Hayriye Esbah-Tunçay is Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at Istanbul Technical University and a former Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Recognized for her pioneering research in landscape ecology and its effective integration into design, she is a leading figure in the design of sustainable cities in the face of the challenges of climate change. Emphasizing the essential connection between human well-being and ecological harmony, her vision encompasses urban, rural, natural, historic, and cultural landscapes.

Her illustrious career has been honored with numerous publications and research grants, including the Turkish Higher Education Council Fellowship, the prestigious Fulbright Research Fellowship, and various European Union research grants. As the founding director of HET (Habitat-Ecology-Technology), an Istanbul-based landscape architecture and urban design firm, she has led innovative projects that promote climate sustainability and resilience and have received numerous national and international awards and recognitions, including the National Landscape Architecture and Urban Design Awards (eight times). Esbah-Tunçay holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning from Arizona State University and a Master's in Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona. She is a registered landscape architect with the Turkish Chamber of Landscape Architects and a member of ICOMOS.

Presidente del jurado Gary Hilderbrand es catedrático Peter Louis Hornbeck en la Harvard Graduate School of Design y actual director del Departamento de Arquitectura Paisajista de la GSD. También es director de Reed Hilderbrand, un estudio de arquitectura paisajista en Cambridge y New Haven. Ha sido galardonado con la beca Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship de la Universidad de Harvard, el Premio de Arquitectura Paisajista de Roma y el premio a la Empresa del Año 2013 de la ASLA. Hilderbrand ha recibido la Medalla al Diseño de la ASLA en 2017. Design Intelligence lo nombró uno de sus "25 educadores más admirados" de 2016. 
A través de tres libros ampliamente aclamados y dos docenas de ensayos, Hilderbrand ha ayudado a posicionar el papel de la arquitectura del paisaje en la conciliación de las tradiciones intelectuales y culturales con las fuerzas contemporáneas de la urbanización y el cambio. Como profesor, diseñador y crítico, Hilderbrand transmite su pasión por la historia de la arquitectura paisajista y su potencial futuro allá donde trabaja. Dirige encargos que se inspiran en las tradiciones de la arquitectura paisajista estadounidense, al tiempo que se enfrentan a las principales crisis mundiales de nuestro tiempo: el cambio climático y la justicia medioambiental. Desde que cofundó Reed Hilderbrand en 2000 con Douglas Reed, ha sido responsable de varios proyectos que enriquecen y promueven las prácticas de silvicultura urbana, desde una sola plaza a un distrito o una ciudad entera. 

Kate Orff, RLA, FASLA, is the Founder of SCAPE, a landscape architecture firm that emphasizes innovative solutions to climate change while designing spaces that promote social interaction and community life. Her work explores the intersection of environmental and social issues through design, activism, and research. She is widely recognized as a leading voice in landscape architecture, urban design, and climate adaptation, with a reputation for creating complex, creative, and collaborative projects that address environmental challenges on a global scale.

Orff’s accomplishments include being the first landscape architect to receive the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 2017. She was elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows in 2019, received a National Design Award in Landscape Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, and was named a “Hero of the Harbor” by the Waterfront Alliance. In 2020, she was honored as Urbanist of the Year by The Architect’s Newspaper, and in 2023, she was named to the TIME 100, a list of the world’s most influential people.

In addition to her design work, Orff is the author of several influential books, including Toward an Urban Ecology (Monacelli, 2016), Petrochemical America (Aperture, 2012), co-authored with photographer Richard Misrach, and contributed to the bestselling anthology All We Can Save (Penguin Random House, 2020), which highlights women climate leaders. Her work has been profiled in top-tier publications like The New Yorker, The New York Times, National Geographic, and The Washington Post, among others.

Orff earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia, graduating with Distinction, before completing her Master’s in Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD). She currently serves as the Director of the Urban Design Program and Co-Director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes (CRCL) at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). Additionally, she serves on the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the Advisory Board for Urban Ocean Lab, a policy think tank.