Contributors

Zahra F. Islam

Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne

Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne Postdoctoral research fellow in plant-soil microbiomes in agriculture.

Zahid Shahab Ahmed

Senior Research Fellow, Deakin University

Senior Research Fellow, Deakin University Dr Zahid Shahab Ahmed is a researcher focusing on peace and security in South Asia and the Middle East. His work examines the impacts of sectarianism and violent extremism on domestic, regional and global peace and security. He is also engaged in research and educational projects on countering violent extremism. A Pakistani citizen, Dr Ahmed brings a much-needed citizen’s perspective to research on the country. He also brings rich grassroots level experience in the development sector in Asia to his research. He has worked on numerous research assignments with Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Commonwealth Foundation, United States Institute of Peace, Transparency International, Global Integrity, and International Centre for Nonviolent Conflict during a decade long engagement with the development sector. Dr Ahmed has published and presented papers on a wide range of issues, such as foreign policy, international organizations, Islam, peace and conflict, regionalism, and regional security. His recent papers have looked at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Dr Ahmed received his PhD in the area of Political and International Studies from the University of New England (UNE) in Australia. He has an MA in Peace Education from the United Nations mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica), and an MA in Sociology from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (Pakistan). During 2013-2015, he served as Assistant Professor at the Centre for International Peace & Stability (CIPS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) in Islamabad. He has previously taught at University of New England (Australia), Charles Sturt University (Australia), Iqra University (Pakistan) and Allama Iqbal Open University (Pakistan). In July 2018, he presented a paper at the 25th World Congress of Political Science in Australia. He has an excellent record of publications. He is the author of Regionalism and Regional Security in South Asia: The Role of SAARC (Routledge, 2013). He has published in prominent academic journals, including Democratization, Third World Quarterly, Asian Studies Review, Journal of Contemporary China, Global Policy, and Middle East Policy. He is regularly invited to write opinion pieces and do media commentary. In recognition of his research, Dr. Ahmed has received several prestigious research awards/grants, such as Mahbub ul Haq Research Award (Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Sri Lanka); Conflict Transformation Award (WISCOMP, India).

Zoya Tyabji

PhD student, Biology, Dalhousie University

I am a PhD student at Dalhousie University working with a team to unravel the global shark meat trade. My past work experiences include working in India as a marine education officer for a local NGO, studying the terrestrial behaviour of sea kraits, studying the resilience of coral reefs and associated taxa in the face of climate change, and characterising the shark and ray fisheries of India. I am interested in understanding the complex relationships between fish and humans and how these can inform resource governance and policy.

Zerina Kapetanovic

Acting Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

Acting Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University I an an Acting Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and a Postdoctoral Researcher at Microsoft Research. I received my PhD at the University of Washington in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in 2022. I was advised by Professor Joshua Smith and a member of the Sensor Systems Lab. My research is focused around wireless technology such as battery-free sensing, low-cost low-power communication and IoT systems. I am very passionate about using technology to help solve the many environmental issues we face as a world today. My first step towards this was in 2015 when I joined Microsoft’s FarmBeats team to work on developing an end-to-end IoT system to enable data-driven agriculture solutions, which is used by farmers worldwide and an ongoing effort.

Zoe Long

PhD Student in Sustainable Transportation, Simon Fraser University

Zoe Long is a senior researcher and PhD student with the Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team at Simon Fraser University. She has 7 years of experience leading applied research in low-carbon transport solutions, resulting in over 10 peer-reviewed publications. Most recently she has received a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship recognizing her academic excellence, research potential, and leadership capability. Her research aims to understand how consumers use low-carbon transport technologies and how policy can ensure that these technologies are compatible with climate change goals – with the goal of producing evidence-based policy recommendations for decision makers.

Zahir Irani

Professor of Sustainable Operations Management and Founding Dean of College, Brunel University London Zahir is Professor of Operations and Information Management in the Brunel Business School, which he joined in August 2006 as the Head of School. Prior to this, he was the Head of the Department of Information Systems and Computing (now, Department of Computer Science). He completed a BEng (Hons) at Salford University before then accepting a research position where he completed a MPhil. His has a PhD from Brunel University in the area of investment evaluation before undertaking his leadership development at the Harvard Business School. During 2014, Professor Irani enjoyed a full time secondment to the Cabinet Office, where he was a Senior Policy advisor. He currently maintains strong links across several Government departments and often advises on matter. Zahir’s research interests are multidisciplinary in nature, and developed from early work on the area of evaluating investments in Manufacturing Information Systems through to more recent works in Transformational Government. He has received significant levels of funding from across the world as Principal Investigator, including from the UK Research Councils (EPSRC, ESRC), European Commission, Qatar Foundation, Australian Research Council and QinetiQ. He also publishes in leading scholarly journals. Zahir manages to find time to write press and thought leadership pieces on higher education and graduate employability that have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times (FT), Thomson Reuters, University Business, Research Foresight and Times Higher Education (THE). Under his leadership, Brunel Business School received the 2013/14 Times Higher Award – Business School of the Year.