Adrienne Raphel is a Lecturer in the Department of English at Baruch College, part of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at The City University of New York (CUNY). She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Harvard University, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of Iowa, and a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from Princeton University. Her research and creative work intersect contemporary culture, poetry, and the history of wordplay. She explores modernist literature, dark academia, and the evolution of puzzles like crosswords and board games as cultural artifacts. Raphel's recent publications highlight crosswords, poetry, and literary criticism, reflecting her interests in generational trends, linguistic innovation, and urban themes. Her articles analyze cultural phenomena through the lens of games, literature, and media. She has received prestigious awards, including: Visiting Fellowship at the American Library in Paris (2023) James Merrill Writer in Residence (2023) Writer in Residence at The Mastheads (2018) Raphel serves on the Awards and Honors Committee and teaches courses such as Writing II and Great Works of Literature I. She has contributed to media outlets like The New Yorker , The New York Times , and The Paris Review .
Christof Bigler is an Adjunct Professor at ETH Zurich's Department of Environmental Systems Science, where he also serves as Deputy Group Head of the Professorship of Forest Ecology and Senior Scientist. He leads the ETH Tree-Ring Laboratory and teaches courses in dendroecology, applied statistics, and forest ecology. His research focuses on tree mortality, climate impacts on forests, disturbance ecology, and phenology, with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods and long-term data analysis. Bigler holds a PhD in Forest Ecology from ETH Zurich (2003), awarded the ETH Medal for his thesis on tree mortality modeling. He has conducted postdoctoral research in Switzerland and the University of Colorado Boulder, exploring disturbance interactions and dendroecology. He has supervised numerous PhD and master's students, contributing to over 150 publications in top journals like Nature Climate Change and Ecology . His work integrates dendrochronological techniques with statistical modeling to understand forest responses to climate change, including drought effects, tree competition, and mortality patterns. He serves on editorial boards for journals like Agricultural and Forest Meteorology and reviews proposals for national and international science foundations. His research also includes managing forest reserves and studying natural forest dynamics in the Alps and beyond. Education: PhD in Forest Ecology, ETH Zurich (2003) Postdoctoral Research: University of Colorado Boulder (2004–2005) Diploma in Biology, ETH Zurich (1998) Key Awards: ETH Medal for PhD thesis (2003) Professional Roles: Member of the Tree-Ring Society, Editor for Frontiers in Forests , and Commission for Phenology and Seasonality (KPS). Bigler's lab and fieldwork emphasize long-term datasets, including analyses of tree-ring records from Swiss National Park and other reserves. His research highlights the critical role of historical climate data in predicting future forest resilience and adaptation strategies.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sema Alaçam Doğan has been affiliated with Istanbul Technical University since 2014, serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture . She has held administrative roles including Deputy Head of Department and Erasmus Coordinator. Education : PhD in Informatics in Architectural Design (2008-2014), MS in Informatics in Architectural Design (2005-2008), and BS in Architecture (1999-2005) from Istanbul Technical University. Her research explores Computational Design , Artificial Intelligence in Architecture , and Sustainable Material Innovation . She investigates digital tools for heritage preservation, daylight optimization in BIM, and cognitive development in architecture students. Recent publications analyze AI-assisted design literacy , machine learning for Sinan mosques , and environmental comfort in Harran houses . Her work integrates algorithmic frameworks with sustainable practices. Scientific awards include multiple ITU Publication and Performance Awards (2021-2024), FABFEST Prizes , and the 2024 Artemis Educator Award from NASA. Active projects like "Physical Computation in Architectural Drawing" and "Robotic Fabrication with Recycled Wind Turbine Blades" demonstrate her leadership in computational and sustainable research.
Dr. Michael Baym is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School with affiliate appointments in Microbiology and the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, and as an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. He leads the Baym Lab, which studies microbial evolutionary genomics and antibiotic resistance through a hybrid of experimental, computational, and theoretical approaches. His research focuses on: Antibiotic Resistance Evolution and practical interventions Mobile Genetic Elements (plasmids, phages, transposons) Computational Genomic Algorithms for big data analysis Synthetic Biology tools and technologies Key recent publications explore phage discovery systems , phylogenetic compression of microbial genomes, and RNA-guided gene drives in plasmids. His work is supported by multiple NIH/NIGMS and NSF grants including a MIRA award. Scientific honors include: Packard Fellowship (2018) Pew Biomedical Scholarship (2020) Sloan Research Fellowship (2020) A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award (2021) SSQBio Mentorship Award (2022) The lab actively trains PhD students and postdoctoral fellows with alumni occupying academic and industry positions globally. Current team members include researchers from interdisciplinary backgrounds working at the intersection of experiment, computation, and theory .
