Prof. Farzad Saidi is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Bonn. He is affiliated with the Institute for Macroeconomics and Econometrics, ECONtribute, and the CRC TR 224 EPoS research centers. His work focuses on financial intermediation, monetary policy, corporate finance, and labor markets. He has contributed extensively to understanding bank behavior under negative interest rates, the effects of financial regulation, and the interplay between social preferences and economic outcomes during crises. Research highlights include analyzing strategic communication among banks, the impact of regulatory changes on insurance industries, and the role of social preferences in pandemic responses. His awards include the Jensen Prize for outstanding corporate finance research. Current projects explore credit supply dynamics, data-driven business cycles, and the macroeconomic implications of financial sanctions. Prof. Saidi's work spans theoretical and empirical domains, addressing topics such as banking structure, liquidity management, and the transmission of monetary policy. His affiliations with interdisciplinary centers reflect a commitment to collaborative, policy-relevant research.
Caterina Cruciani is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management , Venice School of Management , Ca' Foscari University of Venice. She serves as a member of the University Scientific Instrumentation Service Center (CSA) Management Committee and is affiliated with the Research Institute for Social Innovation . Research Interests Trust dynamics in financial advisory Behavioral finance and investor decision-making Sustainability disclosure and ESG integration Digital transformation in financial services Regional economic development and SME financing Agent-based modeling of cooperative behavior Key Article Trends (2009-2024): Span 15 years of research on financial trust (12 publications), behavioral economics (10), sustainability (6), and digital finance (5). Methodologically combines experimental economics , structural equation modeling , and Supervised Topic Modeling for ESG discourse analysis.
Fotios Petropoulos is a Professor at the University of Bath, holding the Management Chair in Management Science within the School of Management's Information, Decisions & Operations department. He also served as the Spyros Makridakis Chair in Forecasting at the University of Nicosia (2023–2023). His research focuses on time series forecasting, judgmental approaches, and integrating statistical and human judgment in decision-making processes. He has contributed to improving forecasting accuracy through temporal aggregation and hierarchical methods. Petropoulos holds a Doctor of Engineering (2012) and Bachelor of Engineering (2007) from the National Technical University of Athens. Editor of the International Journal of Forecasting (2020–present) Associate Editor of Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting (2015–2022) Director of the International Institute of Forecasters (2016–2018) His research interests emphasize forecasting processes, model selection, and the role of judgment in statistical models. Key areas include temporal aggregation, forecast reconciliation, and behavioral operations analytics. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, focusing on topics like computational cost optimization, probabilistic forecasting, and scalable reconciliation methods. His work contributes to Sustainable Development Goals related to education and innovation. Recent articles highlight advancements in univariate forecasting efficiency, forecast selection criteria, and dynamic reconciliation. Petropoulos is a member of the Smart Warehousing and Logistics Systems group and actively participates in editorial boards of leading forecasting journals. His academic and professional roles bridge theoretical research and practical applications in operational decision-making.
Professor Jagjit S. Chadha is a distinguished academic and policy adviser serving as Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Economics. He concurrently serves as Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) until December 2024, and holds advisory roles with the Bennett Institute of Public Policy and the Productivity Institute. His career spans academic appointments at the University of Kent and St Andrews, and professional roles including Chief Quantitative Economist at BNP Paribas and Specialist Adviser to the UK Treasury Committee. His research focuses on macroeconomics, monetary policy, fiscal frameworks, and historical business cycles. Notable contributions include analyses of quantitative easing impacts, debt management strategies, and long-term UK economic data. Chadha has authored A Century of High Frequency UK Macroeconomic Statistics and frequently publishes in journals like Journal of Economic Surveys and Economic History Review . He has received an OBE (2021) and Royal Economic Society Founding Fellowship (2025). His work bridges academia and policy, advising central banks, HM Treasury, and international institutions. Recent media engagements include commentary on UK fiscal rules, China-UK economic relations, and post-pandemic productivity challenges.
Prof. HU Jianfeng is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Baruch College, CUNY. His research focuses on asset pricing, capital markets, financial innovation, fintech, and quantitative finance. Notable contributions include studies on option trading's informational role, macro-news embargoes, and order flow volatility's impact on equity costs. Selected awards include the Lee Kong Chian Fellowship (2016-2017) and multiple best paper awards. He has secured research grants totaling over S$140k, including MOE Tier 1 funding for projects on order flow volatility and fiduciary duties. His work has appeared in top journals like the Journal of Financial Economics and Management Science. As a researcher and educator, HU advises students such as ZHONG Yiqiang. His research interests span strategic priorities like digital transformation and growth in Asia, reflecting Singapore's financial hub dynamics.
