Walter Jetz is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the School of the Environment at Yale University, where he directs the Center for Biodiversity and Global Change. He chairs the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and co-chairs the GEO BON Species Population Working Group. His work focuses on biodiversity science, conservation, and global change ecology. Education: D.Phil. in Zoology (University of Oxford, 2002), M.Sc. in Integrative Bioscience (Oxford, 1997) Research interests include macroecology, species distribution modeling, and conservation science across spatial scales. His group develops tools like Map of Life , Wildlife Insights , and Half-Earth Project to address biodiversity monitoring and area-based conservation. Current projects explore climate change impacts on tropical ecosystems, movement ecology, and machine learning applications in biodiversity science. Recent publications focus on niche scaling, climate change vulnerability, deep learning for species distribution, and mountain biodiversity monitoring. Awards include being an ISI Highly Cited Researcher since 2014. Over 30 former students hold faculty positions globally. The lab promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in science and collaborates with NASA, Microsoft, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Professor Cyrill P. Rigamonti is a Tenured Professor of Law at the University of Bern, where he teaches intellectual property law, antitrust/competition law, and media law. He serves as Director of the Institute for Economic Law and Chair of the Department for Economic Law, and is the founder of the Center for the Law of Innovation and Competition (CLIC). Professor Rigamonti is also an elected member of the Federal Arbitral Commission on Copyright and Neighboring Rights, serving as its President since 2024, having previously been Vice President since 2020. Professor Rigamonti holds a S.J.D. from Harvard Law School, an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a J.D./Ph.D. from the University of Zurich. He also earned a habilitation from the University of Bern and is admitted to practice in New York and Zurich. His academic career includes a visiting position at the University of Oxford's Faculty of Law and Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre in Spring 2024. Professor Rigamonti's research focuses on intellectual property law, particularly copyright, patent, and trademark law, as well as competition law. His work examines the intersection of intellectual property with fundamental rights, digital technologies, and international harmonization efforts. He has made significant contributions to understanding Swiss copyright law in comparative perspective, particularly regarding non-original photographs, parody exceptions, and internet service provider liability. His scholarly output shows consistent focus on the evolving relationship between copyright law and digital technologies, with particular attention to secondary liability, parody exceptions, and the protection of non-creative works. Professor Rigamonti's work bridges theoretical analysis with practical legal application, as evidenced by multiple citations of his scholarship in Swiss Federal Supreme Court decisions. Prix Jubilé from the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (first legal scholar to receive this award) Mancini and Addison Brown prizes from Harvard Law School Professor Rigamonti actively engages with the legal profession through his service on editorial boards including the leading Swiss intellectual property law journal (sic!), as a peer reviewer for the International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law (IIC), and as National Correspondent for the Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and E-Commerce Law (JIPITEC). He also serves as Vice President of the Board of the Hans Sigrist Foundation at the University of Bern and on the list of arbitrators for the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Binding Arbitration Program.
Kanchana Kariyawasam serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics within Griffith University's Business School. Holding a PhD in IP Law from Griffith University, an LL.M (Advanced) in IP Law from The University of Queensland, and an LL.B (Hons) from the University of Colombo, she maintains active research affiliations with the Law Futures Centre (2009-2024) and Griffith Asia Institute (2019-present). Her research spans Intellectual Property Law with specialized focus on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, IP and Right to Repair, Patent Law in Biotechnology, and Gender Equality in IP systems. Current projects examine AI-generated works, digital exhaustion doctrine, and NFT legality under Australian copyright frameworks, reflecting strong alignment with Sustainable Development Goals 4 (Quality Education) and 9 (Industry Innovation). Professor Kariyawasam's funded research portfolio includes significant projects such as the WIPO Study on Illegal Retransmission of Live Broadcasts (2023), Queensland Government Ewaste initiatives (2022), and Griffith University's Right to Repair Workshop (2020). Her publications demonstrate consistent output in high-impact journals including European Intellectual Property Review and International Journal of Law and Information Technology , with recent works analyzing AI copyright challenges, spatial data protection, and medical device repair rights. Deputy Vice-Chancellor's 2024 Student Experience of Teaching Survey Commendation Green Impact Gold Award Recipient (2023, Griffith Repair Cafe) Highly Commended Griffith Award for Excellence in Teaching (Large Classes) Two GBS teaching citations She currently supervises five doctoral candidates researching AI data privacy, patent law intersections, and agricultural IP issues, while having successfully completed supervision of four doctoral theses including works on female entrepreneurship and agribusiness marketing. As Coordinator of Griffith Repair Cafe and Steering Committee Member of Australian Repair Network, she bridges academic research with community engagement on repair rights and e-waste reduction.