Johan Eklöf is a Professor at Stockholm University within the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences . His research emphasizes marine ecology , focusing on interactions between marine biodiversity, environmental conditions (including climate), and societal impacts . He teaches courses such as Management of Aquatic Resources in the Tropics , Marine Ecology for the Biogeo Program , and Ecology II . Research Focus: Causal relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem resilience Foundation species as drivers of ecosystem services Optimizing resource management under climate change Projects: Principal Investigator for FORCE (2023-present), a transdisciplinary Baltic Sea recovery project Contributor to NordSalt (climate impacts on Nordic salt marshes) and PlantFish (Baltic Sea vegetation-fish interactions) Scientific Leadership : Supervises 2 current PhD students and co-supervises 6 additional PhD/postdocs Formerly mentored 4 PhD graduates and >40 MSc students Environmental Context: His work spans Baltic Sea and Western Indian Ocean ecosystems, using seagrass beds , mussel beds , and coastal benthic systems as primary models. Recent publications highlight climate change impacts on trophic cascades , habitat connectivity , and policy frameworks for marine conservation .
Patrick Rérat is a Professor at the University of Lausanne, affiliated with the Institute of Geography and Sustainability within the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment. He is a prominent researcher at LIVES (Interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence for Research on Life Course Changes), where he focuses on urban mobility, transportation patterns, and sustainable mobility transitions. His research interests span transportation studies, urban mobility, sustainable transportation systems, cycling research, residential mobility, and the geography of daily mobility practices. Rérat employs interdisciplinary approaches to examine how individuals navigate urban spaces across different life stages, with particular attention to cycling infrastructure, e-mobility adoption, and the relationship between transportation modes and broader social patterns. Rérat's recent work demonstrates a strong focus on cycling practices, with numerous publications examining cargo bike adoption, e-bike usage patterns, and the effects of cycling infrastructure. His research employs various methodological approaches including user segmentation, longitudinal mobility studies, and spatial analysis of urban transportation patterns. He has made significant contributions to understanding how transportation choices evolve across the life course, particularly during youth transitions. His scholarly output includes numerous publications in leading transportation and geography journals, with recent work focusing on contemporary mobility challenges including pandemic-era transportation changes, telework impacts on mobility patterns, and the political dimensions of cycling infrastructure. As a professor at the University of Lausanne, Rérat contributes to advancing research on sustainable urban mobility while training the next generation of geographers and transportation specialists. His work bridges theoretical geographic concepts with practical urban planning applications, making significant contributions to both academic scholarship and urban policy development.
Anna Levina is an Assistant Professor for Computational Neuroscience at the University of Tübingen , affiliated with the Department of Computer Science under the Faculty of Science. Her research focuses on the self-organization of neuronal activity, critical dynamics in neural networks, and the excitation/inhibition balance in cortical circuits. Current positions: Assistant Professor (since 2018), Group Leader (2017-2018), Equality Officer (Computer Science) Previous roles: IST Fellow (2015-2017), Associated Researcher (2011-2015), Postdoc/PI (2011-2015), Postdoc (2008-2011) Her research integrates mathematical modeling , statistical physics , and computational neuroscience to study criticality phenomena, neural avalanches, and adaptive network dynamics. Key interests include: Self-organized criticality in neural systems Excitation/Inhibition balance mechanisms Network topology and dynamics Timescale analysis in neural processing Stochastic modeling of neural activity Recent publications reveal trends in understanding critical dynamics across biological and artificial networks, with applications to memory systems, sensorimotor integration, and disease modeling. She has received recognition as an IST Fellow .
Alberto Salvo is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), holding a PhD from the London School of Economics. His research spans environmental economics, industrial organisation, and applied microeconomics, with a focus on urban pollution, consumer behavior, and climate action. Environmental Economics & Policy (Undergraduate) Economics of the Environment (PhD) Advanced Industrial Organisation (PhD) His work examines air pollution impacts on health and productivity, fuel switching dynamics in megacities, and behavioral responses to environmental stress. Recent publications analyze particulate pollution in China, temperature effects in tropical cities, and plastic waste patterns linked to food delivery. Notable awards include the JAERE Best Paper Award (2020), Robert Mundell Prize (2010), and Antitrust Policy Award (2007). His collaborations span institutions in Brazil, China, and Singapore.
