Biofuturist

Global Futurist and Sustainability Innovator

From boardrooms to conferences, Dr. Sterry inspires transformative action through her thought-provoking perspectives and strategic insights into emerging trends. 

Dr. Melissa Sterry is an internationally acclaimed futurist, specialising in trends, foresight, and futures across the built environment, design, technology, engineering, manufacturing, utilities, media and communications. With a career spanning executive roles at the edge of innovation across several fast-moving industries, she advises both public and private sector clients globally, offering deep insights into the intersection of human and natural systems. Her work blends hands-on experience in managing complex risks and opportunities with cutting-edge knowledge of science, technology, design, and enterprise.

Foresight and Futures Expertise

Dr. Sterry’s journey in futures research began during her undergraduate studies and has remained integral to her work ever since. Her career is marked by a series of pioneering roles that involved working on seminal concepts in yet to be established fields, she is well-versed in the issues that shape how, why, when, and where new ideas catalyse new products, services, and markets, while disrupting and displacing others. As a chartered scientist with a PhD that involved researching a problem at the apex of Earth and human systems, and developing possible theoretical and practical solutions based on emerging, anticipated, and potential near to medium term future developments in and beyond STEM, she is adept at challenging received wisdom and assumptions about futures issues.

Her experience of foresight and wider futures practice is wide-ranging and includes researching, developing, and directing first-in-kind models, products, services, and markets; curating workshops, masterclasses, roundtables, surveys, experiments, and other participatory research methods; authoring reports, papers, articles, opinion pieces, short films, podcasts, and other media; giving keynotes and other talks and presentations on futures issues; participating as a panellist, panel chair, moderator, and facilitator of debates and discussions in-person, online, and hybrids of both; serving as a media figurehead, ambassador, and senior press liaison for futures-orientated campaigns; creating speculative fictions, design fictions, and other futures-focused creative works; writing short, flash, and micro fictions for print, digital, film, and other audio visual formats; and advising film and tv producers, directors, and other creators on both near and far futures issues.

Board-Level Consultant and Strategic Advisor

Dr. Sterry has provided foresight and futures insights to organisations across several continents and sectors, helping shape the future of industries including architecture, urban design, planning, construction, manufacturing, transport, utilities, energy, FMCG, and more. Her past clients include multinational corporations such as Unilever, Toyota, Vodafone, SUEZ, and easyJet, government and non-government organisations including the World Bank and Ministry of Defence, as well as pioneering start-ups and SMEs, charities and campaign groups, and research and education establishments (see list below).

She has further served as a member of numerous committees, boards, juries, and other collectives concerned with evaluating leading-edge concepts, projects, and ventures across fields including architecture and urban design; materials; product, furniture, and interior design; fashion and textile design; visual arts and communications; advertising and campaigns; scientific and medical technologies; and fast moving consumer goods.

A fellow of British institutions including the Institute of Science and Technology, of the Design Research Society, and of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of the Design Council’s expert network, and of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars in the United States, she has further served as a visiting academic across the roles of professor, lecturer, fellow, guest critic, thesis supervisor, external examiner, course leader, and assembly member to several leading design, architecture, and built environment schools and other research institutions in the United Kingdom and Europe.

These and other credentials give her a 360° perspective on the potentialities within and beyond her specialist fields in the near, medium, and far future, as well as access to a global network of seminal experts working at the forefront of innovation across multiple fields of innovation endeavour and enterprise. In addition to her professional experience, Dr. Sterry has been a resident of both the UK and overseas, and travelled extensively, including extended research trips in the United States, South Africa, and India among other territories, further widening her understanding of global economic, social, and cultural issues that impact upon futures issues.

Sustainability, Resilience, and Regenerative Specialist

While her knowledge of futures is diverse, her focus is on issues at the interface of human and non-human systems, both biotic and abiotic, and hybrids thereof. As relates to climate change, having first researched the problem while still in school, and contributed to now numerous projects that deal with its many facets, she is expert in both the scientific and wider issues, including as relates to business, economy, culture, and wider society. A champion of environmental issues more generally for many years, including the need to reduce biodiversity loss, pollution, and resource shortages, sustainability issues have been addressed in her futures work since the outset. A woman that walks her talk, Dr. Sterry vets her clients’ sustainability and ethical credentials and boycotts working with companies that fail to show a commitment to raising environmental standards.

Nature-inspired Innovation and Biofuturism

Dr. Sterry’s interest in nature-inspired design dates to her teens, when she first learned of the works of Leonardo de Vinci during a study trip to Florence. She produced her first works in the field in the early 1990s - an apparel collection designed to safely biodegrade back into the environment at the end of use - while still an undergraduate studying on an interdisciplinary design degree. Her interest in that initial concept, which went onto be known as circular design - extends to the present day, and is central to three of her ventures:

• Bionic City®, founded in 2010, which asking “how would nature design a city?” and the world’s first biofuturism boutique consultancy, explores the potential of biomimetics, biotechnology and biology in the built environment.

• Panarchic Codex®, founded in 2018, which hosting her post-PhD research publishes content on developing resilience to wildfires through the creation of complex adaptive architectural and urban systems that mimic the biochemistries, behaviours, structures, and systems of plant and animal species and their affiliated fire-regimes.

• Bioratorium® and its lab Labioratorium®, founded in 2019, which serve to interrogate possible future potentialities of bio-informed, bio-inspired, and bio-material science, technology, engineering, and design. 