Karin Pfennig is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on understanding how behavior drives biodiversity, particularly through the evolution of mating behavior and its role in speciation, hybridization, and species distributions. She uses spadefoot toads as model organisms to study adaptive hybridization, behavioral plasticity, and the ecological consequences of species interactions. Her work combines field studies, laboratory experiments, and genetic analyses. Key research themes include the evolution of mate choice plasticity, the role of hybridization in range expansions, and the mechanisms underlying reproductive character displacement. Pfennig’s lab is located in Wilson Hall, and she actively mentors graduate students such as Catherine Chen, Patrick Kelly, and Gina Calabrese. Notable awards include winning the NSF’s 2026 Idea Machine competition for her proposal on community-driven carbon capture solutions. Her findings have been published in prestigious journals like *Science*, *Proceedings of the Royal Society B*, and *Journal of Heredity*. Pfennig’s research bridges ecology and evolution, addressing critical questions about biodiversity maintenance and adaptation in human-impacted environments. Her lab emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, integrating behavioral, ecological, and genetic perspectives to unravel complex evolutionary processes.
James E. Anderson serves as the William B. Neenan, S.J. Millennium Professor in the Department of Economics at Boston College. His research centers on international trade theory, with particular expertise in gravity models, trade policy analysis, and economic history. Anderson maintains an active research program with recent publications addressing contemporary trade challenges including the China shock and zero trade flows. His research interests focus on International Economics and Economic History , specializing in gravity model applications, trade policy diagnostics, and the interplay between institutions and trade patterns. Anderson's work bridges theoretical frameworks with empirical trade analysis, often developing novel methodologies for measuring trade restrictiveness and policy impacts. His influential 2003 paper "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle" (co-authored with Eric van Wincoop) revolutionized trade cost measurement. Anderson's publication trends reveal sustained contributions to trade theory since the 1990s, with recent work emphasizing non-parametric gravity approaches, export diversification dynamics, and institutional impacts on North-South trade. His research consistently addresses methodological challenges in trade modeling while providing policy-relevant insights for trade liberalization and agreement design. William B. Neenan, S.J. Millennium Professor (endowed chair) Anderson maintains an extensive research portfolio with over 30 working papers through Boston College's Economics Department. His work includes significant contributions to trade policy aggregation methods, tariff reform diagnostics, and the development of computable general equilibrium models for trade analysis. Anderson actively collaborates with leading economists including Yoto V. Yotov, J. Peter Neary, and Eric van Wincoop, and disseminates his research through RePEc, Google Scholar, and his personal website.
Tony Cookson is a Professor of Finance and the Michael A. Klump Endowed Professor at the Leeds School of Business , University of Colorado Boulder, where he has served since 2013. His research spans empirical finance , household and corporate financial decision-making , and the impact of social media and legal institutions on financial behavior. He has published in top journals like the Journal of Finance , Journal of Financial Economics , and Management Science , focusing on topics from investor disagreement to fracking-induced debt repayment . Education : Ph.D. in Economics (University of Chicago), M.S. in Statistics and Applied Economics (Montana State University), B.S. in Economics (Montana State University) His research interests include: How social media shapes investor sentiment and trading patterns The economic consequences of fracking and casino policy Legal institutions and their role in credit market development Behavioral finance through LLM-driven investor personas His scientific awards include the Best Paper in Investments and Asset Pricing (MFA 2023) , NASDAQ Best Paper in Asset Pricing (WFA 2021) , and Finalist for TIAA Paul A. Samuelson Award (2021) . He serves as Editor at the Review of Corporate Finance Studies and Associate Editor at multiple top journals.
