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Carlos Freytes is the Director of the area of Natural Resources of Fundar and professor at the Torcuato Di Tella University. He has a degree in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires and obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science at Northwestern University. He specializes in productive development policies in natural resource-intensive activities. His work agenda focuses on institutional arrangements and interest representation mechanisms that define the governance and policy framework of these activities.

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I am currently a PhD candidate at the department of Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute Geneva in Switzerland. My dissertation research focuses on the technopolitical issues surrounding lithium in Bolivia, where I have conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork with diverse people involved in the State project. Since I started working on the issue as part of a four-year research project on lithium governance across Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, I have been fascinated with lithium’s global connections. This fascination has materialized in the collaborative Lithium Worlds blog, and more recently in the present Green Dealings project. Both projects are inquiries into lithium’s significance beyond, yet intimately tied to, places of extraction.

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Manuel Olivera Andrade is a research associate at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) in La Paz, Bolivia. His work is located in Bolivia, mainly in the Southern Altiplano, the Andean Humid Forest and the North Amazonian Forest. Over the last ten years, Manuel has been studying the Bolivian Lithium Program in the Uyuni salt flat, Potosí. Since 2018, he is engaged in Lithium Triangle research with an emphasis on territorialities, socio-environmental and governance issues. He holds interdisciplinary academic qualifications combining natural and social approaches, apart from extensive field experience in territorial planning, project monitoring/evaluation and public policies. His MA thesis on Lithium governance in Bolivia was awarded the UNESCO/Juan Bosch Prize in 2015.

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Mauricio Lorca is an academic and research associate at the Universidad de Atacama, Chile. He is an anthropologist and MA in History from the Universidad de Chile, DEA in Development Studies from the Université de Genève, Switzerland, and PhD in Culture and Heritage Management from the Universidad de Barcelona, Spain. He has experience in research and teaching on issues that articulate mining, heritage and indigenous peoples in northern Chile. In recent years he has focused his work on the effects of lithium mining in the high Andean salt flats, especially in the Salar de Atacama in Chile, and on the political role of heritage in extractivist contexts.

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Dr Maria Daniela Sanchez-Lopez is a research fellow at the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies at Newnham College and a teaching associate at the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge. She has a background in Economics at Universidad Católica Boliviana, an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands and a Ph.D. in International Development from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

Her research expertise focuses on socio-environmental conflicts, governance of lithium and the li-ion battery supply value chain, and energy geopolitics in Latin America. Daniela is currently researching the impacts of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in the Lithium Triangle (Chile, Bolivia and Argentina) and the socio-technical implications of the new battery regulation of the European Union.

Outside academia, she has an extensive experience in public policy research in international organizations including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP-Bolivia), Interamerican Development Bank (IADB), Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) and NGOs with a regional expertise in Latin America.

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Jonas’ interest in raw material supply chains in the electronics sector was sparked by launching a student initiative to inform consumers of the sustainability of electronics through a rating covering the stages of a product’s lifecycle. He holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the Geneva Graduate Institute and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in European Law from the University of Zurich. In his dissertation, he focussed on the evolution of battery governance at the European Union level. His interests lie at the nexus of environmental, industrial and trade policies regarding batteries and their political implications, with a particular focus on Europe’s role in the global ‘green transition’. In this context, he is also interested in the discourses around and reception of policy efforts to promote environmentally and socially sustainable practices across global value chains.

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I am the proud father of Isabelle, Alexandre and Inès, and husband of Cecilia. I was born in Belgium, I grew up in Canada and radicated in Switzerland many years ago. I was always fascinated by the world and its marvels, especially by Latin America. Why? My father, a climatologist, had this Chilean PhD student in 1973 … I see myself as an a-disciplinary humanist and I work in “development studies” (Geneva Graduate Institute), which enabled me to travel the world and rub shoulders with a lot of fascinating people. Lithium? One intriguing entry point to this world.

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During my anthropology degree at the National University of Salta, I became interested in the study of social ecological conflicts. This led me to get involved in different movements struggling for environmental justice. Back then I also became aware of the importance of scientific research in identifying inequalities and contributing to the construction of more just and sustainable futures. My interest in lithium is tied to this experience, and as a PhD student I am currently focusing on lithium production in Argentina.

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Walter Díaz Paz is a Environmental Engineer. Since 2020, he has been a PhD. Student at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). His research focuses on Water Footprint of lithium mining in Argentina and the Virtual Water Flows through the argentine lithium export. The theoretical frameworks used in research included political ecology and justice energy transition.