TEAM
Founder and Director
Thomas Homer-Dixon’s research focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century, including economic instability, climate change, and energy scarcity. He also studies how people, organizations, and societies can better resolve their conflicts and innovate in response to complex problems.
Vanessa Schweizer
Fellow
Dr. Vanessa Schweizer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo. She is the Associate Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and sits on the Council of the Society for Risk Analysis. Her socioeconomic research focuses on strategic foresight and opportunities for resilient transitions, both globally and locally.
Deputy Director of Research and Operations
Scott Janzwood is the Deputy Director of Research and Operations at the Cascade Institute. His research focuses on how scientists and policymakers collaborate to address global catastrophic risks such as climate change, pandemics, and other emerging threats. He also studies strategies and tools that we can use to make decisions under deep uncertainty.
Michael Lawrence
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Michael Lawrence uses complexity science to understand the coevolution of conflict, violence, and social structure, and through this work he has developed expertise on global governance, societal collapse, the psychology of dehumanization, transnational organized crime, and peacebuilding.
Jinelle Piereder
Doctoral Researcher
Jinelle Piereder is a doctoral candidate in global governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She uses complexity science to study the relationships between worldviews and social networks, especially in emerging and rapidly evolving areas of governance, such as climate change and energy transition.
Yonatan Strauch
Doctoral Researcher
Yonatan Strauch is a Doctoral candidate in Social and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. His research examines the intersection of technological change and climate politics in the energy transition, focusing on understanding exponential changes and paradigmatic shifts in energy systems and on how to leverage these changes to address the climate crisis.
Shefa Siegel
Postdoctoral Researcher
Shefa Siegel’s research focuses on the human and ecological consequences of global resource scarcity. He is a research fellow with the UBC Anthropology Department and UVic’s Centre for Global Studies, and with the Cascade Institute is exploring how complexity can be used to support the adaptation of education systems to nonlinear disruptions.
Michelle Lee
Doctoral Researcher
Michelle Lee is pursuing her doctorate at the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems, specializing in health information systems, global policy, and health governance in low and middle-income countries.
Norman Kearney
Doctoral Researcher
Norman M. Kearney is a doctoral candidate in Social and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. His interdisciplinary research uses computational methods to study resilience and transformation in socio-cultural systems.
Tahnee Prior
Doctoral Researcher
Tahnee Prior is a Trudeau Scholar, Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar and doctoral candidate in Global Governance at the University of Waterloo. Her research uses complexity science to explore the capacity of international law to manage rapidly changing environments like the Arctic. She is also the co-founder of Women of the Arctic, a non-profit focused on gender in the circumpolar North.
Clay Dasilva
Doctoral Researcher
Clay Dasilva is a Doctoral Candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo. His research uses complexity systems methods—such as Graphical Argument Analysis—to clarify how values, affect, and rationality interact in debates over greening the economy.
Stephen J. Mock
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Steven J Mock is director of the Ideological Conflict Project and a Cascade Institute postdoctoral researcher. His research focuses on political-cultural identity and the mobilization of populations to engage in and resolve conflict.
Dan McCarthy
Fellow
Dr. Dan McCarthy is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo as well as a faculty member with, and Director of, the Waterloo Institute of Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR). Dan's transdisciplinary academic background has focused on exploring the utility of complex systems-based approaches to understanding and intervening in linked social, ecological, epistemological systems.
