Adenrele Awotona, Professor of Urban Planning and Community Studies, is the founder and Director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters, and a former Dean of the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA. He was previously a Director of Studies for the British Council International Seminars (“Reconstruction after disasters”) in the U.K. where he has also served at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne as a Director of Graduate Studies in architecture and urban design. Through research, consultancy and teaching, he has professional experience in several countries in five continents. His extensive publications include Planning for Community-based Disaster Resilience Worldwide: Learning from Case Studies in Six Continents, Routledge, 2017. Professor Awotona earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, U.K. and a certificate from Harvard University’s Institute of Management and Leadership in Education.

International development, disaster and conflict induced displacement and resettlement, humanitarian distresses, community-based planning in times of crisis, disaster risk reduction, reconstruction after disasters, public health and disasters.

Donna L. Lybecker is a Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Political Science Department at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, USA. Her research and teaching cover the areas of Environmental Politics and International Relations, with emphasis on water policy, political narrative, and border studies. Current research includes work on ecosystem services, focusing on the political and ecological linkages between the environment and people, including health related elements; public and stakeholders’ values, perceptions, and uses of resources; and the effects of policy narrative on perception and policy development surrounding international borders. With her research, Dr. Lybecker aims to improve decision-maker and public understanding of human-environmental connections and contribute to better-informed conservation. Recent publications include articles in Environmental Politics, International Journal of Sustainable Society and Politics and Policy.

Donna L. Lybecker's research interests include the politics of borders, environmental politics in the Western U.S. and Latin America, and the framing of political issues. Her specific interests include the US-Mexico border, water issues among the Western states and more recently the role language and narratives play in policy development. Dr. Lybecker has co-authored two books, Great Debates in Environmental History with B. Black (2009), and Cases in International Relations: Pathways to Conflict and Cooperation with G. Hastedt and V. Shannon (2014). And she was named "Distinguished Teacher" at ISU in 2013.

Chana Akins, Ph.D. (UT/Austin) is a Professor at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Psychology. She is a faculty member in the Behavioral Neuroscience & Psychopharmacology Area and former Associate Chair of her department. Her current research interest is on the effect of drugs of abuse and their underlying neurobiological mechanisms on learning and motivation. She has been the recipient of several grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and past grant reviewer for the Center for Scientific Review at NIDA. She is current Associate Editor of Learning & Behavior and consulting editor for Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. She is a member of the inaugural class of the Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology at the American Psychological Association (APA) and has served as Secretary-Treasurer and past President of APA Division 6.

Dr. Scott Dittloff is professor in the Department of Government and International Affairs at the University of the Incarnate Word. His teaching and research interests focus on human rights, Caribbean/Latin American politics, international relations, and politics and culture. Publications include “The Changing Economic Relationship: Caribbean Trade With the European Union” in Verbum Incarnatum: An Academic Journal of Social Justice, CLEP Social Sciences and History with TestWare, Workbook for American Politics (with Lydia Andrade), “Juárez: The Reflection of U.S. Values in a Historical Drama” in The Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, and numerous articles on Caribbean and Latin American politics in various reference works. Dr. Dittloff serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Social Sciences and the British Journal of Applied Science & Technology. He is Secretary and Exhibits Coordinator of the Southwest Social Science Association and served on the College Board CLEP Social Sciences and History Committee.

Sheying Chen, Ph.D. (UCLA), is Professor of Social Policy at Pace University, USA, and honorary Director for Social Work Study at Tsinghua University in China. He was previously Associate Vice Chancellor at Indiana University and served at University of Guam as Dean of Colleges of Business & Public Administration; Education; Health Sciences, Nursing & Social Work. He held tenure as Professor and Chair at City University of New York where he headed a large unit housing psychology, sociology, anthropology, social work, disability studies, women's studies, aging, and a number of interdisciplinary initiatives. He was on the faculty of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, until 1992 where he served as a forerunner of China's rebuilt social work education and research.

