Neelakshi Joshi is a social scientist, urban planner and architect interested in the social dimension of sustainability. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow working on the Future Energy Systems project at the Urban Environment Observatory where she focuses in municipal transitions to low-carbon pathways in Canada. She obtained her PhD from the Dresden Leibniz Graduate School in Germany where her research dealt with the risks of rapid unplanned urban development in the Himalayas. Previously she has worked at the World Resource Institute as a consultant for sustainable transport and at the Auroville Earth Institute, UNESCO Chair for Earth Construction (2010-12) specializing in low cost and sustainable earth based construction. Her research interests include risks, sustainability, governance and urban transformations.
Nilusha Welegedara is an environmental scientist with a particular focus on geospatial analysis and ecosystem modeling and currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Future Energy System project at the Urban Environment Observatory. Her current research focuses on exploring the existing capacity and best practices for the integration of future energy systems into Canadian cities and First Nations communities. She earned her Ph.D. in Land reclamation and remediation from the University of Alberta, her MSc at the University of Alberta, a Postgraduate Diploma in Remote sensing and GIS from the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, and BSc in Agriculture Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. After her Bachelor’s degree, she worked as a research assistant and an assistant lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Peradeniya. As part of her PhD, she has conducted a wide range of environmental researches including modeling climate change effects on the terrestrial ecosystems. Her overall research interests include impacts of climate change on societies and mitigation and future energy systems.