Skip to content
Go
Session speakers
Professor Yaw Adu-Sarkodie
Yaw Adu-Sarkodie is Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Dean of the School of Medical Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. He is actively involved in the training of undergraduate and postgraduate students of Medicine, Nursing and Medical Laboratory Technology. He mentors students at both Masters and PhD level. He is a Consultant Clinical Microbiologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana.
He obtained his primary medical qualifications (MBChB) at KNUST in 1988, having previously obtained a BSc Human Biology from the same University in 1983 and intercalated in Medical Microbiology (BMedSci Hons) at the University of Sheffield, UK in 1984. In 1993 and 2004 he obtained MSc (Medical Microbiology) and PhD (Infectious and Tropical Diseases) respectively at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He also holds Fellowships of the Ghana College of Physicians (FGCP) and the West Africa College of Physicians (FWACP).
His research interests are in emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and HIV key populations. He has long standing research collaborations with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Bonn and others and serves on many national and international committees on infections.
Professor Isabelle Ansorge
Professor Isabelle Ansorge is the Head of the Oceanography Department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Isabelle’s research interests focus on the impact changes in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the Southern Ocean have on Subantarctic Islands and the impact on their ecosystem functioning. She has been involved as the South African co-ordinator for the highly prestigious and privately funded Antarctic Circumpolar Expedition (ACE). In addition, Isabelle is responsible for the hands-on sea going training of all postgraduate students at the University of Cape Town and heads up the highly successful “SEAmester” Class Afloat programme, which enables students from all South African universities and technikons to gain experience working at sea. Isabelle is also the Principle Investigator of the SAMOC-SA (South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) programme and has a large cohort of postgraduate students and postdocs working on the ocean variability around South Africa. Finally, Isabelle is the Vice President of the International Association for Physical Oceanography (IAPSO) and an Executive Bureau member on the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG).
Professor Amita Bhide
Amita Bhide is a faculty member in the Centre of Urban Planning, Policy and Governance in the School of Habitat Studies. She did her MA in Social Work, specialising in Urban and Rural Community Development in 1990 and has been engaged in teaching at the Institute for over sixteen years. A former faculty member of the School of Social Work in the Department of Urban and Rural Community Development, she has been deeply involved in issues related to urban poor communities, community organisation and housing rights movements and advocacy groups. She has also worked on issues of tribal development and rural governance. She has been involved in several committees of the local and state government in addressing issues of housing and poverty. She is the recipient of the inaugural fellowship of the India China Institute on New School University, New York.
Professor Bhide’s recent work at the School of Habitat Studies has been on urban governance reforms, housing and land issues with a focus on small and medium towns. Her recent publications include ‘The Regularising State’ and ‘Comparing Informalities’. She also heads the M East Ward Social and Economic Transformation Program, an action research project that seeks to create a model of inclusive urban development in M East Ward, the poorest municipal ward in Mumbai.
Sir Phillip Campbell
Sir Philip Campbell is Editor-in-Chief of Nature and of Nature publications. His areas of responsibility include the editorial content of Nature, and assuring the long-term quality of all Nature publications. He is based in London.
He has a BSc in aeronautical engineering, an MSc in astrophysics and a PhD and postdoctoral research in upper atmospheric physics. Following his research, he became the Physical Sciences Editor of Nature and then, in 1988, the founding editor of Physics World, the international magazine of the UK Institute of Physics. He returned to Nature to take on his current role in 1995.
He has worked with the UK Office of Science and Innovation, the European Commission and the US National Institutes of Health on issues relating to science and its impacts in society. For ten years until 2012 he was a trustee of Cancer Research UK. He is a founding trustee and now the Chair of the research funding charity ‘MQ: transforming mental health’.
