Meet the New ICOMOS Committee Presidents for 2023!

ICOMOS is pleased to introduce you to its newly elected National and International Scientific Committees Presidents.

Discover their rich professional experience and academic background in the short presentations below!

 

  

National Committees

 

Eva Roels / ICOMOS Belgium

Eva holds multiple degrees in archaeology, history, and education. She obtained her Master's from KULeuven and pursued further studies at Gent Hogeschool, specializing in Management in Art & Culture. Eva has worked as a field archaeologist in Belgium and abroad and later served as a general administrator at the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation. She actively contributed to ICOMOS International and ICOMOS Vlaanderen-Brussel since 2002, playing a pivotal role in establishing the ICOMOS ICIP Committee and formulating the Ename Charter. Eva's expertise extends to tourism, and she held positions in project management and directorship for the City of Oudenaarde and the MOU Museum. As a board member and president in various organizations, Eva has significantly impacted the field of cultural heritage. Fluent in Dutch, English, and French, she possesses a solid understanding of German as well.

 

Hugo Pereira / ICOMOS Chile

Hugo Pereira is an architect who graduated from the University of Chile in 1977. In 2000, he was awarded the "Fermín Vivaceta" prize. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the national director of the College of Architects of Chile. Additionally, from 2015 to 2017, he held the position of international coordinator of the Ibero-American Network PROTERRA.
Since 1980, Hugo Pereira has been actively involved in working with earth as an architect, constructor, teacher, and researcher at various Chilean universities. In 1983, he served as the chief of the House of Culture project in La Florida county, Santiago. In 1992, as part of the CYTED Iberoamerican program, he curated the international exhibition "HABITERRA: American Earth Construction." In 2013, he took on the role of general coordinator of the 13th SIACOT held in Valparaiso.
Following the earthquake in Tarapacá in 2005, Hugo Pereira participated in the restoration of earthen architectural religious heritage in collaboration with Cerro Colorado BHP mining Corp. and the Cultural Heritage Corporation of Chile. He also contributed to technical reports on earth buildings after the earthquake on February 27, 2010. He co-authored the Technical Document N° 32 titled "Manual of Terrain Damages and Constructive Solutions in Earth" for the Technological Development Corporation and the Chamber of Construction Chile. Since 2012, Hugo Pereira has been a member of ICOMOS-Chile, and since 2015, he has served as an expert member of ISCEAH.

 

Ināra Bula / ICOMOS Latvia

Ināra Bula started her career as a financier in the Ministry of Culture of Latvia. Later, she worked in the National Cultural Heritage Board of Latvia in the Cultural Heritage Policy Department and afterwards headed the Riga regional department. Currently, she continues her professional activity as the director of the Cēsis Museum of History and Art. She has a master's degree in social sciences, bachelor`s degree as an art historian and currently is studying at the academic doctoral program of the Latvian Academy of Culture. Scientific and professional interests- the restoration of monumental architecture.

 

Oluwatoyin Sogbesan / ICOMOS Nigeria

Dr. Oluwatoyin Sogbesan is an architect, cultural historian, art and heritage specialist, and museologist. She is the founder of Àsà Heritage Africa Foundation a non-governmental organisation involved in the identification, documentation and preservation of Heritage. She holds a Master's in Arts and Heritage Management from the London Metropolitan University and a Doctorate in Culture, policy, and management from City University London. She is a member of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), the Association of Architectural Educators in Nigeria (AARCHES) and the Architecture and Urbanism Research Hub domiciled at the University of Lagos. She has over two decades of experience that spans the built environment, art, and heritage sector, enabling her to interrogate culture and identity from a wider perspective. She is a consultant for European Union Institute for Culture (EUNIC-Nigeria Cluster) on Museums. decolonisation.

