Find Academic Supervisors

Vincent E. PriceView profile

Professor

• Public Policy
• Political Science
• Higher Education Leadership
• +3 more

Vincent E. Price serves as President of Duke University and holds the Walter Hines Page Distinguished Professorship in Public Policy and Political Science. He is a Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Dr. Price earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1987, an M.A. from Stanford in 1985, and a B.A. from Santa Clara University in 1979. His academic background forms the foundation for his leadership in higher education policy and university administration. Price's research interests center on public policy, political science, and higher education leadership. His work examines university strategic planning, innovation policy, and the role of research universities in society. As president, he has focused on developing Duke's strategic vision for its second century, emphasizing a 'people-first' approach to institutional investment that prioritizes faculty, students, and staff over physical infrastructure. His recent publications and speeches address critical issues facing higher education, including innovation policy, research funding, university governance, and the future of academic institutions. Price has been particularly active in advocating for full funding of the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American leadership in critical technology fields. Member, American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2020) President Price has been actively involved in guiding Duke through significant challenges, including the pandemic, while advancing strategic initiatives in faculty recruitment, student financial aid, campus sustainability, and anti-racism efforts. He chairs the ACC Board of Directors and has overseen Duke's expansion of global partnerships, including Duke Kunshan University in China. His leadership emphasizes community building, strategic investment in people, and preparing Duke for its second century of impact.

Oliver SchmitzView profile

Professor

• Plasma Edge Physics
• Plasma Wall Interaction
• Three-Dimensional Plasma Edge Transport
• +6 more

Oliver Schmitz is a Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he leads research in plasma edge physics for magnetic confinement fusion and next-generation particle accelerators. His work bridges experimental plasma science, computational modeling, and diagnostic development with applications in both tokamaks and stellarators. Education: PhD (2006), Heinrich-Heine-Universität Diploma (2003), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Professor Schmitz's research focuses on 3D plasma edge transport phenomena, plasma-wall interactions, and helicon plasma generation for wakefield accelerators. His group employs advanced computational tools like EMC3-EIRENE for 3D plasma edge modeling and develops active spectroscopic diagnostics to measure plasma parameters through atomic emission analysis. Key themes include resonant magnetic perturbation effects in tokamaks, inherent 3D physics in stellarators, and high-density plasma sustainment for accelerator applications. He actively develops atomic models to interpret spectroscopic data and operates helicon plasma test stands for fundamental process studies. Recent publications reveal strong emphasis on experimental-computational integration for fusion boundary physics, with significant contributions to ITER divertor solutions, stellarator exhaust optimization, and plasma-facing materials. The work shows growing focus on wakefield accelerator diagnostics through helicon plasma sources and advanced spectroscopy, alongside persistent innovation in 3D modeling of plasma-material interfaces. Scientific Awards: 2020 Thomas and Suzanne Werner Chair Professorship 2018 UW Madison Teaching Academy Fellow 2017 ITER Science Fellowship & Vilas Mid-Career Award 2015 DOE Early Career Award & NSF CAREER Award 2011 Torkil Jensen Award (General Atomics) 2007 Günther-Leibfried-Preis (Jülich) Professor Schmitz directs multiple DOE/NSF-funded research programs including his UW Madison laboratory and AWAKE project contributions at CERN. He mentors graduate students through NE 890/990 thesis research courses and has developed nationally recognized K-12 outreach including the "Plasma Show" for elementary schools and "Plasma Academy" for high-school educators developing AP Physics curriculum modules. His leadership extends to university governance through the Kaufman seminar on academic leadership. His research group operates helicon plasma test stands and computational facilities for EMC3-EIRENE simulations, with current efforts focused on high-density plasma sources for accelerators and resilient divertor solutions for stellarators. The group maintains strong international collaborations with ITER, CERN, and major fusion facilities worldwide.

