John D. McDonald
P.E., Purdue University, USA
John D. McDonald is a Smart Grid Business Development Leader at GE Vernova's Grid Solutions. With 49 years of experience in electric utility transmission and distribution, he holds B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from Purdue University, along with an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of California-Berkeley. A Life Fellow of IEEE and a member for 52 years, John is associated with IEEE-HKN and Tau Beta Pi. He has received numerous awards including the IEEE Millennium Medal, IEEE PES Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award, and CIGRE Distinguished Member Award. Past President of IEEE PES, John is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He teaches Smart Grid courses and has published extensively.
Professor Tugrul U Daim
Engineering and Technology Management, Portland State University, USA
Prof. Tugrul U Daim is a Professor of Engineering & Technology Management at Portland State University. He also serves as Assoc. Director of Research at the National Academic Center of Excellence for Cybersecurity. With 30 guided PhD graduates, he's influential in technology evaluations and research applications. His work is highly regarded; a top-5 paper in Technological Forecasting and Social Change and recognition for PSU's roadmapping approach. Prof. Daim boasts 200+ journal papers, 20+ special issues, and 20+ books, along with 200+ conference presentations. Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, he led the International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management. Formerly with Intel, he collaborated with Bonneville Power Administration at PSU. A consultant for global organizations, Prof. Daim has also taught at Technical University of Hamburg. He's received awards from IAMOT and PICMET, and distinctions from Moscow's National Research University Higher School of Economics and Chao Yang University of Technology. PSU honored him with teaching, research, and alumni awards. He led Omega Rho and founded the PSU Chapter.
Dr. Tolga Durak
Lecturer, Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Dr. Durak serves as MIT’s Managing Director of Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), overseeing health, safety, and environmental programs. Managing a team of 1000+ professionals, he ensures compliance with laws and best practices, while supporting initiatives like prevention strategies for MIT entities including the Nuclear Reactor Lab and more. Dr. Durak's credentials include BS in Mechanical Engineering, MS in Industrial & Systems Engineering, PhD in Building Construction and Environmental Design & Planning, and an MBA. With 25 years of experience, he holds engineering and public health faculty roles and conducts research on integrated bio-fabrication, tissue engineering, and using medical/nuclear engineering for health and environmental advancements.
Professor Geoffrey M Hodgson
Loughborough University, UK
Geoffrey Hodgson is now a Professor in Management at Loughborough University London's Institute for International Management. He's an expert in institutional and evolutionary economics, with a background in economics, philosophy, and mathematics. His research pertains to organizations, innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development. Hodgson serves as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Institutional Economics and has authored 18 academic books and over 150 articles. He won the Schumpeter Prize 2014 for his book "Conceptualizing Capitalism." Honorary doctorates from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the University of Thessaly recognize his contributions. An Emeritus professor, he previously taught at Cambridge and the University of Hertfordshire. Hodgson's current research delves into property rights, markets, and corporations, drawing from multiple disciplines. He's also actively engaged in institutional research networks globally, including WINIR. Beyond academia, his interests encompass photography, Shakespeare, and his family.
Robert Skidelsky
Political Economy, Warwick University, UK
Robert Skidelsky, emeritus professor of political economy at Warwick University, is renowned for his significant contributions. His three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes earned five prizes, and "Keynes: The Return of the Master," addressing the financial crisis, was published in 2010. A member of the House of Lords since 1991, he's also a fellow of the British Academy. Collaborating with his son Edward, he authored "How Much is Enough? The Love of Money and the Case for the Good Life" (2012). His works encompass "Britain in the 20th Century: A Success?" (2014), "The Essential Keynes" (2015), and co-edited volumes on economics, including "Who Runs the Economy?" (2016) and "Austerity Vs Stimulus" (2017). Skidelsky has produced a series of lectures on the History and Philosophy of Economics as an open online course with the Institute for New Economics Thinking. His most recent book, "Money and Government," was published in 2018, and he's currently engaged in a project focusing on automation and the future of work.
Feridun Hamdullahpur
Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada
Feridun Hamdullahpur served as the sixth president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo from 2010 to 2021. An accomplished engineer, educator, and leader, he has made significant contributions to research and higher education. Holding a PhD in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia, he's a professor of mechanical engineering, with earlier degrees from the Technical University of Istanbul.
With a career marked by active research in thermo-fluids and energy engineering, teaching, and academic administration, Professor Hamdullahpur has authored numerous publications and supervised over 50 graduate students. His achievements include being named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2014 and holding roles such as vice-president academic and provost at the University of Waterloo.
Recognized as a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018, he's commended for advancing the society's objectives and contributing significantly to Canadian society. His dedication to education and innovation led to receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in January 2013.
Adrian Bejan
Mechanical Engineering, Duke University, USA
Adrian Bejan is a J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University. Professor Bejan was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal 2018 and the Humboldt Research Award 2019. His research covers engineering science and applied physics: thermodynamics, heat transfer, convection, design, and evolution in nature. He is ranked among the top 0.01% of the most cited and impactful world scientists (and top 10 in Engineering worldwide) in the 2019 citations impact database created by Stanford University’s John Ioannidis, in PLoS Biology. He is the author of 30 books and 700 peer-referred articles. His h-index is 108 with 87,000 citations on Google Scholar. He received 18 honorary doctorates from universities in 11 countries.
M. Ali Khan
Political Economy, Johns Hopkins University, USA
M. Ali Khan is an Abram Hutzler Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University. His research interests include Mathematical Economics, Economic Theory, History Of Economic Thought, International And Development Economics. His interests in literature and epistemology are complemented by those in mathematics, where he works with methods of nonstandard analysis (Loeb spaces), nonsmooth analysis and optimization (Mordukhovich-Ioffe cones), chaotic dynamics and stochastic processes (law of large numbers with a continuum of random variables) Dr. Khan has a B.Sc. (Econ.), 1st Class Honours from London School of Economics, an M.Phil and PhD. from Yale University.
Miroslaw J. Skibniewski
Construction Engineering, University of Maryland, USA
Dr. Miroslaw J. Skibniewski is the A. James Clark Endowed Chair Professor of Construction Engineering and Project Management in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland. He also served for two decades at Purdue University in Indiana as a Professor of Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering, and Management. Holding degrees from Warsaw University of Technology and Carnegie-Mellon University, he's also a Harvard University Graduate School of Education Management Development Program graduate.
Beginning his career as an engineer with Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, a construction engineering consulting firm, he has since focused on researching e-commerce technology in engineering project management for construction and construction automation. His contributions include one of the earliest US construction automation programs, along with collaborations with notable organizations globally.
Prof. Dr. Heinz D. Kurz
Economics, University of Graz, Austria
Heinz D. Kurz is an Economics Professor at the University of Graz in Austria and founder of the Graz Schumpeter Centre. He taught at universities worldwide, including Cambridge and New School for Social Research, New York, in English, Italian, and French. Prof. Kurz published extensively in journals like Cambridge Journal of Economics, Routledge, and Edward Elgar, including books such as "Theory of Production: A Long-Period Analysis" and "Understanding 'Classical' Economics: Studies in Long Period Theory." He's on editorial boards of international journals and directs research projects, particularly on technological progress, like his recent work on Smart (machines), London: Routledge.