• February 24, 2020

Margareth Gfrerer

Margareth Gfrerer holds a PhD in Economics and a MA in Economics Education from  University Graz (Austria) and a MA in International Commerce from Vienna University of Economics. After years in industry she returned to University as senior lecturer and researcher – first to FH-JOANNUM (Austria); followed by different university assignments in Indonesia. She has been involved in numerous international projects in the field of infrastructure management prior her current assignment in Ethiopia, where her focus is on Open Science and its impacts.

Malin Parmar

Malin Parmar is a professor in cellular neuroscience at Lund University in Sweden and a New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson investigator. Her research has a strong translational focus. She leads the European effort STEM-PD, designed to bring stem cell-derived dopamine neurons to clinical trials, and she collaborates within European and International networks as well as Industry partners to develop new, cell based therapies for brain repair with focus on Parkinson’s Disease.

Richard J. Roberts 

Dr. Richard J. Roberts is the Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs, Beverly, Massachusetts. He received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1968 from Sheffield University and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard before moving to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In 1977 his laboratory discovered split genes and mRNA splicing for which he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1993. In that same year his laboratory, in collaboration with Xiaodong Cheng, discovered base flipping. He now focuses on bioinformatic analysis of genome sequences and studies of bacterial DNA methylation.

Vittoria Brambilla 

Vittoria Brambilla obtained her PhD in Plant Biology at the University of Milan in 2007 and worked as a researcher at the Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf and at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne before moving back to Milan in 2011. She is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Milan, where she runs a research group dealing with rice developmental biology. She applies knowledge from basic research to  rice breeding and she fights for using genome editing tools like CRISPR.

Fares Mili

Doctorate in Medicine:  1985; Specialty Degree in Pneumology :  1985; Master Degree of Tobacology : 2010; University degree of Addictology :  2013; Master Degree Tobacco Treatment Specialist ( CTTS mayo Clinic Roschester Minnesota) February  2017; National Certificate in Tobacco Treatment Practice ( NCTTP) by the Association for Addiction Professionals ( NAADAC) and the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence ( ATTUD). Decembre 2018; Chairman of The Tunisian Society of Tobacology and Addictive Behavior  “STTACA” ) May 2017; Executive board member of the Tunisian Society of Respiratory Diseases and Allergology (STMRA) 2012- 2017; Member of the French Speaking Pneumology Society (SPLF) since 2013; Member of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) since 2015; Member of the Tunisian National Committee for Tobacco Control; WHO consultant.

Roberto Caso

Co-director of Trento LawTech Group, is Associate Professor of Comparative Private Law at University of Trento, Faculty of Law, where he teaches Comparative Intellectual Property Law, Comparative Privacy Law, Copyright law and Art, CopyrightX Trento. He is author and editor of publications in the field of Intellectual Property, Privacy and Personal Data Protection. He is President of the Italian Association for the Promotion of Open Science [AISA]. Associate member of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy (CIPP), McGill University (Montréal)

Emmanuel Okogbenin

Emmanuel Okogbenin is a Molecular Breeder with additional professional background in Agronomy and plant physiology. He has over 28 years working experience as cassava scientist in both national and international organizations in both Africa and Latin America.  He is currently the Director for Program Development and Commercialization at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, Kenya. His current duties include facilitating access and transfer of technologies through public private partnership for commercial and sustainable agriculture. 

Michele Usuelli

Regional Councillor of Lombardia, +Europa con Emma Bonino; MD neonatologist; Partnership for Maternal Neonatal and Child Health: focal point for Italian Society of Neonatology.

Michele is now a politician after a life dedicated to neonatal care. He has been managing maternal-neonatal projects in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Sudan, Malawi, Sierra Leone and CAR for 8 years. While engaged to the clinical management of the newborns and staff training on the job within the continuum of care, he has found out that friendly free of charge contraceptive services are welcomed to a vast part of women wherever and this helps reducing maternal and neonatal mortality; he translates it now in political decisions.

