Assistant Professor of Public Administration, University of Nebraska Omaha Nuri Heckler, J.D., Ph.D. focuses his research on power in public organizations including nonprofits, social enterprise, and government. Using experimental, qualitative, historical, and legal research methods, he examines the mechanisms that reinforce inequities and inefficiencies in public organizations. As a Maryland barred attorney, his research also examines the role law plays in the work of public administrators. His research can be found in Administrative Theory & Praxis, Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, Administration & Society, Journal of Public Affairs Education, Urban Affairs Review, and Public Integrity among others. He is an avid commuter cyclist who spends his free time with his two children and baking award-winning cookies.
Visiting scholar, University of Auckland Dr Smith is an International Relations expert with a keen focus on geopolitical and geoeconomic forces and their implications for foreign policy decision-making. His most recent research concerned competition between the EU and Russia in Ukraine, which spawned a number of journal articles and a forthcoming book on the Ukraine crisis (to be published with Edward Elgar, December 2016). Future research will concern the competitive geoeconomic environment of the Asia-Pacific and its challenges and opportunities for Australia and New Zealand.
PhD Candidate in International Relations, University of Kent Natalia Piotrowska is a PhD Candidate in International Relations at the University of Kent. Her research areas include international security, foreign policy analysis and Turkish foreign and security policy (with a special focus on Turkish-Israeli relations). Natalia adopts an interdisciplinary approach to her research, and draws from psychology and sociology in order to further the understanding of domestic and foreign policy of states. In her PhD project, the role of friendship in International Relations is explored through the theoretical prism of ontological security. Prior to beginning her PhD, Natalia was awarded a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Political Sciences (focus: foreign services) from the University of Wroclaw (Poland). During this time, she was also an exchange student at the Yeditepe University in Turkey (2008/2009) and the Belgrade University in Serbia (2010/2011). Natalia was awarded the Scholarship for Academic Achievements by the Institute of Political Sciences at the University of Wroclaw, the Scholarship for Academic Merit by the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education and the University of Kent 50th Anniversary PhD Scholarship.
Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics, University of Sydney Dr Wheate completed a Bachelor of Science degree with 1st class honours from the University of New South Wales whilst at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He then completed a PhD in medicinal chemistry under Professor J. Grant Collins. Since then he has worked in the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences at the University of Western Sydney (Australia) and the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science (Scotland) before taking up a position in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 2012. Dr Wheate's research interests lie in whole-of-pipeline discovery and development of platinum-based anticancer drugs including: design and synthesis, in vitro and in vivo screening, drug-DNA binding, nanoparticle based delivery, solid state chemistry and co-crystals, toxicology and pharmacokinetics, and dosage formulation. Additionally, his research also examines the drug delivery application of macrocycles (including cyclodextrins, cucurbiturils and pillararenes) and their host-guest complexes. Dr Wheate was previously the Head of Cancer Research in the Faculty of Pharmacy.
Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash University Nick Fischer is Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University, and the author of "Spider Web: The Birth of American Anticommunism", published by University of Illinois Press (2016)
Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University My research is focused on the development of new microprocess engineering and process intensification concepts applied to biological and pharmaceutical systems. The multidisciplinary research themes span from microfluidics, surface chemistry, crystallisation, fermentation, cell culture, chromatography, electrophoresis, virus inactivation and clinical diagnostics areas. Main goal is to deliver disruptive technologies to fill up main technological gaps and unmet needs in high-value market sectors of (bio)pharmaceuticals and healthcare diagnostics. This requires a multi-scale approach by understanding the processes at meso-, micro- and nano-scale, all supported by state-of-the-art analytical tools and numerical modeling tools such as CFDs.
