Category: 2024 Delegate

Engobo Emeseh is a Professor of Law, with extensive experience in higher education spanning over 28 years within and outside the UK. In 2017, she was appointed as the Head of the School of Law, University of Bradford, and since April 2024 has been the Interim Dean of the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences.

Engobo’s research expertise is broadly in environmental law and policy, particularly within the context of the regulation and governance of the extractives industry in Africa. She has worked on these issues with distinguished international organisations such as UNECA IDEP, Oxfam Mozambique, the African Capacity Building Foundation, and the African Community of Practice on Managing for Development Results (Governance and Social Responsibility in Natural Resources Exploitation). She recently completed a four year-long project as a member of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission, which published its report in May 2023: An Environmental Genocide: The Human and Environmental cost of Big Oil in Bayelsa, Nigeria. She holds various editorial board membership of academic journals, including being the founding Managing Editor of the Nigeria Yearbook of international Law (Springer).

Engobo obtained her PhD from the Centre for Energy Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee. She graduated with first class from the Nigeria Law School and Distinction from the University of Wales Cardiff. She is a former British Council Chevening Scholar, and a Ford Foundation (IFP) doctoral fellow. Prior to her academic career, she practiced as a barrister and solicitor in Nigeria.

Dr. Supattarayan Thongjit is the Vice Dean, Director of the Advance Dental Assistance Program, Institute of Dentistry, Suranaree University of Technology.

Supattarayan worked in a government hospital in 2006, starting as a dental public health officer. Supattarayan performed duties to the best of his ability, helping people to promote, prevent, treat, and restore health in the area without expecting anything in return. Supattarayan always tried to study and seek knowledge until graduated with the highest level of education, which is a Doctor of Philosophy in Community Health Development, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University.

Dr. Supattarayan continues to attend various training courses that can be used to help in studies and research to find new knowledge in solving health problems in the community until Supattarayan has the opportunity to work with Suranaree University of Technology in the Institute of Dentistry as a lecturer.

Currently, Dr. Supattarayan is the Vice Dean and Director of the High Dental Assistance Program and is still interested in research along with teaching with people in the community to explain the phenomenon of solving health problems continuously so that it can be applied to solve problems and monitor health, especially dental health, Supattarayan thinks will be able to help people and create innovations from the research process in the future.

Dr. Qun Shao is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem (BREE) at the University of Bradford. He is actively involved in managing entrepreneurship programmes for students, graduate entrepreneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs in our local community. He is also co-founder of both the Bradford UK-China Healthtech Open Innovation programme and the RCUK (Research Council UK) China Science Bridges programme. Qun has many years of knowledge transfer experience in both academic and industrial organisations across China and UK. During his role as China Programme Manager the University of Bradford was awarded a UK first-ranked RCUK Science Bridges programme (£1.3m). Qun has built strong networks with Chinese academia, industry and government and has led programmes and co-facilitated workshops that have created over 40 funded collaborations and joint venture companies between UK SMEs and academics, and counterparts in China.

Qun is also a co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Crystec Ltd, a spin-out of the University of Bradford, focused on pharmaceutical particle design and crystal engineering. He has overall responsibility for coordinating international research, supply chain and manufacturing operations.

Qun holds a PhD in the field of knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence applied to pharmaceutical manufacturing, and has a multi-disciplinary educational background covering science, engineering and information technology. His research expertise relates to application of knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence to pharmaceutical formulations and Traditional Chinese Medicine modernisation. He has published over 30 scientific articles in major international journals and has received a number of research grants/awards. Prior to moving to the UK, Qun worked in a national chemical research institute in China. Qun is fluent in English, with Mandarin as his native language.

Mr. Surain Thapanangkun is director of Royal Project Foundation and King’s Recommended Project Supporting Center, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Thailand.

Surain is an economist interested in development and addressing inequality issues. Currently, he oversees KMUTT’s overall work in community and social engagement, a field in which the university has been involved for over four decades. KMUTT has used its academic excellence in science and engineering to develop relevant and meaningful research questions that address community problems. He now oversees the university’s work areas covering local villages and remote regions across Thailand. Most of these areas are rural societies and ethnic groups facing inequality issues and ecosystems threatened by monoculture farming.

Surain and his research team emphasize participatory work with communities and local stakeholders, analyzing the real needs of communities. By doing so, they create a learning platform called a “social lab” to foster joint problem-solving. Areas of work cover various aspects, such as ensuring food security, developing education for children and community learning, promoting alternative occupations for villagers to replace monoculture farming, promoting community health and well-being, and restoring ecosystems.

In addition to promoting the application of knowledge for community development, Surain and his colleagues also emphasize using the social lab as a learning platform for KMUTT students and staff. This is to encourage them to understand Thai social structures and real problems. It also aims to develop awareness of being global citizens responsible for society and sustainable development.

Kasemsan Manomaiphiiboon holds a PhD degree in Environmental Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (US) with his thesis on air quality modeling and related mathematical analysis. He has taught at the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (Thailand) since 2006 and supervised many graduate students and post-graduate researchers from various countries. His research involves air quality, climate, weather, and ambient energy using data analytics and numerical modeling as the main driving tools. He has published research findings in various journals, and co-written a book chapter, a book on local administration (environment section), and a mini-book on climate change & air quality. He has regularly engaged in professional services (as expert and reviewer) and occasionally shared opinions to the public through newspaper articles and media channels.

Camar P. Ameril is a graduate with a B.Sc. Biology (2007) degree at Mindanao State University-Marawi City under the College Bound Program Grant and later Academic Scholarship. He joined the Biology Department as an instructor in June 2007. He completed an M.Sc. in Environmental Sanitation (2015) at Ghent University, Belgium, under a Flemish Government Scholarship (VLIR-UOS) and an M.Sc. in Biology (2018) at MSU-Marawi City. He is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Microbiology (minor in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology) at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, Laguna. For his doctoral dissertation, he is working on the “Chemotherapeutic Potentials of Prebiotic Compound 1,4-Dihydroxy-2-naphthoic Acid (DHNA) Against Prostate Cancer and Bacterial Pathogens,” which aims to combine 2D and 3D culture techniques in drug testing platforms. This involves 3D bioprinting and the use of appropriate hydrogels that serve as bio-inks. His research interests include One Health, antimicrobial resistance, and environmental microbiology. Outside of the academe, he is involved in various volunteering activities and community outreach programs organized by civic organizations and societies.

Dr. Husna Dimapalao is an Assistant Professor at Mindanao State University Marawi City. She handles biology courses both for undergraduate and graduate students. She got her PhD in the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Her dissertation utilized bioinformatic tools that could determine effects of diet particularly indigenous berries of the Philippines to health. She is passionate about doing research for the betterment of the people in Lanao. She wishes to collaborate with researchers outside MSU or even from outside Philippines to do research that could uplift poverty, food insecurity and overall problem of humanity.