Fernando De la TorreView profile

Adjunct Professor

• Machine Learning
• Computer Vision
• Augmented Reality
• +4 more

Fernando De la Torre is a Courtesy Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with an affiliation to the Robotics Institute where he has been a research faculty member since 2005. He holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from Ramon Llull University (2002). His research focuses on machine learning and computer vision, with applications in human health, augmented/virtual reality, generative models, and data-centric methodologies. He directs the Human Sensing Laboratory, which explores technologies for human behavior analysis and health monitoring. Notable contributions include founding FacioMetrics LLC (acquired by Meta), advancing facial recognition and 3D human digitization, and developing frameworks for robust visual models. His work bridges theory and practice, with over 225 peer-reviewed publications and editorial roles, including Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. Recent research trends emphasize generative AI applications in satellite imagery analysis, VR/AR rendering optimizations (e.g., Gaussian splatting), and clinical motion recognition for healthcare. His projects often intersect with industry, addressing challenges in wearable health monitoring and immersive technologies. His lab collaborations span academia and industry, focusing on scalable solutions for 3D human modeling, adversarial robustness, and multimodal data fusion. Key achievements include pioneering work on 3D face animation from speech and garment reconstruction from single images.

Janine JohnsonView profile

Professor

• Diverse Learners in Nursing Education
• Evidence-Based Nursing Practice
• Women's Health Issues
• +3 more

Dr. Janine Johnson is a Professor in the Undergraduate Nursing Department at Clarkson College, where she has been since 2012. She teaches in the traditional BSN and RN to BSN programs, as well as the Community Health Program. Her roles include dissertation chair duties in the Healthcare Education and Leadership program. Dr. Johnson holds degrees of Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) and MSN (Master of Science in Nursing), and is a registered nurse (RN). Her research focuses on addressing barriers faced by racially and ethnically diverse nursing students, promoting evidence-based practice, and women's health issues. She has developed educational resources including digital curricula, concept maps, and lesson plans for platforms like ATI EHR Tutor and ATI Engage Fundamentals. Her work emphasizes inclusive education strategies and faculty development. Dr. Johnson has received multiple teaching and scholarship awards, including the Sigma Theta Tau Rising Star recognition and nominations for the Apple Award and Teaching Excellence. She actively contributes to professional development through presentations at national conferences such as Sigma Theta Tau and Elsevier events. Key Roles: Dissertation Committee Member, Course Instructor (NRS 352, NRS 475, CHL 364, etc.) Professional Memberships: Sigma Theta Tau International, National Society of Leadership and Success

Helen QuirkView profile

Research Fellow

• Physical Activity Promotion
• Health Inequalities
• Community-Based Physical Activity Initiatives
• +4 more

Helen Quirk is a Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) as a Post-Doctoral Launching Fellow from April 2020 to August 2023. Her work focuses on understanding and promoting physical activity while addressing health inequalities, particularly among vulnerable populations. Her research interests center on physical activity promotion, health inequalities, community-based physical activity initiatives, mental health and physical activity connections, and qualitative research methods. She has developed expertise in understanding the barriers and benefits of physical activity, especially for populations facing significant challenges to maintaining active lifestyles. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on community-based physical activity initiatives, particularly parkrun, as a vehicle for addressing health inequalities. Her work examines how these initiatives impact mental wellbeing, social inclusion, and physical health outcomes, with special attention to underrepresented groups including people with mental health conditions and those living in socioeconomically deprived areas. Scientific Awards: NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) Post Doctoral Launching Fellowship (2020-2023) Helen's research is characterized by strong partnerships with community organizations like parkrun, allowing for real-world application of findings. She has been involved in numerous large-scale surveys and qualitative studies that have informed both academic understanding and practical implementation of physical activity initiatives. Her approach emphasizes understanding people's lived experiences through qualitative methods while also engaging with quantitative data to capture broader trends. Her work extends beyond traditional academic outputs, with active engagement in knowledge mobilization through blogs, webinars, and community presentations. She serves as Vice Chair of the parkrun Research Board, demonstrating her commitment to bridging research and practice in community physical activity initiatives.

