Xingang Pan is an Assistant Professor in the College of Computing and Data Science at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), leading the MMLab@NTU. His research focuses on generative AI and visual content creation, particularly in generative models, 3D vision, computer graphics, and computer vision. Prior to NTU, he was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and earned his Ph.D. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2021) and B.Sc. from Tsinghua University (2016). His work emphasizes generative intelligence, exploring long-term world simulation, diffusion models, and multi-scale 3D generation. Notable contributions include WORLDMEM (2025), Alias-free Latent Diffusion (2025), and SAR3D (2025). His research has been published in top venues like CVPR, ICCV, and SIGGRAPH. Xingang Pan oversees the MMLab@NTU, which actively recruits students globally without nationality constraints. The lab’s projects include GAN2Shape (unsupervised 3D reconstruction from 2D GANs) and LN3Diff (scalable 3D generation).
Andreas Bulling is a Professor at the Institute for Visualisation and Interactive Systems , University of Stuttgart, Germany. His research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction , Eye Tracking , and Computer Vision , with applications in Machine Learning , Virtual Reality , and Information Visualization . 2025 Publications: HOIGaze (Extended Reality), ChartQC (Data Visualization), HAIFAI (Human-AI Interaction), SummAct (Behavioral Summarization), Chartist (Chart Reading). 2024 Contributions: HumanEYEze (Multimodal AI), HOIMotion (3D Object Detection), MultiMediate'24 (Engagement Estimation), Unified Model of Saliency (Scanpath Prediction). His recent work explores gaze estimation , interactive behavior modeling , and privacy-preserving eye-tracking systems . Key subfields include Extended Reality , Neural Networks , and Behavioral Biometrics . While no explicit scientific awards are mentioned, his research has been widely cited (8,003 total citations) and downloaded (132,740 times). Andreas leads projects in Interactive Systems and collaborates with institutions such as Aalto University , KU Leuven , and National University of Singapore . His lab focuses on eye movement analysis , human motion forecasting , and task-driven input modeling .
Sebastian Thies is Professor and Chair for Ibero-American Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Tübingen, where he has been employed since October 2012. He serves as Vice Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies (ICGSS) and coordinates the BMBF/DAAD thematic network 'Futures under construction in the Global South'. His academic journey began with a PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Osnabrück in 2000, followed by positions at the University of Bielefeld where he progressed from Junior Professor for Hispanic Literary and Media Studies to Full Professor for Inter-American Studies. Thies' research focuses on Global South Studies, with particular emphasis on Latin American literature, film, and media. His work explores subjectivity formations, entangled temporalities, and political communication across borders. He has directed significant research initiatives including the doctoral studies program 'Entangled Temporalities in the Global South' and has co-edited major reference works such as The Routledge Handbook for Global South Studies on Subjectivities (2024). His extensive publication record demonstrates a consistent engagement with transnational cultural phenomena, particularly examining how Latin American cultural production intersects with global political and social dynamics. Thies frequently collaborates with international scholars, reflecting his commitment to transdisciplinary and transregional approaches to cultural analysis. Project Leader: Research Training Network 'Entangled Temporalities in the Global South' Vice Project Leader: Thematic network 'Literary Cultures of the Global South' Associated Investigator: BMBF-Area Studies Project 'The Americas as a Space of Entanglement' Project Leader: Research Group 'E Pluribus Unum? Ethnic Identies in Processes of Transnational Integration' Thies actively supervises doctoral students through the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies and has established collaborative networks across Latin America, particularly with institutions in Mexico and Colombia. His current research agenda focuses on 'Futures under construction in the Global South' and continues to explore the intersections of cultural production, political communication, and subjectivity formation in transnational contexts.
Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler is Professor of Sinology at Heidelberg University and founding co-director of the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (CATS) and the Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe in a Global Context.' Her research explores Chinese cultural policy, print media, musicology, visual culture, and transcultural studies. Mittler's scholarly contributions include groundbreaking work on Cultural Revolution culture, early Chinese print media (particularly women's magazines), and the transcultural flows of cultural production. Her current projects examine Mao as a global icon and comparative studies of Asian 'fathers of the nation.' Her publication record demonstrates consistent focus on cultural transmission mechanisms, with recent research developing transcultural frameworks for understanding cultural exchange and historical analysis. Publications reflect an interdisciplinary approach combining visual analysis, media studies, and historical methodology. Mittler has received numerous honors including the Fairbank Prize, Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Prize, and memberships in the Leopoldina and Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. She leads major initiatives like the China-Schul-Akademie developing educational materials about China for German schools.