Prof. Jörn Meissner, PhD, is a Full Professor of Supply Chain Management & Pricing Strategy at Kühne Logistics University (KLU) since 2011. He holds a PhD and Master’s in Management Science from Columbia Business School and a Diploma in Business from University of Hamburg . As an academic and entrepreneur, he founded Manhattan Review and Lancaster Executive . Education: PhD in Management Science, Columbia University (2005) Master of Philosophy, Columbia University (2005) Diplom-Kaufmann, University of Hamburg (1997) Research Expertise: Focus on stochastic and dynamic decision-making using mathematical optimization and machine learning Key projects: Global supply chain optimization , Inventory control , Revenue management , and Operations & service management Industry collaborations with British Telecom , British Airways , Apple Europe , and SAP Germany Publication Trends: Recent work addresses intermittent demand forecasting for spare parts, lateral transshipment optimization , and risk-sensitive capacity control Historical contributions include progressive interval heuristics for multi-item lot sizing and dynamic pricing with customer choice models Teaching Experience: Previously held academic positions at Lancaster University Management School , University of Hamburg , and University of Mannheim Developed MBA electives in Advanced Decision Models , Supply Chain Management, and Revenue Management
David Ardia is a Full Professor in the Department of Decision Sciences at HEC Montréal, promoted to this position on June 1, 2025. Previously, he served as an Associate Professor from June 2020 to May 2025. He holds the Research Professorship in Sentometry and is a member of the Study and Research Group on Decision Analysis (GERAD) and the International Statistical Institute. Ardia is also an elected member of the ISI Louis Bachelier Fellow and serves as Associate Editor for both the International Journal of Forecasting and the Journal of Statistical Software. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Financial Econometrics from the University of Fribourg, a Master of Applied Sciences in Quantitative Finance from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and University of Zurich, and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from the University of Neuchâtel. Ardia's research focuses on the intersection of quantitative finance, machine learning, and natural language processing, with particular emphasis on sentometrics (textual sentiment analysis in finance), risk management, and climate finance. His work spans financial econometrics, volatility modeling, and the application of advanced statistical methods to asset allocation and economic forecasting. He has pioneered methods for analyzing climate change concerns in financial markets and has made significant contributions to understanding green versus brown stock performance. His publication record shows a strong trajectory in high-impact finance and statistics journals, with recent work examining Robinhood trading patterns, cryptocurrency markets, climate finance, and innovative methodological approaches to financial time series analysis. His research demonstrates increasing focus on sustainability applications within quantitative finance. Prix de la qualité des données ouvertes 2024 (Canadian Open Data Community) Prix de recherche pour les professeures et professeurs agrégés (HEC Montréal, 2024) Prix pour l'excellence en pédagogie (HEC Montréal, 2022) Best Paper Award at the 38th International Conference of the French Finance Association Best Paper Award 2018-2019 from International Journal of Forecasting eRum 2020 COVID19 contest winner for the COVID-19 Data Hub Ardia actively supervises numerous graduate students, with over 70 mentorship activities documented in the past five years, spanning both thesis supervision and supervised projects. His research is supported by collaborations with institutions including IVADO, the R Consortium, and the University of Lugano. He co-created the influential COVID-19 Data Hub platform, which integrates epidemiological data with policy measures and spatial databases to analyze pandemic impacts. His research group focuses on developing computational tools for financial analysis, particularly through R packages like MSGARCH for Markov-switching GARCH models and sentometrics for textual sentiment analysis. This work bridges academic research with practical applications in financial institutions and policy analysis.
