Devi Parikh is an Associate Professor at the School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Research Director at Meta’s FAIR lab. Her research focuses on generative models, AI for creativity, computer vision, and natural language processing. Education: B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rowan University (2005), M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (2007, 2009). Research interests include embodied AI, human-AI collaboration, and creative applications of AI. She has held visiting positions at Cornell, MIT, CMU, and others. Awards include NSF CAREER Award, IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, and multiple fellowships. Led development of Habitat , a platform for embodied AI research, and contributed to the Open Catalyst Project for renewable energy storage.
C. Perry Chou is a full professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo, with a cross-appointment in Biology. He holds a BSc and MSc from National Taiwan University and a PhD from Rice University, all in Chemical Engineering. His research focuses on integrating biochemical, genetic, and metabolic engineering strategies to enhance biomanufacturing using microbial cell factories. Key areas include recombinant protein production, microbial biotechnology, and biofuel development. Education: PhD in Chemical Engineering, Rice University (1995) MSc in Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University (1987) BSc in Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University (1984) Research Interests: Dr. Chou’s work spans biochemical engineering, bioprocessing, and metabolic engineering. He develops strategies for microbial strain construction, fermentation optimization, and bioproduct purification. His research bridges fundamental biological sciences with applied engineering to advance biomanufacturing. Publications: His 90+ peer-reviewed articles highlight contributions to strain engineering, CRISPR-Cas9 tools, and microbial production of chemicals like 5-aminolevulinic acid and propionate. Recent trends emphasize nanomaterial applications (e.g., graphene oxide) and sustainable biofuel pathways. Awards: Canada Research Chair (Canada) 1000-talent Award (China) Advising & Grants: Dr. Chou actively mentors graduate students and contributes to editorial roles at journals like Biotechnology Advances and Scientific Reports . He teaches courses such as CHE 161 (Engineering Biology) and CHE 562 (Advanced Bioprocess Engineering). Labs/Teams: Collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to advance bioprocess development, though specific lab names are not explicitly mentioned in the text.
Bruno Currie is a Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Oxford and holds the position of Monro Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Oriel College. He specializes in early Greek poetry, particularly Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar, with a focus on interactions between ancient Near Eastern mythology and early Greek literature. His research also explores ancient Greek religion and its relationship with poetry, emphasizing intertextuality in epic and lyric traditions. Currie's academic background includes qualifications of MA and DPhil from Oxford. His recent publications analyze topics such as Homeric epic, textual interpretations of ancient works, and religious themes in classical texts. He is currently working on a book titled *Hesiod and Myth*. His work bridges literary analysis with historical context, contributing to understanding the cultural and mythological foundations of ancient Greek literature. He has collaborated on edited volumes like *Epic Interactions: Perspectives on Homer, Virgil, and the Epic Tradition* and authored influential books such as *Pindar and the Cult of Heroes* (2005) and *Homer’s Allusive Art* (2016). His research highlights interdisciplinary approaches to classical studies, blending philology, religion, and literary theory.
Professor Jacqueline Manuel is a Professor of English Education and Curriculum Coordinator for Secondary English at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She holds a PhD (UNE), DipEd (UNE), and BA (Hons I) from the University of New England. Her research focuses on secondary English education, curriculum history, teacher development, and teenage reading practices. She coordinates the English curriculum methodology for the Master of Teaching (Secondary) program and advises multiple PhD students. Current projects include co-editing volumes on English teacher development and leading international collaborations like the Professional Lives of English Language Arts Teachers Project. She has held significant roles in curriculum committees and boards, including chairing NSW Board of Studies committees and serving on AITSL panels. Key research interests span educational history, teacher professional identity, creativity in arts education, and early career teacher support. Notable publications include Reimagining Shakespeare Education (2023) and Teenagers and Reading (2012). Awards include the 2018 Alan Laughlin Award for Educational Leadership and 2016 Outstanding Service Award. Professor Manuel collaborates with institutions like the International Federation for the Teaching of English (IFTE) and chairs multiple editorial boards. Her work integrates international perspectives, emphasizing English as an emancipatory subject promoting social justice.