Gerhard Hirschfeld is an Honorary Professor at the Department of History, University of Stuttgart, and has served as Director of the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte since 1989. His research focuses on Social and Cultural History of World War I , Comparative Occupation History of World War II , 20th Century Netherlands History , and Academic Emigration post-1933 . He has been a Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (1996/1997, 2006/2007) Fellow of the German Historical Institute London and held leadership roles including Chair of the German Committee for the History of WWII (1991–2000) and President of the International Committee for the History of WWII (2000–2010). His publications span monographs, edited volumes, and essays on occupation policies, collaboration, and exile studies. Recent works emphasize the media representation of WWI , continuity of nationalist rhetoric , and ethical dimensions of historical taboos . He contributes to journals like Zeithistorische Forschungen and Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis . Scientific awards include Fellowships at NIAS and DHIL Editorial leadership in academic series like Zeit der Weltkriege and Schriften der Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte and advocacy for interdisciplinary war studies.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Butz is a Full Professor and Chair for Human-Computer Interaction at the Department for Informatics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich). He leads the Media Informatics Group, focusing on innovative interaction techniques and interfaces in immersive environments like VR/AR, automotive systems, and smart spaces. His research emphasizes perceptual user interfaces, social robotics, and designing systems that balance invisibility with transparency. Key research areas include: Virtual/Augmented Reality interfaces for productivity and social interaction AI-driven decision support in safety-critical domains (aviation, healthcare) Haptic and wearable interaction technologies Automotive UI design for driver assistance systems Principles of explainable AI and human-AI collaboration His work bridges theory and practice through projects like: VR-based movement training systems AI trust calibration mechanisms Multi-modal interaction frameworks for automotive environments Systems for analyzing long-term music listening behavior Recent articles explore topics ranging from AI support in pilot decision-making to haptic wearables and creative writing interfaces. His team collaborates with industry partners on electric vehicle information systems and in-car interaction challenges.
Dr. Sabine Krabbe is a Group Leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, Germany, where she leads research on neural circuit mechanisms underlying adaptive learning and state-dependent decision-making. Her work integrates neuroscience, molecular biology, and behavioral approaches to understand how internal states influence behavior and how these processes are disrupted in neurological disorders. Dr. Krabbe's research focuses on the interactions between midbrain circuits of the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area with their output structures such as the striatum and amygdala. She investigates how these networks integrate internal states with environmental cues to produce appropriate behavioral responses. Her laboratory employs state-of-the-art techniques including deep-brain calcium imaging at single-cell resolution in mice, opto- and pharmacogenetic manipulations, anatomical tracings, and molecular approaches to characterize neural circuit elements in detail. Her recent publications reveal significant insights into amygdala interneuron plasticity during fear learning, brain-wide representational drift in memory consolidation, and the molecular mechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease progression. Her work demonstrates how activity patterns within specific neural circuits change in early stages of neurodegenerative diseases and how this dysfunction contributes to cognitive deficits and emotional disturbances. Dr. Krabbe is actively involved in the neuroscience community, organizing the BonnBrain Conference 2026 and sharing research through social media platforms. She has established herself as an emerging leader in the field of systems neuroscience with a particular focus on the neural basis of emotional states and decision-making processes.
Gerd Bruder is an Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida , affiliated with the Department of Computer Science . He previously held positions as a Research Associate Professor at UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training (2016-2022), Post-Doc at University of Hamburg (2014-2016), and Post-Doc at University of Würzburg (2011-2014). Habilitation : Computer Science, University of Hamburg (2017) Ph.D. : Computer Science, University of Münster (2011) M.Sc. : Computer Science (minor in Mathematics), University of Münster (2009) Research Interests : Gerd Bruder's work focuses on Extended Reality (XR) systems, spanning Virtual Reality (VR) , Augmented Reality (AR) , and Mixed Reality (MR) . Key areas include human factors , digital twins , 3D user interfaces , and perceptual modeling , with applications in healthcare, military operations, architecture, and smart environments. Recent Publications highlight innovations in XR locomotion , trust calibration with autonomous agents, spatial cognition , and haptic-visual integration . His 2025 articles address task-switching efficiency in XR and collaborative mixed reality design. Scientific Awards : Best Paper at ACM VRST 2023 2021 TechConnect Innovation Award Best Demo at ACM SUI 2021 Multiple Best Paper Awards (2016-2023) Best Poster & Demo Awards (2015-2020) Patents include systems for medical simulation , smart environment interruption management , and adaptive AR interfaces . His work bridges academic research and practical applications across VR, AR, and MR domains.
