Michael Lucey is the Sidney and Margaret Ancker Chair and Distinguished Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His work bridges French literature from the 19th to 21st centuries with social theory, sexuality studies, and linguistic anthropology. He has authored the critically acclaimed What Proust Heard: Novels and the Ethnography of Talk (2022) and Thinking about Sexuality with Novels (forthcoming). As founding director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture , he has shaped interdisciplinary research in queer theory and gender studies. Current research focuses on novels as ethnographic tools Specializes in Proust, Balzac, Woolf, and contemporary French fiction Translation work includes Didier Eribon and Édouard Louis His recent articles explore phonetics in narrative, readability frameworks, and sociological implications of literary form. He actively engages with comparative methodologies and critical theory, while his teaching spans British and American literature’s intersections with French modernism. Lucey’s academic leadership includes directing Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Sexual Culture, which supports global discourse through fellowships and conferences. His office hours are held in Dwinelle Hall and via Zoom. Contact: mlucey@berkeley.edu
James A. Robinson is a University Professor at the University of Chicago with joint appointments in the Harris School of Public Policy and Department of Political Science. An economist and political scientist, he conducts influential research on political and economic development, examining how political power, institutions, and prosperity interact through both quantitative economic modeling and qualitative fieldwork methodologies. Robinson's research focuses on institutional analysis and political economy, with deep regional expertise in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. He has conducted extensive fieldwork across Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, investigating how historical institutions shape contemporary economic outcomes. His interdisciplinary approach integrates economic theory with anthropological and historical case studies to explain patterns of economic divergence and political stability. Recent publications (2023-2025) reveal persistent themes in institutional persistence, state-society dynamics, and the cultural foundations of development. His work increasingly examines the interaction of economic and political inequality, the role of non-institutional factors in leadership strategies, and the historical roots of peripheral development trajectories across diverse global contexts. Scientific recognition includes: 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel Fellow, Institute of African Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka Robinson co-authored three seminal books with Daron Acemoglu: Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (theoretical foundations of regime stability), Why Nations Fail (translated into 41 languages, arguing inclusive institutions drive prosperity), and The Narrow Corridor (analyzing state-society struggles for liberty). He maintained a 28-year summer school at Colombia's University of the Andes (1994-2022) and continues active research collaborations across Africa and Latin America.
Professor Jo Barraket is a leading academic and researcher in social equity, social innovation, and public policy. As Director of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute and member of the Dilun Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership, she focuses on improving social equity through organizational innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and policy design. Her research addresses social procurement, health equity, digital inclusion, and employment pathways for marginalized groups. Her work includes landmark projects such as the Australian Digital Inclusion Index and evaluations of Commonwealth Social Enterprise Development Funds. She has secured over $11M in research grants, including multiple ARC grants, and produced over 75 scholarly publications. Her current projects compare social procurement policies in Australia and Scotland, and study youth unemployment in construction via employment-focused procurement. Key research themes include: social enterprise scaling strategies, cross-sector partnerships for policy implementation, and the role of philanthropy in equitable housing. She advises governments and OECD on inclusive employment policies and chairs major research initiatives like the Social Enterprise Impact Lab. Prof Barraket’s transdisciplinary approach combines rigorous academic research with practical outputs like policy guides and digital tools to maximize societal impact. She previously founded the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne, now a global leader in social economy research.
Nicholas Evans is Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL) at the Australian National University’s School of Culture, History & Language. His work bridges fieldwork-based language documentation with theoretical questions in typology, cultural evolution, and social cognition. Focus on endangered Australian and Papuan languages Director of ARC Laureate Project on 'The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity' Co-leader of SCOPIC (Social Cognition Parallax Corpus) study Collaborator in global linguistic diversity initiatives His research explores how micro-level community multilingualism shapes macro-level linguistic diversity, with fieldwork spanning seven years in remote Indigenous communities. Recent projects include PARABANK (paradigm syncretism analysis) and Southern New Guinea language studies, particularly Nen and Yam family languages. Scientific recognition includes the Ken Hale Award (Linguistic Society of America), Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis, and fellowships in the Australian Academy of Humanities, Australian Social Sciences Academy, and the British Academy.
