Speakers
Head of Sustainability at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology at University of Winchester
Ana is a developmental psychologist with a general interest in children's socioemotional development.
She has two main lines of research. First, she is interested in how children learn about emotions, especially through conversations with their parents. Much of her work has examint gender differences in parent-child emotion talk and children's understanding of emotions. Sh also very interested in the development of emotion regulation and in co-rumination.
Second, her work focuses on examining family relations, especially parent-child and sibling relations. She is particularly interested in the relation between parenting and children's developmental outcomes.
Dr. Bülent Erbilgin has over three decades of industry executive leadership and teaching experience in technology. As an executive of seven startups and several public companies he successfully released products ranging from Cyber-security, Network Security, Web applications, SaaS, Complex high-availability software, Highly-distributed systems, Analytics, Big data, IOT, Machine Learning to Network Intelligence products. His teaching experience in the last few years includes Leadership, Teaming, Ethics, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Design Thinking, , Lean Design & Development as well as Engineering Management at UC Berkeley, Northeastern University and KAUST. In addition Dr. Erbilgin has mentored founders and students in various entrepreneurship classes to identify startup opportunities, develop business plans, and VC presentations. He spent significant time with number of teams guiding them through all stages of forming a startup. Served on panels together with VC’s to evaluate and score various startup teams as part of the classes. Most recently Dr. Erbilgin led the Security Software Development effort at Workday. Prior to that Dr. Erbilgin was a VP Engineering at Telesense, VP Engineering at Cryptography Research/Rambus, VP Engineering at SS8, and several other companies. Dr. Erbilgin holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Computer Architecture) and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Professor Carlos M. Duarte holds the Tarek Ahmed JuffaliChair in Marine Biology with the Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) at KAUST. Duarte received his Ph.D. from McGill University, Canada, in 1987. His research focuses on understanding the effects of global change, including climate change as well as other global-scale impacts of human activity, in marine ecosystems, which he has studied across the world. Duarte has conducted over 15 polar expeditions in Antarctica and the Arctic.
Prof. Derya Baran, originally from Turkey, received her BS and MS degrees from Chemistry Department at Middle East Technical University in 2008 and 2010, respectively and doctorate degree from Friedrich-Alexander Erlangen-Nürnberg University in Materials Science and Engineering in 2014. She then received the Helmholtz Association postdoc grant and pursued joint post-doctoral studies at Jülich Research Center (Germany) and Imperial Collage London (UK). Since January 2017, she is a faculty at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). As of 2021 she is an Associate professor in Material Science and Engineering Program. Her research group (OMEGALAB) focus on the engineering smart materials for printed energy harvesting applications and integrated electronics. She is selected for MIT Technology Review’s 2018 list of ‘35 Innovators under 35’ and selected as ‘Talented 12’ in Chemistry given by ACS C&EN. She is co-founder of two start-up companies on ‘advanced sustainable desert greenhouses’ and ‘antimicrobial additives’. She strives to be a role model with her research and research ethics to younger generations. She is a member of Global Young Academy since 2020.
Diana leads Culture and communication, with 20+ years of expertise across the Middle East and Europe/USA/Asia with a proven track record in Arts, Culture, Heritage, Media Production, Humanitarian work, Philanthropy and Woman Empowerment.
-
PH.D. IN ARAB ISLAMIC CULTURE AT L’ORIENTALE, ITALY & MASTERS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, IUHEI GENEVA
-
CERTIFICATE IN MEDIA STUDIES & DOCUMENTARY FILMING, BIRKBECK COLLEGE, LONDON
-
20+ YEARS OF EXPERTISE ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST AND EUROPE/USA/ASIA WITH A PROVEN TRACKRECORD IN ARTS, CULTURE, HERITAGE, MEDIA PRODUCTION, HUMANITARIAN WORK, PHILANTHROPY AND WOMAN EMPOWERMENT
-
CHIEF OF CULTURE & HERITAGE AT DGDA RIYADH: RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UNESCO HERITAGE SITE AND SPEARHEADED THE STRATEGY AND LAUNCH OF SEVERAL CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS SUCH AS MUSEUMS, ACADEMIES AND AN ART DISTRICT
-
6 YEARS HEAD OF ARTS&CULTURE FOR SWISS TV, RADIO & MULTIMEDIA
-
2008 FOUNDER OF SEGANTINI UNLIMITED, AGENCY SPECIALIZED IN INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE AND INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS SUCH AS ART EXHIBITIONS, MUSIC EVENTS, DOCUMENTARY FILMS & DEBATES
-
SEVERAL YEARS ACTIVE IN THE HUMANITARIAN & PHILANTHROPY FIELD, 4 YEARS AS A DELEGATE FOR THE ICRC IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND SERVING THE UN, NGOS & FOUNDATIONS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD
Haitham is passionate about technology, entrepreneurship & innovation. He started his career as an electrical engineer before catching the innovation bug and starting several boot-strapped startups addressing consumer and business needs. He developed his expertise in product development, digital marketing, and content creation during his startup experience. His most recent venture was a performance focused digital marketing agency serving local startups, public companies, as well as ministries and government agencies in KSA and UAE. Since joining KAUST, Haitham has led the online learning program to develop content to inspire, educate, and support Arab youth in adopting an innovation mindset and bringing their ideas to market. Haitham holds a master’s in electronics from Washington University in St Louis, a Google & HubSpot certified marketer, and a Stanford certified practitioner in machine learning & design thinking.