Jan Eeckhout is an ICREA Research Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona, specializing in macroeconomic theory, labor markets, and urban economics. His work focuses on market power dynamics, wage inequality, and technological impacts on labor and urban systems. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE). Eeckhout has received a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant (€2.45M) for research on 'Macro Market Power and Distribution.' He authored the influential book The Profit Paradox (2021), exploring how dominant firms reshape labor markets and economies, translated into multiple languages. His research frequently appears in top journals like the Quarterly Journal of Economics and Review of Economic Studies. Research Interests: Macro-Labor Theory, Labor Markets, Urban Economics, Market Power, and Economic Inequality. Recent work examines technological origins of labor market stagnation, IT-driven urban polarization, and wealth effects on worker productivity. Advising and Grants: Supervises PhD students (e.g., Milena Djourelova, David Puig) and collaborates with institutions globally (CEMFI, EUI, Sciences Po). His team includes co-authors like Jan De Loecker and Philipp Kircher. Active in policy discussions via think tanks and media outlets like VoxEU and the NYT. Labs/Teams: Leads a diverse research group at UPF, with projects on market power, urban economics, and labor dynamics.
Michael Stamm is Chairperson and Professor in the Department of History at Michigan State University, within the College of Social Science. His research focuses on media and journalism history, with specialties in cultural, political, and environmental history. He has authored influential books like Sound Business (2011) and Dead Tree Media (2018), which explore the material and economic dimensions of print media. His work bridges media studies with environmental history, examining global commodity chains and the geopolitical impact of newsprint production. Stamm’s research has been recognized with awards including the Canadian Business History Association’s Best Book Prize (2019) and the Richard E. Sullivan Teaching Excellence Award (2022). He leads courses on North American history, media, business, and environmental history. From 2017–2020, he directed MSU’s participation in the American Historical Association’s Career Diversity initiative, fostering innovative historian training. His recent projects expand into international media comparisons and digital-age publishing challenges. Stamm’s academic profile combines rigorous historical scholarship with interdisciplinary engagement, reflecting his dual role as a researcher and educator.
Jon M. Peha is a Full Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering. He serves as Founder and Director of the Center for Executive Education in Technology Policy (CEE-TP) and maintains affiliations with the CyLab Security and Privacy Institute and the Information Networking Institute. His career uniquely bridges government service (as FCC Chief Technologist, White House OSTP Assistant Director, and congressional advisor), industry leadership (as CTO for three tech startups), and academic research. Education: Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University (1991) M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University (1986) B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Brown University (1984) Peha's research spans the technical and policy dimensions of information networks, with particular focus on spectrum management, broadband Internet architecture, wireless communications, cybersecurity, and communications for emergency response. His work integrates engineering principles with economic and regulatory analysis to address real-world challenges in telecommunications infrastructure. Current projects examine connected vehicle communications, spectrum sharing models, and consumer-centric broadband labeling systems that emerged from his large-scale user studies. His research publications demonstrate consistent leadership in both technical innovation and policy analysis, with recent work addressing satellite interference mitigation, V2X communications, and pandemic-era internet performance. The breadth of his scholarship reflects his unique position at the intersection of engineering practice and policy formulation. Scientific Awards: IEEE Fellow AAAS Fellow FCC Excellence in Engineering Award IEEE Communications Society TCCN Publication Award Brown Engineering Medal AAAS Featured Science and Technology Policy Fellow (40@40) Peha actively engages with policymakers through congressional testimony, FCC consultation, and White House advisory roles. His government service has directly informed his academic work on spectrum policy, network neutrality, and public safety communications. He has supervised numerous graduate students across EPP, ECE, and INI programs, with research spanning vehicular networks, spectrum sharing, and emergency communications systems. As Director of CEE-TP, he leads executive education initiatives that bridge technical expertise and policy decision-making. His work with CyLab focuses on cybersecurity and privacy challenges in broadband systems and connected vehicles. Current projects include developing cost-effective spectrum sharing models for intelligent transportation systems and analyzing the economic implications of multi-network access architectures in 5G networks.
Nasir M. Rajpoot is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, UK. His research focuses on computational pathology, medical image analysis, and deep learning applications in histology. He leads interdisciplinary projects integrating artificial intelligence with healthcare, particularly in cancer diagnostics and pathology workflows. Rajpoot’s work emphasizes developing robust algorithms for histology image analysis, including nuclear segmentation, tumor classification, and domain generalization in computational pathology. His contributions include the TIAToolbox, an open-source framework for tissue image analytics, and the CoNIC Challenge to advance nuclear detection and counting in histology images. He collaborates with clinicians and biologists to translate AI models into clinical practice, addressing challenges like tumor heterogeneity and staining variability. Rajpoot’s research spans colorectal, lung, and oral cancers, with a focus on predicting clinical outcomes via histological features and genomic data integration. Notable projects include the development of Handcrafted Histological Transformer (H2T) for unsupervised representations of whole slide images and the SAFRON framework for histology image synthesis. His work addresses domain adaptation, robustness evaluation, and explainability in AI-driven pathology systems.
