News of the Global Young Academy

Cell Biologist / Stem cells
Alexander received a Bachelor’s degree from Santa Cruz State University in Brazil before finishing his PhD in Neuroscience. He then joined Paul Frenette’s laboratory at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. In 2016, he was appointed faculty at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, where he started his own lab. Currently, Alexander is also a young member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
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Associate Professor / Chemistry and biomolecular sciences
Alison is a 3M National Teaching Fellow, Canada’s highest recognition for excellence in postsecondary education, at the University of Ottawa. Her research group studies student learning in organic chemistry and evaluates the effectiveness of learning opportunities. Her work includes developing open-access online learning tools, curricula, and teaching methods.
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Food Technologist / Biotechnical sciences
Anet is a Professor in the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology of the University of Zagreb. She was trained at Coventry University, UK, and at the University of Avignon, France. Her fields of research are food chemistry, food physics, non-thermal processing, advanced thermal processing, sustainability, and food processing.
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Researcher / Higher education policy
Wan is a Senior Lecturer at the National Higher Education Research Institute (IPPTN), Universiti Sains Malaysia. He is a Committee Member of the Malaysian Society for Higher Education Policy and Research Development and an Affiliate Member of the Young Scientists Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia.
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Molecular Oncologist / Cancer drug discovery
Chern completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and her doctoratal studies in medical oncology at the University of Oxford. Chern served as EXCO for the Young Scientists Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia from 2016 to 2018.
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Assistant Professor / Material characterisation
Dipak has developed protocols for synthesising various nano-materials in the laboratory, as well as at the pilot scale using a cavitation technique. He is actively working in the area of process intensification, environmental remediation, energy transformation and utilisation of cavitation into various fields.
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Energy Scientist / Photovoltaics
Easwaramoorthi is a scientist in the Centre for Solar Energy Materials, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials in India. He is working on the development of cost-effective and high efficiency next generation solar cell modules using perovskite absorber materials.
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Professor and Editor / Quantum optics
Ebrahim is the Canada Research Chair in the field of Structured Light and the Group Leader of the Structured Quantum Optics laboratory. He is also an Adjunct Professor at IASBS-Iran, and a Visiting Professor at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany.
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Biochemist / Natural antioxidants
Eqbal’s main research areas are in biochemistry, food antioxidants, and nutrition. In July 2013 she was appointed a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences- Faculty of Medical Sciences, Al-Saeed University, Taiz, Yemen.
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Biochemist / Natural antioxidants
Microbiologist / Pharmaceutical biotechnology Fatemeh received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Microbiology from the University of Tehran, Iran. She completed her PhD by working on the discovery of new bioactive molecules from Actinobacteria in 2011 as a sandwich PhD program between the University of Tehran and the University of Goettingen, Germany.
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Biologist / Biosafety of genetically modified organisms
Felix helps developing countries fulfil their obligations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. This international agreement seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by genetically modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. He is the Co-Founder of an NGO for science communication in Spanish.
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Biodiversity Scientist / Integrative biology
Fernanda is a researcher at the National Institute of Amazonian Research-INPA, Brazil. Currently on a sabbatical as a CAPES Visiting Professor at Harvard University, she is developing work on genomics and climate change adaptation.
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Assistant Professor / Chemistry
Filippo works in the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering ‘Giulio Natta’ at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He also spent research periods in 2009 as a visiting PhD student at Imperial College London, in 2012 as a Post-Doc at Uppsala University, Sweden, and in 2018 as a Visiting Professor at Keio University, Japan.
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Researcher / Biotechnology and pharmaceutical sciences
George is currently a Laboratory Medicine Graduate Student at RMIT University Australia. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry in 2017 as Summa Claude at La Trobe University, Australia, where he discovered 5 novel drug classes for Heart Failure. George intends to transfer the best practices he acquires to Africa through research and training.
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Lawyer and Political Scientist / International relations
Goran is an Associate Professor and Vice Dean at Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy in Zagreb, Croatia, and also an Associate Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. He is a European expert in international relations and international law.
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Materials Scientist / Optoelectric materials
In 2018, Zhao became a Professor at Qingdao University, China. His  research interests focus on the synthesis of low-dimensional semiconductor materials (including metal oxide, quantum dot, nanoplatelets, and inorganic perovskite) for solar energy applications such as solar cells, luminescent solar concentrators, and nanoscale thermal sensors.
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Innovation Fellow / French and German philosophy
Iwona is an Early Career Innovation Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Warwick, UK, and an Affiliated Researcher with the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin, Germany. As a Gates Scholar, Iwona completed her PhD in French at the University of Cambridge, Trinity Hall.
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Sociologist / Social stratification
Jonas is an Associate Professor of Sociology and ‘Ramón y Cajal’ Fellow at the Department of Social Sciences of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, as well as a member of the Carlos III-Juan March Institute of Social Sciences. Jonas’ research focuses on the relationship between social stratification and the life course.
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Assistant Professor / Nanomedicine
Joy is the Director of the Nanomedicine and Extracellular Vesicles Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. In the past five years she has authored over 40 publications and received more than 30 awards, including Forbes 30 Under 30. As a TEDx and Hello Tomorrow speaker, she strives to bring science to a wider audience.