Sharad Mehrotra is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), leading the Center for Emergency Response Technologies (CERT) and directing the NSF-funded RESCUE project. He previously served at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (1993). His research focuses on data management, IoT systems, privacy-preserving technologies, and smart spaces, with contributions to frameworks like TIPPERS and MARS. Education: Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin, 1993 Research Interests: His work bridges database systems, security, and IoT, emphasizing privacy in smart environments. Notable projects include sentient space technologies for disaster response, cryptographic methods for encrypted data queries, and semantic IoT integration. Recent efforts address privacy in multi-owner data systems and resilient community water infrastructure. Awards & Recognition: ACM Fellow (2024) SIGMOD Best Paper (2001), DASFAA Best Paper (2004) NAVWAR Innovation Award (2021) Outstanding Graduate Mentor (2005) Grants & Leadership: As RESCUE PI, he managed $12.5M NSF funding, developing crisis-response software deployed by emergency agencies. Collaborations include the Cal-IT2 institute (UCSD/UCI) and the US Navy’s TIPPERS platform. He co-leads initiatives like the NSF Civic Innovation Challenge for disaster resilience in aging communities. Labs & Teams: Directs UCI’s Information Systems Group and CERT, fostering interdisciplinary research with 60+ members. His teams produce open-source tools (e.g., SEMIoTIC, PrivacySphere) and engage in global partnerships via Fulbright Visiting Scholar programs.
David N. Proctor is a Professor of Kinesiology and Physiology at Pennsylvania State University . His research focuses on human cardiovascular aging, vascular adaptation to exercise, and therapeutic strategies for aging populations.
Peter Long is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Conservation at the University of Oxford Brookes, School of Biological and Medical Sciences . His research integrates satellite remote sensing, environmental modeling, and biodiversity assessment to address ecological and conservation challenges at landscape and global scales. Key research themes include: Developing algorithms for satellite data analysis Quantifying biodiversity and ecosystem services Building web-based ecological assessment tools Studying climate-agriculture interactions Assessing deforestation drivers in Madagascar Recent publications (2023–2025) focus on regenerative agriculture carbon impacts , Madagascar deforestation policy , and climate-induced habitat changes . He specializes in GIS, high-performance computing, and stakeholder engagement for environmental monitoring. Collaborations span Guatemala , Madagascar , and Europe , with tools like LEFT (web-based ecological value estimator) and BioTIME 2.0 (biodiversity time series database).
Rafail Ostrovsky is the Norman E. Friedman Chair in Knowledge Sciences at UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, where he serves as a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics. He also directs the Center for Information and Computation Security at UCLA. His academic leadership extends to his role as a foreign member of Academia Europaea and his fellowship in multiple prestigious organizations including the National Academy of Inventors, AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and IACR. Professor Ostrovsky's research spans multiple domains in theoretical computer science, with primary focus on cryptography, secure computation, and algorithms. His work on garbled circuits, zero-knowledge proofs, and private information retrieval has had significant theoretical and practical impact. He has pioneered research in secure multi-party computation, oblivious RAM, and cryptographic protocols that maintain privacy while enabling complex computations on sensitive data. His research bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in secure systems, ranging from database security to hardware-based cryptographic primitives. Ostrovsky's publication record shows a consistent trajectory of innovation in cryptographic theory and its applications. His recent work focuses on optimizing secure computation protocols for efficiency while maintaining strong security guarantees, with particular attention to communication complexity, round complexity, and practical implementations. He has made significant contributions to homomorphic encryption, non-malleable commitments, and zero-knowledge proofs, often developing techniques that transform theoretical constructs into practically viable solutions. 1993 Henry Taub Prize 2017 IEEE Computer Society Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award 2018 RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics (RSA Prize) 2022 W. Wallace McDowell Award (highest award from IEEE Computer Society) Fellow of National Academy of Inventors, AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and IACR Foreign member of Academia Europaea With over 350 peer-reviewed publications and 16 issued USPTO patents, Professor Ostrovsky has significantly shaped the field of cryptography and secure computation. His mentorship has cultivated numerous students and postdocs who have gone on to make their own contributions to the field. His editorial roles on prestigious journals including Journal of ACM and Algorithmica reflect his standing in the theoretical computer science community. His leadership extends to chairing major conferences including FOCS 2011 and serving on over 40 international conference program committees. As Director of the Center for Information and Computation Security at UCLA, Professor Ostrovsky leads a team focused on advancing the theoretical foundations and practical applications of secure computation. His center serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research connecting cryptography with systems security, network protocols, and hardware security. The center's work spans from foundational cryptographic primitives to real-world applications requiring privacy-preserving computation.
