Senior Lecturer, Department of International Business & Asian Studies, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University Dr Tapan Sarker is a Senior Lecturer based at Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Australia. His research investigates how socioeconomic, regulatory and environmental factors influence the ways in which people use, perceive and govern natural resources, with a particular emphasis on economic and sustainability accounting principles. Tapan is a former World Bank scholar. He complements his research work with experience in government, international organisations, and iNGOs. Dr Sarker leads a range of collaborative externally funded project funded by ACIAR, DFAT, NCCARF and The World Bank.
Associate professor, Australian National University I am an applied mathematician and physical chemist. Currently I am working on the origin of life in the primordial soup! Another current interest is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scientific and engineering heritage. As an experienced thermodynamicist I am concerned about the widespread misunderstanding of thermodynamics, particularly of the second law and the concept of entropy, among people who are otherwise scientifically literate. If you do not have good working knowledge of the fundamentals of thermodynamics – specifically the Maxwell relations and their Legendre transforms – then it is better not to mention entropy or the second law in your articles, because you will most likely get it hopelessly, even ridiculously, wrong. Currently in my research I am working collaboratively on new high efficiency systems for separating carbon from fuels and flue gases. A spinoff is that I have elucidated the oscillatory thermal instability that led to the Bhopal disaster and initiates explosion of peroxide bombs used by terrorists. My research expertise in reactive thermal runaway and thermal explosions is also motivated by process safety. Serious and fatal thermal runaway incidents are quite common in chemical plants in Asia and in developing nations, although they are rarely reported in the Western press. (E.g, see http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-19/hyderabad/29904559_1_kalpana-explosion-ketone.) Most such incidents are preventable, but crucial knowledge that was made good use of by chemical engineers from the 1950s through the 1970s evidently never was learned in some relevant quarters. Ignorance is dangerous. Recently I came across two papers in the refereed literature claiming to determine thermal runaway criteria for processes used to manufacture two types of explosives, which I read with horror and disbelief. The authors prescribed operating criteria that they claimed are "safe" from thermal runaway, without carrying out ANY stability analysis. But there is a vicious oscillatory thermal instability in these systems, as an elementary stability analysis shows. Plant operators using their guidelines would be in for a nasty surprise - that is, if they survived. Due to their ignorance these authors' thermal 'safety' criteria are incorrect and dangerous. This does not reflect well on the journals that published these two papers. Why were the serious shortcomings not picked up by referees? In general science as fatally (literally) flawed as that in these two papers should not be left unchallenged but where real safety is involved and it puts human lives at risk one is morally obliged to correct it in the refereed literature. Our paper on this may be downloaded at http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5550, it is published as: Ball, R., Gray, B.F., Thermal instability and runaway criteria: The dangers of disregarding dynamics. Process Safety and Environmental Protection (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.10/j.psep.2012.05.008. On another front, I am researching the role of fire in sequestering CO2.
Research Fellow at Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University Jennifer is a Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University. Her current areas of research are: HIV, sexuality and gender. She also has a research background in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered parenting and family studies.
Research associate, University of Notre Dame Australia Xavier Symons is a research associate with the Institute for Ethics and Society. Xavier has a masters degree in philosophy from the University of Sydney, and is currently a PhD research student with the Centre for Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics at the Australian Catholic University. In 2016 Xavier is a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. He is also deputy editor of the online bioethics news service BioEdge. Xavier has a strong background in the Catholic intellectual tradition, and has taught philosophy and Catholic social ethics at the Australian Catholic University.
Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of Oregon Damian Radcliffe is the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism at the University of Oregon, an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture Studies, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). He is an experienced digital analyst, consultant, journalist, and researcher who has worked in senior and mid-level editorial, research, and policy positions for the past two decades in the UK, Middle East, and now the USA. A life-long digital intrapaneur, Damian has led new creative and research initiatives at the BBC, Ofcom (the UK Communications Regulator), CSV—a volunteering and social action charity—and Qatar’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR). Damian is a regular contributor to major media outlets such as the BBC, CBS Interactive (ZDNet), and The Huffington Post, as well as a number of other outlets.
Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford David Levy has been Director of the Reuters Institute since September 2008. His work covers the full range of issues around developments in journalism and he has particular interests in public service broadcasting, media regulation and business models, and the interaction between digital technology and media regulation. His publications include ‘Europe's Digital Revolution: Broadcasting Regulation, the EU and the Nation State’, Routledge 1999/2001, and joint editor with Rasmus Kleis Nielsen of 'The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy' (Reuters Institute 2010) and joint editorship with Nic Newman of the annual Reuters Institute Digital News Report (Reuters Institute 2012-16). Before joining the Institute he was Controller, Public Policy at the BBC until 2007 where he led the BBC's policy for the last BBC Charter Review and was in charge of public policy & regulation. Prior to his BBC policy role he worked as a journalist, first for the BBC World Service and then for BBC News and Current Affairs; as a radio producer and reporter on File on 4; as a TV reporter on Newsnight, and as Editor of Analysis on Radio 4. Dr David Levy holds degrees from the Universities of York, LSE and a doctorate in 20th century French history from Nuffield College, Oxford.
