Assistant Professor in Economics, University of Birmingham Ufuk Gunes Bebek is an applied economist whose research is primarily focused on international trade and macroeconomic aspects of international trade. He joined the University of Birmingham's Department of Economics in 2014 and has been in his current position as Assistant Professor in Economics since 2017. His current research focuses on balance-of-payments constrained growth models incorporating reserve currency as a primary constraint on reserve currency providers’ growth. He is also leading the Department’s membership to the Alliance of Economics and Management Education, promoting knowledge exchange, and cultivating inter-disciplinary pedagogy culture between Birmingham and other member institutions.
Associate Professor of Private International Law, UCL Dr Grusic's research covers a range of issues in the field of private international law. His research has focused on the European private international law of employment and on the interplay between private international law and human rights, particularly on the private international law issues raised by tortious claims arising out of the external exercise of British executive authority and civil claims against multinational enterprises for overseas human rights violations. His research also covers all core areas of private international law, including jurisdiction, choice of law and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. His other research interests include foreign relations law, civil remedies for human rights violations in comparative law, unjust enrichment in private international law, the regulatory function of private international law and international commercial arbitration, particularly the issues of arbitral jurisdiction, choice of law and the relationship between domestic courts and arbitral tribunals. Dr Grusic is the author The European Private International Law of Employment (CUP 2015) and Torts in Foreign Relations (OUP, forthcoming in 2023), a co-author of Cheshire, North & Fawcett: Private International Law (15th edition, OUP 2017) and a co-editor of Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux (Bloomsbury 2022). His research has also been published in internationally leading journals and edited books, including the Modern Law Review, the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the Yearbook of European Law, the Journal of Private International Law and Revue critique de droit international privé. Dr Grusic's research has been cited by Advocates General of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the New Zealand Supreme Court. He was awarded the 2015 American Society of International Law's Private International Law Interest Group (PILIG) prize for the manuscript of his book The European Private International Law of Employment (CUP 2015) and the inaugural 2012 ICLQ Young Scholar Prize for his article 'Jurisdiction in Employment Matters under Brussels I: A Reassessment' (2012) 61(1) ICLQ 91-126. He has held visiting positions at the University of Osaka, Japan, Deakin University, Australia and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Germany. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Oak Project on Civil Liability for Human Rights Violations at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford. He regularly presents his work at academic conferences and seminars around the world. Dr Grusic has been consulted on private international law issues by European Union bodies, government departments and legal practitioners and has served as an advisor and an expert witness in court and arbitral proceedings, including before the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Professor of Architecture, Penn State Ute Poerschke, professor and associate department head for graduate education, teaches architectural design and technical systems integration/comprehensive studio. Prior to her tenure at Penn State, she taught design, construction, and environmentally responsible architecture at the Technical Universities of Berlin and Munich (1999–2005) and completed her doctoral degree in architectural theory at the Technical University of Cottbus in 2005. She is a licensed architect and licensed urban planner in Germany, an international member of the American Institute of Architects, and a LEED-accredited professional. Poerschke is a principal of the firm Friedrich-Poerschke-Zwink Architekten | Stadtplaner in Munich, Germany, and co-editor of the architectural journal Wolkenkuckucksheim | Cloud-Cuckoo-Land. Poerschke’s research focuses on the relationship of architecture and technology, the theory of functionalism, and the interpretation of how architects integrate aspects of technology with expression in architectural projects and education. Most of her recent work focuses on the high modernism of the 1920s to 1960s, particularly on how architects responded to the progressing lighting and heating, cooling, and ventilation science, technology and engineering of the time.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Ursula Keller has been a tenured professor of physics at ETH Zurich since 1993 (www.ulp.ethz.ch) and served as a director of the Swiss research program NCCR MUST in ultrafast science from 2010 to 2022. She received a „Diplom“ at ETH Zurich in 1984, a Ph.D. at Stanford University USA in 1989, and was a Member of Technical Staff (MTS) at Bell Labs USA 1989 to 1993 where she started her independent research. She has been a co-founder and board member for Time-Bandwidth Products (acquired by JDSU in 2014), for GigaTera (acquired by Time-Bandwidth in 2003) and a board member of Jenoptik since 2022. Her research interests are exploring and pushing the frontiers in ultrafast science and technology. Awards include the Swiss Science Prize Marcel Benoist (2022), OSA Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize (2020), SPIE Gold Medal (2020), IEEE Edison Medal (2019), European Inventor Award for lifetime achievement (2018), OSA Charles H. Townes Award (2015), LIA Arthur L. Schawlow Award (2013), ERC advanced grants (2012 and 2018), and EPS Senior Prize (2011). She supervised and graduated 93 Ph.D. students, published >510 journal publications and according to Google Scholar an h-index of 119 with more than 53’000 citations.
Associate Professor in Early Childhood Studies, University of Plymouth I work as Associate Professor in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Plymouth. I hold the German qualification of 'Staatlich Anerkannte Erzieherin', which qualifies me to work with all children outside of school. Therefor my expertise is related to social pedagogy. When my life took me to England, I studied a BA (Hons) in Social Policy at the University of Newcastle and wrote my PhD on the socio-economic experience of childminders in England and in Germany. My interest in social policy related to young children and families continues. Comparative research allows us to look through different lenses and develop new ideas. Living in different countries, speaking different languages always helps to make the familiar strange and take a closer look. My Orcid link is https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7127-117X https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/ulrike-hohmann
Olkola elder and Chairman of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Knowledge Olkola man, Mike Ross has been at the vanguard of land rights for the people of Cape York for the last 3 decades. At an early age Mike was anointed by his elders to be the person to lead them in an emerging era of land rights. Since then, Mike has dedicated his life to securing land rights and the protection of culture and country for his people and the people of Cape York. A sincere spokesperson, a gentleman and a distinguished bushman, Mike is a leader who goes about his business with an understated eloquence that mandates respect from the corridors of parliament in Canberra to the cattle-yards of Cape York. Mike has spent considerable time as a director and as Chairperson of the Cape York Land Council. He is also currently the Chairperson of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation and has been for more than a decade. Mike is currently an applicant on one of the largest native title claims in Australia, the United Cape York Claim, which covers all unclaimed and undetermined areas of Cape York. After leading a Traditional Owner negotiation team in years of negotiations with the Queensland Government, in December 2014, this resulted one of the largest transfers of Aboriginal freehold land in Australia’s history. This has established the Olkola People as the largest private landholder managing 869,822 hectares in Cape York and joint management partners with Queensland Parks in the largest new protected area in Queensland and allowed the Olkola People to develop one of the largest, and most successful savannah burning carbon abatement projects in Australia. Mike Has laid the foundations for his people, the Olkola People, and the people of Cape York, to reconnect to country and have sustainable livelihoods on country going into the future.
