Research Professor of Physics, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis Dr. Gillis-Davis combines experiments, remote sensing, and sample analysis to study the geology of the Moon, Mercury, and asteroids. He has mapped the composition and morphology of the Moon and Mercury as a science team member of three NASA missions: Clementine, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Miniature Radio-Frequency team, and MESSENGER. To examine a process known as space weathering, he uses lasers to replicate the impact of dust-sized particles on the surfaces of these airless bodies. These tiny but incredibly fast (between 18,000 and 54,000 km per hour) particles constantly rain down on planetary bodies without an atmosphere – These same small particles are what create a meteor (aka shooting star) when they enter Earth’s atmosphere. These dust-sized particles release incredible amounts of kinetic energy when they impact the surface of an airless body. The released energy transforms minerals into glass and can destroy ices or lead to intriguing chemical processes – e.g., transform molecules of water (H2O) ice and carbon dioxide (CO2) ice to methane ice (CH3). Jeff leads a national and international team of researchers who study the complex processes and environments that determine where ice will be, how it may be modified, how water was delivered to the Moon, and its active water cycle. This team is called the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Evaluating Volatile Origins (ICE Five-O), which is one of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI).
Lecturer, International Business, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department, Auckland University of Technology Dr. Jamal Abarashi is a lecturer at International Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at AUT. His research examines cultural and sociological approaches to consumer behaviour and covers areas of consumer culture theory. His current projects explore areas such as ethical consumption, symbolic pollution, and sharing economy.
Associate Professor of Chinese Studies , College of the Holy Cross My research interests include premodern Chinese poetry and poetics and fantastic tales and novels in late imperial China. I am particularly interested in the process of literary canon formation in premodern China as well as translation and circulation of premodern Chinese literature in a cross-cultural context. In the past several years, I have focused on two major research projects: one centers on the reception of the eighth-century Chinese poet Du Fu and his poetry, and the other is associated with the sixteenth-century novel Xiyou ji (Journey to the West).
Associate Professor of Sociology, Princeton University Dubbed “Margaret Mead among the Starfleet” in the Times Literary Supplement, Janet Vertesi is associate professor of sociology at Princeton University and a specialist in the sociology of science, technology, and organizations. The author of Seeing like a Rover (Chicago 2015) and Shaping Science (2020), she has spent the past fifteen years studying how NASA’s robotic spacecraft teams work together effectively to produce scientific and technical results. She is also an active researcher in Human-Computer Interaction, publishing at ACM CHI, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, and Ubiquitous Computing. Vertesi holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and M.Phil from University of Cambridge; she is a Fellow of the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy, an advisory board member of the Data & Society Institute, and a member of the NASA JPL Advisory Council. She writes about her Opt Out Experiments at https://www.optoutproject.net and her academic publications are at https://janet.vertesi.com
Senior Lecturer, Psychology, University of Ghana Johnny is a senior lecturer in social and community psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana. He researches the mental and sexual health of men and young persons. He also has research and academic interests in health promotion, social cognition, culture and behaviour, community wellbeing, and qualitative research ethics (specifically in the area of accessing research participants in sensitive qualitative research). In the past few years, he has worked with colleagues in Ghana, Uganda and Norway to explore suicide, religion, meaning-making and mental health. He has a passion for translational research and implementation science, and values interdisciplinary collaborations towards seeking contextually relevant solutions to social and human problems. He has over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journal articles and has attended and presented papers at scientific conferences and workshops in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ghana, Nicaragua, Norway, South Africa, the United State of America and Uganda. Dr. Andoh-Arthur obtained his PhD in health science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, but did some of his PhD course work at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and the University of Adger, Grimstad Campus, Norway. Prior to his PhD, he did a one-year course on a PhD programme (Non-Governmental Organisations and Community Development) at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He obtained an MPhil degree in human development (with specialisation in community psychology) also from the NTNU. Prior to that he did a one-year course work on the MPhil social psychology programme at the Psychology Department of the University of Ghana. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology with political science (first class honours) from the University of Ghana. He is a licensed community psychologist with the Ghana Psychological Council, and a research fellow with the Center for Suicide and Violence Research (CSVR), Ghana. He is a proud Viking and an active fellow of the Mensah-Sarbah Hall, and a fellow supervisor with the West Africa Genetic Medicine Center (WAGMC), University of Ghana. He is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP), Critical Suicidology Network (CritSui), and Ghana Psychological Association (GPA). He attended Aggrey Memorial Zion Secondary School, Cape Coast, trained as a professional teacher at the Wesley College, Kumasi, Ghana, and served as the president of the University of Ghana Association of Psychology Students (UNIGAPS) during his undergraduate days at the University of Ghana.
