Andrew Mitchell is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, Monash University, and a member of the WTO Dispute Settlement Panelists Indicative List. He has extensive legal practice experience with Allens Arthur Robinson and consults for governments, international organizations, and the private sector. Mitchell has taught law in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, and the US. He holds law degrees from the University of Melbourne, Harvard Law School, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on international economic law, public international law, and digital trade governance, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of trade law and public health. Mitchell has secured six major grants, including an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, and has authored over 170 books and articles. He serves as an editor for Edward Elgar’s International Economic Law Series and multiple journal editorial boards. Recent projects include 'Safeguarding Health in International Investment Agreements' (2022–2025) 'Maritime Cooperation for a Sustainable Indo-Pacific' (2021–2022) 'Global E-Commerce and Cottage Industries in India' (2020–2021) He has contributed to policy submissions on bilateral investment treaties and delivered lectures on data sovereignty and digital trade. His awards include editorial leadership roles at journals like the Journal of World Investment and Trade and Asia Pacific Law Review .
David Mazières is a Professor at Stanford University , affiliated with the School of Engineering and the Department of Computer Science . He serves as a software engineer at the Stellar Development Foundation . His work bridges academic research and industry applications in distributed systems and security. University: Stanford University Academic Rank: Professor Email: dm@scs.stanford.edu Research Interests: David Mazières' research focuses on distributed systems , cryptocurrencies , and computer security . Key areas include consensus protocols (e.g., Stellar ), low-latency scheduling ( Syrup , Shinjuku ), and cryptographic techniques for privacy and security ( SafetyPin , CCFI ). Key Achievements: His notable works include: TCP-ENO (RFC 8547) for secure transport protocols Stellar Consensus Protocol for decentralized finance SOSP 1999 Best Paper for 'Separating key management from file system security' Teaching Contributions: He has taught core and advanced courses at Stanford since 2005, including CS212 (Operating Systems) , CS240h (Functional Systems in Haskell) , and CS251 (Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies) . Previously taught courses at NYU (2001-2005).
Jyh-An Lee is a Professor and founding Executive Director of the Centre for Legal Innovation and Digital Society (CLINDS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Faculty of Law. He leads the New Ventures Legal Team (NVLT) and holds advisory roles at institutions like the European Center for E-Commerce & Internet Law and National University of Singapore. Education : JSD (Stanford), LLM (Harvard), MBA & LLB (National Taiwan University) Admissions : Practicing lawyer in Taiwan His research interests focus on Intellectual Property , AI and the Law , Law & Digital Technology , and Asian Law . He has contributed to landmark studies on NFTs, metaverse legal frameworks, cybersecurity, and IP litigation in Asia. The scientific awards he has received include: CUHK PhD IMPAC Award (2024-25) CUHK Vice-Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award (2023, 2019) CUHK Outstanding Research Impact Award (2022-23) Numerous other university and faculty-level honors His work has been cited by major international courts and agencies. He is also a TRAIL Academic Fellow and active in policy advisory roles for Creative Commons and IP offices in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Reza Shokri is a Dean's Chair Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS), School of Computing. His research lies at the intersection of data privacy, security, and trustworthy machine learning, with a focus on quantifying privacy risks and developing robust, fair, and interpretable models. PhD in Computer Science, EPFL His research interests center on data privacy and trustworthy machine learning , particularly in the context of deep learning and federated systems. He investigates how machine learning models memorize training data, leading to privacy leakage, and designs frameworks to audit and mitigate such risks. His work bridges theoretical guarantees with practical applications, emphasizing the trade-offs among privacy, fairness, robustness, and utility. His recent publications (2023–2025) reveal a strong trend in analyzing privacy in large language models (LLMs), membership inference attacks, federated learning, and fairness. These works are published in top venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CCS, and FAccT, highlighting his leadership in both AI and security communities. Notable scientific awards include: Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (2023) Intel Outstanding Researcher Award (2023) Best Paper Award, ACM FAccT (2023) IEEE S&P Test-of-Time Award (2021) Caspar Bowden Award for Privacy Enhancing Technologies (2018) NUS Presidential Young Professorship (2019–2023) VMware Early Career Faculty Award (2021) He has advised numerous PhD and Master’s students, many of whom have contributed to high-impact publications. He has also received research grants from major industry partners including Meta, Google, Intel, and VMware. He leads the Data Privacy and Trustworthy Machine Learning Lab at NUS and has served on program committees for top conferences such as IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, and FAccT, including co-chairing roles at HotPETs and Shadow PC of IEEE S&P. He has delivered tutorials at ICML and CCS on privacy auditing in machine learning. His lab focuses on developing tools and frameworks—such as the ML Privacy Meter—for assessing and improving the privacy properties of machine learning models, with applications in regulatory compliance and secure AI deployment.