Duncan AstleView profile

Professor

• Developmental cognitive neuroscience
• Brain connectivity and network organization
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• +5 more

Duncan Astle is the Gnodde Goldman Sachs Professor of Neuroinformatics at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. He serves as a Programme Leader at the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBU) and is a Fellow of Robinson College. Astle heads the 4D Lab (Development, Dynamics, Disorders, Data Science), which provides a research home for approximately 15 Early Career Researchers working at the intersection of developmental cognitive neuroscience and advanced data science methodologies. Astle's research focuses on understanding childhood development through innovative analytical approaches. His work employs transdiagnostic methods to study children with attention, learning, and memory difficulties, moving beyond traditional diagnostic categories. He investigates how neural systems develop in childhood, how they relate to developmental disorders, and how they respond to intervention. His research integrates network science, machine learning, and generative modeling to capture the complexity of neurodevelopmental diversity, examining how cognitive skills, literacy, numeracy, and mental health interrelate over developmental time. His publication record reveals a strong focus on brain connectivity and organization across development. Recent work explores structural and functional neurodevelopmental trajectories, brain wiring economics, and the impact of environmental factors on neural development. Astle's research frequently employs advanced data science techniques to identify sub-populations of children with different cognitive or brain profiles, regardless of diagnosis, and to map non-linear relationships between brain organization and cognitive difficulties. His work has increasingly focused on transdiagnostic approaches to understanding developmental disorders and the application of computational models to developmental neuroscience. Astle actively supervises PhD students and has built a substantial research group that contributes to major projects including the Centre for Attention Learning and Memory (CALM) and Resilience in Education and Development (RED). His work has been supported by prestigious funding bodies including the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Medical Research Council, and the Economic and Social Research Council, as well as multiple charitable foundations. The 4D Lab, under Astle's leadership, utilizes state-of-the-art facilities at the University of Cambridge, including on-site magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography scanners. The lab contributes to building specialist cohorts such as CALM (800 children with cognitive difficulties plus 200 comparison children) and RED, which study children's development, resilience, and educational outcomes. Astle's team explores how growing up in adverse environments affects children's brains, behavior, and mental health, with the aim of identifying early markers of risk and resilience.

Jinjin GuView profile

Assistant Professor

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Vision
• +7 more

Jinjin Gu is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" 's INSAIT (Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Technology), leading research on visual cognition and intelligence. Her work spans visual perception, processing, generation, and reasoning. Education: Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2024), University of Sydney B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering (2020), Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Her research focuses on visual cognition , including agentic systems , diffusion models , GAN architectures , model interpretability , super-resolution , and multimodal vision-language systems . She has developed novel paradigms like HYPIR for diffusion-quality restoration at GAN speeds. Recent publications highlight advancements in image/video restoration , generative modeling , and visual reasoning . Her work addresses critical challenges in model generalization , causal interpretation , and real-world application robustness . Scientific Awards: Stanford University's World's Top 2% Scientists (2024) Yunfan Award at World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) (2023) She has advised students contributing to TPAMI, CVPR, and ICLR publications, and serves as Area Chair for ICLR 2026, NeurIPS 2025, and ICML 2025.