Professor Petr Sedláček is a Professor of Economics at the UNSW Business School and an Associate Member of the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford. His primary affiliations include UNSW Sydney (School of Economics, UNSW Business School) and the University of Oxford (Department of Economics). His research focuses on labor markets, productivity growth, business dynamism, and macroeconomic policy. He has advised the European Commission and holds an ARC Future Fellowship (2023). Research interests span macroeconomic theory, industry economics, and labor economics with emphasis on unemployment fluctuations, firm dynamics, and policy impacts. He co-developed an EU Commission-endorsed online calculator for pandemic-era employment scenarios across 23 European economies. His recent work explores remote work effects, heterogeneous firm growth, and Brexit/macroeconomic nationalism costs. Notable contributions include analysis of Trump administration impacts, Brexit economic costs, and tax reform effects on entrepreneurship. He organizes academic events like the Oxford Economics Summer School and the Macro Lunch seminar series at UNSW. Grants include ARC funding and international collaborative projects. Key awards: 2023 ARC Future Fellowship Grants: Multiple ARC grants and EU Commission projects Professional activities: Conference organization, policy advising, and international collaborations
Johes Bater is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Tufts University's School of Engineering. He joined Tufts in 2022 after postdoctoral research at Duke University's Database Group and a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Northwestern University. Education B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (2011) from Stanford University M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering; Computer Systems (2013) from Stanford University Ph.D. in Computer Science (2020) from Northwestern University Research Focus Bater's research focuses on privacy-preserving analytics , balancing security , privacy , and utility in trustworthy database systems . His work spans differential privacy , secure computation , and data federation to enable robust distributed analytics with provable guarantees. Publications & Trends His publications since 2016 emphasize secure multi-party computation (SMCQL, 2016), differentially private indexing (Longshot, 2023), and privacy-utility trade-offs in federated databases. Key subfields include private data sharing , access pattern security , and incremental computation for outsourced systems. Awards & Grants 2022: Cisco Systems grant for "A Usable and Shareable Tool for Software Threat Modeling" Teaching & Service Bater teaches courses like Database Systems , Dissertation Research , and Special Topics in Data Infrastructure . He served on Tufts' CS PhD Admissions Committee (2022) and as a reviewer for the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (2022).
Prof. Dr. Luis Aguiar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a DSI Professor at the University’s Digital Society Initiative (DSI). He holds a PhD in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and previously served as a Research Fellow at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center. His expertise lies in the economics of digitization, focusing on digital markets, media industries, and the impact of technological change on firms and consumers. Educational Background: PhD in Economics, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid MSc in Economics, Finance and Management, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Bachelor’s in Economics, University of Geneva Research Focus: Luis investigates how digitization transforms consumer behavior and market structures in digital media sectors, with particular attention to online platforms, music streaming, and intellectual property policies. His work employs advanced econometric methods to analyze welfare effects, platform power dynamics, and content distribution trends. Key Contributions: His research has been published in top journals like the Journal of Political Economy and Information Systems Research , and has received significant media coverage from outlets such as The Economist and Forbes . He currently co-edits Information Economics and Policy and leads the Swiss National Science Foundation-funded project on online platforms' power dynamics. Professional Roles: DSI Professor, Digital Society Initiative (UZH) Fellow of the CESifo Research Network Labs & Teams: His research is anchored in UZH’s Department of Business Administration and the DSI, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to address societal challenges posed by digital transformation.
Dr. Maja Krzic is a Professor at the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences within UBC's Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Her research bridges soil science with sustainability education through community engagement and digital innovation, focusing on human impacts on soil properties across agricultural, grassland, and forest ecosystems. She develops cutting-edge teaching tools like the Digging into Canadian Soils open textbook and SOILx interactive platform. PhD (University of British Columbia, 1997) MSc (University of Belgrade, 1990) BSc (University of Belgrade, 1986) Her publications (2010-2025) explore greenhouse gas dynamics in agricultural systems, soil carbon sequestration in elevation gradients, and innovative educational approaches including problem-based learning and augmented reality. Recent work addresses climate-resilient soil management in coastal British Columbia and gender parity in soil science academia. Major awards include: 3M National Teaching Fellow (2016) UBC Killam Teaching Prize (2006) Fellow, Soil Science Society of America (2023) Platinum AVA Digital Award for SOILx (2015) She has mentored 28 graduate students and postdocs, including Amy Wells (2024), Clara Roa-Garcia (PhD, 2018), and Preston Cumming (Postdoc, 2015). Current projects focus on climate change adaptation in Delta farmland and regenerative agricultural practices.
Prof. Dr. Haris Gačanin is a faculty member at RWTH Aachen University, affiliated with the Institute for Distributed Signal Processing under the College of Electrical Engineering. His research focuses on integrating machine learning with wireless communication systems, particularly in industrial IoT, edge computing, and network optimization. Current academic rank: Professor Contact: harisg@dsp.rwth-aachen.de Research Interests: Wireless systems, machine learning, signal processing, and network optimization. Key contributions include: Adaptive resource allocation in IIoT and vehicular networks AI-driven channel estimation and feedback mechanisms Security-oriented emitter identification via metric learning Federated/transfer learning for edge environments Hardware-efficient deep learning models for mmWave and THz communications Methodological Focus: Combines reinforcement learning, attention mechanisms, and robust neural architectures with practical implementations on FPGA and vehicular systems.
