Dr Perry Share is the Project Manager for the Connacht Ulster Alliance [CUA]. The CUA is an alliance of three Institutes of Technology located on the Atlantic coast of Ireland: Galway-Mayo, Sligo and Letterkenny, that have amongst them 16,000+ students from apprentice to doctoral level across engineering, science, business, social and health professions and the creative arts and humanities. Dr Share is a widely-published sociologist with interests in the sociology of food and eating; language; and the social professions. His current focus is on the intersection of social robotics, social care and the work of social professionals. Dr Share has over 20 years experience of management within higher education, and is also the Chair of Ireland’s Social Work Registration Board.
Category: 2019 Speaker
Professor José Daniel Melo
Professor Melo has been Rector of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte since May 2019. Before that, he held the positions of Vice Rector (2015-2019) and Dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture (2011-2015). Prof. Melo received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University (2002), M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine (1993), and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering (1990) and in Civil Engineering (1997) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. He was Visiting Scholar at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Stanford University from 2008 to 2019. Prof. Melo has worked in the field of Composite Materials for over 30 years. His main research interests and contributions are in design and mechanical characterization of polymer composites. In this area, he advised many graduate students, published three books and numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. Prof. Melo is also Associate Editor of the Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites.
Dr Ilavazhagan Govindasamy
Dr.G. Ilavazhagan is Director – International Affairs and before this he was Director -Research, Hindustan University. He was formerly Outstanding Scientist & Director, Life Sciences in Defence Research & Development Organisation, Ministry Of Defence, Govt. of India. Dr. Ilavazhagan has more than forty years of experience in teaching, research, technical coordination and management. Dr. Ilavazhagan has six Indian patents, two US and two EPO patents for the processes of isolation of bioactive principles from Neem. Dr. Ilavazhagan has more than 85 publications in referreed International Journals. His interest in research is High Altitude Stress. He was involved in establishing the Centre for Research in Physiology in Kyrghystan and the DRDO-Bharathiyar Univ, Centre for Life Sciences in Bharathiar University Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Dr.Ilavazhagan also was involved in International Research Projects with erstwhile USSR, Kyrghystan Republic and US Airforce Research Centre in Dayton, USA.
Professor Zahir Irani
Professor Zahir Irani studied Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Salford before working as a Project Engineer in industry. He then secured a full scholarship from Brunel University London, where he completed a PhD in Investment Decision Making. His professional development has seen him complete his leadership and financial management training at Harvard Business School (HBS) and University of Cambridge, respectively. He started his academic career in the Department of Computer Science at Brunel University London. Five years later becoming the youngest Professor in the UK, followed by a period as Head of Department, where he championed industry-academia partnerships.
A move to a more senior management position, saw him lead the Brunel Business School. After completing a 7-year tenure as Head of the Brunel Business School, where he won the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Business School of the Year award. He accepted an invitation to work in Central Government, where he was seconded to Whitehall as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Cabinet Office during the UK coalition Government. On completion, he returned to academia, as Founding Dean, of the newly established College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences at Brunel University London; an amalgamation of four previous Schools – Business, Law, Social Sciences and Education.
In 2016 the University of Bradford appointed Professor Irani as Dean of Faculty (Management and Law), where he led a successful merger with the Faculty of Social Sciences before assuming the role of a Founding Dean of the new Faculty.
As a senior academic leader, Professor Irani expanded his portfolio when appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bradford, with responsibility for Academic, Innovation and Quality, where he is accountable for:
• Four academic faculty’s.
• Directorate of Outreach, Recruitment and Marketing (DORM)
• Directorate of Student & Academic Services (including registry, library, career services, counselling, etc),
• Directorate of Learning, Teaching and Quality Enhancement, and,
Professor Irani also leads the transformation and growth of the University’s undergraduate, postgraduate (taught and research) educational portfolio through Faculty and Professional services, where he leads on innovation and enhancing the quality of the student experience, teaching practice, curriculum development and support for student learning and success.
The West Yorkshire Lord Lieutenancy formally recognized Professor Irani for his outstanding service to the community. He continues to support charities such as Age UK (Bradford and District) and the Volunteering Interfaith Partnerships (VIP) that help vulnerable communities.
He has also received the district governor’s award from Rotary International for services to the community.
He is also leading social, economic and cultural value creation, having been appointed by the Bradford Metropolitan District Council as the Chair of the Bradford Covid-19 Economic Recovery Board that developed a 5-year economic recovery plan for the district; approved in 2021 by the council executive and elected officials. At a national level, appointed by the NHS (Health Education England), to Chair a Blended Learning Advisory Group that will revision the future of medical and health clinical placements. He is also a Higher Education representative on a Cyber Security Steering Group for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Professor Irani was named by the Sunday Times as a leading Bradford influencer. He tweets at: @ZahirIrani1
Professor Kevin Hall
Professor Kevin Hall has had a distinguished academic career holding senior academic leadership roles in universities in Australia and Canada. Professor Hall studied a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at Queen’s University in Canada and completed his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Professor Hall has spearheaded UON’s entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives, leading the establishment of the Integrated Innovation Network (I2N) of five innovation incubators across the Hunter region. He was also instrumental in state funding for the Hunter Innovation Project, including UON’s new Innovation Hub. A highly respected leader in the Australian higher education sector, Professor Hall has been appointed to the Australia Research Council Advisory Council. He has also taken on a national role in developing industry and innovation policy, serving as an invited member of the Australian Research Council’s steering committee for Industry Engagement and Impact Metrics. He is also a founding board member of the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship and a member of the NSW Minister for Health’s China Advisory Committee. Professor Hall has been a board member on 18 state and national corporations and not-for-profit entities.
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.
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.
Professor Brian Cantor
Brian Cantor is Professor of Materials at Oxford and Brunel Universities. He is also Founding Chair of the World Technology Universities Network, a Trustee of the Science Museums Group and an Editor of Elsevier’s premier review journal, Progress in Materials Science. He has published over 300 books and papers. He invented the field of High Entropy Alloys and discovered “Cantor alloys”. In the recent past, he has been Vice-Chancellor of the Universities of Bradford and York, Head of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Oxford, a research scientist at GE Labs in the USA, a consultant for Alcan, NASA and Rolls-Royce, and a Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has worked at other universities such as Sussex, Northeastern, Banaras, Washington State and IISc Bangalore, and chaired or been on boards such as the Marshall Aid Commission, the UK Universities Pensions Forum, and Bradford, Leeds and York Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs). He founded and built up the Begbroke Science Park, the Heslington East Campus, the Hull-York Medical School, the National Science Learning Centre, and the World Technology Universities Network. He has received academic prizes, honorary professorships and fellowships in the UK, USA, China and India. He was awarded a CBE for services to higher education in 2013.