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag is a distinguished scholar in Islamic Studies and social history of the Arab world, holding a Professorship at Freie Universität Berlin and serving as Director of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) . Her work bridges urban history, transregional Islamic networks, and Arabian Peninsula studies within Indian Ocean and Red Sea contexts. Education : PhD in Islamic Studies (Freiburg, 1991), Habilitation (Bonn, 2002) Research : Focus on Ottoman urban violence, Saudi state formation, Hadhrami diaspora, and historical urbanism in Jeddah Her supervision of PhD projects spans topics from Moroccan Sufi sanctußen to Yemeni Jewish communities. Recent scientific awards include fellowships at Leiden University and Käthe-Hamburger Kolleg. She contributes to public discourse through Tagesspiegel op-eds and international conferences.
Prof. Thomas Arslan is a filmmaker and screenwriter serving as a Professor for Narrative Film at the Institute for Time-Based Media of the Berlin University of the Arts since 2007. His work bridges narrative cinema and documentary practices, often exploring themes of migration, urban life, and cultural identity. Research Interests include: Narrative Film German-Turkish Cultural Contexts Social Realism in Cinema Documentary Storytelling Independent Film Production Historical Memory in Visual Media Filmography Trends : Spanning 1993–2013, his works focus on marginalized communities, historical displacement, and personal/family dynamics within urban settings. Selected subfields include German-Turkish Cinema , Social Observation , and Migration Narratives . Affiliation : Institute for Time-Based Media at UdK Berlin.
Jishen Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (Jacobs School of Engineering). His research focuses on computer architecture, non-volatile memory systems, and deep learning acceleration. Dr. Zhao has published extensively in top venues including ISCA, MICRO, ASPLOS, and IEEE Transactions. He collaborates with researchers at UCSD and beyond to advance systems for emerging applications in AI and autonomous vehicles. Dr. Zhao's primary research areas include persistent memory systems, hardware/software co-design for deep learning, and safety-critical computing. He develops techniques for crash consistency, memory disaggregation, and efficient neural network deployment. His work on autonomous vehicles addresses scenario generation and perception-aware system design. Recent projects explore LLM applications for software engineering and hardware verification. Analysis of Dr. Zhao's 2024-2025 publications reveals a strong shift toward AI-integrated systems research. He applies large language models to tasks like RTL verification and software issue localization while continuing to innovate in memory systems for serverless computing. There is growing emphasis on safety-critical systems for autonomous vehicles and energy-efficient neural network training using novel hardware architectures. Information about Dr. Zhao's scientific awards, advising activities, grants, and laboratory facilities was not available in the provided documentation.
Dr. Hilde Kuehne is a Professor at the University of Tuebingen and a key researcher at the Tuebingen AI Center. She holds affiliations with MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and Goethe University Frankfurt, with a focus on computer vision, multimodal learning, and explainable AI. Her work bridges vision-language models, audio-visual alignment, and self-supervised methods. Co-organizer of the New Frontiers in Associative Memories workshop @ ICLR 2025 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Carl-Zeiss-Foundation Contributor to CVPR 2025's UTD dataset for unbiased video benchmarks Her research addresses critical challenges in: Explainability for Vision Transformers (LeGrad) Fine-grained audio-visual alignment (CAV-MAE Sync) Zero-shot visual recognition automation (Meta-Prompting) Spatio-temporal grounding without annotations Recent collaborative work spans 15+ publications across CVPR, NeurIPS, ICCV, and ICLR, with emphasis on multimodal foundation models, dataset bias mitigation, and differentiable logic networks. She actively contributes to workshop organization and peer review as evidenced by her involvement in CVPR 2025 and ICLR 2025 program committees.
Dr. Enrico Lucca serves as a Research Fellow at the Dubnow Institute, where he has held the position of Research Associate since January 2018. He concurrently coordinates the Research Unit 'Knowledge', the Institute's Forum, and oversees peer reviewing for the Dubnow Institute Yearbook. His academic work centers on twentieth-century European-Jewish history and thought, with specialized focus on knowledge transfer between Europe and Israel/Palestine, intellectual history, and institutional history within Jewish contexts. Lucca completed his Master's degree in Philosophy at the University of Milan in 2007, followed by doctoral studies (2009-2012) at the same institution, culminating in a dissertation titled 'A Dialectic Vision of Jewish History. Gershom Scholem and the Legacy of Messianism.' His academic training includes post-graduate specialization in Cultural Studies at Scuola Alti Studi in Modena (2009) and visiting research periods at the University of Chicago Divinity School (2009-2010) and Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2011). His research traverses European-Jewish intellectual history, Jewish cultural studies, and philosophy of religion, with particular emphasis on messianic thought, Kabbalah studies, and Hebrew literature. Lucca's scholarship frequently examines biographical and institutional frameworks that shaped Jewish thought in the twentieth century, especially through figures like Gershom Scholem, Franz Rosenzweig, and Hugo Bergmann. His methodological approach integrates cultural history with philosophical analysis to explore knowledge transmission across geographical and temporal boundaries. Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals consistent engagement with Central European Jewish intellectual migration to Palestine/Israel, institutional history of the Hebrew University, and critical reinterpretations of Scholem's legacy. His work demonstrates interdisciplinary breadth across history, philosophy, and literary studies, with recurring themes of linguistic identity, cultural transfer, and the interplay between mysticism and modernity in Jewish thought. No scientific awards are documented in the provided materials. While no formal students are listed, Lucca has secured significant research funding including a Gerda Henkel Foundation fellowship (2016-2017) for 'German-Jewish Knowledge and Cultural Transfer 1918–1948' and currently serves as Principal Investigator for the German Research Foundation-funded International Research Training Group 'Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond' (since 2024). Lucca actively leads the Research Unit 'Knowledge' and co-directs the International Research Training Group 'Belongings'—a tripartite collaboration between the Dubnow Institute, Leipzig University, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem—focusing on material culture approaches to Jewish history through comparative, transnational frameworks.