Karen PanettaView profile

Professor

• Signal Processing
• Image Processing
• Simulation Modeling
• +6 more

Karen Panetta is a Professor at Tufts University School of Engineering with appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Academic Services. She currently serves as Dean of Graduate Education for the School of Engineering and holds the title of Distinguished Professor. Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Northeastern University M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Northeastern University B.S. in Computer Engineering, Boston University Dr. Panetta's research focuses on developing efficient algorithms for simulation, modeling, and signal and image processing for security and biomedical applications. Her work brings together artificial intelligence, machine learning, and visual sensing systems to create solutions for robot vision and biomedical imaging. She develops algorithms inspired by the human visual system to enable machines to 'see' like humans, with applications in homeland security, biomedicine, facial recognition, and search and rescue operations. Her research has significant humanitarian applications, addressing global challenges facing women and children. Dr. Panetta has received numerous prestigious awards including induction into the National Academy of Engineering (2023), the Presidential Award for Science and Engineering Education and Mentoring (2011), and the IEEE Award for Distinguished Ethical Practices (2013). She is a fellow of multiple prestigious academies including the National Academy of Inventors, European Academy of Sciences and the Arts, and IEEE. Member, National Academy of Engineering (2023) Presidential Award for Science and Engineering Education and Mentoring (2011) IEEE Award for Distinguished Ethical Practices (2013) Fellow, National Academy of Inventors Fellow, European Academy of Sciences and the Arts Fellow, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association As an educator and mentor, Dr. Panetta founded the nationally acclaimed Nerd Girls program to promote engineering to young students, particularly women. She previously served as worldwide director for IEEE Women in Engineering and editor-in-chief of the IEEE Women in Engineering magazine. Her approach to graduate education emphasizes the importance of building strong collaborative relationships between faculty and students, with a focus on proactive communication and documentation of research progress. Dr. Panetta's humanitarian research applies engineering solutions to global challenges, including developing technology to help doctors find cancerous tumors, security screeners find concealed weapons, and law enforcement agencies find criminals and missing children. Her work demonstrates a commitment to 'Doing The Right Thing' by addressing issues affecting populations with limited resources or 'voice' in society.

• Nursing
• Mental Health
• Occupational Health
• +4 more

Aida Maria de Oliveira Cruz Mendes is a distinguished academic and researcher at the Coimbra School of Nursing, where she has maintained a continuous appointment since 1987. With over three decades of academic service, she has established herself as a leading expert in nursing science with particular specialization in mental health, occupational health, and sleep quality among healthcare professionals. She currently serves on the Scientific Council for Life and Health Sciences at the Foundation for Science and Technology, demonstrating her significant contribution to Portuguese scientific policy. Education background: PhD from University of Minho (1996-2000) Master's in Occupational Health and Hygiene from University of Coimbra Medical School (1992-1995) License in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing (1990-1991) Bachelor's degree in Nursing (1977-1980) Multiple specialized certifications in psycho-oncology, cognitive therapy, and qualitative research Dr. Mendes' research program demonstrates remarkable consistency in addressing critical issues in nursing practice and healthcare delivery. Her work spans mental health services evaluation, occupational health challenges faced by nursing staff, sleep quality determinants in healthcare settings, and innovative programs for healthy aging and retirement transition. She has developed expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, with numerous systematic reviews and intervention studies to her credit. Her research bridges clinical practice with health promotion initiatives, creating tangible impacts on nursing education and healthcare policy. Analysis of her recent publication trajectory reveals a sophisticated evolution in research focus. While maintaining consistent attention to nursing staff wellbeing (particularly regarding sleep quality and stress biomarkers), she has expanded into developing and evaluating health promotion programs, most notably the REATIVA program for retirement transition. Her work increasingly incorporates international collaborations and demonstrates methodological sophistication, with publications appearing in multiple languages (Portuguese, English, and Spanish) across diverse healthcare contexts. Research funding highlights: Active Retirement: study of a healthy ageing promotor program (2013-2015) funded by Foundation for Science and Technology Mental Health Education and Sensibilization: A School-based Intervention Program for Adolescents and Young (2011-2014) funded by Foundation for Science and Technology Dr. Mendes has supervised numerous graduate students and collaborated extensively with international research teams, particularly in European nursing education contexts. Her work on nurse professional competence assessment among newly graduated nurses demonstrates her commitment to advancing nursing education standards. She maintains active research partnerships with institutions across Portugal and internationally, contributing to both clinical practice improvements and healthcare policy development.

