Johan Rockström

Who is Johan Rockström?

Johan Rockström is executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and teaches natural resource management at Stockholm University. He is a strategist on how resilience can be built into land regions which are short of water, and has published over 100 papers in fields ranging from practical land and water use to global sustainability. Johan Rockström was Executive Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute from 2004-2012.

Rockström is internationally recognized on global sustainability issues. In 2009, he led the team which developed the Planetary Boundaries framework, a proposed precondition for facilitating human development at a time when the planet is undergoing rapid change. In recognition of this work, Fokus magazine named him "Swede of the Year" for "engaging and exciting work in sustainable development. Rockström is vice-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and chair of the Earth System Visioning Task Team of International Council for Science. In 2010, the magazine Miljöaktuellt ranked him the second most influential person in Sweden on environmental issues, and Veckans Affärer gave him its "Social Capitalist Award". In 2011 he chaired the third Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability in Stockholm.