Professor Matthew Chang
Matthew Chang is Associate Professor in Biochemistry in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Director of NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI). He also heads the Singapore Consortium for Synthetic Biology (SINERGY). His research interests lie in the development of biological systems that perform programmable functions. His work has received international recognition and is featured in leading media agencies worldwide. He has been honored with the Scientific and Technological Achievement Award from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He serves as an editor for Biotechnology for Biofuels, IET Synthetic Biology, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and Critical Reviews in Microbiology, and as an editorial board member for Biotechnology Journal, ACS Synthetic Biology and Cell Systems. He serves on the international advisory panel of the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL), an open standard designed to facilitate the exchange and storage of genetic designs. http://SynCTI.org/
Professor Anthony Chen
Anthony Chen is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Physics and Mathematics from Boston College; a M.A. in Teaching from Harvard University; a M. Sc. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of the West Indies. He was a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society. His research interest includes Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology, Environmental and Energy Studies and Physics Education.
He has been the Principal Investigator/Co-Principal Investigator for several funded projects. He has published works in books, journal articles, conference papers and reports to government and industry. His refereed publication lists over 30 titles and he served as the Lead author for the Small Island Section of Chapter 11 (Regional Projections) of Working Group I publication (Climate Change 2007, The Physical Science Basis) for Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th Assessment, when IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. Though retired, he still teaches part-time and works on projects in climate change and energy. He is an advocate of climate change mitigation and renewable energy for small islands.
Professor Ya-Huei Chin
Ya-Huei (Cathy) Chin is Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. She is a Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Advanced Catalysis for Sustainable Chemistry (2016). She is a recipient of an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2014) and the Imperial Oil University Research Award (2014) and she also received the Bill Burgess Teacher of the Year Award for Large Classes (2016).
She joined the University in 2011, after receiving her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a research engineer (2000-2002) and then senior research scientist (2002-2005) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), one of the ten National Research Laboratories in the USA.
Cathy’s research addresses the technological challenges in catalytic processing of hydrocarbons and oxygenates, emission control, microchemical reactor development, and on-anode natural gas reforming in solid oxide fuel cell. Her recent work focuses on elucidating the molecular events during catalytic conversions of alkanes, alkenes, and oxygenates to liquid fuels and value-added chemicals. Specifically, she applies isotopic, kinetic, and density functional theory methods to investigate the dynamics of catalyst surfaces and their kinetic consequences.
Professor Peter Corke
Peter Corke is a professor of robotic vision at Queensland University of Technology, and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision. His research is concerned with enabling robots to see, and the application of robots to mining, agriculture and environmental monitoring. He is a fellow of the IEEE, former editor-in-chief of the IEEE Robotics & Automation magazine, founding and associate editor of the Journal of Field Robotics, founding multi-media editor and editorial board member of the International Journal of Robotics Research, member of the editorial advisory board of the Springer Tracts on Advanced Robotics series, recipient of the Qantas/Rolls-Royce and Australian Engineering Excellence awards, and has held visiting positions at Oxford, University of Illinois, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania. He created the Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB which has been used for teaching globally for over 20 years, wrote the best selling textbook “Robotics, Vision & Control”, created two MOOCs and has won national and international recognition for teaching. He received his undergraduate and Masters degrees in electrical engineering and PhD from the University of Melbourne. http://www.petercorke.com
Professor Peter Edwards
Peter Edwards is Director of the Singapore-ETH Centre . He studied at Cambridge University, specializing in botany, and graduated in 1970. In 1973 he obtained his Ph.D. degree, also from Cambridge, for a thesis entitled Nutrient cycling in a New Guinea montane forest. He lectured in ecology at the University of Southampton, England, from 1973-1993. Since 1993 he has been professor of plant ecology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).
He is author of around 350 refereed scientific papers and author/editor of several books covering a wide range of environmental fields including ecosystem processes, insect–plant interactions, environmental management and biodiversity. His recent research has focused on large-scale processes in terrestrial ecosystems, including interactions between large herbivores and vegetation, biological invasions, and the role of biodiversity in agricultural and urban landscapes.
Peter Edwards has always had a strong interest in the application of science and technology for better management. He was a founder and first executive secretary of the Institute for Ecology and Environmental Management, a professional organization for environmental scientists in the UK. He was also a member of the executive board of the Alliance for Global Sustainability, a research partnership between several leading universities.