Hattan currently leads the Entrepreneurship Center at KAUST, delivering the university’s entrepreneurship vision. He believes in young people as change agents of the future and that universities play a key role in creating national economic impact. In his role as an advocate for innovation, Hattan works across the entire entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Kingdom, delivering entrepreneurship training, creating corporate innovation programs, and accelerating startups that will contribute to the national transformation agenda. Hattan has a diverse background in industry, startups and academia. As a startup co-founder, he brings a successful entrepreneurial background to his role, having navigated early stage growth to acquisition. He has received multiple entrepreneurial awards on both a national and international scale. He also brings a rich background in Information Technology to his role, with experience in system design development and implementation within industries ranging from oil and gas, travel and retail.
Founding partner at Aeon collective
- Advises on the topics of climate policy, clean energy, earth resources and sustainability.
- Graduate from Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs with a masters in international affairs concentrated on economic and political development, the sustainable development track and specialized in applied science.
- Experience with national governments on economic development.
- Participated in cop21 and cop26 in the Saudi climate negotiating team.
- Some research topics: climate policy & global governance, carbon capture, sequestration & use, climate change & security.
Princess Noura bint Turki Al-Saud is the Founding Partner of AEON strategy. As an advocate of sustainable and equitable development, she is also a Co-Founder of AEON COLLECTIVE, a non profit cross disciplinary initiative that advocates sustainable practices for inclusive and equitable development through policy relevant research and dialogue. Noura holds a masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) where she took an interdisciplinary approach to development and international cooperation. She focused on Urban and social development, as well as Energy systems, earth sciences and energy and climate policy with an emphasis on the intersection between science, policy and markets. Her work on energy focuses on the topic of energy and climate policy; carbon management, energy efficiency, and the geopolitics of energy and climate. She has previously held the role of assistant director at The King Faisal Center for Research, a think tank based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she also headed the Unit on Energy Studies, focusing on the geopolitics of energy and energy markets
Dr. Marvel uses climate models, observations, paleoclimate reconstructions, and basic theory to study climate change. Her work has identified human influences on present-day cloud cover, rainfall patterns, and drought risk. She is also interested in future climate changes, particularly climate feedback processes and the planet's sensitivity to increased carbon dioxide. Dr. Marvel teaches in Columbia's MA in Climate and Society Program and writes the "Hot Planet" column for Scientific American. Named one of "15 Women Who Will Save the World" by Time Magazine, she has been profiled by the New York Times and Rolling Stone, and her 2017 TED talk has been viewed over one million times. Before becoming a climate scientist, she received a PhD in theoretical particle physics from Cambridge University, where she was a Gates scholar.
Dr. Lama Hakem is the Education Programs Lead at the Entrepreneurship Center at KASUT. She has a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. She was an assistant professor at different universities in Saudi Arabia. She has taught several classes for undergraduate and graduate students in the field of leadership, ethics, teaming, negotiation and entrepreneurship. Currently, Dr. Lama is Co-teaching the elective entrepreneurship courses, and Entrepreneurship for All. Also, she runs workshops on different topics including design thinking, leadership, entrepreneurship, and conflict resolution
MRes Design Pathway Leader at Royal College of Art, An interdisciplinary designer and researcher which practice investigates the social dynamics between technology, economy and politics to develop innovation. Her work questions the impacts these dynamics develop and how design can tackle them through products, strategies and collaboration. This is to stimulate and generate accessible and inclusive innovation. Worked in projects which contributed to inform new socio-techno- economical infrastructures that value people’s diversity, cultures and behaviours.
Culture, engagement and participation are her strategies and methods to tackle complex systems and foster innovative and inclusive solutions.
Areas of research include human-to-human-AI interaction, ethics, future of work, design led interdisciplinary methods.
Dr. Sarathy is currently Associate Director of the Clean Combustion Research Center at KAUST and Sr. Manager Technology & Innovation at NEOM Hydrogen and Green Fuels. He is also working with the Saudi Ministry of Energy to develop a Circular Carbon Economy National Program.
Dr. Sarathy employs engineering modeling tools to determine the net environmental, economic, and social impact of fuel engineering technologies and processes. Specific tools include engineering process modeling, life-cycle assessment, cost/benefits analysis, energy auditing, materials accounting, and environmental assessment to examine current engineering issues. A primary focus is using models to study greenhouse gas emissions from renewable energy systems, unconventional fuels, gas-to-liquid fuels, and biofuels.
Roni Reiter-Palmon is the Isaacson Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Director of Innovation at the Center for Collaboration Science at the University of Nebraska - Omaha