Marco PedersoliView profile

Assistant Professor

• Computer Vision
• Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• +4 more

Marco Pedersoli serves as an Assistant Professor at École de technologie supérieure (ETS) in Montreal since February 2017, where he leads research in computer vision and machine learning. His work focuses on reducing computational costs and annotation requirements for deploying vision algorithms on embedded devices, positioning ETS at the forefront of Montreal's AI ecosystem. His academic journey includes: Ph.D. from Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) under Jordi Gonzàlez and Juan José Villanueva Post-doctoral research at INRIA Grenoble with Cordelia Schmid and Jakob Verbeek (2015-2016) Research at KU Leuven with Tinne Tuytelaars (2012-2015) Dr. Pedersoli's research tackles deep learning bottlenecks through weakly-supervised methodologies and computational efficiency innovations . His three core projects address: Reduced Supervision : Developing weakly/semi-supervised learning for images, video, audio and text Exploration Learning : Optimizing data selection in unstructured environments Efficient Computation : Accelerating deep learning training and inference These efforts enable vision algorithms to run on resource-constrained portable devices. Publication trends (2014-2022) reveal consistent focus on weak supervision (60% of works) and computational efficiency (30%), with recent expansion into medical imaging and multimodal emotion recognition. Key venues include CVPR, ICCV, NeurIPS and ECCV. His accolades include: Best Paper Award at ICIAR 2019 NVIDIA Titan X Pascal hardware donation Dr. Pedersoli actively mentors 18 graduate students across PhD and MSc programs, with notable placements at Huawei and Radio Canada. His lab secures competitive tax-free funding for projects with international collaborations, including Element AI and European institutions. Current openings emphasize Python/C++ proficiency and deep learning expertise. He leads a dynamic research group at ETS developing open-source tools for Roi-Pooling, weakly-supervised detection, and 3D object recognition, maintaining active GitHub repositories with community contributions. Recent WACV 2023 acceptances demonstrate ongoing productivity following medical leave.

Kim Eun-kyungView profile

Professor

• Population-based patient care research
• Drug safety and patient empowerment
• Access to care and medications in underserved and special populations
• +2 more

Professor Kim Eun-kyung is a full-time Professor at the College of Pharmacy , Seoul National University , South Korea. She directs patient-oriented research at the intersection of pharmacy, public health and clinical epidemiology, leading projects that range from nationwide pharmaco-epidemiologic cohort analyses to qualitative investigations of pharmacist-led care models. Education Ph.D. & Pharm.D., University of Florida, USA Research Interests Professor Kim’s research program is built on five mutually reinforcing pillars: Population-based patient care research – leveraging large national databases to understand medication utilization and outcomes in real-world settings. Drug safety and patient empowerment – identifying adverse drug reactions and developing interventions that enable consumers and clinicians to report and prevent harm. Access to care and medications in underserved and special populations – examining barriers faced by the elderly, rural residents, patients with rare diseases, and those undergoing high-cost procedures such as hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation. Disease prevention and appropriateness of therapy – evaluating preventive pharmacotherapy (e.g., anti-osteoporosis drugs, vitamin D) and ensuring evidence-based prescribing. Quality improvement in health-care delivery – designing multidisciplinary models that integrate pharmacists into care teams to optimize medication therapy and reduce drug-related problems. Publication Trends Across 2017–2020, Professor Kim has published extensively in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , Clinical Nutrition , Medicina , BMC Public Health , Blood Research , Neuroepidemiology and other peer-reviewed journals. Her work characteristically combines rigorous secondary-data analyses of Korean or US national health surveys with systematic reviews/meta-analyses focusing on drug safety endpoints. Themes include neurological adverse events (trimetazidine-induced parkinsonism), hematologic toxicities (linezolid-induced thrombocytopenia), nutritional and metabolic complications in critical care, and access/utilization of medications in vulnerable populations. Scientific Awards & Honors (None listed in the provided texts) Grants & Research Support While specific grant identifiers are not detailed in the supplied pages, the breadth of large-scale database studies and multi-institutional collaborative projects implies sustained funding from national agencies such as the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) or the Ministry of Health & Welfare. Laboratory & Team Professor Kim leads an active research group located in Yeongeon Campus 17-201. The team integrates graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, pharmacists and biostatisticians working together on pharmacoepidemiology, patient-reported outcomes and health-services research.

