Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science

Dr. Robert Y. George is “Professor Emeritus” at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he taught oceanography from 1973 to 2003.Dr. George is presently President and CEO of George Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainabilty (WWW.GIBSconservation.org) . Dr. George is also visiting professor at Kritineberg Marine Biological Station in Sweden. Dr. George led five research expeditions to Antarrctica under the funding of US National Science Foundation.

Astronomy and Space Science

David Harrison has worked at Materion Precision Optics (formerly Barr Associates) for 30 years. Currently as the business development manager for the Space & Astronomy group with a main concentration for 1M class optical components and space-based optics. Experienced in design engineering, process engineering and program management of such programs (PANSTARRS, LSST, JWST, MASTCAM, PROBA-V, Sentinel 2, etc…

Astronomy and Space Science

Kit Dodson completed his PhD in 1969 and was then appointed to a Lectureship in Mathematics at the University of Lancaster, UK, becoming Head of Department 1984-89. He took up a Senior Research Chair at the University of Toronto, Canada, 1989-96. Moving to the University of Manchester, UK, in 1996, as Professor, he subsequently became Emeritus Professor of Mathematics.

Differential geometry and global analysis, with applications in physics, biology, statistics and information geometry

McKenna-Lawlor was the principal investigator for an experiment on the European Space Agency (ESA) Giotto mission. In 1986 she founded the space instrumentation company Space Technology Ireland Ltd (STIL) with venture capitalist Dermot Desmond. STIL manufactures instruments for space missions and McKenna-Lawlor is the managing director. McKenna-Lawlor led an international team of scientists in building a particle detector capable of detecting energies between 30 kiloelectronvolts and several megaelectronvolts for the Soviet Union's Phobos spacecraft in 1988. The success of the detector led Soviet scientists to ask her to contribute a similar device for their 1994 Mars mission. She developed instruments to monitor the solar wind on Mars for the ESA Mars Express mission.

Space and Technology

Grant J. Mathews has completed Ph. D. in 1977 from University of Maryland. Grant J. Mathews is professor of Physics at University of Notre Dame, USA. Prof. Mathews’ research interests involve the origin and evolution of matter in the universe from the first instants of cosmic expansion in the big bang to the present complex interactions of stars and gas in galaxies.

Prof. Mathews’ research interests involve the origin and evolution of matter in the universe from the first instants of cosmic expansion in the big bang to the present complex interactions of stars and gas in galaxies.

Lukasz Andrzej Glinka, 1984-, got B.Sc. degree in physics from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. He has a notable background of academic activity, as author and co-author to multiple articles and papers, as writer of monographs, as editor-in-chief, editorial board member, and peer reviewer to journals, and as organizing committee member to conferences.

Applications of mathematics in science, engineering, and humanities

Professor Dr. Dimitris Drikakis is Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. His expertise is in fluid mechanics, particularly compressible flows, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and fluid/solid interface. He has been active in both fundamental and applied research. To date, he has co-authored two books in the field of computational fluid dynamics and has published about 400 papers in the above technical areas (www.drikakis.com)

fluid mechanics, particularly compressible flows, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and fluid/solid interface

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. Loeb published 4 books and nearly 600 papers on a wide range of topics, including black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe. He serves as Chair of the Department of Astronomy, Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) . He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, and holds the Sackler Senior Professorship by Special Appointment at Tel Aviv University. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics, as well as Vice Chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space.

Black holes

M.A.K. Lodhi has completed Ph. D. in Physics from University of London in 1963. Arfin Lodhi is Professor of Physics at Texas Tech University, USA. Recently, Professor M.A.K. Lodhi retired after having served the TTU Department of Physics for 50 years. Lodhi’s research Interests include nuclear theory and structure; new and renewable sources of energy; advanced space power generation and management.

nuclear theory and structure; new and renewable sources of energy; advanced space power generation and management.

After receiving PhD in Physics from Columbia University in New York city, Tsuruta has been working in Harvard University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Max-Planck-Institute in Munich Germany, etc., before she settled down as a tenured physics professor at Montana State University, Bozeman (MSU), Montana, USA until May 2016. After Tsuruta retired from that tenured position, she has been continuing active at Montana State University as both emeritus professor and research professor, and also as affiliate professor at IPMU (Institute of Physics and Mathematics of Universe) in Tokyo University. She also served the following institutions as a visiting professor some time over the years: University of Cambridge UK, and ISAS (Space Institute in Japan), Tokyo University, Kyoto University, etc., in Japan. Tsuruta’s research activity covers broad fields of astrophysics, ranging from compact stars such as neutron stars and stellar mass black holes, supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, physics of black hole magnetospheres, gamma ray bursts, first stars and first black holes, and gravitational waves. Tsuruta received various honors and awards, including Marcel Grossmann Award in 2015 for her contribution to these broad fields in astrophysics, but especially for prediction of neutron star temperatures before her prediction of observability of neutron stars was validated by later observations.

Tsuruta’s research activity covers broad fields of astrophysics, ranging from compact stars such as neutron stars and stellar mass black holes, supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, physics of black hole magnetospheres, gamma ray bursts, first stars and first black holes, and gravitational waves.

Nikolaos K. Spyrou is Professor of Astronomy at the Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki, Greece, retired since 2011. He has taught extensively at both the under graduate and post graduated levels, conducted research work and lectured in many universities and research centers in Greece and abroad, and, also, served in many national and international administrational-scientific posts. His books and research articles belong to General Relativity Theory, Fluids, Gravitational Astrophysics, Environnemental Physis (and, secondarily, Space Physics, History of Astronomy, and Science Education), and, recently, Relativistic Cosmology combined with Thermodynamics for the polytropic Universe and its radical consequences and predictions.

General Relativity Theory, Fluids, Relativistic Cosmology and Thermodynamics, Gravitational Astrophysics, Environnemental Physis, Space Physics, History of Astronomy, Science Education