PhD Candidate, Film Studies, Lancaster University I am an early career researcher currently working on my PhD in Film Studies, specifically in anime and adaptation studies. In addition to my academic work primarily on Japanese animation, I am also a film critic and member of the OAFFC (the Online Association of Female Film Critics) and GALECA (The Society of LGBTQ Critics), with bylines at publications like Little White Lies, The Skinny, and Vulture. I also engage in outreach work at the Dukes Theatre, promoting independent cinema at the venue and encouraging post-film discussions following selected screenings.
Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University Dr Zena Assaad is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering at the Australian National University and is also a Trusted Autonomous Systems fellow and an Australian Army Research Centre fellow. Her research explores the safety of human-machine teaming and the assurance and certification of autonomous systems and AI. Dr Assaad is the founder and chair of the Australian national community of practice for UAS and AAM research. She received the 2023 Asia Pacific Women in AI Award for Defence and Intelligence, the 2023 Women to Watch in Emerging Aviation Technologies Global Award from Women and Drones and was named one of the '"100 Brilliant women in AI Ethics" for 2023 as a result of her work around safety and assurance of AI. She was also Top 5 Science Resident with the ABC in 2023 and is the co-host of the Algorithmic Futures podcast.
Director Clinical Epidemiology Center, VA St. Louis Health Care System, Washington University in St Louis Dr. Al-Aly a physician-scientist; he directs the Clinical Epidemiology Center and serves as the Chief of Research and Development Service at the VA Saint Louis Health Care System. He is a senior clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in Saint Louis. He has several research interests including pharmacoepidemiology, environmental epidemiology, global health, and most recently short- and long-term effects of COVID-19 on health outcomes. He led work which provided systematic characterization of the post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (also called Long Covid) and subsequently characterization of the increased risks of cardiovascular disease, neurologic disorders, diabetes, dyslipidemia, kidney disease, and gastrointestinal disorders following SARS-CoV-2 infection. His laboratory was the first to produce evidence characterizing the effects of vaccines on Long Covid, the health consequences of repeated infections with SARS-CoV-2, and the effect of antivirals on the short- and long-term outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Dr. Al-Aly co-chaired the U.S. Biden-Harris Administration committee that developed the National Research Action Plan for Long Covid. He serves on the US Government Interagency Long Covid Coordination Council. He advised the Chief Science Advisor of Canada (Mona Nemer – Government of Justin Trudeau) on Long Covid strategy. He currently serves on a consensus committee at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine looking at the long-term health effects stemming from COVID-19 and their implications for the U.S. Social Security Administration. He is also a member of the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force for data and innovation. Dr. Al-Aly's work is published in prestigious medical journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet and several others. According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited more than 100,000 times. His work is frequently featured in major national and international media outlets including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, NPR, BBC, CNN, the Guardian, Bloomberg, The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Rolling Stones, Scientific American, Science Magazine, Nature Magazine, and several others. Several of his studies on Long COVID have generated exceptionally high public and media engagement, ranking in the top 10 of more than 23 million research papers ever tracked by Altmetric, a firm that monitors public engagement in academic research. Dr. Al-Aly serves on multiple national and international committees and boards, and on multiple editorial boards and serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology – the flagship journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Profile: https://outlook.wustl.edu/real-world-reflections/
Research Fellow, Monash University Zihong Deng is a research fellow with Monash CYPEP and has completed her PhD on children's agency and wellbeing at the UNSW Social Policy Research Centre.
Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam I investigate fundamental questions about the emergence and utility of nonverbal behavior for the communication of emotion, personality, and social rank. I rely on a variety of methods, including structured group interactions, human-robot interactions, experiments, and longitudinal designs, while leveraging different measurement and analytical techniques including automated and manual nonverbal behavioral coding, peer-reports, machine learning, and psychophysiology. To examine the generalizability of my research findings, I explore these questions around the globe and across ages, including in non-western and small-scale traditional societies, and children as young as two.
PhD Candidate in Conservation, Bournemouth University Zach Boakes is a PhD Candidate studying coral reef conservation in Indonesia. Zach is the project manager and research coordinator of an Indonesian NGO which he co-founded in 2017. The volunteering, non-profit organisation aims to conserve coral reef ecosystems, whilst providing local people with sustainable livelihoods. As Project Manager, Zach is responsible for overseeing a team of fishermen and international volunteers to run projects including building Indonesia’s largest artificial reef, establishing a plastic recycling centre and creating a conservation and sustainable living educational programme, taught to over 500 children. In addition, Zach oversees an internationally funded artificial reef research programme and a turtle conservation area which is supported by the Indonesian government.
