Category: 2018 Delegate

Professor Guy Daly

Professor Guy Daly is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Health and Life Sciences) at Coventry University.

He is a member of various UK based groups and bodies including: Executive Member (International) of Council of Deans of Health (affiliated to Universities UK), West Midlands Clinical Senate, West Midlands Combined Authority Wellbeing Board, Coventry Health and Wellbeing Board, and Non-Executive Director of Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust. He is a member of the Coventry and Warwickshire Sustainability Transformation Partnership Better Health – Better Care – Better Value Board and chairs its Clinical Design Authority Board. He is a social policy academic and his research interests are in health policy, social care (personalisation, choice, adult social care), housing policy, local government, and the governance of public services generally. He is an active member of the Social Services Research Group and is currently Joint Editor of its journal, Research Policy and Planning. He is a trustee and current chair of the third sector social policy think-tank, The Human City Institute (HCI), as well as a trustee of Research in Specialist and Elderly Care (RESEC), a charity which aims to improve the quality of research in specialist and elderly care.

Recently, he has been developing partnerships with Indonesia’s government and universities in relation to nursing workforce and assisting with the evaluation of Indonesia’s recently introduced social insurance health system (BJPS).

Mr John Bramwell

John Bramwell is the British Council’s Director of Education, responsible for global strategy and policy development.

He is currently based in the UK, having previously been based in Istanbul. Sau Paulo and Mexico City, managing the British Council’s education and society portfolio for the Americas, and wider Europe portfolio in education from Istanbul.

He authored the Mexico /UK Treaty on Mutual Recognition , and was awarded the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle by President Pena Nieto, for services to International Education.

He previously established and managed an F/HE institute in Tripoli, a Quality Assurance and Statistical Research Centre in Kazakhstan, and a UK /Oman Enterprise Unit in Muscat.

He has enjoyed over 20 years in UK Higher Education senior management, following a career in information systems and consultancy. He is an expert in international education, and an occasional researcher in the psychology of security in computer systems.

Professor Diana Anderson

Diana Anderson MSc, PhD, DipEd, C.Biol, FRSB, FRCPath, FRCS, FIFST, FATS, FBTS, FHEA

Professor Diana Anderson currently holds the Established Chair of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bradford, UK. She obtained her first degree in the University of Wales and second degrees in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Manchester. After tutoring at the University of Sydney, Australia, she became a research worker in the Department of Cancer Studies at the University of Leeds and at the Paterson Laboratories, Christie Hospital, Manchester. In 1974, she was appointed as Head of Mutagenesis Studies at ICI’s Central Toxicology Laboratory. Professor Anderson joined BIBRA International in 1981 as Head of Genetic and Reproductive Toxicology and became Assistant Director and Group Forum Co-ordinator in 1987. In 1992, she became Senior Associate and Co-ordinator of External Affairs at BIBRA. She has served on the editorial board of 8 international journals plus 2 on line journals, has over 450 publications, has edited/authored 8 books and guest-edited 9 special issues of 4 international journals. She was a Series Editor of books in ‘Current Toxicology’ for John Wiley and Sons and is currently Editor–in-Chief for the Book Series ‘Issues in Toxicology’ for the Royal Society of Chemistry. She is an active Committee member and has been Vice-President of the Institute of Biology. She has successfully supervised 30 post-graduates [26 PhD, 2 MPhil and 2 MSc (Res) students] and is currently supervising 5 other PhDs and has managed several post–doc positions. She has been external examiner for 29 PhDs and was External Examiner for the Dept. of Genetics, University of Wales, Swansea. She has been invited to speak at many international meetings and chair many symposia. She has helped establish new research laboratories in India and Korea under the auspices of the British Council and UNIDO. Funded by various international agencies, scientists from America, Australia, the Czech Republic, Italy, India, Iran, Korea, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Turkey have received training under her supervision. She has organised both national and international meetings and is/was a member of various national (e.g. MRC Advisory Board, Veterinary Products Committee) and was of international committees, including the Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Foundation of International Association of Environmental Mutagen Societies and the European Union Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition (SCAN). She has hosted and participated in 56 meetings for WHO/IPCS. In 2011, she won a prize as an Enterprise Fellow from Yorkshire Forward. In 2015, she won the Vice Chancellor’s award at the University of Bradford for Outstanding Achievement.

Professor Abdulla Al-Hawaj

Dr. Abdulla Y. Al-Hawaj, the Founding President of Ahlia University, ranks in the top echelon of educational leaders in the Arabian Gulf. His incumbency in numerous managerial posts in prestigious organizations associated with educational development at a national level, combined with a plethora of academic accolades awarded to him by esteemed institutions, attests to Dr. Al-Hawaj’s being in the vanguard of higher educational reform in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In recognition of Dr. Al-Hawaj’s trail blazing contributions in the sphere of educational advancement in the Kingdom of Bahrain, he was appointed in the year 2000 — by royal decree – as a member of the Supreme Committee for the Kingdom National Charter, in which he serves as the coordinator of its Educational Committee. Dr. Al-Hawaj holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Manchester (UK) and a B.Sc. (Hon.) in Mathematics from the University of Kuwait.

Dr. Al-Hawaj launched his distinguished academic career at the University of Bahrain, in which he held the successive posts of Dean of Registration & Student Affairs, Chairman of the Department of Mathematics, and Chairman of the Department of Computer Science. He attained the rank of Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bahrain in 1993 and continued to serve the University of Bahrain in that capacity until 2005. Dr. Al-Hawaj’s profound contributions to the fields of Mathematics, Computer Sciences, and Education through numerous research papers, books, media debates, and public discussions are vast. His unstinting dynamism, paradigm-shattering innovation and superlative achievement in the academic and social arena have accorded him a number of prestigious awards and honorariums.

