Assistant Professor of Medicine and Environmental Health, Member of Pittburgh Liver Research Center, University of Pittsburgh Dr. Beier's research focus is on environmental vinyl chloride exposure in the context of existing underlying liver disease. Clearly high occupational exposure to vinyl chloride is directly hepatotoxic; what is less well clear is the impact of lower environmental exposure on exacerbating existing liver disease. Given the fact that a significant portion of the population has risk factors for liver disease (most commonly, obesity), and that 30% of the US population has elevated indices of liver damage, any potential impact of low environmental exposure could be dramatic. Our findings indicate that indeed vinyl chloride will exacerbate liver damage caused by another factor. This work shifts the paradigm of current risk assessment for not only this compound, but any other environmental agent that may potentially damage the liver.
PhD Student in Department for Music, University of Bristol During my time at university, I have had many interests in musicology, but my main interest has always been in pop music and pop culture. Currently, I am a 2nd year PhD student at the University of Bristol, researching the disco revival during the pandemic and how nostalgia and escapism influenced music. My overall interest in pop music tends to focus on music created or celebrated by minorities, however, I also find the concept of 'what is popular' fascinating. In my personal life, I am an avid fan of pop music and keep up to date with the releases from many artists, and I find this relationship between fan and artist interesting and would like to research it. My previous research has looked at Madonna's use of disco in 2005, as well as Black musical canon creation in the music of Lizzo and Janelle Monáe. I am also a keen follower of music award shows and find the institutionalisation of musical achievement an area that needs constant research and attention. Research interests specifically would include; pop music, revivals, award shows, cultural commentary in music, music from queer experiences, chart music.
PhD Student, UNSW Sydney I am a PhD student at The University of New South Wales (UNSW). For my doctoral research I am investigating the role of dingoes as apex predators in the Australian Alps, with a focus on how anthropogenic control of their populations affects ecosystem structure and functioning in alpine environments. Past work that I have been involved in has included scavenging ecology, the impacts of light pollution, recovery of critically endangered species, and beach/coastal ecology. I am also keenly interested in predator ecology, human-wildlife conflict, and ecology and conservation biology in the context of sustainable development, especially in agricultural settings and in developing nations.
Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases, Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney Dr Beardsley is an infectious disease specialist, fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and clinical researcher. He completed his PhD through the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, focussed on fungal infections. He conducted a multi-national randomised clinical trial into adjunctive steroid therapy for Cryptococcal Meningitis in South East Asia and Africa (Beardlsey et al, NEJM 2016). His other core research focussed on epidemiology of fungal infections, immune responses in Cryptococcal Meningitis, pharmacokinetics of anti-fungal drugs in the central nervous system, and temporal trends in cryptococcal drug susceptibility. He was involved in several other clinical trials in Cryptococcal Meningitis and hepatitis C, and is a co-author on the Lancet Global Burden of Disease series in his capacity as GBD specialist on Vietnam and HIV.
Research Assistant, Northumbria University, Newcastle Jamie is a geographer and has worked across a range of different, but connected, tropical coastal environments including coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrasses. His research interests concern tropical coastal ecology and geomorphology; coral reef development in marginal environmental settings; the use of palaeo-proxy data for the interpretation and contextualisation of recent (Holocene) ecological and environmental change; and coastal and marine management (including marine spatial planning and regulation). Jamie completed his PhD and a subsequent role as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Exeter with Professor Chris Perry, both funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council. Jamie currently works as a marine spatial planner and as a research assistant at Northumbria University.
PhD Candidate, Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society (IREES), University of Groningen Jin Yan is a Ph.D. student at the Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She got a master’s degree in economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment at University College London. Her research interests are carbon pricing and addressing social inequality in climate actions.
