Annual General Meeting and International Conference

Annual General Meeting and International Conference

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Annual General Meeting and International Conference

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Conference Opening Panel

Hussam Mahmoud

Colorado State University, USA; Co-Chair New Voices

Hussam Mahmoud is the George T. Abell Professor in Infrastructure at Colorado State University. He obtained his BSc and MSc in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota and his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Mahmoud’s research focuses on sustainable and resilient infrastructure and communities, emphasizing developing socio-physical models to capture the recovery of systems as influenced by human behavior and socio-economic policies. He is an international authority on infrastructure and community resilience and an advisor to the World Bank, insurance companies, and other agencies on such topics.  

Marcia McNutt

President, U.S. National Academy of Sciences

Marcia McNutt (B.A. in physics, Colorado College; Ph.D. in Earth sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) is a geophysicist and the 22nd president of the National Academy of Sciences. From 2013 to 2016, she was editor-in-chief of Science journals. McNutt was director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 2009 to 2013. McNutt is a fellow of multiple renowned associations, and member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, UK, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. In 1998, McNutt was awarded the AGU’s Macelwane Medal for research accomplishments by a young scientist, and she received the Maurice Ewing Medal in 2007 for her contributions to deep-sea exploration.

Vint Cerf

VP, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google; Honorary Fellow and Inaugural Patron of the ISC

Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet.  A former Stanford Professor and former member of the US National Science Board, he is also the past President of the Association for Computing Machinery and serves in advisory capacities at NIST, DOE, NSF, NRO and JPL. He earned his B.S. in mathematics at Stanford and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science at UCLA.  He is a member of both the US National Academies of Science and Engineering and the UK Royal Society.  

Patricia Gruber

Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State Office of the Science and Technology Adviser

Dr. Patricia Gruber serves as the Science and Technology Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State where she engages with academic and private sector research communities to inform foreign policy priorities.  At the Office of Naval Research, she promoted domestic and international science and technology collaboration as the Director of Research and the Technical Director of ONR Global.  She has held technical and business management positions at the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State University, Battelle, AT&T, and Bell Laboratories.  She holds a MS and a Ph.D. in Applied Marine Physics from the University of Miami. 

Plenary Panel I – Bridging the Gap and Paving the Way for Future Leaders

Meghana Gadgil

Associate Professor, University of California San Francisco; New Voices Member

Dr. Meghana Gadgil is an academic physician and award-winning educator with interests in human-centered design, systems and quality improvement, global health, and climate change adaptation and mitigation in the health sector. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and is an Assistant Professor at UC San Francisco’s in the Department of Medicine. Her clinical practice is as a hospitalist at San Francisco General Hospital.

Gregory Weiss

Professor, University of California Irvine; Founding GYA Member

Gregory Weiss is the Director of Innovation in the School of Physical Sciences, UCI, and a tenured Professor of Chemical Biology in the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCI. He earned a BS from UC Berkeley and PhD from Harvard. Awarded an NIH postdoctoral fellowship, he pursued post-doctoral studies with Dr. Jim Wells at Genentech. His laboratory focuses on the interface between chemistry and biology, including studies of enzymes, molecular recognition, and bioelectronics. Co-founder of four companies (including Debut Biotechnology), he was named UCI’s Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year in 2018.

Kimberly Montgomery

Director, International Affairs and Science Diplomacy at AAAS

Kim Montgomery is the AAAS Director of International Affairs and Science Diplomacy where she manages international institutional relationships, directs the Center for Science Diplomacy, and serves as the Executive Editor of Science & Diplomacy. Previous positions include external relations manager at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), scientific consultant at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), senior program officer at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), professional staff for the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and legislative assistant for Representative Rush Holt. Kim has a Ph.D. from Princeton University and a B.A. from Northwestern University. 

Pongpan Kaewtatip

Vice President, Thailand Research and Innovation

Dr. Pongpan Kaewtatip is Vice President of the Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI), the national organization responsible for policy planning and budget allocation under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. He is also Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, KMUTT, where he was Head of the Department from 2010-2014. He received his Ph.D. from Nippon Institute of Technology (NIT), Japan. Dr. Kaewtatip’s research interests include metal forming technology, as well as forming of new frontier materials such as SMA, biomedical materials, etc. He is also interested in the field of energy policy, renewable energy especially in the transport sector. Dr. Kaewtatip has been committee member and Vice President for R&D of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Thailand (TSAE). He has also served as the Vice President for research promotion of the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand (EVAT) since 2016. 

Priscilla Kolibea Mante

Professor, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Ghana; GYA Co-Chair

Priscilla Kolibea Mante is a neuropharmacologist with expertise in drug discovery and neurogenetics. She has a Ph.D. from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and postdoctoral training from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on developing better therapeutic options for resistant epilepsy by reducing diagnosing costs and improving therapy based on patients’ genetics.
Priscilla has received the International Rising Talent Award in 2019 for her research. She is a 2019 OWSD Early Career Fellowship; a Fellow of the African Science Leadership Programme, an Affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences as well as The World Academy of Sciences.

Plenary Panel II – In a Challenging World, No One Should be Left Behind

Hiba Baroud

Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University; GYA Member

Dr. Hiba Baroud is an associate professor and the associate chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She holds secondary appointments in Computer Science and Earth and Environmental Science. Her research is interdisciplinary at the intersection of data analytics and risk analysis. Her group develops and applies methods founded in statistical learning, network models, and decision analysis to evaluate infrastructure performance during disasters. Hiba is the recipient of the 2019 Global Voices Fellowship, the 2020 National Science Foundation Early CAREER award, and the 2022 National Academy of Sciences Arab-American Frontiers Fellowship. She is a member of the Global Young Academy and a fellow of the International Science Council. 

