Science engagement, peace, and reconciliation

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala
University of Johannesburg

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg since 2018. He was a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Engineering at the University of Johannesburg, full Professor of Electrical Engineering, the Carl and Emily Fuchs Chair of Systems and Control Engineering as well as the South Africa Chair of Systems Engineering all at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Before this, he was an executive assistant to the technical director at the South African Breweries.

He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University, a Master of Mechanical Engineering from University of Pretoria, PhD in Engineering from University of Cambridge and was a post-doctoral associate at Imperial College. His research interests include applications of artificial intelligence to engineering, computer science, finance and medicine.

He has extensive track record in human capacity development having supervised 47 Masters and 37 PhD graduates to completion. Some of these students have proceeded with their doctoral and post-doctoral studies at leading universities such as Harvard, Rutgers, Purdue, Oxford, Cambridge, British Columbia and Concordia.

Tshilidzi has published more than 20 books, over 300 papers in journals, proceedings and book chapters and holds three international patents. He was an associate editor of the International Journal of Systems Science (Taylor and Francis Publishers). Marwala is a registered professional engineer in South Africa, a Fellow of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Academy of Science of South Africa, South African Academy of Engineering and a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery.

He has received more than 45 awards including the Order of Mapungubwe from the South African Government and the President’s Award from the National Research Foundation. Tshilidzi is a board member of Nebank, Chair of the Africa Health Research Institute, a member of the Namibian 4IR Task Team and trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Heike Wendt and Amal Zedan
Rethink Education and Science in Iraq (RESI)

In 2016 Amal and Heike, together with several colleagues, formed the Rethink Education and Science in Iraq partnership to support Mosul University in its academic rehabilitation and to promote science, dialogue and reconciliation. Various activities and formats for students, teachers and researchers from different academic disciplines promote academic intercultural exchange and learning and aim at contributing to an academic revival, peace and reconciliation in Iraq. Over the last years about 3000 students and more than 400 academics have been part of RESI-activities.

Heike is from Germany and working as Professor for Education Research and head of the Institute of Education Research and Teacher Education at the Faculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciences of Graz University in Austria. Her research interests are in international comparative research and school development with a focus on questions of equity and transitions of education systems. She served for more than 10 years as national research coordinator for Germanys participation in international large scale assessment studies (TIMSS and PIRLS) and is involved in numerous international research projects and partnerships. She has published more than 10 books and 150 articles and book chapters. She is a founding member and scientific head of the Rethink Education and Science in Iraq network since its establishment in 2016.

In 2016 Amal and Heike, together with several colleagues, formed the Rethink Education and Science in Iraq partnership to support Mosul University in its academic rehabilitation and to promote science, dialogue and reconciliation. Various activities and formats for students, teachers and researchers from different academic disciplines promote academic intercultural exchange and learning and aim at contributing to an academic revival, peace and reconciliation in Iraq. Over the last years about 3000 students and more than 400 academics have been part of RESI-activities.

Amal is from Iraq working as Assistant Professor for Teaching Methods at the colleges of basic education and pure sciences of Mosul University. Her research interests are in teaching and learning methods and inclusive education, on which she has published several articles. She is a founding member of the Rethink Education and Science in Iraq network since its establishment in 2016 and involved in other international partnerships with Universities in Germany.

Virginia Murray
UK Health Security Agency

Virginia is public health doctor committed to improving health emergency and disaster risk management as well as data access and transparency for effective reporting and is currently Head of Global Disaster Risk Reduction at the UK Health Security Agency. Prior to this she has been a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, published in March 2012. From 2011 to 2014, she was Head of Extreme Events and Health Protection she is a member of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) scientific committee. With support of IRDR, she is currently the Chair of the UNDRR/ISC Hazard Classification and Review Technical Working Group, and the report was published in 2020 with Hazard Information Profiles: Supplement to UNDRR-ISC Hazard Definition & Classification Review – Technical Report published in October 2021. She is a visiting/honorary Professor and fellow at several universities.

Nick Ishmael-Perkins
International Science Council

Nick has worked as a journalist, media trainer and project manager for nearly 30 years in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. He founded the consultancy group Media for Development and was Head of Research Communication at the Institute of Development Studies for five years.

He was Director of SciDev.Net, an online news service for science and technology in the developing world, prior to moving to CAB International to be Lead Technical Advisor in development communication and extension for agriculture in emerging markets.

He has a post-graduate degree in anthropology and international development and has written extensively on development communication and knowledge mobilization.

He is also Artistic Director at Wretched Theatre.