Dr. Al-Hawaj has extensive experience in leading large multi-dimensional institutions. His signature use of pragmatic and innovative thinking in solving complex educational and business issues stems from his strong managerial and educational background. He is widely acclaimed as a pioneering architect of the private university in the Arabian Gulf and a leading proponent of excellence in Higher Education in the whole of the Middle East. He is the Chairman of the Executive Office of The Association of Arab Private Institutions for Higher Education. In the year 2019, he was awarded the Doctor of Science honoris causa (DSc) from Brunel University London for his contribution to international education.

Mr. Ilkka Virtanen

Ilkka Virtanen is currently working as International Relations Manager at Tampere University. His task is to create and manage university’s strategic research partnerships and networks and to facilitate the creation of new active research collaboration. In his work, he works closely with university’s top management and management of research and international offices across the world. Prior to his current post, he headed seven years university’s Research and Innovation Services, where he gained in-depth experience of research funding, research collaboration mechanisms, agreements and intellectual property rights. His unit also supported commercializing research results and the creation of new businesses and entrepreneurship. Virtanen has over 19 years’ experience of diverse research collaboration and research funding and of the support of prominent research groups. Previously he has also worked in support of business information management, medicine and biosciences.

Ms Rovani Sigamoney

Rovani Sigamoney is a chemical/environmental engineer from South Africa who started in the platinum refinery/mining sector and then moved on to researching bioenergy systems and biofuels for Africa.

She joined the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) HQ in Paris, France in 2007 in the Natural Sciences Sector and later ran the Chemistry programme and International Year of Chemistry 2011. She thereafter took over the UNESCO Engineering programme. The Engineering Programme is working with Member States (UNESCO has 195 Member States), international partners and program experts to strengthen engineering education through curricula development, hands-on training and capacity building. In line with UNESCO’s global priorities on Africa and Gender Equality, it focuses on women and Africa but also has activities around the world. Rovani is passionate about women in engineering and encouraging more youth to pursue careers in engineering.

She previously worked at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Paris on a biofuels strategy and also at the Wuppertal Institute of Climate Change in Germany on a policy document for the European Parliament on the security of energy supply.

Dr Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahim

Dr Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahim is an Associate Professor and the Director of UTM International Office Department, UTM Kuala Lumpur. He is an associate lecturer at Graduate School of Business Administration, Meiji University Japan since 2011. He is also an invited lecturer at Beifeng University of Nationalities, China as well as Far Eastern University, the Philippines. He graduated with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and B.Sc. in Engineering Management from University of Evansville (USA) in 1988. He obtained his MSc in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Warwick University (United Kingdom) in 1991 and his PhD from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2006. He also received a Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health in Manufacturing Industries from Worksafe Western Australia in 1998 as well as Train the Trainers Certificate for Safety and Officer Program from NIOSH.

He is a member of American Society for Quality (ASQ), associate member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), associate member of Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), UK, member of IEEE, member of MyTRIZ, graduate member of IEM, member of International Society of Horticultural Science, member of International Society of Applied Intelligence and a member of National Geographic Society. He is currently involves in a Strategic Management project with Ministry of Human Development and Labour, Khartoum State and High Level Academy Aviation (HLAA), Sudan. His area of expertise is in Occupational Safety and Health, Industrial Engineering as well as Entrepreneurship.

Professor Wahid bin Omar

Wahid Omar is a Professor of Structural Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of UTM in September 2013. Wahid Omar obtained his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of Birmingham, his Master’s degree in Bridge Engineering from the University of Surrey, and his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom. He is a registered Professional Engineer with the Board of Engineers Malaysia and a member of various professional bodies including the Institution of Engineers Malaysia. He is also an Honorary Member of the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organization (AFEO).

His area of expertise includes structural assessment, reinforced and pre-stressed concrete and ductility of high strength concrete and project management. Prior to his present appointment, he was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development) (2011-2013) and the Director of the Office of Asset and Development (2008-1011). In his capacity as the then Director of the Office of Asset and Development, he was entrusted with a major task to manage the UTM campus development projects worth RM1 billion.

Professor Ramamurthy Nagarajan

Dr Nagarajan is currently Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras, and Dean of International & Alumni Relations. He obtained his B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering in 1981 from IIT Madras, and a Ph.D. in the same field from Yale University (New Haven, CT, USA) in 1986. From 1986 – 1988, he served as Research Faculty in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV; during this tenure, he served as coordinator for research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Navy. From 1988 – 2003, Dr. Nagarajan was a Senior Technical Staff Member with IBM Storage Systems’ Development Laboratory in San Jose, CA, where he oversaw elimination of ozone-depleting chemicals from IBM’s manufacturing operations, and directed many ground-breaking efforts in the areas of chemical integration & micro-contamination control for hard disk drives.

Dr Nagarajan returned to Chennai in 2003, and served as G.S. Laddha Visiting Professor at A.C. College of Technology for one semester, prior to taking up his position as Professor at IIT Madras in February 2004. His teaching and research endeavours are focused on cleanroom processes, nano-technology and ultrasonic process-intensification. From 2009-2012, he served as Advisor, Office of Alumni Affairs at IIT Madras, and since October 2012, has been serving as the Institute’s first-ever Dean of International & Alumni Relations.

Professor Yong Chie Heng

Professor Heng is now retired; formerly he was a vice president of NTUST. Prior to that he had served as a Director General of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute and a Vice President of Motorola Inc. YC is a Fellow of IET in the United Kingdom.