Jury
Nominations are assessed by an independent International Jury, consisting of three personalities of a recognized reputation in the field covered and appointed by the Director-General from among the members of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). Based on the recommendations of the International Jury, the Director-General of UNESCO shall select the prizewinner(s).
Luka Omladič (Slovenia)
is a PhD in philosophy, lecturer and researcher at Philosophy Department, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He teaches classes on practical ethics, bioethics and environmental ethics at the University of Ljubljana. He was the president of Slovenian Philosophical Society. He is a prolific public educator on the topics of ethics of technology and environmental ethics, and a civil society activist of the national movement to combat climate change. He is a former member of COMEST. He was one of the main co-authors of the COMEST reports on the universal ethical framework for climate change. He also coordinated the drafting of the COMEST Report on Robotics Ethics.
Deborah H. Oughton (Norway)
is Professor and Research Director at the Centre for Environmental Radioactivity of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. She is also Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Oslo where she teaches research ethics to PhD students. Previously she was member and Vice-Chairperson of the Norwegian National Ethics Committee for Science and Technology, a member of the ALLEA (European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities) permanent working group on ethics of science, and previously sat on the Climate Panel of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences. She is a former member of COMEST since 2014 and has actively participated in the work of COMEST in the preparation of its reports, including on the universal ethical framework for climate change. She has published a number of papers on environmental ethics and sustainability in the context of radiological protection.
Grace Sirju-Charran (Trinidad and Tobago)
is retired Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and former Head, Department of Life Sciences and Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies St. Augustine, where she continues to teach a Foundation course on Science, Medicine, Technology & Society. She was member of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO (2007-2015) and Chairperson of its Bioethics Committee (2013-2015). She is a former member of COMEST. She has participated actively in the preparation of the reports of COMEST, including on the universal ethical framework for climate change, and she was member of the Ad Hoc Expert Group that prepared a first draft of the Declaration of the Ethical Principles in Relation to Climate Change.
