Chair, Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Strategic Advisory Group
Dr. Kilaparti (Rama) Ramakrishna is the Director of the Marine Policy Center and Senior Advisor to the President on Ocean and Climate Policy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Prior to this he worked extensively with the United Nations, including roles as Head of Strategic Planning at Green Climate Fund; head of the UNESCAP ENEA Office, covering six member States of ESCAP—China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation, and two Associate members, Hong Kong and Macao; as Chief of Cross Sectoral Environmental Issues; and as Principal Policy Advisor to the Executive Director of UNEP.
Ramakrishna also provided secretariat services to the North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) and was a lead author of the fifth assessment (and many before it) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); coordinating lead author of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; and lead author of the Interlinkages Assessment.
Before joining the United Nations, Ramakrishna worked for many years as Director of Science in Public Affairs and Vice President at the Woods Hole Research Center (now Woodwell Climate Research Center). During this time, he taught at several law schools including at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Harvard Law School, Boston University and Boston College Law Schools, Brandeis and Yale Universities.
Ramakrishna is an elected life member of the US Council on Foreign Relations. He is also the Chair of the Strategic Advisory Group of the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project; a Member of the Advisory Board of Back to Blue, a global initiative of Economist Impact; and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, the Consensus Building Institute, and ClientEarth. Ramakrishna holds B.S. and B.L. degrees in sciences and law, and masters and PhD degrees in international law.
