Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Professor Francesco Audrino – Using Big Data to Improve Financial Forecasting
Hookah smoking is the least regulated tobacco form. It is rapidly gaining in popularity to the extent that we are now facing a contemporary epidemic of tobacco abuse. Of particular concern is the level of usage among youth and young adults. Professor Mary Rezk-Hanna from the University of California, Los Angeles works with a group of scientists who aim to drive policy regulation of tobacco and alternative tobacco products, including hookah smoking, by investigating their health effects on the cardiovascular system.
Professor Ingrid Miethe – The Workers’ Faculty: The Globalisation of Soviet Education
The borrowing and lending of educational models between nations has a long and interesting history. However, much of modern literature focuses on transfers between capitalist societies. Professor Ingrid Miethe of the University of Gießen studies the global transfer of...
Dr Henning Kroll – Sustainable Innovation for an Equitable World
Frugal innovation is the art of using limited resources and ingenuity to sell products that are affordable for more people. Alongside his collaborators, Dr Henning Kroll of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research explores the many benefits of this...
Project VALOR – Exploring PTSD Risk Factors and Outcomes in Combat-exposed Veterans
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent and often debilitating condition that follows exposure to a traumatic experience and can result in depression and increased suicide risk in vulnerable individuals. Researchers at the National Center for PTSD at the...
Dr Cynthia Pearson – rETHICS: Research Ethics Training for Health in Indigenous Communities
American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIAN) face substantial health inequalities, yet ethical research addressing their health concerns is still extremely limited. Dr Cynthia Pearson, Associate Professor at the University of Washington and Director of Research at the...
Dr Natascha Müller – Multilingualism – A Barrier or a Blessing?
Many children grow up in a multilingual environment, and they need to learn and use these languages in different settings. In some cases, they even need to learn and use a new language to confidently engage with their community and to grow within it. Dr...
The Linguistic Society of America
Almost a century ago, the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) was founded with the aim of advancing the field of linguistics – the scientific study of language. Since then, LSA has played a critical role in supporting linguistics research and highlighting its...
Dr Byron D’Andra Orey – Race & Wellbeing in the US: The Psychological Toll of a Broken System
The United States government and law enforcement branches have a long history of abuse and violence towards African American people that continues into present day. Beyond the impacts to those directly affected, these traumatic events may have psychological and...
Professor Heidi Zeeman – Neurophilic Design: Who We Are and Where We Are
Professor Heidi Zeeman of Griffith University and her collaborators are exploring the innovative research field of neurotrauma and the built environment. They endeavour to understand the experiences of individuals with different brain sensitivities and neurological...
Professor Raphael DiLuzio – Infusing Creative Thinking into STEM Education
Creative thinking is the source of most great human inventions, works of art, and discoveries made throughout history. Professor Raphael DiLuzio, working at the University of Southern Maine (USM), is an artist who bridges traditional painting and drawing praxis with...
Professor Katja Langenbucher – Making the Law Measurable: ‘Economic Transplants’ in the Legal World
How can jurists hold people legally accountable for their actions if there is no one, certain and ‘objective’ way of reading the law’s rules? How can we award monetary damages or send people to prison if legal rules have multiple meanings and numerous ways of...
ReACH – Finding a Silent Killer: Universal Screening for Hepatitis C Saves Lives
Hepatitis C is the most common blood borne infection in the United States and a serious public health threat. It is a leading cause of liver failure and liver cancer, yet most people do not know they have it until serious liver damage has occurred. Currently,...
Dr Klaus Schulz | Dr Florian Fink – Novel Software for Cleansing Digitised Historical Texts
A fortune in historical information lies in archives and library basements around the world. Now, research by Dr Klaus Schulz, Dr Florian Fink and their colleagues at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich is helping to bring this important information to light....
Dr Andrew Scheld | Dr William Goldsmith – Angler Attitudes: Understanding Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Harvests
Scientists from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary are working to understand what motivates fishermen to target Atlantic bluefin tuna. Collaborating with the fishing community, the team surveyed over 5,000 bluefin tuna...
Outcomes of Gender Summit 11, Co-hosted by NSERC
From November 6 to 8, 2017, more than 675 advocates of gender equity from across many different fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) took part in Gender Summit 11, in Montreal, Quebec. Co-hosted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering...
Dr Jill Slinger – Promoting Inclusion in Environmental Policy Development
Responding to global environmental change requires ongoing effort, and long-term success depends heavily upon the input of local communities. Moreover, if diverse viewpoints are included in policy development, then shared solutions and common goals are achieved. Dr...