Professor Martin Green
Martin Green is Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, involving several other Australian Universities and research groups. His group's contributions to photovoltaics are well known and include holding the record for silicon solar cell efficiency for 30 of the last 34 years, described as one of the “Top Ten” Milestones in the history of solar photovoltaics. Major international awards include the 1999 Australia Prize, the 2002 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize the 2007 SolarWorld Einstein Awardand, most recently, the 2016 Ian Wark Medal from the Australian Academy of Science.
Professor Gideon Henderson FRS
Gideon is a geochemist working to understand the long-term operation of the climate system and the carbon cycle. His research relies on chemical measurements of the modern ocean, and on geological records of past climates. He played a leadership role in initiating the international marine chemistry programme – GEOTRACES – and has interests in future oceanic challenges such as deep-sea mining and negative carbon emissions. His work also seeks to understand components of the climate system with particular relevance to the future, including changes in rainfall, sea level, permafrost, and ocean circulation. He has spoken to diverse audiences on issues relating to climate, oceanography, and geoengineering, including to the World Economic Forum (Davos and Dalian); Virgin Unite (Necker); and Intelligence Squared (London).
Gideon is Head of Department of the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at University College. He has a degree in Earth Sciences from the University of Oxford, a PhD in Geochemistry from the University of Cambridge, and spent five years at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where he continues to hold an associate position.
Mr Peter Ho
Peter Ho is the Senior Advisor to the Centre for Strategic Futures, a Senior Fellow in the Civil Service College, an Adjunct Professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a Visiting Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and the current S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore at the Institute of Policy Studies.
Peter Ho is Chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore, Chairman of the Social Science Research Council, Chairman of the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, and Chairman of the National Supercomputing Centre. He is a member of the National University Board of Trustees, a board member of the Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellowship, a member of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies’ Board of Governors, and a council member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He is also a member of Statoil’s Strategy Advisory Council, and the McKinsey Center for Government Advisory Council.
When he retired from the Singapore Administrative Service in 2010 after a career in the Public Service stretching more than 34 years, he was Head, Civil Service, concurrent with his other appointments of Permanent Secretary (Foreign Affairs), Permanent Secretary (National Security and Intelligence Coordination), and Permanent Secretary (Special Duties) in the Prime Minister’s Office. Before that, he was Permanent Secretary (Defence).
Professor Fiona Hunter
Fiona Hunter is a Professor of Medical and Veterinary Entomology at Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada and President of Entomogen Inc., an entomological consulting company. Fiona earned her B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Toronto and her Ph.D. from Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada). She also spent a year in Tuebingen, Germany, studying at the Tropical Medicine Institute. Throughout her academic career she has focused on biting flies – black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies, horseflies, no-see-ums. Fiona has graduated dozens of students from Brock University (both M.Sc. and Ph.D.), many of whom have gone on to work in the field of Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Her research team has done extensive field research in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Dominican Republic on a variety of mosquito-borne diseases.
When West Nile virus first appeared in Ontario, there was an urgent need for mosquito identification as well as for viral testing of mosquitoes. Fiona and her students helped launch a province-wide surveillance system in collaboration with Public Health Agency of Canada, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and First Nations Inuit Health Branch. The program is now in its 16th year. Other research looks at the effects of local climate change on vector range expansions including mosquito species (capable of transmitting arboviruses), tick species (capable of transmitting Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and babesiosis), and biting midges (capable of transmitting bluetongue virus to livestock).
In 2012, Brock University opened a Containment Level 3 lab (including a CL3 Insectary) for studying live WNv-infected mosquitoes. Recent projects in the CL3 are aimed at studying live Zika-infected mosquitoes to understand what makes one species a competent vector, and another a non-competent vector.
Fiona has been active in the Entomological Society of Canada and currently serves as its Second Vice President. She has served as a Member of the Federal Steering Committee for West Nile virus, President of the Entomological Society of Ontario, a Member of several Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant selection committees, and is a former Director of the Wildlife Research Station in Algonquin Provincial Park. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Alpaca Ontario.
