Regional Advisory Committee for Future Earth in Asia announced　

Following an open international call for applications in July 2015, 8 members listed below were selected to the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) for Future Earth in Asia. The recommendations received in response to the call for nominations were considered by a committee consisting of senior people in the field from outside of RIHN. In addition to individual candidates’ potential contributions to Future Earth, the Selection Committee took into account the overall balance of the committee in terms of regional and other kinds of diversity.
The RAC will hold its inaugural meeting in Kyoto on 20 November 2015.

• Dr. Kusumita Arora (CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, India)
• Prof. Fu Bojie (Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China)
• Prof. Dr. Soottiporn Chittmittrapap (National Research Council of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand)
• Prof. Emeritus Dr. Mohd Nordin Hasan (International Council for Science Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
• Dr. Shih-Chun Candice Lung (Research Center for Environmental Changes Academia Sinica, Taipei)
• Prof. Roberto F. Rañola, JR. (Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Economics and Management, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines)
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Anton Reuter (Australian Research Council, The University of Melbourne, Asia Institute, Victoria, Australia)
• Dr. Soonchang Yoon (Environmental Sciences, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies / the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea)

The Advisory Committee will evolve into the Regional Committee for Asia in the future and is expected to be an effective advocate for Future Earth in the region and to be an effective advocate for regional interests to the global Future Earth platform. The committee will work closely with the Regional Centre in Asia to accelerate the development of the Future Earth in the region.

The functions of the Regional Committee, once matured, are envisioned to include:

•  Initiating processes of co-design – Facilitating regional and international interactions
•  Fostering regional capacity building
•  Establishing regional structures or activities appropriate to the circumstances in the region.

The full list of RAC members is available at the Asia Centre page soon.