Alan Sutherland is a Professor of Economics at the University of St Andrews' Business School. He specializes in international macroeconomics, monetary economics, and financial market integration. His research focuses on the macroeconomic implications of exchange rate policies, monetary policy regimes, and cross-country financial linkages. He leads projects funded by the Economic & Social Research Council, including 'The Macroeconomics of Financial Globalisation' (2011-2015) and 'Monetary Policy Welfare and International Financial Markets' (2006-2007). Research Interests: International macroeconomic policy design Exchange rate determination Financial market integration effects Numerical methods for macroeconomic modeling His recent work emphasizes the role of international financial flows in transmitting economic shocks between countries. He has developed influential solution methods for analyzing multi-country general equilibrium models. Key contributions include frameworks for understanding optimal monetary policy under incomplete financial markets and asymmetric information conditions. Scientific Recognition: 2013 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Recipient of 2 ESRC-funded research grants
Frédéric Robert-Nicoud is Full Professor of Political Economy at the Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM) , University of Geneva. He has held academic positions at HEC Lausanne and the London School of Economics (LSE), with visiting roles at CEMFI, CERAS, CORE, Princeton, and other institutions. His research focuses on Economic Geography, Urban Economics, and International Trade , with significant contributions to agglomeration theory, trade liberalization, and spatial sorting. Education: PhD in Economics, London School of Economics (2002) Master's in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (Summa Cum Laude, 1999) Master's in International Relations (HEID, 1996) Bachelor's in Economics (University of Geneva, 1994) His research interests explore the interplay between trade liberalization, urban inequality, tech clusters, and labor market dynamics. Recent work analyzes climate change's geographic implications and structural transformation in cities. He has developed frameworks for understanding highway impacts on spatial sorting, agglomeration effects, and trade's role in unemployment. Key scientific awards include: CEPR Fellow Affiliated with Spatial Economic Research Centre (SERC) Former Editor of Journal of Economic Geography (6 years) Former Associate Editor of Review of International Economics (4 years) Member of Conseil scientifique des économistes His grants and fellowships span NBER, CEPR, and SERC affiliations. He has presented at major conferences including the Urban Economics Association Annual Meetings, European Economic Association Congress, and World Trade Institute seminars.
Huy T Tran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's College of Engineering, with additional appointments at the Applied Research Institute. His research focuses on the intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems, with applications spanning autonomous navigation, critical infrastructure resilience, and intelligent transportation. Dr. Tran earned his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015, following advanced degrees from Georgia Tech and University of Wisconsin-Madison. His academic journey includes research assistant professor positions before achieving his current assistant professor role in 2021. He previously worked as a Senior Multi-Disciplinary Systems Engineer at The MITRE Corporation and served as a Visiting Scholar at the Air Force Institute of Technology. His research interests encompass Autonomy, Reinforcement Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Multiagent Systems, Intelligent Transportation Systems, and Critical Infrastructure Resilience. As director of the Lab for Intelligent Robots and Agents (LIRA), he leads cutting-edge research in autonomous systems that interact with humans and other robots. His work has evolved from foundational resilience modeling in aerospace systems toward increasingly sophisticated AI applications in multi-robot coordination and explainable decision-making. Dr. Tran's publication record demonstrates a clear trajectory toward explainable AI and human-AI collaboration, with recent work focusing on generating explanations for reinforcement learning policies, coordination in ad hoc teams, and neuro-symbolic approaches to robot policy interpretation. His research bridges theoretical advances with practical applications in air traffic control, field robotics, and critical infrastructure management. Best Paper Award: Theoretical (2016 Complex Adaptive Systems Conference) Selected for oral presentation at IROS 2023 Workshop 27% full paper acceptance rate at AAMAS 2022 44% acceptance rate at ICRA 2020 As an educator, Dr. Tran teaches core aerospace courses including Computational Systems Engineering, Aerospace Numerical Methods, and Reinforcement Learning. He has secured significant research funding from NASA's Transformational Tools and Technologies program, ARL A2I2 program, ONR Science of AI program, and DARPA. His current projects span ad hoc teaming in multi-robot systems, collective autonomous air mobility, hierarchical reinforcement learning, and interpretable AI agents.