Speculative Fictions, Futures, and Design

As an author of speculative, climate, and science fiction shorts and film concepts, Dr. Sterry’s honours include finalist positions in the New Scientist / Sci-Fi London film concept competition and the New Scientist / Arc magazine sci-fi film science competition, and an Honourable Mention in the Millennium Writing Awards. Science fiction projects she has cofounded include the Future in Flash™ [2019], which creates scientifically-plausible climate fictions through mixed art mediums.

Foresight Leader and Industry Influencer

As a speaker on futures issues, Dr. Sterry has delivered over 100 talks to wide-ranging audiences worldwide, including keynotes at leading international trade, academic, and public conferences, seminars, and festivals, as well as speeches, provocations, and other presentations at product launches, award ceremonies, dinners, and annual meetings.

She has participated in debates and discussions both live and pre-recorded for formats including radio, digital, and hybrid. Known for her thought-provoking, expansive, creative, and challenging take on issues and ideas, her work has been cited in among other places, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book, Startalk: Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space, Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe and Beyond. Published in over 60 international academic, trade, and consumer publications, she has featured in over 450 titles worldwide, including national newspapers in the UK, EU and wider Europe, United States, Australia, and India, making her one of the world’s highest profile female futurists and foresight professionals.

Dr. Sterry is listed in the Top 100 most influential futurists worldwide in the Futurist Influence Rankings, ranked a Top 30 female futurist, and was recently voted one of the Top 20 speakers shaping the future of sustainability at executive-board level globally in a survey of over 750 corporations.

Specialisms

Primary fields of expertise are planetary and biofutures inc. biodesign, bioscience, bioengineering, biofacturing, biotechnology, and biourbansim; emerging material, information, and production systems and their applications in science, commerce, industry, and wider society; ecological design and building urban and peri-urban resilience to hazards inc. wildfires, floods, storm systems and other natural, human, and hybrid events; transdisciplinary, complexity and systems theory, thinking and practice; regenerative design and circular design and economy; sustainable innovation and enterprise in fields including design, technology, manufacturing, utilities, and the built environment; and environmental social governance, and business ethics.

Skills

Possible Future Opportunities and Risks

• Exploration of new products, markets, and models.

• Identifying and developing emerging product opportunities.

• Expanding into new sectors and territories.

• Innovating on existing business models.

Scenario Planning and Horizon Scanning

• Conducting scenario-based strategic planning.

• Scanning for signals of change across industries and sectors.

• Identifying, analyzing, and extrapolating emerging trends.

Speculative Design and Design Fictions

• Creating speculative scenarios to explore potential futures.

• Developing design fictions to provoke thought and discussion.

Workshops and Participatory Research

• Designing and hosting interactive workshops.

• Engaging stakeholders in participatory research activities.

• Facilitating roundtables and executive conversations.

Strategic Advisory Services

• Providing strategic advice to organisations on future opportunities and risks.

• Supporting long-term planning and innovation strategies.

Project Curation, Critique, and Mentorship

• Curating and overseeing projects to ensure alignment with strategic goals.

• Offering critical feedback and mentorship to teams and individuals.

Public Speaking, Presentations, and Press

• Delivering keynote talks and provocations.

• Hosting both in-person and virtual presentations to diverse audiences.

• Media figurehead and commentary across all media formats.

Authoring and Publishing

• Writing and publishing white papers, reports, articles, and opinion pieces.

• Authoring books, speculative fiction, and scripts to inspire and inform.

5x15

2Degrees Live conference

A20 Technologies

Accenture

ADAPTr BioSalon

Aegis Media Russia

Akin Gump

Architecture Conference & Expo

Balfour Beatty

Bathroom Manufacturers Association

BioChanges at RCA

BioEngineering Congress

Canadian Institute of Planners

Chartered Institute of Building

City of Greater Dandenong

Clerkenwell Design Week

Coventry University

CRG Exchange

Ecobuild conference

Edinburgh International Science Festival

easyJet

European Centre for Ecotoxicology & Toxicology of Chemicals

Festival of the Future City

Fladgate

Forum for the Built Environment

Future Cities Catapult

Global Research & Innovations in Plastics Sustainability

Greengaged by the Design Council

Grosvenor

Hershey's

Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

Interface

International Conference of Bionic Engineering

Inventing the Future conference

Knowledge Transfer Network

London Design Biennale

London Design Festival

Longitude Prize

Lux magazine

LuxExpo

Manchester International Festival

McKinsey

Media Ecology & Post Industrial Production conf.

Methven

Ministry of Defence

NeoNext Berlin

NESTA

New Engineering Foundation

NSG Group

Oslo Architecture Triennale

Quantum Black

Ravensbourne

Re:Work Cities conference

Schneider Electric

Sci-Fi London Film Festival

Science Museum 

Seven

Sheppard Robson

Smart City Futures conference

Space10

Springwise

Startalk Live

Studio Into

SUEZ group

Sustainable Business in Practice conference

Sustainable Design Network Annual Seminar

Taylor Herring

TEDxLSE - London School of Economics

The Drum - 4 Minute Warning conference

The Future We Want conference

The Future of Housing conference

The Future We Choose launch

The Monument - Masterclasses

The Woman leadership conference

Tomorrow's Natural Business conference

Toyota Motors Europe

UK Aware expo

Unbox conference

Unilever

University College London

University College of Estate Management

University of the Arts London

University of Cambridge - Festival of Ideas

University of Greenwich

University of Oxford - Climate Forum

University of Salford

University of Warwick

Vodafone group

V&A Museum

Virgin group

Vision London: The Future of the Built Environment

WILD: ReNaturing the City

Wilderness festival

Women's Social Leadership Awards

World Bank

World Congress on Sustainable Technologies

Write the Future conference

UBM