analysis Program and also serves as a visiting Associate Professor at the Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) of Hiroshima University in Japan. His overarching research interest concerns the sustainability challenges of coupled economic-environmental systems, and more specifically, the development of models and metrics that can evaluate the resilience of critical global resource networks to shocks and disturbances.

Kharrazi has a long history of working in academia and with sustainability executives and policymakers. He has lectured at The University of Tokyo and Akita International University in Japan, focusing on human-environmental systems, corporate sustainability, and sustainability science. In addition, he has over 65 peer-reviewed publications, focusing on decoupling; water, energy, food, and global resource networks; and network analytic methods for sustainable development. He has published in journals such as Nature Water; Nature Food; Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews; and Resources Conservation and Recycling. He has also received prestigious competitive research funding, most notably the Belmont Forum Research Grant, Horizon Europe, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Marie Curie Research Fellowship.

He holds numerous editorial board positions in sustainability-focused journals, including editorial positions for Sustainability Science; Energy, Ecology and Environment; Regional Sustainability; and Sustainable Horizons. He is also the editor-in-chief of Current Research in Environmental Sustainability (Elsevier).

Beyond the academic realm, Kharrazi has previously consulted for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), where he evaluated the climate resilience of significant global commodity trade networks. He also spearheaded the development of a food systems risk and resilience framework in collaboration with the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He also engages the science-policy interface as a lead author of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Nexus Assessment Report.

Throughout his academic journey, Kharrazi has had research stays at esteemed institutions including the East-West Center; the Santa Fe Research Institute; the Graduate School in Public Policy at the University of Tokyo; the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; the University of Gadjah Mada; Lomonosov Moscow State University; and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

He has been honored with multiple awards and scholarships throughout his career, including the Weinman Medal for Academic Excellence in Economics; the London School of Economics (LSE) Graduate Merit Award Scholarship; the Japanese Government MEXT Scholarship; the Green Talents Award; and a World Social Science Fellowship in Urban Big-Data.

Kharrazi has an interdisciplinary academic foundation, having studied economics, finance, and mathematics at the City University of New York. He further specialized in innovation and information systems both at the LSE and Cambridge University. He holds a PhD in sustainability science from The University of Tokyo.


Last update: 23 NOV 2023