Elena Asparouhova is a Professor of Finance at the David Eccles School of Business , University of Utah. She holds a doctorate in Social Sciences from the California Institute of Technology and a Masters in Statistics from Sofia University , Bulgaria. Her research focuses on theoretical and experimental financial economics , including asset pricing theory , experimental finance , general equilibrium theory , and econometrics . Recent work examines financial market competition under delegation , information percolation in dark markets , and human-robot interaction in trading . Best Paper Award, Journal of Financial Markets (2025) Best Paper Award, Review of Finance (2024) Best Paper, Behavioral Finance and Capital Markets Conference, Australia (2025) Continuous National Science Foundation funding for 10+ years Contact: e.asparouhova@utah.edu , University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112.
Seung Joo Lee is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley and prior degrees in Physics and Economics from Seoul National University. His research focuses on monetary economics, macro-finance, and behavioral finance, addressing topics like unconventional monetary policies, financial stability, and wage-price dynamics. He also explores contract theory and policy design in risk management contexts. Education: Ph.D. in Economics, UC Berkeley (2022) MA in Economics, Seoul National University BS in Physics, Seoul National University Research Interests: Monetary Policy: Stabilization frameworks, unconventional tools Behavioral Finance: Crisis dynamics, optimism biases Contract Theory: Risk-management incentives, mathematical models His recent work includes studies on net-worth traps in financial crises and optimal communication strategies in banking supervision. Teaching: Financial Economics (MPhil/DPhil) Empirical Finance (DPhil) MBA Macroeconomics He also serves as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University's Bendheim Center.
Andreas Malikopoulos is a Professor at Cornell University's School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director of the Information and Decision Science Lab (IDS Lab). Previously, he held roles as the Terri Connor Kelly and John Kelly Career Development Professor at the University of Delaware (UD) and founding Director of UD's Sociotechnical Systems Center. He also served as the Alvin M. Weinberg Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Deputy Director of ORNL's Urban Dynamics Institute, and Senior Researcher at General Motors R&D. His research focuses on cyber-physical systems (CPS), stochastic control, and learning-driven approaches for optimizing energy efficiency and sustainable mobility in smart cities and transportation systems. Education: PhD (Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2008), M.S. (Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2004), Diploma (National Technical University of Athens, 2000). Research Interests: Analysis and control of CPS, stochastic scheduling, game theory, and mechanism design applied to emerging mobility systems (e.g., autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles). He emphasizes integrating learning and control for socially optimal solutions in transportation networks. Awards: IEEE ITS Young Researcher Award (2019), UD’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2020), Alvin M. Weinberg Fellowship (2010), and recognition as a NAS Kavli Frontiers of Science Scholar (2012). He is an IEEE Senior Member, ASME Fellow, and serves on editorial boards of leading journals. Teaching: Focuses on optimal decision-making, control theory, and emerging mobility systems. Courses include stochastic optimal control and game theory at Cornell. Labs: Leads the IDS Lab, which develops scalable frameworks for CPS and smart city applications. Current projects include coordinated routing for mixed-traffic systems and AI-driven recommendations for autonomous vehicles.
Matthias Ihme is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Photon Science Directorate at Stanford University. His research focuses on large-eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent reacting flows, aeroacoustics, combustion-generated noise, numerical methods, and high-order schemes. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University (2008), an M.Sc. in Computational Engineering from the University of Erlangen (Germany, 2002), and a Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering from Munich University of Applied Sciences (Germany, 2000). His work bridges computational fluid dynamics, combustion science, and photon science, with notable contributions to supercritical fluid dynamics, machine learning integration in fluid simulations, and high-fidelity atmospheric transport modeling. Recent research emphasizes ultrafast cluster dynamics, shock-induced interface behavior, and stochastic ignition mechanisms in advanced fuel systems. Publications highlight interdisciplinary advancements, including physics-informed ML frameworks for reacting flows and experimental studies using X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. His projects often involve high-performance computing and collaboration with national labs like SLAC.
