Elizabeth Florescu

Director of Research

Elizabeth Florescu is Director of Research of The Millennium Project. She has been with the Project since 1997.

Elizabeth is an economist and analyst-programmer with over 20 years of experience in futures research. She was also policy analyst at the European Commission (2016-2019) and has done extensive work in operational research (using fuzzy logic), foreign trade, diplomacy, and security-related domains.

She is a contributor and the production manager of the annual State of the Future reports, is co-author of Environmental Crimes, Military Actions, and the International Criminal Court, Lone Wolf Terrorism Prospects and Potential Strategies to Address the Threat, Identification of Potential Terrorists and Adversary Planning (co-editor), and Analysis of the UN Millennium Summit Speeches, several articles, and invited reviewer by specialized magazines.

Her expertise is primarily in research concerning democracy, economics, security, international affairs and regulations, ethics, and gender issues. She has been one of the principal investigators working on the environmental security monthly scanning reports, for the US Army Environmental Policy Institute. The purpose of that effort has been to assess worldwide environment-related issues in order to identify and analyze events that might trigger future changes in international regulations or environmental technology with potential implications for the military. It has been producing monthly summarizing reports and an annual synopsis, since 2002.

Elizabeth is also involved in the development of the Global Futures Intelligence System (GFIS), updating the 15 Global Challenges facing humanity, and design and implementation of early warning systems for policymakers. She also cooperates with Ted Gordon on Real-Time Delphi applications, and computing the annual State of the Future Index.

Elizabeth has been a speaker at several conferences in North America, Europe, and Africa, and is involved in committees and forums addressing issues related to S&T, environment, security, international regulations, ontology, and knowledge management.

She has a vast international experience, having lived and worked in several countries, including the USA, Canada, Romania, and Hungary. Previous experience and positions include: analyst-programmer (implementing the use of fuzzy logic in computer-assisted modeling; development of analytic packages for use in statistics and planning; operational research; and system architecture development and programming); and foreign trade and international relations.

Elizabeth is a member of several professional associations, including: World Futures Studies Federation, Global Futures Forum, World Future Society, Foresight Europe Network, Millennia 2015, and Foresight Canada. She is a graduate of the Romanian Academy of Economic Studies (Bucharest), Faculty of Economic Planning and Cybernetics (1982).