Abhay is an experimental researcher and interaction designer interested in social responses to interactive media. He designs and builds interactive web platforms for IFTF, with a recent focus on X2, a site for distributed collaborative forecasting (www.sciencex2.org). He is also a Ph.D. student in Human-Computer Interaction at Stanford University, where he researches and writes about mobile interaction, digital media in developing countries, and other culturally diverse intersections of media and technology.

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is content lead and information ecologist for X2, the Institute's study of the future of science. Alex is also an Associate Fellow at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, and a Senior Research Scholar in the STS program at Stanford University. He holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anthony has been researching the implications of new technology on cities and public institutions for over a decade. At IFTF, Anthony's work focuses on several inter-related topics:

• mobility and urbanization
  
• science parks, incubators and regional innovation systems
  
• sustainability and telework
  
• pervasive computing
  
• future R&D models
  Joined 05.01.05
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Bob has worked for more than 30 years as a forecaster, exploring the human side of new technologies. He has a deep interest in the future of religion and its impact on business, society, and individuals. Bob works mainly with senior corporate executives across a wide range of industries. He has rich experience in presenting IFTF's foresight and then drawing out insights-inputs to strategy-and-action steps.

Joining the Institute in 1998 Chris Sumner directs the IFTF's MIS/IT dept. and leads our technology direction and implementation strategies providing new innovative collaboration systems and platforms. Prior to joining IFTF, Mr. Sumner was developing new technology systems for Department of Defense applications and has extensive experience as both a technologist and systems integration consultant. He currently holds several technology certificates in Linux, Cisco, OSX, Microsoft, and is fluent in several programming languages.

David Pescovitz is co-editor of the popular weblog BoingBoing.net and also editor-at-large for MAKE:, the DIY technology magazine. Pescovitz co-wrote the book Reality Check (HardWired, 1996), based on his long-running futurist column in Wired magazine where he remains a correspondent. He has also written for Scientific American, Popular Science, New York Times, Washington Post, Salon, and New Scientist, among many other publications.

Dawn oversees client services for the Health Horizons program and across other projects at the Institute, contributing to the business relationship part of the equation. She began her technical sales career over a decade ago after realizing her skills lie in building partnerships between organizations and their clients. She believes in living life passionately which is why she was intrigued by the topics the Institute covers. This view of life has taken her on many adventures ranging from starting a company in the dot.com era to dancing the Tango in Buenos Aires.

An anthropologist and urban planner specializing in community and identity formation, Jackie leads the Institute's application of forecasting to the challenges facing philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. She has worked for over 25 years as an executive, grant-maker, evaluator, or researcher for foundations, including the Pew, Lilly, and Northwest Area foundations. She has served as vice president of The Philadelphia Foundation and founding managing director for philanthropic services at U.S. Bank Private Client Group.

Jake's research examines the role of emerging technologies in transforming subjectivity, culture, and governance, and he has been leading explorations into new methods for communicating foresight. Jake is currently completing his Ph.D. at the Manoa School of Futures Studies on neuropolitics, neuropower, and alternative futures for the extended mind.

Jane McGonigal takes play seriously. She studies the power of games to impact the real-world -- and she creates games that do just that. A pioneer in the field of "alternate reality gaming", her previous projects include The Lost Ring, World Without Oil, Cruel 2 B Kind, and I Love Bees. She is an expert on applying game design and game theory to real work and real business, and has consulted and developed internal game workshops for leading technology companies in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., as well as more than a dozen Fortune Global 500 Companies.

Jason Tester's interests in interactive technology began the old-fashioned way, tinkering one-on-one with the equipment he had at hand. With his work on technological voting, however, he saw the possible effects of computer-human interaction on the future of society as a whole.

Over eight years ago Jean brought her lifelong passion for visual metaphors and more than fifteen years of experience in information design, branding and graphics production to IFTF. Her experience helped IFTF move toward new ways of presenting research material visually through maps, digital stories and many other methods.

She currently leads the communications, creative and production arm of the organization. In this role Jean oversees and collaborates with researchers, artists, writers, and storytellers to create and communicate IFTF work and the visual expression of the research.

Jeannie has been with the Institute since March of 2005. In her role as Programs Administrator, she fulfills a wide range of administrative duties in support of our research programs, conferences, client services, creative services and operations.

Jeff oversees institutional and programmatic communications, event planning, web presence, research project messaging, and assists with production management.

