Professor of Palaeoproteomics, University of Cambridge In addition to his post in Cambridge Matthew Collins is professor of Biomolecular Archaeology and the GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen. Prior to joining Cambridge Matthew founded BioArCh, a collaboration between the departments of biology, chemistry and archaeology (BioArCh: Biology Archaeology, Chemistry) at the University of York His research focuses on the persistence of proteins in ancient samples, using modelling to explore the racemization of amino acids and thermal history to predict the survival of DNA and other molecules. Using a combination of approaches (including immunology and protein mass spectrometry) his research detects and interprets protein remnants in archaeological and fossil remains.
Lecturer in Coastal and Ocean Geoscience, University of Newcastle Mike is a coastal marine geoscientist and lecturer in the School of Environmental & Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His primary research focus is coastal barrier-estuary systems and their depositional landforms, including beaches, dunes, deltas and the shoreface-continental shelf. He combines field-based sampling, remote sensing, spatial analysis and modelling techniques to study coastal sediment dynamics, landform evolution, ocean processes and coastal natural hazards. He completed his PhD at the University of Sydney and was a coastal & marine research scientist at the NSW Department of Planning & Environment prior to joining the University of Newcastle. He co-founded the CoastSnap Community Beach Monitoring citizen science project and has a keen interest in finding pathways towards adaptive coastal management aided by community engagement, remote sensing monitoring and evidence-based decision making.
Professor and Department Chair, Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University I am a Full Professor in Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour and McMaster University's first Transgender department chair. In my professional life and my personal life I work towards Social Justice, and I take an evidence-based approach to issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. We share the goal of creating a workplace where each person can bring their whole selves to work, but what are the best practices for creating this safe workplace? As psychologists, and as scientists, we have some tools at our disposal to discern which approaches work, and which lead us astray. The work in my lab is experimental psychology motivated by evolutionary theory. We work on the questions of Social Perception and Social Perceptual Development. We study the perception of social categories, using both face-perception paradigms and essentialist paradigms. We use these approaches to explore evidence-based approaches to equity, diversity and inclusion. We are exploring developing psychological machinery underlying prosocial and moral behavior, and exploring whether we can expand our definition of our ingroup to extend our moral concern to a bigger circle . We study animacy perception, as the first developmental step in social cognition. Using eye-tracking technology, we study the development of autistic characteristics and of the broader autism phenotype. I have developed workshops and writings on the topics of Radically Inclusive Leadership, Formal Consensus Decision Making, and Queer Etiquette.
Dr Mitchell Gibbs is a Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences, Discipline of Exercise Physiology. Mitchell's research aims at helping people with chronic pain by understanding how to best design biopsychosocial exercise interventions, and, how to disseminate these approaches into practice.
Ming Du is professor and director of the Centre for Chinese Law and Policy at Durham Law School. His current research focuses on the theoretical and structural issues of global economic governance (trade, investment and finance), China's approach to international law, and the development of the rule of law in contemporary China. He also retains a strong interest in corporate law and cross-border business transactions in which he practiced as a qualified lawyer in both New York and Beijing for a number of years.
