How to be a Climate Leader: A Fireside Chat with Ramanan Raghavendran and Michael Weisberg

In this conversation, Chair of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, Ramanan Raghavendran, will discuss with Penn Professor Michael Weisberg what it means to be a climate leader, touching on the values that underlie climate action, the role of universities in addressing the climate crisis, and how students can leverage their skills to mitigate and adapt to climate change, no matter what field they pursue.

Open to all. Audience Q&A will follow the conversation.

Refreshments will be served.

Speakers

Ramanan Raghavendran

Chair, Board of Trustees for Penn and managing partner and co-founder of Amasia University of Pennsylvania, Amasia

Ramanan Raghavendran is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and managing partner and co-founder of Amasia, a global venture capital firm focused on climate and sustainability.

Raghavendran holds three degrees from Penn, including a Master of Liberal Arts from the College of Liberal and Professional Studies.

Moderator

Michael Weisberg

Bess W. Heyman President's Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Deputy Director of Perry World House School of Arts and Sciences

A climate diplomat, philosopher of science, climate policy researcher, and experienced academic leader, he has worked to negotiate and achieve collective outcomes in the complex landscape of climate, ocean, and development issues at the highest levels of international diplomacy.

An expert on the climate needs of small island developing states, Weisberg currently serves as senior advisor to Jamaica's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as an advisor to the Fiji and Palau negotiating teams at COP. Weisberg was a leading voice in the development of the "mosaic of solutions" for addressing loss and damage due to the adverse impacts of climate change, which led to major breakthroughs on the topic at COP27 and COP28. This framework was developed in collaboration with the Maldivian Government and the International Peace Institute, where he is a Non-resident Senior Advisor.

Weisberg serves as editor-in-chief of Biology and Philosophy and director of the Galápagos Education and Research Alliance. He is the author of Simulation and Similarity: Using Models to Understand the World, co-author of the landmark photographic study Galápagos: Life in Motion, and a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.