Mark Y. Liberman is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Trustee Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Computer and Information Science. His roles include Director of the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC), Faculty Director of Ware College House, and former Director of the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science. Education: A.B. in Linguistics and Applied Mathematics from Harvard University (1965–1969), M.S. (1972) and Ph.D. (1975) in Linguistics from MIT. Research focuses on corpus-based phonetics, clinical linguistics applications, tonal phonology, formal models for linguistic annotation, and computational linguistics. He explores speech production, prosody, and interdisciplinary topics like language evolution and neurobiology of speech. Recent articles highlight advancements in speech biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, autism analysis, and computational linguistics. Awards include Fellowships from the AAAS and Linguistic Society of America. He advises graduate students and leads large-scale language resource initiatives like LDC, contributing to open-access linguistic datasets. Labs/Teams: Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC), Institute for Research in Cognitive Science (IRCS), and collaborations in computational linguistics and neuroscience.
Wei Xu is an Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Computing and School of Interactive Computing, with affiliations to the Machine Learning Center. Their research bridges machine learning, natural language processing, and social media with focus areas in large language models, cultural bias mitigation, multilingual capabilities, and human-AI collaboration in text evaluation. NSF CAREER and Google Academic Research Award recipient Director of NLP X Lab PhD from New York University, BSMS from Tsinghua University Research interests span: Multilingual Multicultural LLMs addressing representational gaps and cultural adaptation in language models (NAACL 2025, ACL 2024); Robustness and Reasoning through dynamic AGI evaluations (ACL 2024, EMNLP 2024); Interdisciplinary NLP applications in security, healthcare, and law (EMNLP 2024, ACL 2024). Recent publications focus on multilingual alignment (NAACL 2025), privacy risk estimation (arXiv 2025), cultural bias analysis (ACL 2024), and medical text simplification (EMNLP 2024). Key themes include bias mitigation, multimodal processing, and practical LLM evaluation. Scientific Awards : NSF CAREER, Google/Sony/Criteo research awards, ACL'24 Best Social Impact Award, COLING'18 Best Paper Advising 15 PhD/MS/BSMS students including Yao Dou (human-centered LLM evaluation), Tarek Naous (multilingual LLMs), and alumni like Chao Jiang (Apple AI/ML) and Yang Chen (NVIDIA research scientist). Teaches graduate courses on NLP and LLMs.
John F. Beacom is a Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at The Ohio State University and Director of the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP). His academic roles include leadership in astroparticle physics research and education. He holds joint appointments in both the Department of Physics and the Department of Astronomy within the College of Arts and Sciences. Beacom earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin (1997) and dual B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Kansas (1991). He has held postdoctoral positions at Fermilab and Caltech before joining Ohio State in 2004. His research focuses on neutrinos, dark matter, and multi-messenger astrophysics, with emphasis on neutrino detection techniques, supernova physics, and cosmological implications. He leads major projects like the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and contributes to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Awards: APS Fellow (2014), NSF CAREER Award (2005–2010), multiple teaching awards for distinguished instruction. Grants: Extensive funding from NSF, DOE, and collaborative international initiatives. Labs/Teams: CCAPP, DUNE Collaboration, ASAS-SN project. His articles span neutrino physics, detector development, and observational astrophysics, reflecting interdisciplinary expertise in theoretical and experimental particle astrophysics.
Jennifer Ross is a Professor of Physics and Associate Dean for Creativity, Scholarship, and Research at the College of Arts & Sciences of Syracuse University . As a biophysicist, she investigates how cells organize their interiors through self-assembly and active matter principles, focusing on the microtubule cytoskeleton and enzyme-driven systems using single-molecule imaging . Her research bridges fundamental physics with biological organization . Education: Ph.D. in Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara (2004) B.A. in Physics and Mathematics, Wellesley College (2000) Research Focus: Self-organization of cytoskeletal networks Active matter dynamics in biological systems Motor protein interactions and cargo transport Programming circadian materials via biomolecular systems Microtubule severing mechanisms Recent Article Trends: 2025 studies explore kinesin-driven cytoskeletal composites, urease-DNA origami engineering, and crosslinker-regulated network mechanics 2024-2023 work examines ionic strength effects on microtubules, programmable circadian materials, and motor-cargo dynamics Earlier studies analyze actin-microtubule composites, liquid crystal phase control, and severing enzyme mechanisms Scientific Awards: Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Cottrell Scholar (2025) and STAR Award Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award (Biophysical Society) Grants: Leads multiple NSF, Sloan Foundation, and Research Corporation grants for projects like "Energy and Entropy Sculpting" and "Explorations: SUPER-Tech SHIP" . Teaching: Offers courses in experimental physics, microscopy, and biophysics, including a globally adopted hands-on microscope-building curriculum. Lab: Heads the Bio-Active Matter Lab , studying how cells harness noisy systems for autonomous organization.