Professor Rees Kassen
Rees Kassen is Full Professor and University Research Chair in Experimental Evolution at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on the really big questions in biology: Why are there so many species in the world and how did they evolve? He uses microbes to answer these questions because their small size and fast reproduction times let him watch the evolutionary process unfolding in the laboratory. Rees has also played leading roles at the interface between science, society, and policy as Chair of the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE; www.pagse.org), an association of 26 professional and scientific organizations acting on behalf of over 60,000 members from academia, industry and government in Canada, and as a founder and Co-Chair of the Global Young Academy (www.globalyoungacademy.net), an international organization of early-career researchers acting as the voice of young scientists around the world. Rees completed his PhD at McGill University and then went on to an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship and Elizabeth Wordsworth Research Fellowship at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. He is a Leopold Leadership Fellow (2013), past NSERC Steacie Fellow (2010) and was a World Economic Forum Young Scientist in 2010 and 2011.
Sir David King HonFREng FRS
He was born in Durban, educated at St John’s College Johannesburg and at Witwatersrand University, graduating with an Honours degree in Chemistry and a PhD. He has received 23 Honorary Degrees from universities around the world.
He was the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2000 to 2007. He raised the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the UK's £1 billion Energy Technologies Institute. He created an in-depth futures process which advised government on a wide range of long term issues, from flooding to obesity. From 2013 to 2017 he served in the British Foreign Office as the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change, making 96 official country visits over this period. He initiated the Climate Change - A Risk Analysis project with China and India over this period and was the thought leader behind Mission Innovation, the $30bn pa international thrust in Research funding for missing technologies needed to defossilise the global economy.
He was Member, the President’s Advisory Council , Rwanda, and Science Advisor to UBS, 2008-12. He served as Founding Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University, 2008 – 2012, Head of the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University, 1993 – 2000, and Master of Downing College Cambridge 1995 – 2000.
He has published over 500 papers on surface science and catalysis and on science and policy, for which he has received many awards, medals etc.
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1991; Foreign Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002; knighted in 2003; made Officier dans l’ordre national de la Légion d’Honeur in 2009.
Dr Li Yang Hsu
Dr Li Yang Hsu, MBBS (Singapore), MPH (Harvard), is an infectious diseases physician with private sector experience who is Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Programme Leader of the Antimicrobial Resistance Programme at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. He is also the Director of the Singapore Infectious Diseases Initiative, which was established to spur collaborative biomedical and clinical research in infectious diseases. His areas of research include the epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as well as the clinical and socioeconomic impact of antimicrobial resistance, and he has published more than a hundred peer-reviewed articles in these areas.
Dr Janice Lough
Janice Lough is a Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS, Townsville) and Adjunct Professorial Research Fellow and Partner Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Reef Studies, James Cook University. She is a climate scientist who has been publishing on issues related to climate change for over 30 years.
Janice has a BSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. She completed a PhD in 1982 at the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, on tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures and climate in sub-Saharan Africa. She held an NSF-funded post-doctoral position at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, from 1982 to 1986. In 1986 she came to AIMS for a two-year postdoctoral position working with environmental records from corals and has been a research scientist at AIMS since 1988.
Current research activities focus on 1) obtaining annual proxy environmental and growth records from massive corals over the past several centuries; this places current changes in an historical context, and 2) assessing how climate is already changing for tropical marine ecosystems; climate change is not a future event, significant warming of the tropical oceans has already occurred with observable consequences for coral reefs.
Professor Jacqueline McGlade
Professor Jacqueline McGlade is a leading figure in the world of knowledge and information systems to support sustainable development, ecology and conservation, pollution and health and resilience especially amongst indigenous peoples. Through her different appointments ranging from Chief Scientist and Director in the United Nations, to government agencies, research institutes and academia, and her collaborative research and work with international bodies, non-governmental organisations and communities around the world, she has made significant contributions to the science, society, policy interface.. She has extensive field experience in Africa, south-east Asia, Central Asia, North America, Europe, the Caucasus, and the Arctic and has provided training and support to communities to map their lands, sacred sites and resources and participate in local, national and international fora.
