Associate professor, Deakin University Assoc/Prof Maryam Naebe is a material scientist with extensive experience in fibre science. She is the recipient of Discover Natural Fibre Initiative Innovation Award (DNFI 2021). Her research focuses on sustainability inspired innovation using waste materials and adding value to natural fibres, textile wastes and biomass as new resources for circular economy and sustainable industrial applications.
Aquatic Ecologist, Centre for Water Resources Research, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal Dr Mark Graham is an aquatic ecologist with 30-plus years’ experience in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem functioning and management. Mark's early career started at Umgeni Water, where he had extensive involvement in the management and development of an ISO 17025 quality accredited laboratory and the National River Health Programme – Quality Assurance programme. Mark then made a move to professional consulting in starting GroundTruth, Water, Wetlands, Biodiversity and Environmental Engineering. Over the years Mark has provided specialist input on numerous projects for national and international corporations and government departments, developing innovative solutions to a range of practical and applied environmental and water-related issues. Furthermore, Mark is actively involved in the leading of water resources research on numerous research projects for the Water Research Commission and the Department of Water and Sanitation, having co-developed numerous of the published assessment tools and EcoStatus models currently used in South Africa (e.g. SASS5, IHI, VEGRAI, MIRAI). He is a registered professional natural scientist (Pr Sci Nat), a Fellow of the Water Institute of SA and the regional SASS5 quality assurance auditor appointed by the Department of Water and Sanitation. Mark plays an active role in promoting and developing citizen science within the water sector of South Africa, with the aim of empowering and educating the public to collectively improve the state of our water resources. Qualifications 2004 PhD (Botany, University of North West) 1991 MSc (Biological Sciences, University of Natal, Durban) 1987 BSc (Agriculture, University Natal, Pietermaritzburg) – majoring in rangeland ecology
Assistant Professor of Biology, Drexel University Megan Phifer-Rixey is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Drexel University. She is an evolutionary biologist, and her research is motivated by the challenge of making connections between genotype, phenotype, and fitness, especially for complex traits and in the context of changing environments. The Phifer-Rixey lab uses many different approaches—combining genomics and population genetics with fieldwork and organismal functional studies. The lab also investigates fundamental questions in evolutionary genetics relating to adaptation, speciation, and demography, primarily focusing on wild house mice. House mice are one of the mostly widely used genetic model systems and they have recently spread around the world in association with humans. This combination makes them a great system for studying evolutionary genetics and the genetics of adaptation to new environments. The lab also collaborates on projects relating to marine genetics and biology education. Megan earned her B.S. in Biology from Duke University and her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. As a Ph.D. student, Megan was awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation. Afterwards, she joined the University of Arizona as a postdoctoral researcher and then continued her postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley with Dr. Michael Nachman. In 2016, she joined the Biology Department at Monmouth University as an Assistant Professor. In 2021, she was awarded an NSF CAREER grant to study the genetics of urbanization in house mice. She joined the Department of Biology at Drexel University in 2023 where she will continue her work in evolutionary genetics with an emphasis on the impacts of urbanization.
Professor of Law and Director, Workplace Law Program, Texas A&M University I am tenured full professor at Texas A&M University School of Law where I write and teach about legal matters that affect the workplace. I am an elected member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the American Law Institute. I also focus on alternative dispute resolution and matters of race in the workplace along with traditional subjects in labor law, employment law, and employment discrimination law. I am also a labor and employment arbitrator and I have been a law professor for more than 15 years and numerous publications on workplace matters.
Professor of Earth Sciences, Brock University Martin studies modern and fossil (especially late Cenozoic) marine dinoflagellate cysts for their intrinsic value in understanding the development of modern plankton, and for their utility in solving stratigraphic and palaeoecological problems. He maintains an association with the Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group at the University of Cambridge. Specific research interests and activities include: Palynology and the deep-sea record, particularly ODP Leg 105 (Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea) and ODP Leg 144 (western Pacific) where he served as shipboard palynologist, and the North Atlantic DSDP Sites 603 and 610. Eemian (last interglacial) dinoflagellates of the Baltic Sea, as part of the EC-Funded BALTEEM project. Late Cenozoic dinoflagellates of the Black Sea, Mediterranean and Paratethys High-latitude Cenozoic palynology (e.g. East Canadian Arctic, Spitsbergen, Alaska, Sakhalin Island: spores, pollen, dinoflagellates) Plio-Pleistocene palynology (spores, pollen, dinoflagellates) of the southern North Sea basin Dinoflagellate cyst record of the Early–Middle Pleistocene transition in the Mediterranean Neogene dinoflagellates worldwide Morphology, taxonomy and nomenclature of living and late Cenozoic dinoflagellates
Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of New Brunswick Mayme is a Research Fellow with the Department of Sociology and the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research at the University of New Brunswick where her work primarily focuses on gender-based violence in rural Canada. Prior to this role, Mayme was a Purdy Crawford Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Policy at UNB. She holds two master’s degrees in peacebuilding and a Ph.D. in Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies (collaborative program in Transitional Justice & Post-Conflict Reconstruction) from Western University.