Stephan Conermann serves as Professor of Islamic Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Bonn, where he has held continuous academic appointments since 2003. His institutional leadership includes directorship of the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg (2010-2022), Bonn Center for Transcultural Narratology, and significant administrative roles culminating in his current deanship since 2023. Academic Background: Doctorate in Oriental Philology/Islamic Studies (Kiel University, 1996, magna cum laude) Magisterstudium in Asian History, Oriental and Slavic Philology (Kiel University, 1992) Conermann's research examines pre-modern Islamic societies through narrative strategies in historiography, with specialized focus on Mamluk Sultanate governance (1250-1517), Delhi Sultanate/Mughal transitions, and Transottomanica mobility dynamics. His work uniquely connects asymmetrical dependencies (particularly slavery systems), power structures, and global entanglements across South Asia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. His extensive publication portfolio shows consistent thematic evolution toward comparative frameworks analyzing slavery beyond Eurocentric models, narrative construction of power across cultures, and mobility as historical catalyst. Recent scholarship increasingly integrates transcultural methodology with digital humanities approaches. Academic Leadership: Supervised 290+ theses (59 PhD, 96 Magister, 47 Master, 88 Bachelor) Acquired ~9 million euros in third-party funding (DFG, BMBF, DAAD) Editor of 15+ publication series including Mamluk Studies and Dependency and Slavery Studies Conermann directs the Bonn Center for Transcultural Narratology and co-leads the EXC 2036 'Beyond Slavery and Freedom' cluster, fostering interdisciplinary research on pre-modern dependency systems through international collaborations across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Kevin Pisciotta is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Kansas School of Business, specializing in empirical corporate finance, initial public offerings (IPOs), and information intermediaries. His work bridges corporate finance theory with real-world market dynamics, focusing on IPO processes, analyst behavior, and economic impacts of social issues like opioid abuse and sports betting. Education: Ph.D. in Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University M.S. in Finance, University of Delaware B.S. in Finance, University of Delaware Research Interests: His research explores how IPO bookbuilding mechanisms influence market outcomes, the role of sell-side analysts in information dissemination, and the macroeconomic consequences of phenomena like opioid abuse and sports gambling. He also investigates labor economics through the lens of corporate innovation and workforce productivity. Publications Trends: Recent work examines the interplay between sports betting and household financial stability (2024), IPO marketing strategies post-JOBS Act reforms (2018), and the spillover effects of opioid abuse on regional innovation ecosystems (2023). His studies frequently employ large-scale datasets to analyze market microstructure and policy impacts. Grants/Advising: No specific grants or advisee names are listed in available materials. Teaching experience includes undergraduate courses in investments, international finance, and corporate financial management. Labs/Teams: No dedicated lab affiliation is mentioned, though collaborations with institutions like Pennsylvania State University and the University of Delaware are implied through his educational background and co-authorships.
