Saleem Ali

Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment, University of Delaware; National Geographic Explorer; World Economic Forum " Young Global Leader"; Member of the United Nations International Resource Panel, Weekly Forbes Columnist

Dr. Saleem H. Ali is an environmental planner whose research and practice focuses on ways of resolving ecological conflicts through technical and social mechanisms, as well as exploring novel ways of peace-building between corporations, governments and communities. He holds the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professorship in Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, USA . His books include “Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life” and “Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future.” He was selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum and is a National Geographic Explorer.

  • Saleem Ali Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    $10,001 - $20,000

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    New Jersey,

  • Saleem Ali Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    $10,001 - $20,000

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    New Jersey,

Suggested Keynote Speaker Programs

Constructive Consumption: Greening a Poor Planet

Would the world be a better place if we curbed our desires for material goods? Basing his analysis on the examples laid out in his book, Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future, Dr. Ali’s nuanced conclusion respects the human desire for material goods, ...

Would the world be a better place if we curbed our desires for material goods? Basing his analysis on the examples laid out in his book, Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future, Dr. Ali’s nuanced conclusion respects the human desire for material goods, but makes the forceful argument for a more ecologically driven economic and social system that helps to reduce global poverty. Builds on the arguments in Dr. Ali’s books “Earthly Order” and “Treasures of the Earth.”

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Eco-peace: Using Environmental Issues to Resolve Global Conflicts

Can environmental issues resolve intractable conflicts? Dr. Ali’s wide-ranging efforts at peace-building, and his professional training as a mediator at the international level, enables him to outline specific examples of how ecological factors have been able to promote ...

Can environmental issues resolve intractable conflicts? Dr. Ali’s wide-ranging efforts at peace-building, and his professional training as a mediator at the international level, enables him to outline specific examples of how ecological factors have been able to promote peace, with good leadership, among seemingly irresolvable territorial conflicts. Dr. Ali’s work in this domain has been endorsed by famed ecologist E.O. Wilson and Nobel laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus.

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Building Peace in the Muslim World

Dr. Ali provides a personal account of his experiences of growing up in both Pakistan and the United States, and how that has provided him with insights into resolving the conflicts between Islam and the West. He also discusses his research on madrassahs (Islamic religious ...

Dr. Ali provides a personal account of his experiences of growing up in both Pakistan and the United States, and how that has provided him with insights into resolving the conflicts between Islam and the West. He also discusses his research on madrassahs (Islamic religious schools) in Pakistan where he has been trying to promote an environmental education curriculum. Dr. Ali’s work on madrassahs has been profiled by the Brookings Institution.

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The Science of Stuff: From the Basics of Environmental Science to a Smaller Chemical Footprint

Explaining the basics of environmental science — focusing on how materials flow through our economy and our dependence on “the elements of the earth” — Dr. Ali’s enlightening and entertaining lecture takes audiences through basic chemical processes, then looks at the...

Explaining the basics of environmental science — focusing on how materials flow through our economy and our dependence on “the elements of the earth” — Dr. Ali’s enlightening and entertaining lecture takes audiences through basic chemical processes, then looks at the challenges of developing materials that can have a minimal impact on the environment while meeting societal needs.

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About Keynote Speaker Saleem Ali

Saleem H. Ali was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts but grew up in Lahore, Pakistan until his college years, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Tufts University, and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in environmental policy and planning at Yale and MIT, respectively. He currently holds the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professorship in Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware(USA) and is Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland (Australia). Dr. Ali’s laurels include being a National Geographic Explorer (having travelled for research to over 150 countries); being chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and serving on the seven-member science panel of the Global Environment Facility (the world’s largest multilateral trust fund for the environment held in trusteeship by the World Bank). His book Treasures of the Earth: Need Greed and a Sustainable Future was hailed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as providing “welcome linkage between environmental behavior and poverty alleviation.” His most recent book “Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life” received the following endorsement from poet and Nobel laureate in Chemistry Roald Hoffmann: “I learned something on nearly every page; so will you, as the author draws us into an affirmative view of a changing, interrelated, and wondrous world.”

Professor Ali was profiled in Forbes as “The Alchemist” and Bookseller called his earlier work “a pioneering exploration of human wants and needs and the natural resources we consume.” He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art sand the Royal Geographical Society in the United Kingdom and also serves on the boards of Adventure Scientists and Mediators Beyond Borders International. Along with his wife Maria and sons Shahmir and Shahroze, the family are citizens of Australia, Pakistan and the United States.

Testimonials

With approachable storytelling… environmental scientist Saleem Ali masterfully traces… the story of aluminum.

Science

 

Aluminum—who knew? In Saleem H. Ali’s capable hands, the metal becomes the vehicle for an engrossing and enlightening explanation of how our world works—and how it might work much better.

Bill McKibben

Right Livelihood Award-winning environmental author and Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Middlebury College

Soil to Foil lights the way for how to build net-positive companies and economies from the ground up. It holds the hand of courageous business leaders in setting an inspiring vision for circular systems and gently but firmly pushing back against basic misconceptions of physics, chemistry, and geology that stifle creativity. Aluminum is something we can all relate to, and Soil to Foil helps you see it and the world around you in a new light filled with abundant possibility.

Rohitesh Dhawan

President and CEO, International Council on Mining and Metals

Soil to Foil shows the profound connections between the atomic properties of aluminum and the gigantic entanglements of the world we live in through economics, politics, environmental laws, science, technology, industrial design, advertising, and more. Ali admirably and skillfully guides us to a much deeper and more vital understanding of these subjects.

Tyler Volk, professor emeritus, New York University

Author of Quarks to Culture: How We Came to Be

Soil to Foil considers the ‘extraction’ of the chemical processes used to turn aluminum ore into usable resources, fitting within a broader turn in the social sciences to considering the sociomaterial and sociotechnical dimensions of the world we live in. Ali persuasively shows why materiality and chemical composition matters for how aluminum ‘comes to be’ as a resource.

Jessica M. Smith

Department of Engineering and Society, Colorado School of Mines

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