• Antibiotic Resistance
• Micropollutants
• Pyrolysis
• +7 more

Dr. Patrick J. McNamara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at Marquette University's College of Engineering. He directs the McNamara Research Group, which focuses on understanding how chemicals from consumer products impact public health and the environment once they pass through water treatment systems. His research bridges environmental engineering and microbiology to address critical water quality challenges facing modern infrastructure. Dr. McNamara's educational background includes: Ph.D., 2012, Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities M.S., 2008, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, University of Texas at Austin B.S., 2006, Civil Engineering (Minor - Spanish for the Business Professions), Marquette University His research program investigates how consumer product chemicals impact engineering treatment processes that rely on healthy bacteria to treat water. The McNamara Research Group develops non-traditional treatment processes to remove these chemicals from water and mitigate their environmental effects. His work spans antibiotic resistance in water systems, micropollutant removal technologies, pyrolysis of biosolids, PFAS contamination, and electrochemical treatment processes. Specific areas include the impact of corrosion inhibitors on antibiotic resistance, removal of chemicals via drinking water treatment, environmental antibiotic resistant bacteria, beneficial biosolids reuse, and pyrolysis applications. Dr. McNamara's publication record demonstrates a strong focus on emerging water quality challenges, particularly the intersection of chemical contaminants and antibiotic resistance. His recent work examines corrosion inhibitors' impact on antibiotic resistance in drinking water, PFAS mitigation through advanced treatment processes, and environmental drivers of antibiotic resistance in stormwater systems. His research combines fundamental microbiology with practical engineering solutions to address complex water quality issues. Dr. McNamara has received numerous honors and awards: 2022 OCOE Outstanding Researcher Award from Marquette University Marquette University's Campus 2020 KEEN Rising Star Faculty Scholar Award from Provost Office (2019) Central States Water Environment Association Bill Boyle Outstanding Educator Award (2018) Way Klingler Young Scholar Award (Marquette University, 2018) Excellence in Review Award – Environmental Science & Technology (2017) Dr. McNamara has secured significant research funding as Principal Investigator on multiple projects, including NSF grants focused on mitigating antibiotic resistance in drinking water and studying the environmental impacts of quaternary ammonium compounds. His current research portfolio includes projects on PFAS removal through novel electrocoagulation-peroxidation processes, designing green stormwater infrastructure to combat antibiotic resistance, and removing contaminants from greywater using electrocoagulation technology in collaboration with industry partners like Kohler Company. The McNamara Research Group at Marquette University maintains strong collaborations with researchers across multiple institutions and works closely with water utilities and industry partners to translate research findings into practical solutions for water treatment challenges. Their work addresses critical infrastructure needs while protecting environmental and public health through innovative engineering approaches.

Matthew LassiterView profile

Professor

• political history
• urban/suburban studies
• racial and social inequality
• +1 more

Matthew Lassiter is the Louis Evans Professor of History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. Affiliated with Urban Planning and American Culture, he specializes in twentieth-century U.S. political history, urban/suburban studies, racial inequality, and policing/carcereral state history. His recent works include The Suburban Crisis (2023) and Detroit Under Fire (2021). He co-directs the Carceral State Project and leads the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab, engaging student researchers in public history initiatives. Lassiter holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (1999) and edits the “Politics and Culture in Modern America” series for University of Pennsylvania Press. Education: Ph.D., University of Virginia, 1999 Research Focus: Explores suburban political dynamics, drug policy, racial justice, and carceral systems through interdisciplinary projects. Recent publications analyze postwar urban development, police violence, and the War on Drugs’s sociopolitical impacts. Awards & Grants: Not explicitly listed, but his endowed chairs and project leadership indicate significant recognition. Collaborative initiatives like the HistoryLab highlight his commitment to public engagement and student mentorship. Labs/Teams: Leads the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab, fostering collaborations between academic research and public-facing projects on social justice issues.