  

International Scientific Committees

 

Simona Sajeva / International Scientific Committee on Mural paintings (ISCMP)

Italian, licensed professional Civil Engineer specialized in Cultural Heritage Conservation and History of Architecture. She works as conservation senior consultant, teacher and author. Already member of the ICOMOS Italy and part of the Italian NSC for Mural Paintings, in 2022, she volunteered to reorganize the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Mural Painting.
For more than 20 years, the «interfaces» between the mural paintings, the architectural decorations, the building (as support) and their context have been her privileged theoretical and practical interest, spanning different countries and research areas. Owner of the Engineering Firm “Interfaces”, she has developed a method, aimed at integrating the structures and decorations of buildings in a global approach. 
Since 2005 she has been teaching at the Institut National du Patrimoine in Paris, France, with the original class «Masonry structures and their interactions with mural paintings», since then this topic have been presented in Italy, France, Spain, Lebanon, Albania, Kosovo. Since 2017, she has been teaching at the Academy of Traditional Arts - Hassan II Foundation in Casablanca, Morocco, with the original course «Disorders specific to the interface between architectural decorations and structures». She is the sole author of two books: Pitture murali i degradi di origine meccanica. Manuale per restauratori e ingegneri (Mural paintings, the degradations due to mechanical factors. Handbook for conservators and engineers) (Rome, 2014), and La Conservazione delle decorazioni architettoniche. Il ruolo delle structure di supporto (The Conservation of Architectural Decoration. The Role of support structures) (Florence, 2022). She is an agreed contributor of the Il Giornale dell’Arte (the Italian The Art Newspaper).

 

Xavier Greffe / International Scientific Committee on Economics of conservation (ISCEC)

Xavier Greffe is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne and Associate Professor at the Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo. He is also member of the Scientific Committee of the Louvre and President of the NGO Patrimoine sans frontières (Heritage Without Borders.) After his PH studies in Paris (Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Economiques) and Los Angeles (University of California at Los Angeles), he was successively professor in the University of Northern Paris, The University of Algiers and The University Panthéon Sorbonne. During the period 1984-1995 he was in the French administration, before coming back in The University Panthéon Sorbonne where he managed the PhD Progam in Economics and Management of Culture from 1996 to 2016. In parallel he has been a regular consultant foe the OECD, with contributions on culture and local development (Reports in 2005 and 2018) His most recent books are Culture, Creativity and City (with Emiko Kakiuchi, Sui-yo Sha, 2013) ; Les mises en scène du patrimoine culturel (Presses Universitaires du Québec, 2014, Montréal); O economia culturamente criativa (Illuminaras, 2015, Sao Paulo) ; The artist-enterprise in a digital age (Springer, 2016, Tokyo) ; Culture and Local development (OECD, 2019.) Poétique du Patrimoine: Entre Narcisse et Ulysse (Honoré Champion, Paris & Genève) Arts and artists from an economic perspective (In chinese, Nanjing, 2022).

 

Susan Macdonald and Grethe Pontoppidan / International Scientific Committee on 20th Century Heritage (ISC20C)

Susan is currently head of Buildings and Sites, at the Getty Conservation Institute in California, where she oversees over 20 projects aiming to advance Macdonald conservation practice internationally involving research, field projects, training and dissemination and directs the Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative. She trained as an architect at the University of Sydney and has a Masters in Conservation Studies (University of York/ICCROM) and is a certified practicing urban planner. She has worked as a conservation architect in private practice and the public sector in Australia and England and has been involved in a wide range of conservation issues involving urban planning, development, economics, policy, technical matters and world heritage issues. Susan been involved in conserving 20th century heritage for many years, is a member of the DOCOMOMO International Specialist Technical Committee. She has undertaken research, developed and delivered training, led field projects and has published widely on this topic.

 

Grethe Pontoppidan is trained as an architect m.a.a. with a post graduate Nordic Masters degree in Architectural Heritage. She runs her own private heritage consultant firm specializing in 20th Century built heritage. Her projects include large inventories, assessment reports and conservations strategies of modern urban areas as well as single monuments. Grethe chairs an advisory board for a Danish heritage NGO, is an appointed censor at Royal Danish Academy architecture school, and she was invited member of the editorial group for the new Danish framework for listing of the welfare states. She has been the driving force behind the listing of significant Danish 20th Century sites and in raising national awareness about such issues as historic concrete and modern one-family-houses as heritage.

 

Paulo Lorenço / International Scientific Committee on Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage (ISCARSAH)

Paulo Lourenço is a Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Minho, Portugal. Experienced in non-destructive testing, advanced experimental and numerical techniques, innovative repair and strengthening techniques, and earthquake engineering. Specialist in structural conservation and forensic engineering, with work on 100+ monuments, including 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Coordinator of the revision of the European code for masonry (EN 1996-1-1). Coordinator of the MSc on Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions. Editor of the Int J of Architectural Heritage. Author of “Historic Construction and Conservation” and “Finite Element Analysis for Building Assessment”, Routledge (2019 and 2022).