Timo Minssen is Professor of Law at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and the Founding Director of UCPH's Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL). He also holds affiliations as an LML Research Affiliate at the University of Cambridge and an Inter-CeBIL Research Affiliate at Harvard Law School's Petrie-Flom Centre. With extensive expertise in Intellectual Property, Competition, and Regulatory Law, Minssen focuses on the legal aspects of emerging health and life science technologies, including genome editing, big data, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology. His educational background includes a German law degree (Staatsexamen) from Georg-August-University in Göttingen, and Swedish biotech & IPR related LL.M., LL.Lic., and LL.D. degrees from Lund University and Uppsala University. His PhD thesis on the patentability of biopharmaceutical technology in the US & Europe received the prestigious Swedish King Oscar award. 2024: TUM Global Visiting Professor, Technical University of Munich (Germany) 2016: Visiting Research Fellow, University of Cambridge (UK) 2014: Visiting Research Fellow, University of Oxford (UK) 2013-14: Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School (US) 2012: LL.D. - Doctor of Laws (Swedish "juris doktor"), EU/US patent law, Lund University, Sweden Minssen's research spans AI & Big Data in Health & Life Sciences, Sustainable and responsible innovation & tech transfer, Pharmaceutical-, Life Science- & Biotech Law, Comparative European & US Patent Law, Intellectual Property Law & Open Innovation, and EU Competition- & US Antitrust Law. His work addresses legal issues throughout the lifecycle of health and life science products and processes, from R&D regulation to technology transfer and commercialization. His extensive publication record includes 7 books and over 200 articles and book chapters published in leading journals such as Science, Nature Biotechnology, JAMA, and Harvard Business Review. His research has been featured in The Economist, Financial Times, and other major media outlets. Minssen's recent work shows a strong focus on AI regulation, quantum technology law, and data governance in health contexts, reflecting the evolving landscape of technology and law. Scientific Awards and Recognition King Oscar award for best Jur. Dr. thesis (2014) Jorcks Fonds Forsknings Pris (Jorck's Foundation Research Prize) (2017) Awapatent Research Prize (2009) Max Planck Research Scholarship (2005) Visiting Scholar appointments at Harvard Law School, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge Recipient of a Novo Nordisk Foundation Grant for a "Collaborative Research Program in Biomedical Innovation Law" (2018) As an advisor, Minssen serves international organizations including the WHO, WIPO, and EU Commission. He has supervised numerous PhD students in areas including pharmaceutical law, biotechnology patents, and antimicrobial resistance. His current research projects include the Novo Nordisk Foundation's International Collaborative Bioscience Innovation & Law (Inter-CeBIL) Programme (50 million DKK), CLASSICA: EU Horizon Project on AI-assisted surgery, and AI@Care: Law and Ethics and Algorithmic Bias in Healthcare. Minssen leads the Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL), which serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research on the intersection of law, technology, and innovation in the health and life sciences. The center collaborates with institutions worldwide to address pressing legal challenges in emerging technologies.
Gavan J. Fitzsimons is the Edward S. & Rose K. Donnell Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Psychology at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business , with a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience. He is a Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences . His research bridges consumer psychology, behavioral decision-making, and social cognition, focusing on nonconscious influences on consumption patterns. Education: Ph.D., Columbia University (1995) Key research themes include subconscious consumer behavior , brand relationships , health-related consumption , and social dynamics in purchasing decisions . Recent work examines financial stress effects on purchase satisfaction, secret consumer behaviors in relationships, and pandemic-related decision-making. Notable trends in his 2023-2025 publications involve Marketing's subconscious influence (2025: Quality-Quantity Tradeoffs) Brand teasing as relationship-building (2025: Humor in Branding) Financial constraint effects on consumer happiness (2024: Opportunity Cost Analysis) Crisis behavior during pandemics (2024: Prosociality Across 39 Countries) Health behavior spillovers in families (2024: Parental Food Choices) Scientific Contributions include Foundational work on nonconscious consumer psychology (2008 JCP editorial) Methodological innovations in moderated regression analysis (2013 JMR ) Behavioral economics of brand sincerity effects (2015 JCR )
Elette Boyle is an Associate Professor at Reichman University (IDC Herzliya) and a Senior Scientist at NTT Research . She holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT (advised by Shafi Goldwasser and Yael Tauman Kalai) and an undergraduate degree from Caltech . Education Ph.D. in Mathematics, MIT B.S. in Mathematics, Caltech Her research focuses on cryptographic solutions for secure data processing , particularly in secure multi-party computation , function/homomorphic secret sharing , and distributed point functions . Recent work explores topology-hiding communication , memory checking complexity , and sublinear-communication MPC . Key trends in her publications include: Advancements in Function Secret Sharing for branching programs and sparse vectors. Efficient Secure Multi-Party Computation protocols with preprocessing. Information-theoretic and computational Topology-Hiding Broadcast schemes. Optimized Oblivious Transfer with constant computational overhead. Scientific Awards European Research Council (ERC) Award Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) Grant United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Grant Google Research Scholar Award International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) Recognition As Director of the Foundations & Applications of Cryptography (FACT) Research Center , she leads collaborative work with institutions like Technion Israel , Cornell University , and NTT Research . Her students include Pierre Meyer (Ph.D.) , Matan Hamilis (Ph.D.) , and D'or Banon (MSc.) .
