Arild Vatn is an institutional and ecological economist and professor emeritus at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at NMBU. He specializes in environmental governance and policy processes. Vatn is a former Vice President and President of the European Society of Ecological Economics. He has lead the research program 'Environment 2015' at the Research Council of Norway and a series of prominent PhD summer schools in ecological economics and environmental governance at various European universities and NMBU between 2006 and 2014. He has lead the NMBU research committee and been member of several other committees at NMBU and nationally including the National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT). He received the NMBU research prize in 2002 - the second time it was awarded. He has also received international recognition for his contributions to his field, including the Thorstein Veblen prize in 2007 and the Kenneth Boulding Award in 2016. Vatn has received several prizes for his teaching and has lead the NMBU’s Master program in International Environment Studies. He was a coordinating lead author of the UN Nature Panel's (IPBES) 'Value Assessment' published in 2022.