Dr. David Abrego is a Senior Lecturer at the National Marine Science Centre within the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University. His marine ecology research focuses on coral responses to climate change, contributing directly to UN Sustainable Development Goals for ocean conservation and climate action across the Indo-Pacific region. His academic credentials include: PhD in Marine Science from James Cook University Master of Applied Science from James Cook University Bachelor of Science from University of California, Santa Barbara Abrego's research program investigates coral resilience through three interconnected pillars: early life history processes (recruitment, settlement, symbiosis establishment), environmental stress tolerance mechanisms (thermal adaptation, bleaching resistance), and restoration applications (symbiont engineering, marginal environment characterization). His multidisciplinary approach integrates field ecology with molecular techniques including genetics, photo-physiology, and selective breeding to develop practical conservation strategies for warming oceans. Current projects specifically examine how coral-microalgal symbioses can be harnessed to accelerate reef recovery and identify thermally tolerant corals in extreme environments. Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals a dominant research trajectory toward assisted evolution and symbiosis-based restoration , with 60% of articles focusing on thermal tolerance mechanisms and symbiont manipulation. Geographic scope spans Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Japanese Okinawa reefs, and Persian Gulf ecosystems, highlighting comparative adaptation studies in naturally extreme environments. Methodologically, his work increasingly incorporates advanced technologies like drone-based monitoring and deep learning for reef assessment alongside traditional laboratory husbandry techniques. Abrego actively mentors higher degree research students through Southern Cross University's marine science programs and maintains international collaborations across Australia, Japan, and the UAE. His teaching portfolio includes coordinating the Bachelor of Marine Science and Management program and delivering specialized courses in coral biology, ecology, and global environmental systems. Based at the National Marine Science Centre in Coffs Harbour, Abrego leads a research group focused on translating laboratory findings into field applications for reef restoration. Current initiatives include developing symbiont-inoculation protocols for coral nurseries and establishing long-term monitoring sites in marginal reef environments to track climate adaptation in real time.
Dr. Marcelo Urquia is an Associate Professor at the Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, and holds a Canada Research Chair in Applied Population Health. He specializes in epidemiology, focusing on gender, immigration, and health equity with a life-course perspective. His work leverages large population-based databases to study maternal and child health, migration health, and family dynamics. Cross-appointments include the Department of Economics (Faculty of Arts) and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Key affiliations include the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) and ICES (Toronto). Education: PhD in Epidemiology (University of Toronto, 2009), MSc in Epidemiology (University of Toronto, 2006), and degrees in Anthropology and Public Health from institutions in Argentina. Awards include membership in the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars (2020) and a Canada Research Chair designation (2017). Research interests span maternal/child health, immigrant health, and social determinants of health. He leads studies on child marriage, family structure measurement, and pandemic impacts on birth outcomes. Collaborations include global networks like the Migration Health and Development Research Initiative (MHADRI) and the Reproductive Outcomes and Migration collaboration. Dr. Urquia mentors graduate students (Master’s/PhD) and actively publishes on topics like food insecurity, migrant mortality advantage, and child protective services disparities. His work bridges epidemiology with policy, emphasizing data-driven solutions for health equity.
Amanda Bates is Professor of Biology at the University of Victoria's Faculty of Science. She directs research on global ecology, conservation biology, and marine eco-physiology, using macroecological approaches to understand how climate change and human activities impact ecosystem resilience and functioning. Her work spans biological scales from organismal physiology to global biomes, with applications to sustainable conservation solutions. Her research program investigates ecological resilience across temperature gradients, biodiversity patterns in marine sediments, and climate impacts on coastal ecosystems. Recent projects examine thermal tolerance in marine ectotherms, deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities, and coral reef resilience. She employs diverse methodologies including field surveys, experimental manipulations, and large-scale data synthesis. Bates coordinates international collaborations such as the BioTIME database expansion and socio-ecological indicator development for northern coastal environments. Her publications demonstrate consistent focus on climate-biodiversity interactions, with recent articles addressing functional vulnerability in deep-sea ecosystems, coral thermal adaptation, and marine protected area effectiveness. She mentors graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in conservation ecology, promoting interdisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges. Her laboratory investigates ecological responses to global change across marine and terrestrial systems.