Michele De Luca

Michele De Luca, MD, is Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine “Stefano Ferrari” and of the Interdepartmental Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and Scientific Director and founder of the university spin-off Holostem.

He has dedicated most of his scientific activities to translational medicine. He is recognised as leading scientist in human squamous epithelial stem cell biology aimed at the development of epithelial stem cell-mediated cell therapy and gene therapy.

Margaret Karembu

Dr. Margaret Karembu is Director of ISAAA’s AfricaCenter based in Kenya. She oversees the Africa-based Biotechnology Information Centers that work with national programs to enhance science communication and enabling environment for modern biosciences. A seasoned science communication educator, Margaret has mentored science communication champions across Africa and provides opportunity to showcase these skills through the month Drumbeat – Africa Bioscience Trends and the Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication (ABBC) platform. She holds a PhD in Environmental Science Education from Kenyatta University, Kenya.

Tequila V. Bester

Tequila has more than 15 years of professional experience working in civil society, addressing issues dealing with civil rights, disability and elderly rights, labor and employment advocacy, immigration, and mental health advocacy. She holds a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology from Alaska Pacific University and Juris Doctor from New England Law|Boston, with concentration in Public International Law. She is Programme Coordinator at FIHRRST, implementing the organization’s second and third pillar: Human Rights Cities, Vulnerable Persons and Other Social Issues.

Pete Coffey

Professor Pete Coffey, DPhil, is Theme Lead of Development, Ageing and Disease at University College London’s Institute of Ophthalmology and the Co-Executive Director of Translation at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering. His achievements include the launch of the London Project to Cure Blindness that aims to develop a stem cell therapy for the majority of all types of age-related macular degeneration, seminal work (as described by Debrossy & Dunnett, Nature Neuroscience 2001) on retinal transplantation.

Solomon Mekonnen

Dr. Solomon Mekonnen is an Academic Staff in the Library with the rank of Assistant Professor and Open Access Coordinator at the Addis Ababa University (AAU). Apart from his role at AAU, Solomon coordinates nationally Open Access Programme of an international network called Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) representing Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries. He is also a local organizer in Ethiopia for an international network called Open Knowledge Foundation. As part of his role as local organizer, he coordinates the Open Knowledge community in Ethiopia focusing on open data and open science. Solomon has participated in many projects related to open data and open access at the national and institutional level including a project on opening and visualizing Ethiopian election 2015 data, Ethiopian Journals Online, National Digital Repository and national open access policy. He also organized and run various workshops and trainings on open access and open data.  Solomon completed his PhD in Information system from the University of South Africa.

Ghada El-Kamah

Ghada El-Kamah MBBCh, MSc, PhD, Professor and Head of the Clinical Genetics department, National Research Centre (NRC) focuses on inherited disorders and genomics. She received her Clinical training at NRC, molecular training at NRC Gaslini, Italy, tissueengineering (Neuss, Germany) and research ethics at NRC. Coordinator of the Hereditary Blood Disorders and Genodermatoses Clinics & Research Teams. Board member in the African Society of Human Genetics and Egyptian committee for pathology training-genetics. Ethical coordinator between the Clinical Genetics department and IRB-NRC.

Michele d’Alessandro

Michele D’Alessandro works at the International Relations Office of Doctors with Africa CUAMM. After specializing in peace and conflict studies, he has worked as a human rights observer in Colombia, an intern at the Italian Embassy to Ethiopia, a trainee at the European Parliament in Belgium, and a consultant for the ILO in Lebanon. He earned his MA in European and International Studies from the University of Trento, and conducted 3 years of academic research in the Horn of Africa.

Solomon Rataemane

Prof Solomon Rataemane is a psychiatrist at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in Pretoria (2003-2019), South Africa. He has participated in South Africa Science forums addressing the subject of tobacco harm reduction. He has particular interest in addictions medicine and he is the current chairperson of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Mental Health. He is the past president of the African Association of Psychiatrists and he is affiliated to numerous local and international associations in the field of mental health.