Hassan Virji Hassan Virji is Executive Director for Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START), an international non-governmental non-profit organization dedicated to building capacity in developing countries to deal with global environmental change and sustainable development. He is a graduate of the Universities of Daressalaam, Nairobi and Wisconsin. He worked at the University of Nairobi and the University of Wisconsin, and was a Senior Fellow at the Wissenschaft Kolleg in Berlin. During 1983-1988 he was Associate Director of the Climate Dynamics Program of the US National Science Foundation; during 1989-1990, Deputy Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and Executive Secretary of the US Inter-agency Subcommittee on Global Change Research (1991-1992) where he was involved in setting up the US Global Change Research Program. Dr. Virji is a National Associate Member of the National Research Council of the National Academies of the USA. He is a member of the Governing Boards of the International Centers of excellence located at CSIR/South Africa and the Academia Sinica/Taipei, UK-based Education, Learning, and research for Humanitarian Assistance, and the Civilian Research and Development Foundation of USA. He serves on the editorial boards of “Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability” and “Advances in Climate Change Research.