Benno Werlen is an internationally renowned Swiss social geographer who holds presently the UNESCO Chair in Global Understanding for Sustainability at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. He is also the founder of the Jena Declaration (TJD), a Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science and the Chair for Sustainability of the Academia Europaea – The Academy of Europe. He was the initiator and Executive Director of the 2016 International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU), which was approved by a specific resolution of the UNESCO General Conference. In 2023, he was appointed by UNEP and the International Science Council (ISC) as a member of the European expert group responsible for establishing a forward-looking culture and program of sustainability policy for the ‘UN Summit of the Future’ in autumn 2024. He has been awarded in 2016 by the International Geographical Union with its highest scientific honorary prize, the Lauréat d’honneur, for opening new paths of scientific cooperation at the highest level, in 2025 with the title of Distinguished Fellow of the Year by the International Engineering and Technology Institute for his “remarkable and pioneering contributions to global sustainability”, and as “Icon of Change 2026” by the United Nations’ International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development.