Vikram Deshpande is a Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he has been employed since 2010. He also maintains significant international connections, having served as a Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven (2009-2017) and previously holding positions at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Brown University. His research spans multiple disciplines within solid mechanics and materials science, focusing on fundamental mechanisms that govern material behavior across different scales. His research interests encompass Mechanobiology , where he explores cellular organization mechanisms; Solid mechanics with applications to impact and failure; Data-driven mechanics approaches; Microarchitectured solids including mechanical metamaterials; Fluid-structure interaction in impact scenarios; Chemo-mechanics of battery materials; and Dislocation mechanics for understanding material deformation. His work uniquely bridges fundamental physics with practical engineering applications, particularly in developing materials with tailored mechanical properties. The analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on mechanical metamaterials, cellular mechanics, and electro-chemo-mechanical phenomena in energy storage systems. His research demonstrates a consistent pattern of addressing fundamental scientific questions while maintaining strong connections to practical engineering applications, particularly in materials design, protective systems, and energy technologies. His publications frequently combine experimental approaches with sophisticated modeling techniques across multiple scales. 2024 Zdeněk P. Bažant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention 2023 Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering and International Member US National Academy of Engineering 2022 Warner T. Koiter Medal and William Prager Medal 2022 European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant 2021 Gili Agostinelli Prize and IIT Bombay Distinguished Alumnus Award 2020 Fellow, Royal Society of London and Rodney Hill Prize Professor Deshpande has served on numerous editorial boards including the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (current Associate Editor), Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, and Proceedings of the Royal Society A. He chairs the Royal Society Sectional Committee 4 and serves on the Advisory Board of the European Mechanics Society EUROMECH. His leadership extends to directing the International Conference on Fracture and chairing the EUROMECH Mechanics of Materials Conference committee. His research group at Cambridge, accessible through cambridgesolidmechanics.co.uk, focuses on developing fundamental understanding of material behavior to enable the design of next-generation engineering materials.
John Straub is a Professor of Chemistry at Boston University, affiliated with the Chemistry Department. His research focuses on theoretical and computational studies of protein dynamics, thermodynamics, and phase transitions in molecular systems. He leads efforts to develop advanced algorithms for simulating phase changes in complex systems, including work supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant (CH-1114676) to improve computational methods for phase transition modeling. His group has pioneered generalized simulated tempering and replica exchange algorithms, enabling more accurate simulations of phenomena like vapor-liquid phase changes and peptide aggregation. Dr. Straub also engages in science outreach through collaborations with the Pinhead Institute, supporting K-12 education programs and student internships. His research spans diverse topics such as cholesterol interactions in lipid membranes, amyloid fibril formation mechanisms, and the structural basis of protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. His computational methods have been applied to study membrane proteins, lipid rafts, and the role of environmental factors in protein behavior. Key contributions include modeling amyloid-β aggregation pathways and investigating the impact of membrane composition on protein stability.
Shu-Jung Sunny Yang is a Professor and Chair in Operations Management at the School for Business and Society, University of York. He has held faculty positions at institutions including the University of Melbourne, University of Essex, and National Taiwan University, alongside administrative roles such as department head and research centre director. He earned his PhD in Management from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales. His research focuses on Supply Chain Resilience, Sustainable Operations, and Data-Driven Operations, combining formal theory, data science, and operational research. Recent work includes modeling supply chain collaboration for medical mask distribution during disruptions and exploring altruistic venturing through community-based approaches. His book Building Resilience: Consistent Re-rationalisation in Digital Transformation and Business Inheritance won the 2022 Golden Book Award in Taiwan. Awards: 2022 Golden Book Award (Taiwan) 2004 Sasakawa Young Leader Fellow (Japan) 2019 Ta-Yu Wu Memorial Award (Taiwan) Yang leads the Human futures in the digital transformation interdisciplinary cluster. His teaching includes Operations Management and Supply Chain Management. He currently serves as a guest editor for Transportation Research Part E and holds editorial roles at Journal of General Management and Journal of Management and Systems . Research grants include the British Academy-funded project on Optimising Product Line Design in Professional Service Operations . He actively collaborates with industry and academia, emphasizing practical applications of operations strategy.