David S. Caudill is a Professor of Law and the inaugural Arthur M. Goldberg Family Chair at Villanova University’s Widger School of Law since 2005. He also holds the title of Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law Faculty. Caudill has held visiting appointments at the University of Texas, Southern Illinois University, Cardozo School of Law, and the University of Florida. Education: J.D., University of Houston Law Center (1981) Ph.D., Philosophy, Free University of Amsterdam (1989) B.A., Philosophy, Michigan State University (1973) Postdoctoral work: Science & Technology Studies at Virginia Tech (2001) and Washington Psychoanalytic Institute (1994-95) Caudill’s research bridges law and science studies , law and literature , and sports and entertainment law . His recent work examines the legal implications of scientific consensus, confidentiality in business contexts, and the ethical dimensions of literary narratives in jurisprudence. His five 2025 publications reflect interdisciplinary engagement with legal ethics, scientific evidence in courtrooms, and the intersection of law with cultural and scientific discourse. Articles address topics like non-disclosure agreements, climate change litigation, and the use of literature in legal ethics training. Scientific Awards: SKAPP grant (2007) Société de Chimie Industrielle Fellow (2007/2008) Before academia, Caudill practiced real estate and sports law, clerked for the Fifth Circuit, and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas. His presentations span themes like expertise crises, psychoanalytic theory in law, and religious aspects of legal epistemology.
Associate Professor Fengling Han is affiliated with RMIT University's School of Computing Technologies in Melbourne, Australia. He holds the rank of Associate Professor since January 2022. His research focuses on complex networks, industrial electronics, AI/machine learning, and network security. Notable contributions include steganography frameworks for healthcare data, sliding mode control for energy systems, and blockchain applications in surveillance and voting systems. His work spans interdisciplinary areas such as renewable energy integration, battery management systems, and privacy-preserving recommendation systems. He has supervised numerous projects, including AI-driven chatbots, medical imaging watermarking, and peer-to-peer energy trading systems. Han's service roles include conference reviewing and committee memberships in international conferences like IEEE and ISMST. Research Interests: His expertise spans electrical engineering, control systems, and AI applications. Key areas include battery management, cybersecurity, and smart manufacturing. Recent projects emphasize Industry 5.0 technologies, blockchain for data integrity, and deep learning for steganalysis. Teaching and Supervision: Teaches network security, data communication, and IT infrastructure. Current supervision includes AI-powered business modeling, medical imaging tampering detection, and renewable energy sharing systems. Over 14 research projects are documented, reflecting his interdisciplinary impact. Awards and Recognition: While specific awards are not listed, his extensive publications (over 150 outputs) and high citation counts (e.g., 119 citations for the Industry 5.0 survey) highlight his scholarly contributions.
Lubomir P. Litov is the David M. Moffett Professor of Corporate Finance and an associate professor in the Finance Department at the Michael F. Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma. He also holds an appointment as Affiliate Associate Professor of Law at the OU College of Law. Dr. Litov received his Ph.D. in Economics from Leonard Stern School of Business at New York University. Prior to joining OU, he held faculty positions at the University of Arizona and Washington University in St. Louis. He is also a research associate at the Financial Institutions Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Litov's research focuses on several key areas of finance and corporate governance: Corporate governance mechanisms and board structures Mergers and acquisitions processes and outcomes Venture capital and private equity investment strategies Entrepreneurial finance and growth equity Capital structure decisions and risk management International corporate finance and policy impacts His recent publications examine critical issues such as dual-class stock IPOs, policy uncertainty effects on venture capital, poison pill defenses, and the relationship between venture capitalist directors and managerial incentives. Dr. Litov's work consistently bridges theoretical frameworks with practical applications in corporate finance and governance, with articles published in top journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Accounting and Economics. Dr. Litov has received numerous teaching and research honors including: Harold E. Hackler Outstanding MBA Professor Award (2022) Merrick Foundation Teaching Award (2018) Hurley Roberson Teaching Excellence Award (2017) William Sharpe award for best paper in JFQA (2010) As an educator, Dr. Litov teaches courses on Mergers, Acquisitions & Corporate Restructuring across multiple programs including the MBA, Executive MBA in Aerospace & Defense, and MSc in Finance. He also co-organizes the Virtual Household Finance Seminar and the NYU-Georgia Tech-OU Economics Virtual Seminar on Artificial Intelligence and Decentralized Finance, bringing together leading researchers to discuss cutting-edge developments in finance.
