Dr Harini Nagendra is Director of Research Centre at the Azim Premji University and leads the University’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability. She is known for her research on forest conservation, spanning over 30 years.

Dr Nagendra was a visiting researcher at the University of California, San Diego, in 1998, and an independent researcher from 2003 to 2013. She served as a Hubert H Humphrey Distinguished Visiting Professor at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2013.

As an ecologist, she uses satellite remote sensing, along with field studies of biodiversity, archival research, institutional analysis, and community interviews, to examine the factors shaping the social-ecological sustainability of forests and cities in the South Asian context. The larger global crisis of sustainability motivates her research.
Dr Nagendra has over 150 scientific publications to her name and writes widely on her research in Indian newspapers and other forums. Her engagement with international research includes being a Steering Committee member of the Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society and a Lead Author on the 5th IPCC Report–Working Group III. She is also an acclaimed author of fiction novels such as “Bangalore Detectives Club” and “Murder Under a Red Moon”.

Her areas of interest include urban sustainability, ecology and development, land change, and biodiversity and conservation