People

Prof. Géraldine Pflieger, PhD (Chair co-Director)

Dr. Pflieger is Professor of Urban and Environmental studies at the University of Geneva, and a former director of the UNIGE Institute for Environmental Sciences. Her research focuses on the regulation of shared natural resources at different levels and the transformation of governance in urban spaces in response to infrastructural and environmental challenges. She was appointed as an associate negotiator and science representative on the Swiss delegation to COP climate negotiations in 2020. Learn more about her research here.

Prof. Christian Bréthaut, PhD (Chair co-Director)

Dr. Bréthaut is an Associate Professor in Water Governance at the University of Geneva. He serves as Director of the Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Hub and Institute, and co-leads the UNESCO Chair on Hydropolitics at the UNIGE alongside Géraldine Pflieger. His expertise lies in water governance and policy, with a focus on managing transboundary rivers, institutional adaptation, the water-food-energy-ecosystem nexus, and the science-policy interface. Additionally, he co-edits the Palgrave’s Series on Water. Learn more about his research here.

Laura Turley, PhD

Dr. Turley is the Senior Science-Policy Manager at the Geneva Water Hub, a Center of Competence on Water for Peace. She holds a PhD in Environmental Governance from the University of Geneva and has worked at the International Institute for Sustainable Development for over ten years. Her research focuses on institutions, infrastructure, actor strategies, and partnerships for water cooperation and peace in shared river basins. She is also interested in the science-policy interface. Learn more about her research here.

Imane Messaoudi-Mattei, PhD

Dr. Messaoudi-Mattei is a senior research associate at the Institute for Environmental Sciences. She has a dual PhD in geography from the University of Paris Nanterre in France and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. She is also a member of the Geneva Water Hub team, where she focuses on critical discourse analysis in transboundary water management. Additionally, she is organises the Hub’s annual summer school on water governance. Learn more about her research here.

Aline Telle, PhD

Dr. Telle holds a PhD in Law from the University of Geneva, where she also teaches at the Institute for Environmental Sciences. Her doctoral research combined legal and social science approaches to examine the reception of international water law in least developed countries, focusing on interactions between Lao institutions and the Mekong River Commission. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher working on several projects related to water governance and transboundary cooperation in the Meuse, Rhône, Danube, Po, and Rhine basins. Before joining UNIGE, Telle worked as a consultant in the energy sector for many projects in China, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Learn more about her research here.

Cyrille Vallet, PhD

Dr. Vallet has over 16 years of experience as an engineer and institutional expert in the water sector of low to middle income countries. He has worked on projects in Southeastern Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia, focusing on implementing EU directives, strengthening water management, negotiating transboundary water agreements, and preparing financing contracts with international institutions. During a two-year consultancy with the ministry of environment in Moldova, he supported water sector reforms including tariffs, norms, integrated water resources management policies and regulations.

Marie Jeanne Senghor

Ms. Senghor is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Hub (GEDT). She has worked on research and development projects on environmental governance and agroecosystem management at various organizations in Senegal. She has also participated in studies on water salinity in the Saloum Delta with the French Research Institute for Development (IRD- LMI-PATEO). Before joining UNIGE, she worked at the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, providing administrative and technical support to African Contracting parties. Currently, she provides technical support to the Dakar Water Hub implementation, collaborating with Senegal's water ministry and IUCN.

Nadira Mukhamejan

Ms. Mukhamejan is a PhD candidate at the Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Hub (GEDT). She holds a joint international master’s degree in security, strategy, and intelligence from the University of Glasgow, University of Trento, and Charles University. She also holds a BA in international relations from the Kazakh-German University. From 2019 to 2022, she was an assistant at the UNESCO Chair for Water Resources Management in Central Asia and a research fellow at the Centre for Sustainability and Natural Resources in the Kazakh-German University. With the support of the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship and the supervision of Christian Bréthaut, she is exploring how discourses shape water politics and policies in the Syr Darya river basin.

Emmanuel Valax

Mr. Valax is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Hub (GEDT). From 2019 to 2025, he served in different capacities at the United States Institute of Peace, where he most recently advised climate resilience and peacebuilding efforts in Africa and the Indo-Pacific. Valax holds a BA in political science from the Universidad del Zulia, an MA in peace and conflict resolution from American University, and an MSc in population and development studies from the Sorbonne. With the supervision of Prof. Christian Bréthaut, his research focuses on hydropolitics in West Africa.