Area Chair and Associate Professor of Finance, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary KJ (Kyoung Jin) Choi is an Assosiate Professor of Finance at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. He joined the faculty in July 2011. KJ holds a PhD in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis, a PhD in Mathematics from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and a BS in Mathematics from Pohang University in Science and Technology (POSTECH). Previously he has held the position at the Korea Institute for Advanced Studies (KIAS). KJ's diverse research interests span the realms of real and financial investments, Fintech with a focus on blockchain technology, and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). His academic pursuits also extend to dynamic contracting and consumption analysis. In his recent studies, KJ has delved into the intricacies of optimal staking and investment strategies within cryptocurrency markets. He has contributed to the field of mechanism design as applied to decentralized platforms, as well as the domain of algorithmic stablecoins on blockchain platforms. Furthermore, KJ has examined the potential implications stemming from the introduction of CBDCs on the broader financial landscape. His contributions extend beyond theoretical research, as he actively participated in the Model X project with the Bank of Canada. His involvement centered on shaping the architectural framework for the Canadian CBDC. Additionally, KJ's work has explored the nuanced interplay between heterogeneous consumption patterns and their influence on asset returns. His prior work has been published at various economics, business, and finance journals.
Senior Lecturer, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University Dr Kristine Crous is a Senior Lecturer, coming to Western Sydney University from the Australian National University. Her research has focussed on physiological mechanisms plants use to respond to global climate change factors, principally elevated CO2 and climate warming, but also the effect of nutrient availability (both nitrogen and phosphorus) on the CO2 response. In her previous postdoc at WSU, she investigated how nutrient availability affects the responses of photosynthesis and leaf respiration to elevated CO2 at EucFACE. In a unique project linking phosphorus (P) limitations to photosynthesis and growth, she combined extensive field work at EucFACE measuring gas exchange with low O2, a technique often used in labs but rarely in the field. These measurements were combined with challenging labwork critical to elucidate the observed field mechanisms during which she extracted leaf P and other P-containing components from the leaf. This work resulted in new insights in the role of photorespiration, regarded as a wasteful process, in leaf P-recycling. She also has been pursuing the temperature responses of photosynthesis and respiration on large trees at the Hawkesbury Forest Experiment. Because of unprecedented rates of warming expected in this century, she has investigated the capacity of Eucalyptus species to adjust to warmer conditions, mostly on large trees. She demonstrated that warming reduced leaf respiration at a given temperature in summer, with drought further exacerbating this reduction (Crous et al. 2011). In a warming study on Eucalyptus globulus (Crous et al. 2013) she reported a physiological temperature limit in summer because air temperatures far exceeded the temperature optimum of the species. Building on this work, she and her collaborators found less capacity to cope with warming within two widely-distributed Eucalyptus species ranging from tropical to temperate climates (Drake et al. 2015). Her data have been incorporated in several large-scale models to understand future ecosystem functioning. Recently, she won a 2016 ARC Discovery Early Career Award (DECRA) to investigate how rainforest species will cope with climate warming. The response of rainforest species to climate warming is one of the largest uncertainties in the future terrestrial carbon cycle. This work aims to give us a predictive capacity for the temperature sensitivity of unique rainforest species. A narrow temperature optimum of photosynthesis is expected in rainforests as these species are thought to be more specialised due to a thermally stable environment. This may mean reduced rates with warming if they have limited capacity to adjust. The multi-faceted nature of her DECRA proposal, combining observational and experimental approaches, will maximise our understanding of how, and how much, rainforest tree species will adjust to warmer temperatures while also relating these responses to climate variability.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University Kristin M. Myers’ solid mechanics research program studies the biomechanics of biological soft tissues with a specific focus on the female reproductive system and pregnancy. Her Columbia research group is one of only a few engineering teams in the world creating biomechanical models of pregnancy to uncover structural mechanisms of preterm birth.
Professor of Educational Leadership, Miami University I am a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, focusing on educational philosophy and foundations since 1995 at Miami University in Oxford, OH. I publish research in political and moral philosophy of education; have worked in leadership roles in The John Dewey Society, American Educational Studies Association, the North American Philosophy of Education Society and the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society. I teach courses in democracy and education, ethics and education, and leadership ethics. I served as an elected school board in Talawanda City Schools from 2019-2023.
Postdoctoral research fellow and clinical psychologist, UNSW Sydney Kayla Steele, Ph.D, is a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow at UNSW School of Psychology, based at the Black Dog Institute. She has a particular research focus on anxiety and mood disorders, developing and evaluating novel psychological interventions, personality disorder and parent-child attachment relationships. Clinically, Kayla has worked across various settings including public mental health inpatient units, community adult and child and adolescent mental health, university clinics and private practice. She specialises in working with individuals and families who experience complex and severe mental health difficulties, particularly personality disorder. Kayla is also interested in intersectionality, and how overlapping and interdependent systems of race, class, ability, gender and sexuality impact the individual and their experience of mental ill-health.
Senior lecturer, University of Waikato Katrina McChesney is a senior lecturer in education at the University of Waikato. Her research is centred on higher education and is underpinned by commitments to social justice, equity, and diversity in knowledge production and higher learning. Katrina also works in the area of educational leadership, drawing on experience in school leadership and governance, educational improvement, and large-scale educational reform in New Zealand and overseas.