Her award winning films, television and radio series – Planet RE:think, One Degree Matters, Ocean Planet, Nature’s Numbers have received wide acclaim. She is also the author of more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, assessments, government reports and the author of several books including Advanced Theoretical Ecology and Large Marine Ecosystems of the Gulf of Guinea. She has designed and released into the global commons a wide array of innovative technologies and intelligence software.
Beyond her role in academia and the UN, Jacqueline is the mother of two daughters working in environment, international development and linguistics and a Maasai. In the village, where she lives, she is helping to build a sustainable future, by providing solar power, access to water, waste management, clean cook stoves, healthcare and women and children’s education. She is also creating local livelihoods in beekeeping, medicinal plant cultivation and environmental conservation.
Professor Indira Nath
Indira Nath is Former Founder Head of Department of Biotechnology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. After retirement she continued at AIIMS as SN Bose Professor of the Indian National Science Academy, later as Dean of Medical School of AIMST, in Malaysia, Director of the UK Lepra Research Centre in Hyderabad and Raja RAMANNA Fellow and Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Pathology (ICMR), New Delhi, India. She is currently Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Programme of the International Council of Science (ICSU), Paris and Co-Chair of the Inter-Academy Council’s programme on Responsible Conduct in the Global Research Enterprise
She received an MBBS and MD from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and later served on the Faculty of AIIMS and started the first Biotechnology department in a medical school. She has made pioneering contributions to immunology research by her seminal work on cellular immune responses in human leprosy and a search for markers for viability of the leprosy bacillus which is not cultivable. She has also mentored many MBiotech, MD, and PhD students and made contributions to education, medical and science policies, and women scientists’ issues. She was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet, Foreign Secretary INSA (1995–1997), council member (1992–1994 and 1998–2006) and vice president (2001–2003) of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, and chairperson, Women Scientists Programme, DST (2003) and served on several national and international advisory committees.
She was conferred numerous awards, notably: Padmashri (1999), Chevalier Ordre National du Merite, France (2003), Silver Banner, Tuscany, Italy (2003), L’Oreal UNESCO Award for Women in Science (Asia Pacific) (2002), SS Bhatnagar Award (1983), and the Basanti Devi Amir Chand Award by ICMR (1994). She was elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Delhi; National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (1988); Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1990); National Academy of Medical Sciences (India) (1992); Royal College of Pathology (1992); and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) (1995). She was conferred a DSc (hc) 2002, by Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France.
Professor Jenny Nelson
Jenny Nelson is a physicist whose research is devoted to characterising the materials used to build and improve photovoltaic devices, which convert energy from the Sun into electricity. She applies a range of tools that include physical models, simulation and experiments to optimise the performance of such devices through their composite materials.
Over the last twenty-five years, Jenny has worked with many types of energy converting materials, ranging from molecular materials to inorganic materials such as nanocrystalline oxides, and organic–inorganic hybrids. She uses information describing the electronic, optical and structural properties of these materials to inform the design of her devices, an approach that has garnered strong interest from industry.
Since 2010, Jenny has also been studying the potential of photovoltaic technologies to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted during the generation of electricity, lessening the impact on climate change. She is the author of a popular text book, The Physics of Solar Cells (2003).
Professor Wun Jern Ng
Professor Ng founded and is Executive Director at the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute. NEWRI, a globally ranked environmental engineering research organisation which covers technology development, de-risking, education, industry and community interface, and full-scale applications. Capabilities include modelling and visualization, membranes, biotechnology, chemistry and materials, and sludge and solid waste management, with laboratory to large-scale demonstration facilities.
Ng’s research in water, wastewater and waste management focuses on quality, treatment science and technology development. His some 500 publications include journal papers, presentations, chapters and monographs, reports, trade secrets, and patents. IPs commercialized include the aeSBR, anSBR, aeMSBR, Hybridan, Anfil, deep shaft aerator, flocculator, anaerobic digestion technologies, and phytohormone applications.
