Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Leicester I am presently a Royal Society Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of Leicester. I graduated with a DPhil in Planetary Physics from Jesus College, Oxford (2007) for my investigation of Saturn's atmosphere from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, and spent two years working as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California. I returned to Oxford in 2010 on a Glasstone Science Fellowship and Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF). I specialise in the analysis of remote sensing data of the giant planets in our solar system, using a variety of visiting spacecraft (e.g., Cassini, Galileo, Voyager), space-based telescopes (Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel) and ground-based observatories (VLT, Gemini and IRTF). I also use transit spectroscopy of extrasolar giant planets to determine the properties of planets around other stars. These sources of data allow us to investigate the atmospheric dynamics, composition, and origins of giant planets and their extensive satellite systems.
Research Chair on Mobility & the Politics of Diversity. Migration; Urbanisation; Refugees; Xenophobia, University of the Witwatersrand Loren B Landau is the South African Research Chair in Human Mobility and the Politics of Difference. Formerly the founding director of the African Centre for Migration & Society at the University of the Witwatersrand (which now hosts the chair), his work explores the relationships among human mobility, citizenship, development, and political authority. Along with his academic responsibilities, he has served as the chair of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA), is a member of the South African Immigration Advisory Board and of the editorial boards of International Migration Review, Migration Studies, and the Journal of Refugee Studies. He has consulted with the South African Human Rights Commission, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UNDP, the French Development Agency (AFD), Oxfam, and others. He holds an MSc in Development Studies (LSE) and a PhD in Political Science (Berkeley). Widely published in the academic and popular press, he is author of The Humanitarian Hangover: Displacement, Aid, and Transformation in Western Tanzania (Wits Press), co-editor of Contemporary Migration to South Africa (World Bank), editor of Exorcising the Demons Within: Xenophobia, Violence and Statecraft in Contemporary South Africa (UN University Press/Wits Press) and has published in Millennium, Politics & Society, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and elsewhere.
Associate Professor of Education, Pennsylvania State University Liliana M Garces is an Associate Professor in the Higher Education Program, Co-Director of the Center for Education and Civil Rights, and a Research Associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University. Before joining Penn State, she taught at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the George Washington University and completed a post-doctorate fellowship at the National Poverty Center in the Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She teaches courses on education policy and politics, higher education law, and race, law, and education. Dr. Garces’s research, focused on the dynamics of law and education, seeks to inform policies and practices that address inequities in education. Her work employs quantitative, qualitative and legal research methods, and draws from frameworks in law, economics, sociology, and political science, engaging in interdisciplinary research that can more effectively tackle the complex nature of educational inequality, both in K-12 and higher education. She has written on the impact of affirmative action bans on the representation of students of color in graduate and medical schools, institutional responses to court cases and laws addressing race-conscious admissions policies, and the use of social science research in education-related cases.
PhD Candidate of Journalism, Film & Television, University of Johannesburg Leyla Tavernaro Haidarian is a media professional and ubuntu scholar. She has produced and presented for a variety of media outlets including Warner Brothers/KTLA5, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, StarSat, MNet and the SABC. She has also appeared on HBO’s Generation Kill and played alongside Paul Walker in Vehicle 19. Leyla is a published author, co-founder of a leading educational enterprise and regularly speaks at international fora such as TEDx, The Unique Speaker Bureau and The European Baha'i Business Forum. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Johannesburg and creates TV shows for StarSat and The Africa Channel.
Professor of Sociology, Occidental College Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. Her newest book, "American Hookup," is about the emergence and character of the culture of sex that now dominates college campuses all across the country. Before receiving her PhD in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lisa earned an MA in human sexuality from NYU and a BA in philosophy from the University of California-Santa Barbara. Lisa has authored over a dozen academic research articles and a textbook on the sociology of gender. She actively contributes to public discourse, writing extensively for non-academic audiences at her blog, Sociological Images, and appearing on television and radio. She is the author of American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus, forthcoming in 2017.
Professor emeritus, Swinburne University of Technology Professor Leon Sterling received a BSc(Hons) and a PhD in Pure Mathematics in Australia. After positions at universities in the UK, Israel, the US, Leon returned to the University of Melbourne in Australia in 1995 in several roles, including Professor of Software Innovation and Engineering. From 2010-2013, he was Dean of the Faculty of ICT at Swinburne University of Technology, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Digital Frontiers) from 2014-2015. He is past president of the Australian Council of Deans of ICT and a Fellow of Engineers Australia and the Australian Computer Society.