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(Computational) Linguist / Language variation and change
Martijn is a Professor by special appointment of Low Saxon / Groningen Language and Culture at the Center for Groningen Language and Culture, and an Associate Professor at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. Between April 2018 and March 2020, Martijn Wieling is the Vice Chairman of De Jonge Akademie.
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Pharmacist and Researcher / Health care systems
Noreen is interested in applied health research aimed at maximising the benefits and equity in developing and developed health systems. She has almost 20 years experience in global public health; 15 years were spent leading and contributing to designing, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating health interventions and programs.
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Research Fellow / Sociology
Özge is an Alexander von Humboldt PSI fellow at the Centre for Citizenship, Religious Diversity and Social Pluralism, Universität Potsdam. She works at the intersection of sociology, human geography and gender studies. Her research interests include social movements, environmental justice, feminist theory, migration, body and subjectivity.
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Biochemist / Gene regulation in human disease
Paulina’s current research interests focus on using genomic and molecular tools to understand mechanisms that control neurological and developmental disorders. Paulina also serves as North and Central American representative for Ekpa’palek, where she also mentors Latin American students.
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Environmental Engineer / Climate change and sustainable development
Renard is a Climate Change Advisor for the Centre for Governance and Political Studies who works across the nexus of engineering and economics. He is a Climate Reality Leader and a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network.
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Research Scientist / Head and neck oncology
Sabrina is currently an Assistant Professor and Scientist at McGill, and has a long-standing interest in the integration of molecular mechanisms influencing tumor progression and metastatic processes in head and neck cancer. Her aim is to identify innovative therapeutic/prognostic targets for incurable diseases.
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Chemist / Bioinorganic chemistry
Sandeep joined the Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, as an Assistant Professor in 2010, and is a Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis, Rostock, Germany. Sandeep’s research interests include bioinorganic, organometallic and coordination chemistry, electro-catalysis, and developing alternative renewable energy resources.
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Materials Scientist / Nanochemistry
Sophie graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, in 2008. From 2012 to 2013, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, where she used synchrotronbased in situ spectroscopies to monitor the surface state of metallic nanoparticles during catalytic reactions.
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Associate Professor / Biomedical engineering
Sudesh heads the Medical Devices and Orthopaedic Biomechanics Research Group at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His work in medical device innovation has received over 18 MedTech awards across 4 continents. He was also listed as one of The Mail and Guardian’s top 200 young South Africans for 2017.
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Assistant Professor / Computer science
Syed conducts research in the intersection between Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Information and Communication Technology and Development. Syed established the first HCI research lab in Bangladesh in 2009, and also launched the first open-source digital map-making initiative in Bangladesh in 2010.
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Translational Researcher / Oncology
Tina is a passionate scientist doing translational research in oncology and fibrosis at Forbius, a biotech company, in Montreal, Canada. Tina is an advocate for evidence-based policymaking, innovation, and science diplomacy. She represents early-career scientists as President for the student-led non-profit organisation Science & Policy Exchange.
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Computer and Data Scientist / Information technology
Tyrone’s work lies at the interaction of technology, data, and social goods. He is a computer scientist, executive, technologist, researcher, entrepreneur, futurist, data scientist, keynote speaker, and coach. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine in London.
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Senior Lecturer / Political science
Udi is Chair of the Israel Young Academy and Head of the Center for the Study of the United States at Tel Aviv University with the Fulbright Program. Udi’s broad research interests are in the interface of law and politics and the politics of gender and sexuality. He regularly appears as an expert commentator on a range of Israeli and foreign media outlets.
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Legal Scholar / Constitutional and criminal law
Vanessa is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of  Law and an expert in constitutional law, constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law and criminal law. In 2019 she is Scholar-in-Residence in the Constitutional, Administrative and International Law Section of the Canadian Federal Department of Justice.
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Sustainability Scientist / Scenario analysis
Vanessa is an Assistant Professor of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Her scenario research played an influential role in the development of the Shared Socio-economic Pathways, the socio-economic scenarios used for climate change impact assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She was also a Contributing Author to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
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Principal Investigator / Synthetic biology
Velia carried out her PhD in Human Genetics at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine Naples, Italy. Her research interest lies in synthetic biology, a field of bioengineering that aims to reprogram cells with genetic circuits to confer new properties and function. She also studies the mechanisms underlying biological pathways.
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Senior Scientist / Pharmacokinetics and biopharmaceutics
Wahajuddin is a Senior Scientist in the Division of Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics, CSIR Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India, where he studies pharmacokinetics and biopharmaceutics. Wahajuddin has 91 research papers, 6 science popularization articles, 6 patents and 6 book chapters to his credit.
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Senior Lecturer / Chemical engineering
In addition to his duties at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Ho is a member of the Young Scientist Network, Academy of Science Malaysia. His research interests lie in energy system improvement, energy efficiency, demand-side management, rain water harvesting, and solid waste management.
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Assistant Professor / Medical engineering
Gao is interested in the future of personalised and precision medicine, and is engineering the next generation of wearable health monitors and nanorobots. At 31, Gao was selected for MIT Technology Review’s 2016 list of ‘35 Innovators under 35’ for his development of a wearable health monitor that tracks indicators of health by analyzing sweat.
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Ecologist / Evolution, information and game theory
William completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the U.S. National Institute for Mathematical and Biological synthesis and now works in the BioProtection Research Centre at Lincoln University in New Zealand, where he seeks to better predict how species will respond to climate change and other environmental disturbances.
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