Ng has extensive industry involvement, having implemented his research outcomes in some 130 full-scale wastewater treatment facilities - the largest having 1.2million ep capacity. Ng was Chairman at an international consulting firm and continues to serve as Chairman in his spin-off companies. Ng leads NEWRI’s philanthropic efforts and works with communities with need for better sanitation and water in Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Sri Lanka, India, and Bhutan. Completed projects include bank filtration water supply, lake clean-up, and wastewater treatment.
Professor Phuti Ngoepe
Professor Phuti Ngoepe obtained a PhD in Physics from the University of the Witwatersand. He has served the University of Limpopo for 40 years and is a Senior Professor in Physics, holds the South African Research Chair in Computational Modelling of Materials, and is Director of the Materials Modelling Centre, and has previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor. He is a Founder Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a recipient of the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver), awarded by the President of South Africa for excellent contributions to science. He was also recipient of NRF Presidential, Transformation of the Science Cohort and the National Science and Technology Forum TW Kambule NRF Research Awards.
Professor Ngoepe has a broad network of collaborations; mainly from the UK. He has published widely in computational modelling on energy storage, mineral processing and alloy development and supervised many students in this area. He has presented several invited lectures at local and international conferences and served on organizing and advisory committees. Lastly he has served on several Boards, mainly of Science Councils, and participated in many science strategy committees and reviews of government institutions and programmes.
Professor Barbara Norman
Professor Barbara Norman is the Foundation Chair of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of Canberra Urban and Regional Futures (CURF) at the University of Canberra. Sheis Chair of the ACT Climate Change Council and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. Barbara is a Life Fellow and past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia and a Life Honorary Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (UK). Barbara’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Town & Regional Planning, Masters of Environmental Law and a PhD on sustainable coastal planning. She also has a substantial professional background having worked at all levels of government and run her own practice.
Her current research and teaching interests include sustainable cities and regions, coastal planning, climate change adaptation and urban governance. Barbara was a contributing author to IPCC 5 WG 2 report on Impacts 2013. Professor Norman advises the public and private sector in Australia and has strong international linkages within Asia, Europe and the United States. She was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal for her contribution to the community through urban and regional planning.
Professor Anne O'Garra FRS
Anne O’Garra is currently a Group Leader, Head of Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Infection, and Associate Research Director at The Francis Crick Institute, London. After training at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Mill Hill, she led a research group at the DNAX Research Institute (now Merck) in California. There she revealed molecular mechanisms for the induction and function of key immune responses, showing that the cytokine IL-12 induced the development of Th1 cells producing interferon-gamma, (IFN-) critical for control of intracellular pathogens. She went on to describe the immunosuppressive functions of interleukin-10 (IL-10) in regulating the immune response to prevent damage to the host, which has implications for control of inflammatory diseases and improved vaccination strategies. After 15 years O’Garra returned to the UK in 2001, and formed the Division of Immunoregulation at NIMR, to interface research in immunology and infectious diseases, continuing her research on the immune response to infection, with major emphasis on systems and transcriptomics approaches for study of the immune response in tuberculosis in both mouse models and in human disease. O’Garra is a member of many Scientific Advisory Boards to research institutions world-wide, on the Scientific Advisory Board and Board of Directors for the Keystone Conferences, and an Editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Professor Edgar Pieterse
Professor Edgar Pieterse is an urban scholar, writer, curator and creative agent whose interests include the theory and practice of policy discourses and interventions to make the African city more just, open and vibrant. He holds the South African Research Chair in Urban Policy at the University of Cape Town and is director of the African Centre for Cities. Formerly a special policy advisor to the premier of the Western Cape, he is the author of City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development (2008), New Urban Futures: Inhabiting Dissonant Times (in press); and co-editor of: Africa’s Urban Revolution (2014) and Rogue Urbanism: Emergent African Cities (2013). He is a member of the Research Advisory Committees of: the Gauteng City-region Observatory, Indian Institute of Human Settlements and LSE Cities. He is co-lead author of the Urban Chapter for the International Panel on Social Progress.
