Prof. Úrsula Oswald Spring is a full time professor/researcher at the National University of Mexico, in the Regional Multidisciplinary Research Centre (CRIM) and since September 2005, she is also the First MRF-Chair on Social Vulnerability at United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). She is the founder Secretary General of El Colegio de Tlaxcala, a postgraduate research institute. She is a lead author of IPCC’s Chapter 8 of Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advanced Climate Change Adaptation (IPCC).
Among her many academic degrees, she holds a PhD in Social Anthropology with speciality in Environmental Studies, an MSc in Clinical Psychology and a B.E. in Philosophy from the University of Zurich. She has written 48 books and more than 300 scientific articles and book chapters on peace, sustainable and regional development, social vulnerability, disaster risk reduction, poverty, gender equity and identity, water, air, ethical and environmental sustainability, and food and nutrition. She is the editor of book 39 of the Encyclopaedia on Life Support System (EOLSS) from UNESCO on International Security, Peace, Development and Environment, and is co-editor of the three Handbooks on Reconceptualising Security in the 21st Century. In 2008 she was elected the coordinator of the national network in water research from the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) in Mexico. She has directed dozens of PhD, Master and Licence theses and has been a university teacher during the past three decades.
Between 1994 and 1998, Úrsula Oswald Spring was Minister of Ecological Development in the State of Morelos, México and from 1992 to 1994 she was General Attorney of Ecology in the State of Morelos (an ombudswoman for the environment). She was elected General Secretary of Latin-American Council for Peace Research (CLAIP) in 2002 and re-elected in 2004. Prior to that, she was voted President of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA). As a member of the international nonviolent group and the Latin American representative of Diverse Women for Diversity, Úrsula Oswald Spring is co-founder of the Peasant University of the South in Mexico.