Before joining IFTF, Jeff worked at EPRI (Electric Power Research
Institute), with over ten years of research communications and project management experience for the Nuclear and Fossil Generation programs. He graduated from Saint Mary's College (Moraga, CA) with a B.A in business.

As a Research Manager for the Technology Horizons program, Jess is interested in the future of media, particularly music, and how new technologies will shape the way we make, access, share, and appreciate media content. She covers the San Francisco music scene for TheOwlMag and her own blog, SFJukebox and has participated in panels sponsored by the Bandwidth Conference and the Bay Area Video Coalition.

Kathi Vian leads IFTF's Ten-Year Forecast Program, which is a broad scan of the emerging global environment, focusing on the intersection of new economic forces, changing environmental realities, and new social practices. She is the author of the annual Map of the Decade, which summarizes the most important trends and insights from each year's research across the Institute.

Lisa serves as the assistant producer in IFTF's production department and program coordinator for the Ten-Year Forecast. She provides a bridge between research and production, edits various deliverables, and helps to organize the flow of projects that runs through IFTF at all times. Her interests lie in all things language-related: literature, editing, writing, etc. Lisa holds a BA in English literature, with a specialization in 18th Century British fiction, from Mills College in Oakland, CA.

Lyn is a cultural anthropologist who has spent the last 25 years living and working between California and mainland China. Her current research interests include the development of the Chinese language Internet, global families and changing daily life, the future of mobility, and youth and work. Lyn brings expertise in ethnographic methods and analysis to IFTF and has worked in all of its research programs. She has led numerous research tasks for individual clients and is a practiced content facilitator. Lyn is fluent in Mandarin.

Lynne Postlethwaite grew up in Salinas, California, a seminal agricultural area on the west coast. She learned early on of the fragility of the food supply and how important it is to safeguard the planet. Lynne worked at the Electrical Power Research Institute for 32 years, first as the Business Manager of the Environment Division and for the last ten years as Director of Corporate Business Operations.

A native of New Delhi, India, Mani, brings an international perspective to IFTF. She has a lot of experience conducting surveys in the US and India. She has designed large-scale surveys looking at technology usage, health and food habits, work and career among US adults. She is conducting a comparative survey looking at technology usage and work and career aspirations among youth in India, China and USA. She has also conducted focus groups with high school and college students, and young workers in the US and India.

A native of Odessa, Ukraine, Marina is particularly suited to see things from a global perspective. She has directed international programs and led international development projects for SRI (formerly Stanford Research Institute) in China, Japan, Vietnam, India, and Eastern Europe. Marina has also authored publications on international business and economics, with an emphasis on regional innovation and competitiveness.

With an A.B. in History of Science from Harvard College, Mathias is interested in the conditions in which scientific knowledge is produced and verified, and in how technologies develop in response to, and exert influence on, social, political, and individual concerns. Mathias’ interests are mirrored in his work as Research Manager for the X2 Project at the Institute. Prior to joining the Institute, Mathias worked as an Intellectual Property legal research assistant in New York City.

Miriam Lueck is a researcher in the Health Horizons program and across other projects at the Institute, contributing to a broad range of research tasks. She began interning with the Institute in 2003. As an ethnographer, her overarching interest lies in how people individually and collectively exert agency and embody the change described in forecasts, in their everyday lives. More specifically she explores how food connects people to each other, to their health and bodies, and to natural and built environments.

A self-described nerd growing up, Sean read all he could about science as a kid, and immersed himself in maps for hours at a time. He also set his chemistry set on fire a few times, took junior high computer classes on a TRS-80, and was on his high school ecology team. In college, he switched from mechanical engineering to polymer science when he learned that polymer grads often went on to technical sales. The idea of technical sales piqued his interest, and an entrepreneur was born.

Born in Copenhagen, Tessa moved to California at the age of seven. Having lived in three continents and speaking three to four languages (depending on what day you ask her) Tessa comes to IFTF with a global perspective. After earning her bachelors degree in Anthropology from University of California, Santa Cruz, Tessa joined the Peace Corps. At the end of a year long application process she received a letter inviting her to Kenya. Three months later Tessa was on plane heading towards a new life in Kenya.

Upon joining IFTF in 2007, Vivian quickly became the voice of the Health Horizons Program in the blogosphere, writing about trends in the global health economy and other interesting health-related news. As a researcher, Vivian has explored how social networking platforms have contributed to the emergence of collective action groups centered around shared health concerns. Other forms of social media and online tools have also captured her attention for their role in personal health management and as valuable new sources of health information.