Dr. Iro Armeni is Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, leading the Gradient Spaces research group. Her interdisciplinary research bridges architecture, civil engineering, and computer vision to develop data-driven methods for sustainable and adaptive built environments. Professor Armeni's work focuses on creating gradient environments that blend physical and digital realities through mixed reality technologies. She develops computational methods for 3D scene understanding, generative design, and adaptive spaces that respond to human needs. Her research integrates AI with architectural design to improve sustainability, inclusivity, and reusability of built spaces. Current projects include 3D scene graph representations, automated BIM modeling from visual data, and neuro-symbolic approaches for design optimization. She has developed tools like HoloLabel (AR semantic labeling) and SemSpray (VR annotation) for construction information management. Professor Armeni holds a PhD from Stanford University, supported by a Google PhD Fellowship, and completed postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich with an ETH Fellowship. She teaches courses on Computer Vision for the Built Environment and Mixed Reality applications.
Aykut Erdem is an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at Koç University, affiliated with the KUIS AI Center. He earned his PhD, MSc, and BSc in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU), with visiting researcher experiences at Virginia Tech (2004) and MIT (2007). His research focuses on learning-based approaches for visual data understanding, including image editing, visual saliency estimation, and vision-language integration. Research Interests: Vision and Graphics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Generative Artificial Intelligence. Recent work includes text-guided image/video editing, diffusion models for object removal, and GAN-based frameworks for domain adaptation. Scientific Awards: Young Scientist Award (BAGEP 2021) by Science Academy in Computer Engineering Best Paper Award at 5th Multimodal Learning and Applications Workshop (2022) Collaborations and Funding: Principal investigator for TUBITAK 1001 project on generative AI for visual data (2021-2024), Adobe Research Gift (2023), and co-investigator for multiple TUBITAK grants. Serves as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (2022-present).
Prof. Dr. Teresa Sansour is a full Professor of Pedagogy and Didactics in Cases of Intellectual Development Impairments with Special Consideration of Inclusive Educational Processes at the Institute for Special and Rehabilitation Education, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. She joined the university in April 2020 and has held leadership roles including Vice Director for Teaching at the Center for Teacher Education (since October 2021) and Deputy Institute Director (since April 2025). Her academic affiliations reflect a deep commitment to inclusive and special education. Her research focuses on educational interactions in the context of intellectual disabilities, inclusive subject didactics, the participation of people with complex disabilities, and the professionalization of educators and prospective teachers. Key research areas include inclusive literacy, art education, teacher motivation, and social integration. She leads significant funded projects such as Literary Texts in Simple Language (LiES) and Lighthouses for Participation , both aimed at enhancing inclusion for people with disabilities. The recent publications of Prof. Sansour span topics such as school absenteeism in autism, self-concept in intellectual disabilities, inclusive art education, and participation models. Her work demonstrates a strong interdisciplinary and applied focus, combining qualitative methods with pedagogical innovation. She frequently publishes in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes on special education, inclusive didactics, and disability studies. Member, German Society for Educational Research (DGFE), Section Special Education Member, Network for Complex Disabilities e.V. Chair, Advisory Board of the Georg-Leffers-Stiftung Chair, Association for the Promotion of Pedagogical Rehabilitation and Social Integration of People in Risk Situations Board Member, German Interdisciplinary Society for Research Promotion for People with Intellectual Disabilities (DIFGB) Prof. Sansour actively contributes to academic leadership and teacher training. She serves as program coordinator for the Bachelor’s in Special Education and accreditation officer for the Special Education/Social Studies cluster. Her work includes advising on inclusive curricula, fostering research collaborations, and securing external funding for inclusive initiatives. She has not received explicitly mentioned scientific awards in the provided text. She is involved in multiple collaborative research teams and projects focused on inclusion, literacy, and disability rights.
Brita Wårvik is a Professor in the Department of Languages at Åbo Akademi University, affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities, Psychology and Theology. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Phil. Dr.) from the same institution, awarded in 2013, and has been actively contributing to linguistic research for decades. Doctor of Philosophy (Phil. Dr.), Åbo Akademi University, 2013 Her research centers on discourse analysis, pragmatics, and historical English linguistics, with a particular focus on Early Modern and Medieval English texts. She investigates discourse interaction, textual structures, and pragmatic conservatism in religious prose, often employing corpus-based and textual analysis methods. Her work bridges micro and macro perspectives in discourse, exploring how semantic units contribute to broader text worlds. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent trajectory in historical discourse studies, with increasing emphasis on corpus linguistics, manuscript variation, and the evolution of discourse markers. Her editorial work, such as the 2024 volume Structures in Discourse , highlights her leadership in synthesizing interdisciplinary perspectives on language use. Scientific Awards: Teacher of the Year (2001) ÅAU Student Union's Rose (2007) Brita Wårvik actively supervises and mentors academic visitors and collaborators, as seen in her hosting of scholars like Carmen Lee and Lieselotte Anderwald. She is the coordinator of the ongoing Project ICLE (International Corpus of Learner English) , securing research continuity and international collaboration. Her involvement in organizing workshops, such as the ICLE+30 FI-subcorpus Workshop in 2024, underscores her role in fostering academic exchange. In terms of research infrastructure, she is deeply embedded in the ICLE network, contributing to the development of learner language corpora. Her activities reflect strong international collaborations, particularly in the fields of historical linguistics and discourse studies, with a visible presence in both research and academic community-building.