Sudip Parikh

Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher, Science Journals, AAAS

Sudip Parikh is the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the Science family of journals in January 2020Parikh has spent over two decades at the intersection of science, policy, and business as a Senate staffer, life science business leader, and in the policy community He was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship while earning his Ph.D. in macromolecular structure and chemistry from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California and earned his BS in Applied Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry, University of California, Merced; Past Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe is Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry, & Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced. She is also Past Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, among other appointments, and recipient of many awards, including a member of the inaugural class of the US National Academies’ New Voices in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Her research focuses on biogeochemical cycling of essential elements in the soil system, global change science, nano-geochemistry, political ecology of land degradation and ownership. She is passionate about all things soil and is driven to ensure that scientific education and careers are equally accessible to people from all walks of life, and that academic workplaces are free from bias and harassment.

Nishal Mohan

Founder of mohuman, USA.

Dr. Nishal Mohan is a distinguished leader known for his impact on global social initiatives.
Coming from a humble background he has risen as a champion of hope and change
through his work as a scientist, technologist, entrepreneur, and policy architect. As the
founder of mohuman in 2018, he spearheaded initiatives to bridge the digital divide for the
digitally underserved. His mission extends to empowering youth through entrepreneurship
in science and technology for grassroots social impact. He has/had roles at NSF, US Ignite,
FAS, and UCSD with a Ph.D. from Princeton University and a B.A. from Hunter College.

Flavio Carvalhaes

Assistant Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, GYA Member.

Flavio Carvalhaes is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His research focuses on the subjective experiences and attitudes of individuals towards social inequality, comparing Brazil with countries like Germany, the United States, South Africa, and Botswana, going beyond statistical analysis and delving into the reasons why people believe social inequality exists and the consequences it has on society. His research uses a variety of methods, such as public opinion polls, online discussions, and focus groups, with the ultimate goal being to find the most effective ways to promote redistribution in different contexts. Flavio was selected as a member of the Global Young Academy in 2023. 

Keynote

Frances Colon

Senior Director, International Climate Policy at American Progress

Dr. Frances Colón is the Senior Director for International Climate Policy at Center for American Progress, where she leads a program to drive international ambition and action to meet global climate mitigation and adaptation goals. Colón is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the former Deputy Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State. Colón earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2004 from Brandeis University and her B.S. in biology in 1997 from the University of Puerto Rico. Colón was a 2019 Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government fellow, a city of Miami Climate Resilience Committee member, and a 2020 Yale-OpEd Project Public Voices on the Climate Crisis fellow. She is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability and the Global Science Diplomacy Roundtable.   

Plenary Panel III – Science Innovation, Transformation, or Both

Alison Sheets-Singer

Biomechanics, Nike Sport Research Lab; former New Voices Co-Chair

Alison Sheets-Singer is a Principal Researcher in the Nike Sport Research Lab, and her team focuses on creating products and services that help all athletes achieve their goals. Dr. Sheets-Singer was co-chair of the New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and is a Standing Council member of the NSF sponsored Engineering Research Visioning Alliance. Prior to joining Nike, Dr. Sheets-Singer was an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She received a Mechanical Engineering B.S. from Cornell University and Ph.D. from the University of CA, Davis, and was Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University. 

Derya Baran

Professor, KAUST, Saudia Arabia; GYA Member

Derya Baran is the co-founder and Chief Engineer of iyris, an innovation and technology led Agri-tech growth company. She is pioneering advances within transparent heat shielding composites for use in controlled environment agriculture in hot climates, helping to solve the globally important topic of sustainable food security. She also holds an associate professor position in Material Science and Engineering Program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Her research group (OMEGALAB) at KAUST focus on the engineering smart materials for flexible electronics and energy applications. She is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and selected as Talented 12 Chemists given by C&EN in 2021 globally. She strives to be a role model with her research and an inspiration to next generation scientists.  

Timothy Jones

Founder and Managing Principal, TBJ Investments

Timothy Jones has over 30 years’ experience in technology innovation leadership from startup through IPO.  Mr. Jones also served in the public sector as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for The White House, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the General Services Administration. 

Mr. Jones holds a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in management science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a master’s degree in computer information systems from Georgia State University. He has also earned a certificate in nanotechnology and nanoscience from Stanford University and a certificate in biotechnology for business from Duke University.

Ourania Kosti

Executive Director, InterAcademy Partnership

Dr. Ourania “Rania” Kosti is executive director of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), based at the Secretariat office hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, and the director of the Board on International Scientific Organizations of the U.S. National Academies. Dr. Kosti’s expertise is in radiation health effects and emergency preparedness and response. She received a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Surrey, United Kingdom; an M.S. in molecular medicine from the University College London; and a Ph.D. in molecular endocrinology from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, United Kingdom. 

Mohamed Abdel-Kader

Chief Innovation Officer, USAID

Mohamed Abdel-Kader serves as USAID’s Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of the Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub. In these roles, he promotes the application of innovation, technology, and research for greater aid effectiveness. He served in the Obama administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International and Foreign Language Education and later led the Aspen Institute’s Stevens Initiative. A speaker of fluent Arabic, Mohamed is a Truman National Security Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow, and the author of a children’s book about stereotypes. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University, a master’s degree in Higher Education from Vanderbilt University, and an MBA from Georgetown University.