• Environmental Psychology
• Nature Connection/Disconnection
• Behavior Change
• +4 more

Shannon Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University, concurrently affiliated with the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry. She serves as Director of Clinical Training and Co-Director of the Dalhousie Centre for Psychological Health, which provides mental health services to underserved populations while training clinical psychology students. Dr. Johnson holds a BA from Kalamazoo College, MSc and PhD from the University of Victoria, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship from Indiana University. Her research focuses on enhancing well-being through nature connection interventions, understanding resilience mechanisms in pediatric populations, and improving diagnostic practices for neurodevelopmental disorders. She investigates the physical and cognitive benefits of nature exposure, barriers to nature connection, and behavioral change strategies. Her work bridges clinical and environmental psychology, with recent studies examining nature-based interventions for stress reduction, pain adaptation in youth with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and moral foundations in autistic children. She has pioneered the concept of Indoor Nature Exposure (INE) as a health-promotion framework. Dr. Johnson’s lab collaborates with healthcare providers to develop scalable mental health interventions, particularly for underserved communities. Her training programs emphasize evidence-based practices and culturally responsive care. Key contributions include validating the role of nature in cognitive restoration and challenging clinical biases in autism assessment.

• Natural Language Processing
• Computational Linguistics
• Machine Learning
• +7 more

Barbara Plank is a full professor and chair for AI and Computational Linguistics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), where she heads the Munich AI and NLP (MaiNLP) lab and co-directs the Center for Information and Language Processing (CIS). She additionally serves as a visiting full professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, maintaining active dual institutional affiliations in computational linguistics and NLP research. Her research focuses on human-centric natural language processing challenges, particularly learning under sample selection bias (domain adaptation, transfer learning) and annotation bias, learning with limited data through continual/semi-supervised/weakly-supervised methods, multimodal learning at language-vision-speech interfaces, and fortuitous supervision for variety-space aware language understanding. She pioneers methodologies addressing human label variation as a critical factor in model robustness rather than mere noise. Recent publications (2024-2025) reveal dominant trends in modeling human label variation across NLP tasks, especially natural language inference and entity recognition, alongside dialectal language processing and LLM evaluation frameworks. Her work systematically investigates how human disagreement in annotations can be leveraged to build more robust, adaptable systems rather than treated as errors. Scientific recognition includes: ERC Consolidator Grant for the DIALECT project advancing natural language understanding for non-standard languages and dialects ACL 2024 Area Chair Award for the paper 'VariErr NLI: Separating Annotation Error from Human Label Variation' Leading the MaiNLP lab at CIS (LMU), she directs research integrated with MCML (Munich Center for Machine Learning), Munich Intelligent Robotics, ELLIS Unit Munich, UniDive, and COST action. Current projects include ERC-funded DIALECT and KLIMA-MEMES, focusing on human-facing NLP solutions for real-world language diversity challenges. She actively shapes the field through ACL leadership as VP-Elect and numerous keynotes emphasizing human-centric approaches. The MaiNLP lab at Akademiestr. 7, 80799 Munich, drives innovation in computational linguistics through interdisciplinary collaboration, maintaining strong ties with European research networks while developing practical applications for language variation and robust NLP systems. The lab's work directly informs her teaching in LMU's Computational Linguistics programs, bridging research and education in cutting-edge NLP methodologies.