Jean Oh is a Researcher at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) , leading the interdisciplinary Bot Intelligence Group (BIG) . Her work focuses on developing persistent robots that co-exist and collaborate with humans in shared environments, emphasizing continuous improvement through training, exploration, and human interaction. Education: Ph.D. in Language and Information Technologies, CMU M.S. in Computer Science, Columbia University B.S. in Biotechnology, Yonsei University Oh's research integrates vision, language, and planning systems in robotics, with applications in human-robot teaming , self-driving cars , disaster response , eldercare , and creative robotics . She has pioneered projects like socially-compliant robot navigation in human crowds and AI-driven robotic painting systems. Recent publication trends highlight her work in vision-language planning , social navigation , computational creativity , and human-robot collaboration . Notable contributions include the StyleCLIPDraw algorithm for text-to-art generation and Social-PatteRNN for human-like trajectory prediction. Scientific Awards: Best Paper Award in Cognitive Robotics (ICRA'18, ICRA'15) Best Systems Paper Finalist (HRI'25) Best Oral Paper Finalist (Humanoids'24) Best Paper in Entertainment (IROS'24) Argoverse Challenge Winner (CVPR'24) Best Student Paper (AIAA'24) Best Demo Finalist (RoboSoft'24) Oh mentors a diverse team of PhD, MS, and undergraduate students from CMU departments including Robotics, Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering. Her research is funded by US Army Research Lab , DiDi Chuxing , and DARPA , with collaborations across industry and academia .
Professor Michael Ben-Gad is a Professor of Economics at City, University of London, where he has served since 2009. He previously held roles as Head of the Department of Economics (2010–2013) and Deputy Head (2008–2010). His research focuses on dynamic macroeconomics, taxation, public debt, immigration economics, and national security, with notable contributions to endogenous growth models and compositional data econometrics. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago (1996) and has taught at institutions including the University of Houston and University of Haifa. Ben-Gad served on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences panel on immigration's economic and fiscal impacts (2014–2016) and received a 2017 Fellowship from the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). His work spans academic journals (Economic Modelling, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control) and media outlets (BBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera), addressing topics like Brexit economics, fiscal policy, and geopolitical challenges. He co-convenes the City Branch of Academics for Academic Freedom and is a founding member of London Universities' Council for Academic Freedom. His research grants include funding from HM Treasury/ESRC on fiscal policy and immigration (2011), the Israel Science Foundation (2007–2008), and the Samuel Ne'eman Foundation (2004). Professional roles include editorial board membership for Economic Affairs and membership of the ESRC Grant Assessment Panel (2021). He is proficient in Hebrew and contributes to policy debates on taxation, macroprudential frameworks, and defense economics.
Stefano Ermon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, affiliated with the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. His research focuses on advancing machine learning and generative AI techniques to address societal and environmental challenges, including computational sustainability, geospatial analysis, and climate science. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University (2015). Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cornell University (2015). Research Interests: Ermon’s work bridges foundational machine learning (e.g., diffusion models, generative AI, and optimization) with applications in sustainability, geospatial analysis (via satellite imagery), and earth observation systems. Notable contributions include predicting poverty using satellite data and developing scalable methods for molecule generation. Articles Trends: His recent work emphasizes diffusion models for generative tasks (e.g., text-to-image, molecule design), geospatial AI (e.g., environmental monitoring), and ethical AI (e.g., bias mitigation in LLMs). He also explores applications in robotics and scientific computing. Awards: He has received prestigious awards, including the ICML 2024 Best Paper Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, and the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award. Advising and Grants: Ermon teaches courses like Probabilistic Graphical Models (CS228) and has secured grants from NSF, ONR, AFOSR, and private foundations. His lab develops tools for climate science and sustainable development. Labs/Teams: Leads the Stanford AI Lab group focused on computational sustainability and generative AI, collaborating with institutions like the Woods Institute for environmental applications.
Matthew Thomas Payne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. He serves as Director of Graduate Studies and focuses on video games' cultural history, media literacy, and representations of war. His research explores media industries, gaming culture, and educational applications of games through initiatives like the Learning Games Initiative. Payne's work includes authoring books such as *Eugene Jarvis: King of the Arcade* (2025) and *Ultima and Worldbuilding* (2024), alongside articles on military video games and transmedia storytelling. His creative output includes video essays analyzing game design and cultural impact. Payne holds a terminal degree in media studies and actively contributes to academic conferences and digital platforms like Vimeo. Education: Ph.D. in Media Studies (assumed based on faculty role). Research emphasizes intersections between digital media and cultural narratives, with grants likely supporting projects on gaming preservation and pedagogy. He collaborates with institutions like Amherst College Press and NYU Press, and his professional activities include editorial roles and industry research with Warner Brothers.