Prof. Dr. jur. Matthias Leistner, LL.M. (Cambridge), holds the Chair of Civil Law and Intellectual Property Law with Information Law and IT Law (GRUR Chair) at the Faculty of Law, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His research focuses on German, European, and international patent law, including the European Unitary Patent (UPCA/UPC), standard essential patents (SEPs/FRAND), patent pools, and legal challenges in biotech, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and electronics. He also specializes in copyright law, data law, and regulatory frameworks for AI, platforms, and Industry 4.0, as well as trade secrets and licensing contracts. He teaches German and European Copyright Law (Summer Semester 2025) German and European Patent Law (Winter Semester 2024/25) and leads a seminar in Focus Area 3 for the winter semester. Contact: Phone: +49 89 2180-71240 Email: sekretariat.leistner@jura.uni-muenchen.de His work is affiliated with the German Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and Copyright (GRUR) and the Munich Centre for Patent Law Research (MUCPAT) .
Dr. Vikram Nanda is the O.P. Jindal Distinguished Chair Professor of Finance at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas. He holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Chicago, MBA from Yale University, and a Bachelor of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His research focuses on corporate finance, financial institutions, and behavioral finance, with emphasis on topics like hedge fund strategies, managerial overconfidence, and corruption's economic impacts. Key research highlights include studies on multi-market trading (best paper award), litigation risk effects on contracting, and cryptocurrency bubble detection. He has served on editorial boards for Journal of Financial Research and Financial Letters , and contributed to non-academic publications like Barron’s . His work spans 30+ years across top-tier institutions including USC, University of Michigan, and Georgia Tech. Current research explores AI's role in investment management, gender diversity in executive roles, and legal frameworks affecting corporate behavior. Awards include Smith Breeden Prize nominations and Q-Group research grants. Educations: PhD (Chicago), MBA (Yale), B.Tech (IIT Kanpur) Affiliations: Financial Intermediation Research Society, European Finance Association Labs/Teams: Behavioral Finance Research Group, Corporate Governance Initiative He advises on strategic financial decisions and has authored/coauthored over 50 publications. Recent work examines environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies and the impact of trade secret laws on financial opacity.
David Almeling is a Lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law where he teaches Trade Secret Law, while maintaining his primary role as a partner at O'Melveny & Myers LLP in San Francisco. He is widely recognized as one of the country's leading authorities in trade secret law, with Chambers USA ranking him in Band 1 (its highest category) among the top seven trade secret lawyers nationwide. His practice spans the full range of trade secret and employee mobility issues, from advising on protection programs to investigating alleged thefts to litigating trade secret cases in state and federal court. Mr. Almeling earned his J.D. from Duke University School of Law with high honors, where he was Order of the Coif, note editor of Duke Law Journal, and a member of the Moot Court Board. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida with highest honors as valedictorian and Phi Beta Kappa. His research interests focus on trade secret law, intellectual property strategy, and the intersection between patent and trade secret protection. He has published extensively on trade secret law, including the fourth edition of his book Trade Secret Law and Corporate Strategy (LexisNexis 2024) and numerous scholarly articles. His work demonstrates a consistent focus on practical applications of trade secret law for corporate strategy, with particular attention to identification of trade secrets, monetary remedies, and the relationship between trade secrets and noncompete agreements. Mr. Almeling has received numerous prestigious awards recognizing his expertise, including being named to the 'Hall of Fame' by The Legal 500 US for Trade Secrets (2023-2025), ranked in Band 1 by Chambers USA, and recognized by World Intellectual Property Review as Highly Recommended. He has also been named one of Law360's 'Rising Stars' and featured in The National Law Journal's list of 'Intellectual Property Trailblazers & Pioneers.' As Chair of O'Melveny's Trade Secret Group and Chair of the Sedona Conference Working Group on trade secrets, Mr. Almeling has significant leadership responsibilities in his field. He has testified before Congress on safeguarding trade secrets and serves as co-author of the 'Trade Secret Case Management Judicial Guide,' a 400-page treatise published by the Federal Judicial Center. His practice includes representing clients in high-stakes trade secret litigation resulting in significant settlements and victories, including a $22.5M settlement that would rank among the top-ten trade secret jury verdicts.