Dame Diane Robertson DNZM
Dame Diane is Chair of the Data Futures Partnership – an independent ministerial advisory body charged with championing data innovation and engaging with New Zealanders to explore their concerns about data use. She is the former City Missioner at the Auckland City Mission and was responsible for the collection and analysis of data gathered for the Auckland City Mission’s Family 100 research project, which has become one of New Zealand’s leading authorities on families living in poverty.
Diane is a successful social sector entrepreneur, giving her a unique combination of strong business and financial skills with strong social sector credentials. Her passion is to deliver better outcomes for New Zealanders through the development of sound policies informed by qualitative and quantitative data.
Professor DD Sarma
D. D. Sarma obtained a Ph.D. Degree in 1982 from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He worked in Kernforschungsanlage, Jülich, Germany, as a Visiting Scientist during 1984-1986. Since 1986, he has been a faculty member at Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of IISc. His current research interest spans the science of strongly correlated electron systems, primarily based on transition metal compounds, and semiconductor nanocrystals using a wide range of experimental as well as theoretical tools. He has published more than 400 scientific papers and holds several patents. He is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, The National Academy of Sciences India, Indian National Academy of Engineering, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and American Physical Society. He has received a large number of national and international awards and recognitions, including multiple Honoris Causa Doctorate degrees.
Dr Rashid Sumaila
Dr. Sumaila is Professor and Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. from Bergen University, Norway, and holds a B.Sc. with honorshonours from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. Dr. Sumaila is deeply interested in how economics, through integration with ecology and other disciplines, can be used to help ensure that ocean resources are sustainably managed for the benefit of both current and future generations. His key recent contributions include 1) applying game theory to fisheries; 2) rethinking the nature of the discount rates applied in marine resource valuations, and formulating a highly original alternative, i.e., “intergeneration discount rates”; 3) understanding the nature, amounts and effects of government subsidies on global fisheries; 4) estimating the multiple benefits that would be obtained globally by rebuilding fish stocks and setting up marine reserves, including conceiving of the High Seas as a large marine reserve.
Sumaila has authored over 200 journal articles; which have appeared in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Climate Change, Ecological Economics, and the Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. Dr. Sumaila is winner of the 2017 Peter Benchley Ocean Award in the Excellence in Science category; the 2016 UBC Killam Faculty Research Prize; the 2013 American Fisheries Society Excellence in Public Outreach, the Stanford Leopold Leadership Fellowship and the Pew Marine Fellowship. He was named a Hokkaido University Ambassador in 2016. His work is highly regarded by policy makers at the highest levels, resulting in invitations to give talks at the United Nations, the White House, the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, the African Union, the British House of Lords, and the Canadian Parliament.
Professor Hugh Taylor
Melbourne Laureate Professor Hugh Taylor is the Harold Mitchell Professor of Indigenous Eye Health at the University of Melbourne. He was Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne and the Founding Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia from 1990 to 2007. Prior to that he was a Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Institute at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and International Health.
Professor Taylor’s current work focuses on Aboriginal eye health. He has led the efforts to eliminate trachoma in Australia and developed “The Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision”, a blueprint to provide sustainable eye-care services to Indigenous Australians. He has worked with WHO in different roles for over 30 years.
He has written 36 books and reports and more than 700 scientific papers. He has received multiple international awards and prizes and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. In 2001, he was made a Companion in the Order of AustraliaHe is the President of the International Council of Ophthalmology, Deputy Chairman of Vision 2020 Australia and was Vice President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
Professor Jennifer Thomson
Jennifer Thomson (PhD Rhodes) is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town. She held a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard, was Associate Professor in Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand, visiting scientist at MIT, and Director of the Laboratory for Molecular and Cell Biology for the CSIR before becoming Head of the Department of Microbiology at UCT in 1988. She won the L’Oreal/UNESCO prize for Women in Science for Africa in 2004 and has an Honorary Doctorate from the Sorbonne University.