Berrak Sisman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, affiliated with the Data Science and AI Institute and the Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP). She leads the Speech & Machine Learning Lab (SmILe Lab), focusing on AI-driven speech technologies. She received her PhD from the National University of Singapore in 2020 and was previously a tenure-track faculty member at the University of Texas at Dallas (2022–2024). Research Interests: Her work spans artificial intelligence, speech synthesis, voice conversion, emotion analysis in speech, medical speech applications, and secure speech technology. She develops neural models for expressive and adaptive speech processing. Publications: Her recent articles (2024–2025) emphasize speech emotion recognition, zero-shot prosody control, accent conversion, and disentangled representations in TTS, reflecting a focus on cross-modal learning, robustness, and real-world applications. Awards & Grants: NSF CAREER Award (2024) Amazon Faculty Research Award (2022) Singapore Ministry of Education Award (2021) A*STAR Singapore International Graduate Award (2016–2020) Leadership: She directs the SmILe Lab, recruiting PhD/Master’s students for projects in neural speech modeling. Her grants include NSF and Amazon funding for voice conversion and emotion synthesis research.
Maria Fernandez is an Associate Professor at Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and specializes in the history and theory of digital art, cybernetics, feminist media arts, and posthumanism. Ph.D., Columbia University Research Focus : Maria's work bridges cybernetics, feminist media arts, posthumanism, new materialism, BioArt, and AI in art. She investigates how women artists in new media contribute to posthumanist and new materialist discourses, with a current book project on British cybernetician Gordon Pask. Publications span digital art history, Latin American modernism, and feminist cybernetics. Her articles appear in Leonardo , Art Journal , and Third Text , with a focus on interactivity, media theory, and technological aesthetics. Scientific Awards : Arvey Book Award by the Association for Latin American Art (2015) She co-edited Domain Errors: Cyberfeminist Practices (2002) and Latin American Modernisms and Technology (2018). Her advising policy emphasizes formal departmental application reviews.
Erkut Erdem is a Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Hacettepe University, where he leads the Computer Vision Laboratory (HUCVL). His research focuses on computer vision and machine learning, particularly on incorporating different kinds of context (spatial, temporal and cross-modal) into visual processing across all levels from low to high-level vision. He received his Ph.D. (2008), M.Sc. (2003), and B.Sc. (2001) from Middle East Technical University. Prior to joining Hacettepe University in 2010, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (2009-2010) and held visiting researcher positions at UCLA (2007) and Virginia Tech (2004). His current research interests include Visual Saliency Prediction, Automatic Image Description, Video/Photoset Summarization, Image Filtering, and Image Editing. Recent work has focused on multimodal learning with video-language models, diffusion-based image editing, and event-based vision for low-light conditions. His research has been published in top venues including NeurIPS, ICLR, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and ACL. He has received significant recognition including The Young Researcher Award from Turkish Academy of Sciences and being named a 2022 Outstanding Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia. He has secured multiple research projects funded by TUBITAK and received gift funds from Adobe Research for text-guided image synthesis work. Current Teaching: BBM202: Algorithms, AIN434/BBM444: Fundamentals of Computational Photography Graduate Supervision: 6 current Ph.D. students, numerous recent graduates including Burak Ercan (2024) and Aysun Kocak (2023) Professional Affiliations: Co-affiliated with Koç University and İş Bank AI Center (KUIS AI)
Dr. Abby Mulay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), specializing in forensic psychology within the Community and Public Safety Psychiatry Division. She holds a PhD in clinical psychology from Long Island University and a Bachelor's in Jazz Voice Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Education: Bachelor's of Music in Jazz Voice Performance (Manhattan School of Music) PhD in Clinical Psychology (Long Island University) Her research focuses on forensic evaluation methodologies, including competency assessments and the clinical utility of the DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD). She co-edited a seminal text on the AMPD and serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Personality Disorders . Her clinical work includes treating personality disorders using integrative DBT/CBT approaches and supervising trainees in forensic psychology. Awards: SPA John E. Exner Scholar Award (recent recipient) Professional Roles: Representative-At-Large, Society of Personality Assessment (SPA) Board of Trustees Editorial Board Member for multiple personality and criminal justice journals She maintains a small outpatient psychotherapy practice and is actively involved in reptile care and yoga training (Baptiste style).
