Dr. Wei Peng is a Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University, specializing in health communication technology design and human-computer interaction. Her research explores behavior change mechanisms through interactive media. Ph.D. in Communication from University of Southern California (2006) Key research areas include: Psychological and social effects of interactive media AI-driven health promotion systems Conversational agents for wellness Digital games for physical activity Mobile health applications Combating health misinformation through technology Her 2024-2021 publications demonstrate expertise in AI ethics, health gamification, and technology-based behavior change. Grant collaborations include: National Science Foundation (NSF) - Sensor-enabled family routines for child obesity prevention Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) - Exergame development Scientific recognition includes multiple ICA Top Paper Awards and MSU Teacher-Scholar honors. She actively serves on editorial boards of: Journal of Communication Health Communication Games for Health Journal BMC Public Health Currently advising in AI applications for health misinformation and persuasive technology research.
Florian Kerschbaum is a Professor and NSERC/RBC Industrial Research Chair in Data Security at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo. His research focuses on data security and privacy, applied cryptography, and confidentiality in data science. Research interests span data collection/preparation management, secure multi-party computation, homomorphic encryption, differential privacy, and machine learning robustness/privacy. His work develops cryptographic solutions for practical data management challenges in distributed systems.
Catherine F. Eubanks is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Yeshiva University . She holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Stony Brook University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Beth Israel Medical Center, where she currently serves as Associate Director of the Psychotherapy Research Program. Education BA, Princeton University MDiv, Union Theological Seminary PhD, Stony Brook University Postdoctoral Fellowship, Beth Israel Medical Center Research Interests Dr. Eubanks specializes in: Therapeutic alliance ruptures and resolution Therapist characteristics linked to cross-theoretical effectiveness Psychotherapy skill enhancement through training and supervision Psychotherapy process research Contact Office: Resnick Campus - Rousso Building, Room 122 Phone: 646-592-4374
Dr. Jung-Fu Lin is a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, holding the Dave P. Carlton Centennial Professorship. His research focuses on understanding planetary interiors through high-pressure experiments, particularly using diamond anvil cells and synchrotron facilities. Key areas include mineral physics, Earth's core dynamics, and the role of water in mantle processes. Expertise: High-pressure mineral physics, X-ray spectroscopy, and planetary materials science. Current projects: Investigating iron alloys in Earth's core, thermal conductivity of mantle minerals, and carbon storage mechanisms. Research highlights include discoveries on iron spin transitions, elasticity of bridgmanite, and Martian core dynamics. Awards include the NSF CAREER Award and Fulbright Scholarship. Lin supervises graduate students in experimental petrology and mentors postdocs globally. Teaches courses on Earth materials and mineral physics. Active in international collaborations, including with Okayama University (Japan) and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland). His lab develops advanced laser heating systems and Raman spectroscopy tools for high-pressure studies.
Jianjing Kuang is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, affiliated with the School of Arts and Sciences. As Director of the Penn Phonetics Laboratory, they lead research in phonetics, laboratory phonology, and tonal language studies. Kuang holds a Ph.D. from UCLA (2013) and specializes in the interplay between production and perception in speech, particularly focusing on tonal systems, prosody, and cross-linguistic fieldwork. Their work integrates behavioral experiments, corpus studies, and computational modeling to explore phonological contrasts, voice quality, and sound change. Key affiliations include MindCORE and the Center for East Asian Studies. Research interests include multidimensional cues in tone processing, glottal articulations, mapping production-perception relationships, and prosodic sentence processing. Kuang has conducted fieldwork on languages such as Yi, Q’anjob’al, and Mandarin. Their studies address topics like tonal splitting in Yi, cue-changing in Korean stops, and prosodic patterns in Mayan languages. Recent work explores voice quality’s role in pitch perception and prosodic boundary detection. Awards and grants are not explicitly listed, but Kuang’s extensive publications (over 50 peer-reviewed papers) reflect sustained academic impact. They advise graduate students in phonetics and phonology, with active collaborations in computational linguistics and speech technology. The Penn Phonetics Laboratory, under Kuang’s direction, emphasizes interdisciplinary research bridging experimental and theoretical phonetics.
