BERLIN: Sadaf Taimur from Pakistan received the Green Talent Award 2020 in a competition where a high-ranking jury of expert scientists selected 25 up-and-coming researchers from among 589 applicants from 87 countries. The 25 winners of this year’s Green Talents Competition attended the premiere of a Virtual Science Forum for talented junior researchers in the field of sustainability science. The winners are engaged in topics ranging from climate change to education for sustainable development. At the end of the Virtual Science Forum, in a festive award ceremony of “Green Talents – International Forum for High Potentials in Sustainable Development,” the 25 Green Talents were honored by Dr. Michael Meister, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research, during a virtual award ceremony on Monday. The jury was highly impressed by Sadaf’s extraordinary topic of research (i.e., using transformative learning to nurture sustainability citizens) and her extensive practical experience. 32-year-old Pakistani young scientist’s research is examining how the goal of achieving sustainability could be supported in higher education. At the moment, higher education is mostly about transmitting knowledge and skills. Sadaf works on shifting to a transformative pedagogy to educate future leaders who can contribute to building a sustainable society. At the University of Tokyo, Japan, Sadaf is conducting action research to explore and analyze various pedagogies to achieve mindset transformations in higher education settings. The long-term goal is to nurture young people for whom sustainability would be the default. We will no longer have to push them to act sustainably. During the award ceremony, while addressing the audience, Dr. Michael Meister said, “Green talents is a way to build young dedicated ambassadors for global sustainability for all of us. Green talent’s involvement is a proof that even in uncertain times, it is important to do the right thing.” The 25 young researchers learned regarding state-of-the-art approaches and technologies. Talents got an opportunity to share innovative ideas with leading experts from their research field. They obtained deep insights from the German research system while considering avenues for further collaborations. The recognition of their efforts is also rewarded by invitation to Germany in 2021 for a fully funded research stay at an institution of their choice. Further details can be found here: https://www.greentalents.de/index.php Link to Sadaf Taimur’s profile: https://www.greentalents.de/awardees_awardees2020_sadaf-taimur.php