Her research field is the development of genetically modified maize resistant to the African endemic maize streak virus and tolerant to drought. She has published three books on Genetically Modified Organisms: Genes for Africa, Seeds for the Future, and Food for Africa, and is a frequent speaker at international meetings, including the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. She is a member of the board (previously Chair) of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), based in Nairobi and Vice-Chair of ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications). She serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation of the South African Minister of Science and Technology. She is the President of the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and chairs the South African chapter.
Professor Oyewale Tomori
Oyewale Tomori is the immediate past President of the Nigerian Academy of Science with experience in virology, disease prevention and control. He was at the University of Ibadan until 1994, as a Professor of Virology, and later served as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the Redeemer’s University in Nigeria from 2004-2011. From 1994-2004, he was the Virologist for the WHO Africa Region, establishing the African Regional Polio Laboratory Network. Dr. Tomori has appreciable knowledge of arbovirus and viral hemorrhagic fever infections: Lassa Fever, Yellow Fever, and Ebola Viral Disease. In 1981, he was recognized by the US CDC for contribution to Lassa Fever research. In 2002, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit, (NNOM), the country’s highest award for academic and intellectual attainment and national development. In 2016, he was honoured by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine with the Lifetime Award for making a positive impact on public health, through outstanding contributions to, and leadership in, laboratory medicine.
Dr. Tomori has served and continues to serve on numerous advisory committees including WHO Africa Regional Polio Certification Committee, WHO Group of Experts on Yellow Fever Disease, Chairman WHO Yellow Fever Emergency Committee on International Health Regulations (IHR) and World Bank Working Group on Financing Preparedness and Response. He is a member of the 2016 Class of the US National Academy of Medicine. He holds the DVM and PhD degrees of the Ahmadu Bello University and the University of Ibadan, respectively. He has more than140 publications in the areas of his expertise.
Sir Mark Walport FRS
Sir Mark Walport is the Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government and Head of the Government Office for Science.Previously, Sir Mark was Director of the Wellcome Trust. Before joining the Trust he was Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London.
He is Co-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and has been a member since 2004. He received a knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to medical research and was elected as Fellow of The Royal Society in 2011.
Professor Stephanie Waterman
Stephanie Waterman is a physical oceanographer who uses observations and theoretical studies to better understand the dynamics of the ocean circulation. She studies the multi-scale processes responsible for the transfer of energy and variability in ocean properties between ocean motions of different scales, as well as small-scale turbulent dissipation and mixing responsible for the ultimate removal of energy and variance from the circulation and ocean property budgets. A good understanding of these processes is critical to our ability to accurately represent the role of the ocean in climate models.
She has participated in observational campaigns in the Atlantic, Pacific, Southern and Arctic Oceans, spending well over a hundred days at sea. More recently, she and her research group have engaged in making state-of-the-art observations of oceanic turbulence from autonomous ocean drones. By doing so, in 2015 her group collected the densest set of turbulence measurements in the Arctic Ocean to date, allowing for the first statistical demonstration of the natural variability of turbulence in this region. Her work has gained international recognition, attracting significant research awards including the CNC-SCOR Early Career Ocean Scientist Award (2016), the Sloan Research Fellowship in Ocean Science (2015), and the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2012).
Professor Andy Hopper FRS
Andy Hopper is an engineer and computer scientist whose contributions to academia and industry have had a significant global impact. A pioneer of network design and mobile computing, Andy has an extensive track record of converting cutting-edge research into commercial success.
Guided by the ambition of connecting people and devices worldwide, in 1992 he developed the Active Badge location system which for the first time allowed an individual to control the computer networks and applications around them based on their position. The founder of over a dozen spin-outs and start-ups, Andy has also served as Chairman of both the RealVNC group and Ubisense, which between them have received five Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
Appointed a CBE in 2007 for his services to the computer industry, Andrew is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a past President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his influential work, the Science Council named him as one of the United Kingdom’s 100 leading practising scientists in 2014.