Stephen F. Teiser is the D.T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University. He holds the Old Dominion Research Professor title in the Humanities Council (2022-2023). His work focuses on Buddhist rituals, Chinese religious history, and the intersection of Indian and Chinese religious traditions. Teiser delivered lectures at Fudan University, shaping his research into broader scholarly discourse. His book Ritual and the Study of Buddhism (2022) explores Buddhist rituals in Chinese contexts, emphasizing cross-cultural and methodological insights. His research bridges medieval Chinese religious practices with modern academic frameworks, addressing topics like funerary rituals, lay communities, and textual interpretation. His academic contributions span Buddhist historiography, ritual studies, and East Asian religious history. Notable works include analyses of the Ghost Festival, Dunhuang liturgies, and comparative religious texts. Teiser’s interdisciplinary approach highlights the adaptation of Buddhism in Chinese culture and its global scholarly relevance. Awards: Old Dominion Research Professor (2022-2023) Teiser’s research also engages with collaborative international projects, such as co-editing volumes on divination and East Asian manuscripts. His work emphasizes the importance of language and cultural context in interpreting religious practices, making his scholarship foundational for understanding Buddhism’s evolution in China.
Alexei A. Efros is the Howard Friesen Professor in the EECS Department at UC Berkeley, affiliated with the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab. Previously, he spent a decade at CMU's Robotics Institute and held a postdoc at the University of Oxford under Andrew Zisserman. He collaborates with INRIA/École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His research focuses on self-supervised learning, generative models, and visual data mining, with applications to robotics, computational photography, and art. Education & Academic Roles: Postdoc at Oxford (with Andrew Zisserman), faculty at CMU (2005–2015), currently at UC Berkeley. Teaches courses like CS 180/280A (Computer Vision) and CS 280 (Graduate Computer Vision). Research Interests: Self-supervised learning, generative models (e.g., diffusion models, inpainting), visual commonsense, and cross-modal reasoning. His work bridges computer vision and graphics, emphasizing data-driven approaches. Recent projects include Visual Jenga, Diffusion Models as Data Mining Tools, and Prioritized Generative Replay. Grants & Labs: Leads the Efros Research Group, advised over 40 PhD students (e.g., Jun-Yan Zhu, Tinghui Zhou). Collaborates with institutions like INRIA and NVIDIA. Active in grants related to AI, vision, and robotics. Labs/Teams: BAIR Lab (UC Berkeley), former affiliations with CMU Robotics Institute and Willow Team (INRIA/ENS Paris). Current lab focuses on generative AI, 3D perception, and visual reasoning.
Pedro Neves is a Full Professor in the Department of Management and Organizations at Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), Universidade Nova de Lisboa. His academic background includes a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology/Organizational Behavior from ISCTE-IUL and post-doctoral research at the University of Delaware. He teaches courses in Organizational Behavior, Persuasion and Negotiation, and Entrepreneurship, and actively contributes to executive education programs. His research focuses on leadership processes , particularly the dark side of leadership , interpersonal relationships , organizational change management (especially resistance anticipation), occupational health (including stress perception), and entrepreneurial behavior . His work appears in leading journals such as the Journal of Applied Psychology , The Leadership Quarterly , and Human Resource Management . His recent publications show a consistent focus on leadership dynamics, organizational change, employee well-being, and ethical behavior, often using multi-level and cross-cultural frameworks. He has also edited key volumes such as the Handbook of Methods in Leadership Research and the Research Handbook on Destructive Leadership . He currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and is on the Editorial Board of The Leadership Quarterly and other journals, reflecting his scholarly impact. Pedro Neves has collaborated with doctoral students and researchers globally and has contributed to both theoretical and applied aspects of organizational behavior. He has not received explicitly mentioned scientific awards in the text, but his editorial roles and publication record indicate significant recognition in the field. He is involved in the Leadership for Impact Knowledge Center and contributes to open and customized executive education programs at Nova SBE.