Dr Benjamin Jantzen – Dynamical Symmetries: Drawing New Connections Between Natural Processes
Scientists throughout history have constructed rules that help them to understand how natural systems work, but their insights are often far from perfect. Dr Benjamin Jantzen at Virginia Tech has developed computer algorithms to help. By making connections...
Professor John F. Padgett – The Social Context of Innovation
The Florence Renaissance was a time of unprecedented innovation across multiple domains of culture, science and politics. The causes of such widespread advances are often debated, and difficult to pin down. Professor John F. Padgett uses social network analysis to...
Dr Tarun Sabarwal – The Shape of Rational Choices in Game Theory
The choices we make in various situations have collective effects on the patterns of overall movement in conflict and cooperation. Dr Tarun Sabarwal at the University of Kansas is investigating the ways in which the overall pictures produced by these behaviours can be...
Dr Lynda Deeks | Dr Chantelle Jay | Dr Laura Vickers – Working Together to Achieve a Better Future for the Horticultural Industry
The production of fresh fruit and vegetables, and ornamental plants, is often taken for granted. While producing horticultural crops and plants offers many societal benefits, it can also have negative impacts on the environment and even on crop production itself....
Dr Nicola Sochacka | Dr Joachim Walther | Dr Shari Miller – Fostering Empathy in Engineering Education
Past research has found that engineering students graduate with less concern for the welfare of the public, and for the social implications of engineering design, than when they begin their studies. To address this issue, researchers from the University of Georgia...
AFCERC: The Agribusiness, Food & Consumer Economics Research Center
Research investigating the economic, social, psychological and physiological factors that influence consumers’ food choices can help in gaining a better understanding of how individuals select particular foods. The Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics...
Dr Mark D. Hayward | Dr Jennifer Karas Montez – Education and Health Disparity Across the US
Adults living in certain US states suffer from more illnesses, more disability, and die sooner than residents of others. Dr Mark D. Hayward of the University of Texas at Austin and Dr Jennifer Karas Montez of Syracuse University are investigating these differences in...
Dr Rens van de Schoot – Statistical Methods for Small Data
Researchers are heavily reliant on statistical techniques that are based on large sample sizes. Therefore, attempts to gain useful information from small samples can often lead to biased, or incorrect conclusions. Dr Rens van de Schoot at Utrecht University has shown...
Dr Floris Roelofsen – Inquisitive Semantics: A New Mathematical Framework for Analysing Linguistic Meaning
Semantics is the linguistic and philosophical study of meaning in human languages. Dr Floris Roelofsen, Professor at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), at the University of Amsterdam, has been collaborating with some of his colleagues on a...
Professor Gerhard Heyer | Dr Michael Richter – Models for Understanding Language
Languages are filled with unexplored quirks that can be attributed to more than their mere design. The way we use words has an interdependent relationship with the rules of that language. Professor Gerhard Heyer and Dr Michael Richter of the University of Leipzig have...
Professor Stephen Maren – Learning to Forget – Extinguishing Fearful Memories
We often hear how impairments in learning can have a negative impact on peoples’ lives but what about problems with forgetting? The inability to forget the association between everyday cues and previous traumatic events underlies anxiety-related disorders, such as...
Dr Simon Friederich – A Rare Universe? The Multiverse Debate Through the Lens of Philosophy
How did we get here? How could a universe with such simple physical laws have created something as complex as us? These questions are so fundamental that even after millennia, neither scientists nor philosophers have reached a universally satisfying answer. Dr Simon...
Dr Francesca Dominici – Life-Saving Data: How Breathing ‘Safe’ Air Can Kill
Air pollution can have serious health impacts. However, until now, the link between air pollution and death had not been comprehensively shown in the US, especially for rural areas and underrepresented populations. Using data science methodologies, Dr Francesca...
Dr Shawn Riley | Dr Göran Ericsson – In Pursuit of Wild Game: Investigating People’s Perceptions of Hunting
Hunting is among the most ancient of human activities, and still plays a major role in obtaining food for many people worldwide. Dr Shawn Riley and Dr Göran Ericsson work to understand the volume and distribution of wild-harvested meat, how this meat moves through...
Dr Robert Lempert – Solving Long-Term Wicked Problems
Climate change is one of the most pressing long-term challenges facing humanity and planet Earth. However, scientific uncertainty still leaves the scope of the threat unclear, and the path forward even more so. Now Dr Robert Lempert and his colleagues at RAND...
Professor Bo Rothstein – The Core of Corruption
Corruption in governments affects all aspects of daily life. A society’s health, prosperity and even trust in others are all impacted by the integrity of administrations. Professor Bo Rothstein, co-founder of the Quality of Government Institute at the University of...