Postdoctoral researcher, University of the Witwatersrand Asanda Mtintsilana earned her PhD in Paediatrics and Child Health in 2021 from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She also holds an MSc (medicine) from the University of Cape Town. She is currently undertaking a postdoctoral training in Public Health and Epidemiology at the South African Medical Research Council/Wits University Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU). As part of her training, she is conducting research on diverse topics that affect human health and development, including HIV, food insecurity, social vulnerability, and mental health. She also investigates risk factors and putative biological mechanisms implicated in the development of non-communicable diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes in vulnerable groups, especially Black South African women.
Postgraduate Researcher, University of Leeds I am a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds School of Design. My research interests lie in quantifying the release of microplastics from the domestic laundry of textile fabrics.
Research Affiliate with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, Harvard Kennedy School Amy Besaw Medford is a Research Affiliate with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at the Harvard Kennedy School and an Analyst with the Taylor Policy Group. Previously, she was the Director of Program Development and Director of the Honoring Nations awards program at the Harvard Project and the Manager of Program Development at the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy at the University of Arizona. Amy also serves on the board for the Calumet & Cross Heritage Society, which strives to preserve and share Brothertown Indian history and heritage. Amy is enrolled Brothertown Indian and Korean. She received her BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington, MA in Organizational Leadership from Chapman University, and EdM in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Professor, Disaster & Emergency Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies & Director, CIFAL York, York University, Canada I am a professor of disaster and emergency management at York University, Toronto, Canada. I have been teaching and researching various types of disasters and emergencies since 1993. My research focuses on human, economic and environmental, and technology applications aspects of disasters and emergency management. I develop many different types of simulations and applications for disaster and emergency management.
Associate Professor in Family Law, Durham University Andy’s research interests lie in family law, property law, equity and legal history (especially the history of family law). His research critically analyses the legal regulation of formalised and non-formalised adult relationships and, in particular, the property consequences generated by their breakdown. He has presented his research at both national and international conferences. Andy is currently working on three research projects. The first project focuses on same-sex marriage and same-sex/mixed-sex civil partnership reform. Drawing upon insights from comparative family law, he published with Professor Jens M Scherpe from the University of Aalborg, an edited collection with Intersentia, entitled The Future of Registered Partnerships - Family Recognition beyond Marriage? (details available here). This research, and its implications for policy-makers, forms the foundation of the Reforming Civil Partnerships Project (details available here). In February 2020 Andy gave oral evidence to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee of the Scottish Parliament on the Civil Partnerships (Scotland) Act 2020. He is currently exploring the evolution of 'equal' civil partnerships following the extension to the regime to mixed-sex couples in December 2019. The second project focuses on domestic and comparative cohabitation reform. Drawing upon comparative family law insights, Andy is currently exploring models of cohabitation reform and potential solutions to the absence of comprehensive cohabitation protections in England and Wales. In particular he is exploring the use of human rights arguments and strategic litigation in this context. In 2021, he launched with Professor Jens Scherpe a major global comparative study that analyses the degree of legal protection afforded to cohabitants in over 40 jurisdictions. The findings will be published in The Legal Status of De Facto Relationships (Intersentia, 2023). In June 2021 he was appointed Specialist Adviser to the Women and Equalities Committee of the UK Parliament to advise on their Rights of Cohabiting Partners Inquiry. He currently advises domestic and overseas policy-makers on cohabitation reform and is working closely with key practitioner organisations such as Resolution with a view to securing reform in the future. The third project analyses trusts of the family home and family property. Andy has a particular interest in the 'familialisation of property law' evidenced in the development of both the common intention constructive trust and proprietary estoppel. His research has been cited favourably extra-judicially by Lord Kerr, former Justice of the Supreme Court and builds upon Andy’s doctoral research entitled Judicial Discretion in Ownership Disputes over the Family Home. Andy also holds first class degrees from the University of Durham (LLB (ELS) involving an ERASMUS year at the bilingual University of Fribourg in Switzerland) and the University of Cambridge (LLM (Magdalene College)). Andy is currently an Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple (details available here). Andy has also held several visiting positions at universities in Europe including the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), the Institut de Droit Comparé Edouard Lambert, Université Jean Moulin III, Lyon (France) and the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Law and Bye-Fellow at Robinson College). Andy’s Twitter handle is @DrAndyHayward; he tweets in a personal capacity.
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University I did the first experiments showing altered DNA methylation in cancer. I showed that epigenetic changes (chemical changes other than DNA sequence per se) cause cancer are not simply consequential to it through my studies of the disorder Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Later I had the first NIH funded epigenome center. More recently I have developed the idea the genetic variants can control epigenetic stochasticity (plasticity) and phenotype (traits) under evolutionary selection in natural populations, or within an individual in the development of cancer.