Todd Adams is a Professor in the Department of Physics at Florida State University . He leads research in particle physics (high energy experiment) with the CMS Experiment at CERN and previously the D0 Experiment at Fermilab , focusing on searches for new physics in underexplored datasets through long-lived particles , machine learning techniques , and charged particle detection . Education : PhD in Experimental Particle Physics from University of Notre Dame (1997); Postdoctoral researcher at Kansas State University (1997-2001) His research includes electromagnetic calorimeter studies for CMS, calorimeter upgrade investigations , and Monte Carlo simulation leadership for D0. He pioneered searches for neutral long-lived particles and top quark decay anomalies , co-authored key publications in Physical Review Letters and Journal of High Energy Physics , and served as Faculty Senate President and Board of Trustees member at FSU. Notable affiliations include: Collaborations : CMS, D0, NuTeV, NuSOnG Laboratories : CERN (Geneva), Fermilab (Chicago), Florida State High Energy Physics Group Key contributions: Co-convenor of D0 Monte Carlo Simulations and New Physics Signatures groups Expert in heavy quark production , dimuon analysis , and neutral current studies Publications on Higgs boson discovery implications, supersymmetry , and anomalous gauge couplings Scientific Awards : Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Multiple Fermilab Result of the Week highlights (2006, 2008, 2013) Contributor to CMS Thesis Award Committee He advises graduate students in experimental particle physics and contributes to detector technology development, particularly in timing studies , calibration , and trigger systems . His research program will continue through the LHC's 2035 operations with ongoing CMS data analysis.
Jeffrey T. Checkel is a Full-time Professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute (EUI). He joined EUI in 2020 and previously held positions at Simon Fraser University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Oslo. He earned his PhD in Political Science from MIT and a first degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University. His research focuses on international relations theory, qualitative methods, and identity formation. Key areas include constructivism, international institutions, civil war dynamics, and processual methods. He teaches courses on IR theory, qualitative methods, and philosophies of social science. Checkel's recent work explores 'Institutions at Bay? Regional Integration and Identity,' analyzing how regional organizations shape identity through local and national dynamics. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of QMMR: Qualitative and Multi-Method Research and President of the APSA Qualitative and Multi-Method Research Organized Section. Education: PhD in Political Science (MIT), B.S. in Applied Physics (Cornell University) Research Interests: Identity formation, process tracing, constructivism, international institutions, civil war, qualitative methodologies. He advises numerous PhD students and post-doctoral fellows, leading working groups on IR theory and qualitative fieldwork. His publications span over 99 works, with a focus on bridging theoretical and methodological divides in social science.
Professor Christian Bizer is a leading figure in web-based systems and data integration at the University of Mannheim , where he chairs Information Systems V: Web-based Systems . His research focuses on integrating data from multiple sources using large language models and LLM-based agents, with applications in product data extraction and DBpedia knowledge graph construction. He co-founded the DBpedia project and initiated the WebDataCommons initiative. Current research areas: Entity matching, schema matching, table annotation, information extraction, data discovery Key projects: WebMall benchmark, WInte.r integration framework, Schema.org analysis His work applies to e-commerce data integration and knowledge graph construction, with empirical studies on schema.org adoption. He supervises PhD students including Alexander Brinkmann and Ralph Peeters. Scientific Awards: Best Paper at iiWAS 2024 SWSA Ten-Year Award at ISWC 2019 Yahoo FREP Award 2015 Semantic Web Challenge winners Teaching includes courses on web data integration, web mining, large language models, and data mining for master's programs. He leads the DWS PhD colloquium and team projects on LLM agents for data integration.
Yi Fang is an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering and an affiliated Associate Professor of Computer Science at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), and a Global Network Associate Professor at NYU Tandon. He is a core faculty member in the Division of Engineering, specializing in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research is centered at the intersection of Embodied AI, Robotics, and AI-driven assistive technologies, with strong support from agencies such as the US NSF, UAE ADEK, and ASPIRE. PhD, Purdue University Yi Fang's research interests span 3D Computer Vision, Multimedia Processing, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Embodied AI . He focuses on AI-driven perception, learning, and real-world applications, particularly in engineering, medicine, and accessibility. His lab, the Embodied AI and Robotics (AIR) Lab, develops intelligent robotic systems that integrate perception, learning, and decision-making to solve complex societal challenges. His work emphasizes large-scale visual computing, deep visual learning, and cross-domain/multimodal foundation models , with recent innovations in assistive AI for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community. The 15 most recent publications reflect a consistent focus on 3D vision, sketch-based 3D retrieval, point cloud learning, and assistive computer vision . His work leverages deep learning, adversarial training, metric learning, and generative models to bridge modalities such as sketches, depth images, and 3D models. There is a clear trend toward cross-modal understanding, unsupervised representation learning, and real-world assistive applications , especially for visually impaired individuals. Yi Fang actively contributes to the academic community as an Area Chair for top-tier conferences including CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, IJCAI, and IROS. He also serves in peer review and mentoring roles, shaping the future of AI and robotics research. As a dedicated educator, he teaches foundational and advanced courses such as Computer Vision, Applied Machine Learning, Data Structures, and Capstone Design . He mentors students through research seminars and honors projects, fostering innovation and technical excellence. His research is supported by major grants from US NSF, UAE ADEK, and ASPIRE, enabling high-impact interdisciplinary collaborations. He founded and directs the Embodied AI and Robotics (AIR) Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, a dedicated research space for developing intelligent systems that seamlessly integrate perception, learning, and decision-making. The lab promotes interdisciplinary collaboration across engineering, medicine, and social sciences, advancing the frontiers of Embodied AI.
