Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology, Massey University Emilie Vallee is a French veterinarian now working at Massey University's EpiCentre as a lecturer in Veterinary epidemiology, after an initial training as veterinary epidemiologist in developing countries. Her research portfolio involves most of the NZ animal species you can think of, from native birds to pets and livestock. She works on transmissible and non-transmissible diseases, outbreak investigations, clinical trials, disease control, and effects of climate change on animal health. She is a member of the epidemiology chapter of the Australia and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists. She currently leads the project "CliZod" focussing on climate-sensitive zoonotic diseases, funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Professor of Paediatrics, Karolinska Institutet My research projects aim to advance the understanding about the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors involved in lung growth, respiratory and allergic diseases in children. The projects are primarily based on a Swedish birth cohort, BAMSE that allows for unique investigation of lung function, respiratory and allergic diseases in a large number of children up to adulthood. Detailed information about perinatal events, environmental exposures such as air pollution and tobacco smoke exposure from birth and onwards has been collected. Currently, we are also performing a targeted COVID-19 follow-up of the cohort. In our ongoing genetics projects, genome-wide approaches are primarily used (GWAS, global methylation analyses and RNA sequencing / microarray approaches) together with detailed clinical and epidemiological data. Extensive national and international collaboration is established (e.g. through the PERMEABLE, GABRIEL, EAGLE and MeDALL projects). We are also engaged in exposome-related research within the EXPANSE consortium. From this translational platform for advanced studies using clinical and epidemiological data sets, we are performing projects that will generate exciting new information in areas that have been little explored so far. For example, the long-term consequence of preterm birth and childhood exposures on lung function in young adulthood (CADSET ERS collaboration); identification of subgroups of the population that are particularly vulnerable to air pollution exposures; clarification of new genetic mechanisms for disease development.
Professor of Climate Science, University of Bristol Lizzie is a Met Office Science Fellow and Professor of Climate Science at the University of Bristol Cabot Institute for the Environment. She is a climate scientist working on extreme rainfall processes and their evaluation in models across space and time scales. Lizzie's work aims to gain a better understanding of extreme rainfall processes, and model deficiencies in the representation of these, across space and time scales. Her work links up Met Office expertise in forecasting extreme events on weather and climate change timescales, and exploits the seamless nature of the Unified Model A key aspect of her work is developing and running very high resolution (1.5 km) climate simulations for a limited area of the UK. The simulation of extreme rainfall in the 1.5 km model is being analysed and compared with lower resolution model versions. In particular, she is exploring process-links between the large-scale atmospheric circulation and extreme rainfall across model resolution. Work at the Met Office has shown significant improvements in the representation of extreme rainfall at cloud-permitting scales, with better representation of the diurnal cycle and of internal cloud dynamics (essential for capturing the development and persistence of convective events such as Boscastle in 2004). This suggests the importance of using very high resolution models in climate change studies, in particular for the estimation of changes in convective summer storms and thus flash floods. New understanding from this work will be applied in the context of developing and improving our climate models, as well as providing guidance to the government on the reliability of future projections of extreme precipitation change.
Senior Lecturer in Criminology, CQUniversity Australia Dr Emma L Turley is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. Emma is a critical psychologist and has a broad range of interdisciplinary research interests that span criminology and psychology. Her specialist areas of interest include gender, social justice, inequalities, LGBTQI+ issues, feminism, sexualities, and the digital world. She is also interested in qualitative research methods, especially phenomenology and experiential research, and the use of innovative data collection techniques. Emma has published in the areas of sexualities, particularly marginalised sexual cultures, subculture, gendered violence, social media, gender inequalities, women’s wellbeing, and activism. Emma is a co-editor of the British Psychological Society's Psychology of Women & Equalities Review, and editorial advisory board member for British Mensa's Androgyny journal.
Associate Professor in Organisational Behaviour, Queen Mary University of London Elena is Associate Professor in Organizational Behavior at Queen Mary University of London, where she holds leadership roles as Research Impact Director and Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED) in the School of Business and Management. She is an expert on gender and ethnic diversity in leadership and on boards. Her research explores formal and informal aspects of career progression, leadership development, and board appointment processes, from a D&I perspective. Her work has been published in world-leading academic journals, including Harvard Business Review, Human Relations, The Leadership Quarterly, and Human Resources Management Journal. Elena is passionate about using her research to support change and regularly collaborates with organizations and policymakers that seek to advance diversity in leadership, through advisory work and bespoke masterclasses. Her research informed the Davies and Hampton-Alexander reviews on women on UK boards.
Professor of Political Science, West Virginia University Erik Herron is the Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of Political Science at West Virginia University. He has published extensively about politics in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, including the recent book Normalizing Corruption: Failures of Accountability in Ukraine (University of Michigan Press, 2020).