Hakan Hyden is Professor of Sociology of Law at Lund University since 1988. He has a dual education both as a lawyer and social scientist. Thereby he has manifested interest in interdisciplinary issues. Hyden began his career as a lawyer by working as a clerk at the Gothenburg District Court for 2 1/2 years in the early 1970s. He is vice-president of the Research Committee for Sociology of law within the International Sociological Association. In this connection he has been teaching and giving seminars in Sociology of law in many parts of the world, preferably Asia, such as in Inner-Mongolia, Shanghai, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, Thailand, Laos, etc. He studied to a bachelor in Social sciences and became PhD in Sociology of Law in 1978. In the meantime, he taught law at the Department of Business Law. On these merits he eventually became docent in civil law in 1985 at the Law School, before he got the chair 1988 as professor in sociology of law at the faculty of social sciences. He has in that capacity been supervising more than 30 PhD doctorates.

Professor Catherine Hakim is a pioneering social scientist, currently Professorial Research Fellow with Civitas, a London think tank. Her professional experience spans central government, consultancy, and academia. She is a regular commentator in the media. As a Senior Research Fellow in the London School of Economics she developed a thesis on the social and economic value of Erotic Capital, as well as Preference Theory. She is an internationally recognized expert on women's employment, social policy, and related issues. She has also done research on voluntary childlessness and the male sexual deficit. Her publications include over 100 papers published in academic journals, numerous books and research monographs.

Alexander Minnaert received his Master’s in Educational, School and Medical Psychology and his teacher education certificate from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and a post-graduate certificate in Learning and Instruction from the Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena (Germany). He completed his PhD (1996) on a longitudinal study among freshmen on academic performance, cognition, metacognition, and motivation. He was appointed assistant and associate professor in instructional sciences and clinical education in the Education Department at Leiden University (the Netherlands) from 1997 onwards. In 2004 he was appointed full professor in clinical educational research, student counselling, learning problems and educational research methodology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He received major research grants and international fellowships. He has published more than 100 international journal articles in the area of educational and school psychology, special educational needs and medical issues related to inclusive education, learning and the development of youth.

Fields of research interest are motivational, emotional, social, neurological, and (meta)cognitive aspects in development and (self-regulated) learning, need supportive teaching, educational innovation, school counseling and research methodology. Specific topics of interest are motivation, emotion, school drop-out, specific learning disorders, autism spectrum disorders, giftedness, chronic diseases, inclusive education.

Dr Ulimiri V Somayajulu is a CEO and Executive Director, Sigma Research and Consulting, New Delhi, India. He is the President of Sigma Training and Applied Research (STAR) Foundation and President of Indian Association for the Study of Population, IASP. He is also Vice President in Indian Association for Social Sciences and Health, IASSH, India. He has more than 25 years of Experience in handling wide variety of social / developmental and demographic research in all the Indian states and Sri Lanka and coordinated more than 500 research studies/projects. He is author of 9 edited books and 120 papers in Demography, Development, CSR, Health, Family Welfare and HIV / AIDS, published in National Journals, edited books and presented at National and International Conferences / Seminars.

Population sciences,Sociology,Demography, Development, CSR, Health, Family Welfare and HIV / AIDS

Professor Ashkenazi is an international expert on disaster management and leadership, community resilience and mass casualty events with both extensive professional and academic experience. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in medical preparedness for complex emergencies and disasters. He is the former Director of the Urban Terrorism Preparedness Project at the NPLI Harvard University. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University; an Adjunct Professor of disaster management at the UGA; a Professor of Disaster Medicine at Ben-Gurion University in Israel; Founder of NIRED Center at the College of Law & Business; Commander at Mobile Med One Foundation; Advisory Board of Israel Homeland Security; and a consultant to Harvard University, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, the White House, the World Bank, Rio Olympic Games, the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, India NDMA, SAMUR – Protección Civil, China Ministry of Health and other national and international agencies. Ashkenazi served as the Surgeon General for the IDF Home Front Command.

Sibo Zhao has completed her Ph.D. at the age of 28 years from SUNY University at Buffalo in the United State. She is now a senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Central University of Finance and Economics in China. Her research concerns work and family life in China. She has also written articles on mental health and the life course studies, Suicidology, and Behavioral Decision Making. Her main research and teaching areas: Sociology of Health, Sociology Research Methods, Social Problems, and Advanced Social Statistics. She has received grant support for research projects from Natural Science Foundation of Beijing.

Mental health and its influencing factors, Gender inequality inside the family, The Cumulative effects in the life course