Amit Kumar is the Jaswinder and Tarwinder Chadha Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi. His research focuses on combinatorial optimization, online algorithms, and algorithmic fairness. He has taught courses such as Approximation Algorithms (COL 754), Design and Analysis of Algorithms (COL 351), and Numerical Analysis (COL 726). His work spans theoretical computer science with applications to clustering, scheduling, and fairness in evaluation processes. Research Interests Kumar's research emphasizes developing efficient algorithms for online and dynamic settings, particularly in constrained optimization and biased evaluation systems. He explores theoretical foundations of clustering, load balancing, and resource allocation, with recent contributions to fair food delivery systems and coreset constructions. Publications His recent work includes advancements in online convex paging (STOC 2025), consensus clustering (SODA 2025), and fairness-aware algorithms (AAAI 2024). Over 70 papers across top venues like STOC, SODA, and ICML reflect his expertise in algorithm design and analysis. Awards Best Paper Award at ISAAC 2023 for 'Clustering What Matters in Constrained Settings' Teaching & Mentorship Kumar instructs graduate and undergraduate courses in algorithms, data structures, and numerical methods. He advises students through these courses and collaborates with researchers on NSF-funded projects related to approximation algorithms and streaming systems.
Anush Tserunyan is a Professor of Mathematics at McGill University, Canada, and a Visiting Professor at the Unit of Pure and Applied Mathematics (UMPA) at École normale supérieure de Lyon from December 1, 2024, to January 31, 2025. She holds a bachelor's and master's in computer science and applied mathematics from Yerevan State University (2005–2007) and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from UCLA (2013), focusing on finite generators for group actions, equivalence relations, and recursive program complexity. Research Interests: Anush Tserunyan specializes in Ergodic Theory , Combinatorics , and Group Actions , with notable contributions to graph theory, hypergraphs, and Ramsey theory. Her work bridges combinatorial structures with analytic methods, particularly in dynamical systems and descriptive set theory. Collaborations: During her visit to UMPA, she collaborates with teams in Geometry, Groups and Dynamics , and Number Theory , alongside researchers like Benjamin Schraen and Sophie Morel. Her stay includes seminars on GGD, Number Theory, and the 'Actions!' working group. Publications: Her research spans topics like ergodic theorems, disjoint matchings in graphs, and algebraic hypergraphs, reflecting a focus on foundational mathematical structures and their applications.
Dr. Margaret O'Callaghan is a Professor in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen's University Belfast . Her research focuses on Modern Irish history, political thought, and the politics of commemoration. She has published extensively on British-Irish relations, partition, and gender studies in Irish politics. She holds a First Class Honours BA and MA from University College Dublin, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Research Interests: Irish political thought, British high politics, cultural identity in the Irish Free State, and the role of commemoration in historical narratives. She is currently researching figures like Conor Cruise O'Brien and Alice Stopford Green. Awards: Recipient of the Silver Medal for Oratory from the Literary and Historical Society UCD (1979). She has supervised over 40 MA dissertations and 17 doctoral theses. Activities: Active in academic conferences and media engagements, including talks on the politics of commemoration and partition. Collaborates with institutions like the Institute of Irish Studies.
