Dr. Roberto Lenton

Dr. Roberto Lenton serves as the Executive Director of the Secretariat for International Affairs and Development of the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), a member center of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. IRI supports developing country efforts to cope more effectively with climate variability and build adaptive capacity for climate change. Previously, Dr. Lenton was Director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Division (SEED) at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York. In that position, he was responsible for setting UNDP policy in natural resources, energy and environment, as well as overseeing UNDP's special programs in drylands management and capacity building. From 1987 to 1994, Dr. Lenton was Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). He helped to grow the institute into an international research center with field programs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Prior to that Dr. Lenton was engaged in international development assistance activities with the Ford Foundation in New Delhi and later in New York. Dr. Lenton is a citizen of Argentina and holds a Ph.D. degree in Water Resources Systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a co-author of Applied Water Resources Systems and has published extensively on technical and policy dimensions of water resources and environmental management.