David A. Hammer is the J. Carlton Ward, Jr., Professor of Nuclear Energy Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University's College of Engineering. He has been a faculty member since 1977 and has held visiting positions at Imperial College London, Applied Materials, Inc., and the Paris Observatory. His work bridges nuclear engineering, plasma physics, and electromagnetics. His research focuses on high energy density plasmas generated by pulsed power systems, particularly through wire explosions, X-pinches, and gas-puff Z-pinches. Key areas include inertial confinement fusion, magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, and plasma diagnostics using visible and X-ray spectroscopy, laser-based methods, and electro-optical instruments. He also explores the application of X-pinch radiation for biomedical radiography. His recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on Z-pinch and hybrid X-pinch dynamics, plasma turbulence, magnetic field diagnostics using Faraday rotation and Zeeman splitting, and the development of advanced imaging and spectroscopic techniques. His work frequently involves the COBRA pulsed-power generator and addresses fundamental questions in plasma stability, implosion dynamics, and radiative collapse. Distinguished Career Award, Fusion Power Associates Board of Directors (2018) Cornell College of Engineering Teaching Award (2006, 1998) Cornell IEEE Professor of the Year Award (2006) McCormack Advising Award (2005) IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Committee Award (2004) Hammer has advised numerous graduate students and led experimental campaigns involving plasma diagnostics, liner implosions, and laboratory astrophysics. His work is supported by grants from agencies interested in fusion energy, plasma science, and advanced diagnostics. He has developed innovative platforms, including 3D-printed plasma loads, to study turbulent plasma jets and magnetization. His lab at Cornell is a key facility for high-energy-density plasma research. He leads a research group focused on plasma diagnostics and pulsed power experiments, operating the COBRA generator and developing novel measurement techniques. His team investigates plasma instabilities, magnetic field generation, and the transition from radial implosions to collimated jets, with implications for both fusion and astrophysics.
Andrea J. Liu is the Hepburn Professor of Physics and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, within the School of Arts & Sciences. She is based in the Department of Physics and conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of theoretical physics, soft matter, and biophysics. Her education includes a Ph.D. from Cornell University (1989) and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley (1984). Dr. Liu's research focuses on soft matter physics and biophysical self-assembly . She investigates the universal framework of jamming in disordered systems such as glass-forming liquids, foams, and granular materials. Her work explores how these systems develop yield stress or long relaxation times under varying conditions. On the biological side, she studies the mechanical reorganization of actin networks in the cytoskeleton during cell crawling, modeling polymerization, branching, crosslinking, and force generation at the leading edge of cells. Her research combines analytical theory and numerical simulations to uncover the dynamical principles governing morphology and mechanical properties in complex soft and biological materials. Scientific Awards: Hepburn Professor of Physics Dr. Liu leads an active research group focused on theoretical and computational modeling in soft condensed matter and biophysics. Although specific grants are not listed, her position and named professorship imply sustained funding and academic leadership. She advises graduate students and contributes to advanced research training in physics and interdisciplinary sciences. The research group maintains a website, though access to the '/liugroup/' directory is currently restricted (403 Forbidden). However, her curriculum vitae is publicly accessible, indicating ongoing scholarly activity.
Kyle Hanquist is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona, where he is also a member of the Graduate Faculty. He directs the Computational Hypersonics and Nonequilibrium Laboratory (CHANL), focusing on advanced simulation techniques for high-speed flows. His academic journey includes a PhD and MSE in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan and a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska. PhD, Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MSE, Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor BSE, Mechanical Engineering, University of Nebraska, Lincoln Dr. Hanquist's research centers on hypersonics, aerothermodynamics, and nonequilibrium flows , with strong emphasis on computational fluid dynamics , low-temperature plasmas , and thermal management systems . His work involves modeling complex physical phenomena such as electron transpiration cooling, plasma-assisted flow control, and high-temperature gas effects in reentry environments. He also investigates molecular gas dynamics and finite-rate chemistry in extreme conditions. His recent publications reveal a strong trend in computational modeling of hypersonic boundary layers , plasma sheaths , and shock-tube validation of thermochemical models . The interdisciplinary nature of his work spans aerospace engineering, plasma physics, and materials response under extreme thermal loads. Much of his research integrates multi-physics simulations to address fluid-thermal-structural interactions critical for next-generation hypersonic vehicles. Dr. Hanquist has received several scientific honors, including: 2020 AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Best Paper Award Editor's Choice, AIP Publishing - Physics of Fluids (Summer I 2020) Featured Article, AIP Publishing - Physics of Fluids (Summer I 2021) Frontiers in Physics – Plasma Physics (Spring 2020) As an advisor and lab director, he mentors graduate students in computational hypersonics and collaborates with institutions like NASA and the University of Michigan. His research is supported by grants from aerospace and defense agencies, though specific funding sources are not listed. He teaches courses in fluid mechanics, numerical methods, and nonequilibrium flows, contributing to both undergraduate and graduate education. He leads the Computational Hypersonics and Nonequilibrium Laboratory (CHANL) , which develops and applies high-fidelity simulation tools for hypersonic applications. The lab focuses on kinetic modeling, plasma interactions, and optimization of thermal protection systems, often using massively parallel CFD codes and multi-fidelity surrogate models.