Georgia Gkioxari is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech , with a part-time affiliation at Meta AI . Her work focuses on extending visual perception models through advanced 2D and 3D representation learning, spatial reasoning, and generative models. Education: Not explicitly mentioned in the text Research interests span 3D perception , spatial reasoning , and vision-language integration , with projects like Visual Agentic AI for Spatial Reasoning and Token-by-Token Multimodal Alignment . Her publications emphasize 3D object detection , reconstruction , and generative modeling techniques including diffusion models and transformers . Scientific recognition includes the Meta LLM Evaluation Research Grant , Okawa Research Grant , Google Faculty Scholar Award 2024 , and Amazon Research Award . She teaches courses like Large Language & Vision Models (EE/CS 148) and Learning & 3D (CS 101) at Caltech. Labs & Teams: Leads Glab with members including Ilona Demler, Ziqi Ma, and Damiano Marsili
Professor Sara Baker is a Professor of Developmental Psychology and Education at the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Education and a Fellow at Darwin College, where she served as Vice Master from 2021-2024. She is also a 2022 Senior Fellow in the Science of Learning with UNESCO-IBE/IBRO. Her work bridges cognitive science and educational practice, focusing on how children develop executive functions and self-regulation skills. Baker leads the Early Years Library project, co-founded the Research Centre for Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), and is a founding member of the Global Executive Functions Initiative. Sara Baker specializes in the science of learning, with research aimed at improving children's lives by identifying factors at home and school that support their agency over learning. Her work emphasizes developing executive functions and self-regulation through playful learning approaches. She uses lab-based experiments and collaborates with educators to translate cognitive science research into educational contexts. Her research spans multiple countries including the UK, USA, Mexico, Denmark, Slovakia, South Korea, Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and more, reflecting a strong commitment to culturally relevant and globally applicable educational practices. Analysis of Professor Baker's recent publications reveals a strong focus on executive functions, self-regulation, and playful learning across diverse cultural contexts. Her work increasingly addresses cultural adaptation of assessment tools and educational practices, particularly for Global Majority countries. There's a clear trajectory from basic cognitive research toward practical applications in educational settings, with growing emphasis on teacher training, culturally relevant assessment, and the role of play in early childhood development. Her interdisciplinary approach connects developmental psychology, educational theory, and practical classroom applications. 2022 Senior Fellow in the Science of Learning with UNESCO-IBE/IBRO Professor Baker leads the doctoral program in the Faculty of Education and serves as an Academic Project Director in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is the Cambridge academic lead on the Close the Gap partnership between Cambridge and Oxford, focused on postgraduate widening participation. Her research has been funded by prestigious organizations including the Newton Trust, Cambridge Humanities Research Grant, Economic and Social Research Council, LEGO Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, and Office for Students/Research England. She actively supervises doctoral students and seeks highly motivated candidates for October 2026 entry whose research aligns with her focus areas. Professor Baker co-founded and is actively involved with the Research Centre for Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), which investigates how children's play affects their development. She leads the Early Years Library project, a curated collection of evidence-based practices for early years educators, and is a founding member of the Global Executive Functions Initiative. Her work with the Connections international professional learning network focuses on self-regulation, while the Close the Gap project addresses widening participation in postgraduate education between Oxford and Cambridge.
Yao Qin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), with dual affiliation in the Department of Computer Science. She concurrently serves as Co-Director of the REAL AI Initiative at UCSB and holds a Senior Research Scientist position at Google DeepMind, where she contributes to the Gemini Multimodal project. Her academic credentials include a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California, San Diego (advised by Prof. Garrison W. Cottrell) and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Dalian University of Technology. During her doctoral studies, she completed internships with pioneering researchers Geoffrey Hinton and Ian Goodfellow. Dr. Qin's research program centers on machine learning robustness, with emphasis on adversarial robustness, out-of-distribution generalization, and fairness. She develops reliable AI systems specifically for healthcare applications, with diabetes management as a primary focus. Her lab explores critical themes including AI safety in multimodal models and diabetes-specific AI solutions, particularly exercise metabolism modeling and glycemic effect prediction. Recent publications reveal a strong trajectory in robust machine learning with cross-domain applications. Her work consistently bridges theoretical robustness concepts with practical healthcare implementations, particularly in diabetes care. Key publication venues include CVPR, ICML, NeurIPS, and ICLR, with notable contributions to out-of-distribution detection, adversarial transfer learning, and multimodal AI safety. Her distinguished recognition includes: EECS Rising Star at MIT (2021) UCSB Regents' Junior Faculty Fellowship Award Helmsley Charitable Trust award for Type 1 diabetes research UCSB Faculty Research Grant American Diabetes Association Abstract Award (ADA-2025) Dr. Qin actively mentors four PhD students—Mehak Dhaliwal, Andong Hua, Kenan Tang, and Youngseok Yoon—on projects spanning LLMs for diabetes, multimodal robustness, and generative time-series modeling. Her research is funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust and UCSB, with recent grants supporting exercise-specific AID algorithms for diabetes management. As Co-Director of the REAL AI Initiative, she leads a research ecosystem focused on developing reliable artificial intelligence. Current lab activities include organizing workshops at NeurIPS-2024 (AdvML-Frontiers and AIM-FM) and developing next-generation diabetes management tools through collaborations with medical institutions.
