- Professional Career – Taught undergraduate courses on Physics and the Environment at Harvard University; was director of the Office of Environment in the Indian Government and director in the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi.
- Governing Bodies – Globally, Dr. Khosla has been president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest and most representative alliance of conservation agencies and interest groups; co-president of the Club of Rome, a group dedicated to promoting systems-based strategic understanding of the world problematique and the human predicament; and co-chair of the Resource Panel, which has been set up by UNEP to report on the status and trends of natural resource use in the global economy. In India, he has served on the National Security Advisory Board, the National Environment Board, and the Science Advisory Council to the Cabinet and on the boards of many officials, NGO, and academic bodies.
- Global Footprint – At the international level, Ashok has had several official assignments, such as Special Advisor to the Brundtland Commission (WCED), Chair of the ‘92 NGO Forum at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and has served on the Boards of several environmental and conservation organizations, including Chair of the Centre for Our Common Future and Energy Globe, and member of Boards of IISD, Stockholm Environment Institute, ZERI, the Alliance for a New Humanity, EXPO 2000, Toyota Environmental Awards and the CaixaBank.
- Work for Environment – Globally, he helped to design and teach the first university course on the environment (as an assistant to Professor Roger Revelle at Harvard University, 1965); nationally, to set up and head the first governmental agency for the Environment in a developing country (under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, 1972); internationally, to set up the original international information system on the environment (Infoterra, with Maurice Strong at UNEP, 1976); and locally, to establish the first social enterprise for sustainable development (Development Alternatives, 1982).
Dr. Ashok Khosla
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Dr. Ashok Khosla stands almost alone in the world in his leadership of the modern environmental movement. His wisdom, creativity, and humility rooted in his great compassion and respect for all humanity, as well as his Ph.D. in experimental physics, have been a source of sustenance and hope for the poorest of the poor and the most discouraged and determined of the more fortunate.