Marco Brogna is an Associate Professor of Economic Geography at the Department of Methods and Models for Economy, Territory, and Finance at Sapienza University of Rome. He has been serving in this capacity since March 2007, following his position as a Confirmed Researcher of Economic Geography from 2001 to 2007. His academic work is deeply rooted in the Faculty of Economics, where he has held significant administrative roles including Delegate of the Dean for Teaching and President of the Coordination Committee for Degree Programs. Professor Brogna's research interests span Tourism Development , Sustainable Tourism , Local Economic Development , Economic Geography , Territorial Planning , and Accessible Tourism . His work consistently focuses on the intersection between tourism, regional development, and sustainable practices. He has particular expertise in analyzing tourism dynamics in the Lazio region and Rome, examining how tourism impacts local economies and how territories can be developed to maximize tourism potential while maintaining sustainability. His recent publications reveal a clear trend toward analyzing post-pandemic tourism recovery, sustainable development models, and the evolving relationship between tourism and local communities. His research demonstrates a progression from traditional tourism studies toward more complex analyses of tourism's role in territorial development, with increasing focus on digital influences, accessibility, and sustainable practices. His work spans both theoretical frameworks and practical applications, often using case studies from Rome and the Lazio region to illustrate broader principles of tourism development. Professor Brogna has been actively involved in thesis supervision for undergraduate and graduate students, encouraging students to apply one semester before their expected completion date. He has led numerous research projects funded by the Lazio Region, including innovative research on tourist industry management, tourism training, and sustainable tourism development. His most significant projects include being responsible for the 2021 research on 'Innovative Management of the Tourist Industry' and the 2020 National Report on Open-Air Tourism. Professor Brogna has also been instrumental in organizing academic events, including the 'Giovedì del Turismo' conference series at Sapienza University since 2015, as well as numerous other conferences on tourism development, sustainable tourism, and territorial planning. His work extends beyond academia into practical applications through his involvement with Rome's strategic tourism planning and various governmental advisory roles.
Jaime S. Cardoso is an Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and a Senior Researcher in the 'Information Processing and Pattern Recognition' Area at INESC TEC's Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit. He has been serving as Research Coordinator since September 15, 1998, and is a Senior Member of IEEE as well as co-founder of ClusterMedia Labs. His educational background includes a Licenciatura in Electrical and Computer Engineering (1999), an MSc in Mathematical Engineering (2005), and a Ph.D. in Computer Vision (2006), all from the University of Porto. Cardoso's research focuses on three major areas: computer vision, machine learning, and decision support systems. His work spans medical image analysis, explainable AI, semantic audio-visual analysis, and pattern recognition. He has co-authored over 150 papers, with more than 50 published in international journals, and has accumulated over 6,500 citations. His recent publications demonstrate expertise in cell nuclei segmentation, ordinal regression for CNNs, semantic segmentation with ordinal relationships, face recognition using synthetic data, and explainable vision language models for medical applications. Honorable Mention in the Exame Informática Award 2011 for 'Semantic PACS' First Place in the ICDAR 2013 Music Scores Competition Cardoso has supervised numerous graduate students at UP-FEUP, with recent theses focusing on multimodal explanations, autonomous driving, medical diagnosis, and explainable AI. His research group works at the intersection of computer vision, machine learning, and practical applications in healthcare and autonomous systems.
Richard DUNCAN is a Professor in Conservation Biology at the University of Canberra's Science School and Department of Centre for Conservation and Ecology Genetics. His research focuses on the ecology of invasive species, particularly understanding how introduced species arrive, establish, and spread in new environments. Key areas include invasive weeds and pests, ecological community structure, and applying quantitative methods to address both fundamental and applied ecological questions. Education: PhD in Forest Ecology, University of Canterbury (1989, award date noted as 2024 in text) Research Interests: His work spans invasive species ecology, population dynamics, and restoration strategies. He employs diverse methods including field experiments, modeling, and genomics, with recent focus on grasslands and aquatic systems. Current projects address amphibian chytrid fungus, carp invasions, and rodent control. Articles Trends: Recent publications emphasize invasive species impacts on ecosystems, pathogen-driven niche contractions, and conservation tools like geospatial modeling and genomic simulations. Themes include species distribution modeling, pest management, and restoration ecology. Awards & Grants: Lead investigator on 35+ projects, including ARC Plant Biosecurity Training Centre and chytrid fungus mitigation efforts Associate Editor for Proceedings of the Royal Society B and Diversity and Distributions Advising: Accepting PhD students in invasive species ecology, with focus on using biological invasions to explore ecological theory and management applications. Labs/Teams: Collaborates widely on conservation genetics, aquatic invasions, and biosecurity, including work with the Biological Heritage Science Challenge and Indigenous Grasslands Trust.
