Jubilee Scientific Conference of IOŚ‑PIB
Leena Ylä-Mononen
Leena Ylä-Mononen is Executive Director of the European Environment Agency since 1 June 2023. She has a master’s degree in environmental sciences, specialising in ecotoxicology and chemicals risk assessment and management.
Before joining the EEA, Leena was Director General at the Ministry of Environment of Finland, managing the Climate and Environmental Protection Department.
Before joining the Ministry in 2019, Ms Ylä-Mononen worked for over 11 years in management positions in the European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki. Prior to ECHA, she worked in the European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment, on chemicals and pesticides policy files.
Earlier in her career she worked in the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) on environmental risk assessment and management of industrial chemicals, biocides and pesticides.
Ms Ylä-Mononen has been involved in international cooperation at the Nordic, European, OECD and global levels, and in negotiations and implementation of multilateral environmental agreements on chemicals, waste and climate change.
Dr Katarzyna Nowak
Dr. Katarzyna Nowak is a conservation practitioner whose work integrates wildlife monitoring, scientific research, and environmental advocacy. She leads the Conservation Science Group at the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and has held positions at Princeton University, University of the Free State, Durham University, University of Alberta, University of Warsaw, and The Safina Center. She has collaborated with NGOs, universities, and government agencies in Tanzania, the Yukon, and Poland on wildlife conservation and environmental stewardship initiatives. Her most recent research focused on the socioecological impacts of border militarization—an understudied area in conservation science—and she helped lead an international call for greater scrutiny and accountability in the expansion of European border infrastructure. She has promoted more inclusive scientific communities, including through co-founding Gage with 500 Women Scientists.
Profesor Małgosia Fitzmaurice
Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice holds a chair of public international law at the Department of Law, Queen Mary University of London. She is a full Member of the Institue de Droit
International. In 2025, at the session of the IDI in Rabat the Resolution of which she was a
co-Rapporteur (with Professor Bastid-Burdeau) on Status and Functions of the Conferences
or Meetings of the Parties to Multilateral Environmental Agreements was adopted.
She participates in regional United Nations International Law Fellowships Programme,
teaching the course on International Environmental Law. She is a part time Nippon
Foundation Professor of Marine Environmental Protection at the International Maritime Law
Institute of the International Maritime Organisation. Professor Fitzmaurice was invited as a
Visiting Professor to and lectured at various universities, such Berkeley Law School;
University of Kobe; Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I). She also supervises PhD students.
She is Editor in Chief of International Community Law Review journal and of the book series
published by Brill/Nijhoff Queen Mary Studies in International Law.
She has also advised on the law of treaties and international environmental law and served as
an expert in her areas of expertise. She was a part of the Republic of Marshall Islands for the
Advisory Opinion on climate change before the International Court of Justice.
In 2021 she was awarded the Doctorate Honoris Causa of the University of Neuchâtel. She
specialises in international environmental law; the law of treaties; and indigenous peoples.
She publishes widely on these subjects.
Professor Luc Lavrysen
Emeritus President Constitutional Court of Belgium
Emeritus Professor Environment Law Ghent University
Academic career
- Director of the Centre for Environmental & Energy Law, Ghent University (2000 – 2021)
- Member of the Environmental Science and Technology Centre (CES&T), Ghent University (1992-2020)
- Full Professor teaching environmental law in the Law School, in the Faculty of Bio-Engineering and different other Faculties (1998-2021)
- Ph. D. – Ghent University (14 October 1997)
- Member of the Interuniversity Commission for the Restatement of Environmental Law in the Flanders region (1989-1995)
- Invited professor in various programs at the Antwerp University (UA), the Brussels Free University (VUB) and the University of Hasselt (1992-2020)
- Invited professor environmental law – Ghent University (1992-1998)
- Academic Consultant-Ghent University (1991-1992)
- Assistant environmental law-Ghent University (1989-1991)
- Researcher environmental law – Ghent University (1985-1989)
- Lawyers degree – Ghent University (10 July 1997)
Professional career outside the University
- Judge in the Belgian Constitutional Court (5 February 2001) – President (25 September 2020- 15 April 2026)
- Counsellor of State (Belgian Supreme Administrative Court) (23 May 2000 – 4 February 2001)
- Legal Secretary Constitutional Court (1 May 1985 – 22 May 2000)
Other relevant experiences:
- Former Treasurer of the Belgian Environmental Law Association.
- Chief-editor Tijdschrift voor Milieurecht (Flemish Environmental Law Review) (1992-2020)
- Member of the Federal Council for Sustainable Development (1998-2020)
- Chairman of the Working Party Product Standards of that Council
- Member of the board of the Environmental Law Network International (ELNI)
- Founding Member of the European Union Forum of Judges for the Environment- President (1 January 2008-31 December 2025)
- Member of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) – Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on the Judiciary
- Member of the Advisory Board of the European Environmental Law Forum
- Member of the INECE (International Network on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement) Global Council
- Member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law
- Member of the Interim Governing Board of the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment
- Honorary Member of the Finnish Environmental Law Society
- Chair of the UNECE Task Force on Access to Justice under the Aarhus Convention (2020-…)
Dr. Artur Runge-Metzger
Dr. Artur Runge-Metzger is currently a Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Germanwatch and Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit and a fellow at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research/Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Berlin. Until his retirement in 2021, he was Director at the European Commission in charge of developing climate neutrality strategies and the governance of EU climate policy, regulating emissions from non-ETS sectors and supporting innovation in the EU’s energy and industrial sectors (e.g. Innovation and Modernisation Fund). He served on the Boards of the European Environment Agency and the European Fund for Strategic Investments. From 2003 until the conclusion of the Paris agreement in 2015, he led on international climate negotiations for the EU. He co-chaired the working group preparing the Paris agreement in 2013/14 and was a Member of the UNFCCC Bureau from 2010-12. Between 1993 and 2003, he worked as European Commission official in Sarajevo, Brussels and Harare. Until 1993, he conducted research in West Africa and lectured at the University of Göttingen. He holds a doctoral degree in agricultural economics.