Bénédicte Savoy (born May 22, 1972 in Paris) is a renowned French art historian and Professor of Modern Art History at the Technical University of Berlin since 2009. Since 2016, she has also held positions at the Collège de France in Paris (2016-2021) and in November 2024 was appointed to the 'Cátedra del Prado' visiting professorship at the Prado Museum in Madrid. She is internationally recognized as a leading expert on cultural property restitution, particularly regarding colonial-era art theft and looted artifacts. Her research focuses on the complex histories of cultural displacement, with particular emphasis on European museums' colonial collections. Savoy has pioneered critical approaches to provenance research and has been instrumental in reshaping global debates about museum ethics and restitution practices. Her work bridges art history, postcolonial studies, and cultural policy, challenging traditional museum narratives and advocating for more transparent and ethical approaches to cultural heritage. Savoy's publications form a cohesive intellectual trajectory examining how cultural property has been transferred, often forcibly, across borders and continents. Her recent work increasingly focuses on African cultural heritage in European collections, with detailed case studies of Cameroon and broader analyses of restitution politics. The themes of historical justice, museum transparency, and decolonization of cultural institutions run consistently through her scholarship. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2016), Germany's most prestigious research award TIME 100 most influential people in the world (2021) Ritterin der französischen Ehrenlegion (2022) Deutscher Kulturpolitikpreis (2022) Berliner Wissenschaftspreis (2023) Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing (2024) Prix Européen de l'Essai 2025 (2025) As co-author of the groundbreaking 2018 report on African cultural restitution commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron, Savoy has significantly influenced international policy. Her work has secured major research funding, including collaborative projects with African scholars. She has led influential research teams examining colonial collections, most notably the seven-member team that produced the 'Atlas der Abwesenheit' documenting Cameroonian cultural heritage in Germany. Her advocacy continues to shape museum practices worldwide, pushing institutions toward greater accountability regarding their colonial-era acquisitions.
Prof. Torsten Wolfgang Kuhlen serves as a Universitätsprofessor at RWTH Aachen University, leading the Teaching and Research Area for Virtual Reality and Immersive Visualization within the Department of Computer Science. He is affiliated with Chair of Computer Science 12 (High Performance Computing), the Visual Computing Institute, and remains an integral part of the RWTH IT Center where his research group operates one of the world's largest Virtual Reality laboratories including the 30 sqm aixCAVE visualization chamber. The group maintains strong connections with Computational Science & Engineering Division, National High Performance Computing Center for Computational Engineering Science (NHR4CES), and VR in Science and Industry Network NRW e.V. Prof. Kuhlen's research spans virtual reality, immersive visualization, and multimodal 3D user interfaces with applications across simulation science, production technology, neuroscience, and medicine. His work combines basic research on advanced methods and algorithms with interdisciplinary collaborations involving RWTH Aachen institutes, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and industry partners. Recent publications demonstrate strong focus on audiovisual perception, immersive analytics, collaborative virtual environments, and practical VR applications in education and manufacturing. His research group has produced significant work on listening effort in virtual environments, immersive authoring techniques, and VR applications for scientific visualization. Notable projects include VRScenarioBuilder for automated vehicle testing and applications in monitoring additive manufacturing processes. The group actively participates in major conferences including IEEE VIS and EuroVis, with several award-winning contributions. Prof. Kuhlen has advised PhD students including Martin Bellgardt who recently completed his doctoral degree on "Increasing Immersion in Machine Learning Pipelines for Mechanical Engineering". The research group maintains state-of-the-art VR infrastructure including the aixCAVE facility which is open to all RWTH research groups.