Andrew Bishara, MD, is an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Department of Anesthesiology within the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is affiliated with multiple UCSF clinical sites, including Mission Bay, Mount Zion, and Parnassus, and is actively involved in the AI Clinical Innovation Lab, Transplant Anesthesia Research Group, and POCCO (PeriOperative Cardiac Complications Observatory). His clinical practice as an anesthesiologist is deeply integrated with his research in machine learning and artificial intelligence for perioperative care. Dr. Bishara's educational background includes a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from MIT (2009), an MD from Harvard Medical School (2014), and a D.ABA. in Anesthesiology from UCSF (2019). He also completed specialized training in Medical Informatics and Artificial Intelligence through the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute (2020) and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion program at UCSF (2022). His research focuses on developing and validating machine learning models to predict and prevent surgical complications such as acute kidney injury, postoperative delirium, pain, and blood loss in real time. He emphasizes creating clinically usable models and improving AI-human interfaces for seamless integration into clinical workflows. His work also explores gender-based disparities in coronary artery disease diagnosis using EHR data analytics. His recent publications demonstrate expertise in AI quality improvement, model implementation in acute care, and predictive modeling across diverse surgical and critical care domains. He co-founded Bezel Health, a company focused on healthcare quality measurement, reflecting his commitment to translating research into real-world impact. Clinical Artificial Intelligence Quality Improvement Real-time Risk Assessment in Surgery AI Integration in Anesthesia Gender Disparities in Cardiac Care Transplant Anesthesia Research Regulatory Aspects of AI in Medicine Dr. Bishara is actively engaged in advancing perioperative medicine through innovation in data science and AI, with a strong emphasis on improving patient outcomes, equity, and clinical workflow efficiency.
Dr. Shuangshuang Jin is an Associate Professor in the School of Computing with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Clemson University's College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences. Previously, she served as a Senior Research Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Computer Science (2007), M.S. in Computer Science (2003) from Washington State University, and a B.S. in Computer Science (2001) from Wuhan University. Ph.D., 2007 - Washington State University, Computer Science M.S., 2003 - Washington State University, Computer Science B.S., 2001 - Wuhan University, Computer Science Dr. Jin specializes in high-performance computing (HPC), distributed and parallel computing, general-purpose computation on graphical processing units (GPGPU), and HPC-based big data analysis, machine learning, scientific computation, and visualization. Her research focuses on applying these technologies to electrical engineering (power and energy systems, power electronics), automotive engineering, systems biology, and computer graphics. She leads the High-Performance Computing Enabled Science and Engineering (HPCeSE) Lab, where she supervises six PhD students working on HPC implementations for power system dynamic simulation, GridPACK application development, data-driven model-based smart control of power electronics converters, and other cutting-edge projects. Her recent publications demonstrate expertise in accelerating power system simulations, PV inverter reliability assessment, edge computing for power systems, and virtual prototyping of vehicle powertrain systems. The research trends show increasing focus on GPU acceleration, real-time simulation capabilities, and integration of HPC with emerging power system challenges. Junior Faculty Excellence in Teaching award (2021) Churchill Carter Fellowship (2022-2023) Zucker Graduate Education Center PhD Grant (2023) Doctoral Dissertation Completion Award (2023-2024) Outstanding Masters Student in Computer Science award (2022) Dr. Jin has successfully secured multiple grants from DOE, DOD, and other agencies for projects including 'Vehicle Propulsion Digital Twins', 'GridPACK-Wind', and 'Tool for Reliability Assessment of Critical Electronics in PV (TRACE-PV)'. She has advised numerous PhD and Master's students who have gone on to positions at national laboratories and industry. Her HPCeSE Lab maintains strong connections with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and other research institutions, providing students with valuable internship opportunities. Dr. Jin leads the High-Performance Computing Enabled Science and Engineering (HPCeSE) Lab at Clemson University, which focuses on developing optimized HPC-based parallel programming algorithms and architectures to solve complex scientific and engineering domain problems. The lab works on smart grid modeling and simulation, power electronics reliability assessment, ground vehicle systems prototyping, and advanced grid analytics, utilizing OpenMP, MPI, Pthreads, and CUDA/OpenCL on various computing platforms.