Wouter Bos is a Research Director at CNRS working at the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics (LMFA) at École Centrale de Lyon, France. He leads research within the Turbulence & Instabilities team, focusing on fundamental aspects of fluid dynamics with applications spanning from plasma physics to epidemiology. His academic journey reflects a deep engagement with theoretical and computational fluid mechanics, particularly in turbulence phenomena. Dr. Bos's research interests center on fluid dynamics, with particular emphasis on turbulence in various contexts including two-dimensional flows, magnetohydrodynamics, plasma physics, and statistical mechanics of fluids. His work explores fundamental questions about energy transfer, coherent structures, and statistical properties of turbulent flows. He has made significant contributions to understanding turbulence without vortex stretching, two-dimensional turbulence, and the application of fluid dynamics principles to epidemiological modeling. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on theoretical and computational approaches to turbulence. His work spans from fundamental questions about equilibrium states in two-dimensional turbulence to practical applications in plasma confinement and epidemic modeling. The publications demonstrate consistent innovation in turbulence theory, with particular attention to statistical mechanics approaches, spectral analysis, and the development of reduced-order models for complex fluid phenomena. His research shows growing interdisciplinary connections, especially between fluid dynamics and epidemiology as evidenced by his work on modeling the spread of infectious diseases. Dr. Bos actively supervises doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers, with recent students including Tong Wu, Ryo Araki, Smiron Varghese, Wesley Agoua, and Bruce (Xi Yuan) Yin. He participates in collaborative research projects such as the ANR CM2E project (2021-2025) on Characteristic Mapping Method for the Euler Equations, working with researchers from Aix-Marseille University and McGill University. His laboratory work involves both theoretical analysis and computational simulations, with applications ranging from fundamental fluid mechanics to practical problems in energy research (particularly related to ITER and fusion plasma physics) and public health. The interdisciplinary nature of his research demonstrates the broad applicability of fluid dynamics principles across seemingly disparate scientific domains.
Romualdo Pastor-Satorras is an Associate Professor of Applied Physics at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) since 2006. He earned his PhD in Condensed Matter Physics from the Universitat de Barcelona in 1995, followed by postdoctoral research at MIT (1996–1998) and The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (1998–2000). His extensive international collaborations include visiting positions at Yale University, University of Notre Dame, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Helsinky University of Technology, Indiana University, and the ISI Foundation. Research Focus His interdisciplinary work spans statistical physics, network theory, and dynamical systems. Primary research areas include: Modeling epidemic spreading in complex networks Random walks and diffusion processes in temporal networks Social and biological applications of network science Glassy dynamics and energy landscapes His research combines mathematical rigor with data-driven approaches to address problems in public health, social dynamics, and complex system behavior. Publications Overview With over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Pastor-Satorras's work demonstrates consistent focus on network dynamics and epidemic modeling. Recent articles explore COVID-19 herd immunity thresholds (2020), echo chambers in political networks (2019), and non-Poissonian temporal networks (2019). His foundational 2015 review on epidemic processes in networks is highly influential. Publications frequently involve interdisciplinary collaborations across physics, data science, and computational biology. Awards and Distinctions Fellow of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya ICREA Academia Prize (awarded twice by the Government of Catalonia) Research Infrastructure He maintains active collaborations through visiting positions at leading global institutions. His work involves theoretical modeling and computational analysis, though specific laboratory details are unspecified in the provided text.