Deva Kannan Ramanan is a Professor at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University , focusing on computer vision , machine learning , and human-centered robotics . His work bridges neurorobotics and visual perception , with applications in autonomous driving and 4D reconstruction . Research Topics Computer Vision 3-D Vision and Recognition Visual Servoing Neurorobotics Human-Centered Robotics Graphics & Creative Tools His recent publications in CVPR , ICRA , and ICCV emphasize 4D human reconstruction , neural rendering , and vision-language models for autonomous systems. He serves as General Chair of CVPR 2027 and Program Chair of CVPR 2018 , with IARPA funding for aerial-ground rendering (2023-2027). Current students include PhD candidates Sally Chen, Kangle Deng, and Zhiqiu Lin, while past advisees like Arun Vasudevan and Olga Russakovsky now hold positions at Amazon and Meta respectively.
Stephen Licht is an Associate Professor of Ocean Engineering and Graduate Director at the University of Rhode Island's College of Engineering, where he directs the Robotics Laboratory for Complex Underwater Environments (R-CUE). His research focuses on developing maritime robots capable of operating in dynamic and unpredictable environments through biologically inspired propulsion, distributed pressure sensing, model-based optimal control, and compliant underwater manipulation technologies. Ph.D. in Oceanographic and Mechanical Engineering from MIT/WHOI Joint Program (2008) B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University (1998) Former Senior Research Scientist at iRobot and Senior Robotics Engineer at Vecna Robotics Current Research Affiliate with MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering Former Visiting Faculty at Libera Università di Bolzano (2019-2020) Dr. Licht's research spans marine robotics with emphasis on biologically inspired propulsion systems that provide high authority and bandwidth thrust, nonlinear attitude control for maneuvering in dynamic conditions, compliant underwater manipulation technologies, and unmanned aerial monitoring of coastal structures. His work bridges mechanical engineering principles with oceanographic applications to create more capable underwater robotic systems that can operate in complex marine environments. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward soft robotics applications for deep-sea exploration, with particular focus on jamming grippers and neutrally buoyant manipulation systems. The research also shows increasing integration of additive manufacturing techniques for field-deployable solutions and computational methods for autonomous systems operating in challenging marine environments. His work spans fundamental control theory, mechanical design, and practical field applications. Dr. Licht has secured significant research funding as both Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator from major organizations including the Office of Naval Research, NOAA, NSF, and various university collaborations. His grants focus on advancing unmanned underwater vehicle technology, soft robotics for deep-sea applications, and coastal monitoring systems. Active mentor to numerous graduate and undergraduate students in Ocean Engineering Successful track record of student placements at organizations including Jaia Robotics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, FORSSEA Robotics, and government research labs Collaborates with researchers at MIT, WHOI, University of Connecticut, University of Maine, and international institutions Licht leads the R-CUE lab which develops innovative solutions for underwater robotics challenges, with particular expertise in biomimetic propulsion, soft robotics for deep-sea applications, and autonomous systems for environmental monitoring. The lab maintains strong industry connections with OceanGate Inc. and FabNewport, and engages with local educational institutions through outreach programs with Roger Williams Middle School.
Carl Vondrick is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University. His research focuses on creating robust and versatile perception systems that leverage video and interaction with the natural world, with applications in 3D reconstruction, visual question answering, and robot manipulation. Former research scientist at Google Visiting researcher at Cruise Education: PhD (2017) from MIT, advised by Antonio Torralba BS (2011) from UC Irvine, advised by Deva Ramanan His research explores multimodal approaches for cross-task and cross-modal transfer, scene dynamics, audiovisual perception, interpretable models, and spatial awareness systems. The lab emphasizes zero-shot generalization and neuro-symbolic methods while addressing safety and robustness in AI systems. Key publication trends include: 2025: Video generation for robotics 2024: Differentiable rendering and cross-modal reasoning 2023: Robust perception and 3D modeling Scientific Awards: 2024 PAMI Young Researcher Award 2021 NSF CAREER Award Teaching Roles: Teaching Computer Vision II (2021-2025), Computer Vision I (2018-2019), and Representation Learning (2020-2022). Advising: Advises 8 current PhD students and has mentored 5 graduated students now at institutions like MBZUAI and UMD. The lab recruits 1-2 PhD students annually through Columbia’s PhD program. Grants and Collaborations: Funded by NSF, DARPA, Toyota Research Institute, Amazon Research, and Google.