Fabrizio Falchi is a researcher at the Artificial Intelligence for Media and Humanities (AIMH) Lab of the Institute of Information Science and Technologies (ISTI) within Italy's National Research Council (CNR). He also maintains an associate position at the Biorobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. His work focuses on developing advanced multimedia retrieval systems, with the VISIONE platform being his most notable contribution, which has won international competitions including the Video Browser Showdown in 2024 and placed second in 2023. Falchi's educational background includes: Ph.D. in Information Engineering from University of Pisa (Italy) Ph.D. in Informatics from Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University of Brno (Czech Republic) M.B.A. from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa His research spans deep learning, convolutional neural networks, deep features extraction, similarity search algorithms, distributed indexing systems, multimedia information retrieval, computer vision applications, and peer-to-peer systems. Falchi has made significant contributions to fine-grained visual understanding, cross-modal retrieval (particularly image-text matching), and robustness of deep learning systems against adversarial attacks. His work demonstrates a strong focus on practical applications of these technologies, particularly in video retrieval systems and safety monitoring solutions. Analysis of Falchi's recent publications reveals a strong focus on video and image retrieval systems, with the VISIONE platform being central to his work. His research shows increasing emphasis on fine-grained understanding in computer vision, cross-modal retrieval, and addressing practical challenges like cross-resolution face recognition. Recent work demonstrates innovation in making these systems more efficient through techniques like knowledge distillation (ALADIN) and leveraging virtual worlds for training data. His publications consistently bridge theoretical advances with practical applications in surveillance, safety monitoring, and multimedia search. Falchi's work has received significant recognition: Best paper award at CBMI 2024 for 'Is ClLIP the main roadblock for fine-grained open-world perception?' VISIONE 2024 won the Video Browser Showdown competition in Amsterdam VISIONE obtained second place at Video Browser Showdown 2023 in Bergen Best Paper Award for 'Learning Safety Equipment Detection using Virtual Worlds' at CBMI 2019 Falchi collaborates extensively with researchers at ISTI-CNR, particularly within the AIMH Lab. His work on VISIONE involves collaboration with Giuseppe Amato, Paolo Bolettieri, Fabio Carrara, Claudio Gennaro, Nicola Messina, Lucia Vadicamo, and Claudio Vairo. As co-chair of Ital-IA 2023, the 3rd National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, he plays an active role in the academic community. He is a member of ACM (since 2012), the Computer Vision Foundation, the Italian Association for Computer Vision Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (CVPL), and the CINI Lab on Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems. Falchi is a key member of the Artificial Intelligence for Media and Humanities (AIMH) Lab at ISTI-CNR, where he leads research on video retrieval systems. The lab has developed the award-winning VISIONE platform, which combines multiple scientific results in content-based video retrieval. His team focuses on developing systems that enable users to search for target videos using textual prompts, drawing objects and colors, or images as query examples. The lab's work demonstrates strong interdisciplinary collaboration, bridging computer science with practical applications in media, safety monitoring, and urban environments.
Dr. Ahmad Ghafarian is a Professor of Computer Science in the Mike Cottrell College of Business at the University of North Georgia (UNG), where he has served for over 20 years since 1996. He is a dedicated educator who emphasizes positive teacher-student relationships and has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in computer science and cybersecurity. His educational background includes: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Glasgow, UK, 1982 M.S. in Computer Science, University of Glasgow, UK, 1974 B.S. in Mathematics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, 1970 Postdoctoral Studies in Information Security, University of Maryland University College, 2007 Graduate Certificate in Information Security, Purdue University, 2003 Dr. Ghafarian's research focuses on digital forensics and cybersecurity, with expertise in computer forensics, malware detection, cloud security, social media privacy, and SQL injection attacks. His work involves empirical studies of security tools and protocols, advancing forensic methodologies and security practices through rigorous experimentation and analysis. His publication record demonstrates a clear evolution from foundational computer science education topics in the 1990s to specialized cybersecurity research since the mid-2000s. Current work emphasizes memory forensics for social media platforms, ransomware detection mechanisms, connected vehicle security, and VoIP system vulnerabilities, reflecting his adaptation to emerging technological threats. No scientific awards were explicitly mentioned in the source material. Dr. Ghafarian has developed comprehensive curricula across 15+ graduate and undergraduate courses including cybersecurity capstones, network security, and computer forensics. His teaching innovations include semester-long projects, ethical case studies, and practical lab components using tools like Kali Linux. While specific grant funding isn't documented, his extensive publication record and curriculum development demonstrate sustained research engagement and academic leadership.
Andrea Forte is a Professor affiliated with the University of Michigan, with a former position at Drexel University. Her research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Privacy Studies, and Social Media, exploring topics such as privacy expertise, marginalized communities' digital experiences, and collaborative systems. She has published extensively in top venues like CHI, CSCW, and ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. Her work bridges technical, social, and ethical dimensions of technology, addressing challenges in privacy protection, online anonymity, and the impact of social media on vulnerable populations. She has contributed to understanding how technologies like Wikipedia and social platforms mediate trust, credibility, and activism. Notable projects include studies on user privacy rights in people search websites and the sociotechnical challenges faced by disability activists online. Forte collaborates with interdisciplinary teams, addressing issues such as internet-facilitated harassment of researchers and the design of privacy-enhancing technologies. Her research emphasizes equitable and inclusive approaches to technology, particularly in library and educational contexts.
