Dr. Akel Ismail Kahera is a professor and the director of the Graduate Program in Islamic Architecture and Sustainable Urbanism at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. Raised in Brooklyn, New York, he earned his Bachelor of Architecture from the Pratt Institute, followed by a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

With over thirty years of international experience as an architect, urban planner, and critic, he has also held a range of academic and administrative roles, including professor and dean at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts in Qatar; professor and senior associate dean for research and graduate studies at Clemson University in South Carolina; and professor and director at Prairie View A&M University. 

Dr. Kahera’s research, supported by grants from the Qatar Foundation and the Brown Foundation of Houston, Texas, explores the cultural, typological, and sustainable dimensions of architecture and urbanism across the MENA region, the Americas, and the Global South. Dr. Kahera is a trustee of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture, and Urbanism (INTBAU) and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of New Design Ideas, among other affiliations.

Dr. Ahmet Faruk Aysan is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at Hamad Bin Khalifa University and a full member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA). He previously served as a Board Member and Monetary Policy Committee Member at the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye. He has also consulted for prominent institutions, including the World Bank, Oxford Analytica, and the Central Bank of Türkiye. His research contributions have earned him multiple awards, including the Islamic Economics Research Award from IKAM, the Arab Fintech Forum’s Fintech Researcher of the Year Award (2023), and HBKU’s Research Excellence Award (2024). He is also a recipient of the Boğaziçi University Foundation’s Publication and Academic Promotion Awards, as well as the prestigious Ibn Khaldun Prize. Dr. Aysan is a Research Associate at University College London’s Centre for Blockchain Technologies (UCL CBT), a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum, and a Non-resident Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. He also chairs the MENA Chapter Academy of Sustainable Finance, Accounting, Accountability & Governance (ASFAAG). In 2020, Dr. Aysan was listed among the top influencers in Islamic banking and finance by an academic article published in the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal.

Dr. Mehdi Riazi obtained his PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Toronto. He has supervised 50 master’s and 22 doctoral theses to completion. He has been the chief investigator for three research projects on test validation funded by IELTS, Pearson, and Educational Testing Service (the writing section of the TOEFL-iBT). 

He is the author of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Research Methods (Routledge, 2016) and Mixed Methods Research (Equinox, 2017), and more. His academic works have been cited 4,397 times by other researchers. He has an h-index of 33 and an ih-index of 63 according to Google Scholar.

Dr. Ali Almanna is currently an associate professor in the Department of Language, Culture and Communication at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). He has a PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Durham, UK, and an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Westminster, UK. In addition to teaching different translation courses, Dr. Almanna has taught other courses, such as linguistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and applied linguistics. Currently, Dr. Almanna is the series editor (with James Dickins of Leeds University) of Routledge Studies in Arabic Translation.

Kamilla Swart-Arries is an Associate Professor and Director of the Masters in Sport and Entertainment Management program, a joint degree with the University of South Carolina. She has 30 years of experience in sport, tourism, and event management that spans academia and the private sector and has consulted broadly in both public and private sectors.

Swart-Arries has worked in industry as a Sport and Facilities Manager at the Cape Town 2004 Olympic bid and as a Sponsorship Consultant for Octagon SA delivering strategic sponsorship services to major corporates in South Africa. She also headed the Durban Events Corporation – a public-private sector partnership with the City of Durban to use events to attract tourism where she was instrumental in driving the 2010 FIFA World Cup research agenda. Kamilla has headed major research projects managing field research at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic Games, and the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.

She worked closely with Qatar Foundation's 2022 FIFA World Cup master program and the supreme committee for delivery and legacy in driving the research agenda. Kamilla served as Co-Chair of the World Association of Sport Management Conference Qatar 2023. She has been appointed to the Scientific Committee (research pillar) of the UNESCO Chair on Governance & Social Responsibility in Sports.

Annie Mathew is currently working as an administrative assistant with almost 23 years of successful experience in the administrative field, including the private, health, and research sectors. 

She obtained her bachelor's degree and has also taken a diploma in Information and Systems Management.

Mr. Janarthanan Ponraj graduated with an MSc degree in Electronics Science from the University of Madras and has a BSc degree in Physics from Madurai Kamaraj University. Before joining the core lab facility in the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) as a Research Associate in May 2018, he worked as a Field Service Engineer for about 10 years on a complete range of transmission electron microscopes (TEMs) manufactured by the FEI company. His current responsibility includes imaging and characterization of samples on TEMs.

Dr. Viktor Kochkodan graduated from Kyiv National University, Ukraine, and received his PhD in the field of modified polymeric membranes for water treatment applications in 1988. He later served at the Institute of Colloid and Water Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the University of Nottingham (UK), and Swansea University (UK). 

Dr. Kochkodan has experience in the use of reverse osmosis, nano-, ultra- and microfiltration for water purification from different organic and inorganic pollutants. The obtained results have been published in five invited book chapters, more than 120 papers in peer-refereed journals, and 15 patents.

Yehia Manawi is a scientist at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute’s (QEERI’s) Water Center and Natural and Environmental Hazards Observatory (NEHO). He works on pressure-driven membrane processes at the Water Center and on monitoring naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) in Qatar’s groundwater and seawater at NEHO.

Dr. Khaled Mahmoud is Senior Scientist in Water Chemistry and Nanotechnology at the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI). Prior joining QEERI, he worked as Research Officer in Biosensors and Nanobiotechnology at the Biotechnology Research Institute/National Research Council (CNRC), Montreal, Canada. He was the Director of Science & Technology at Bio Vision Technology Inc., Montreal, and an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University. He obtained his PhD in Materials Science from University of Saskatchewan, Canada (2007) and MSc in Analytical Chemistry from Suez Canal University, Egypt (2003) 

Dr Mahmoud research interest focus on the engineering and synthesis of functionalized nanomaterials for multidisciplinary applications including sustainable water treatment, energy storage, solar energy, environmental monitoring, nanocatalysis, and enhanced oil recovery applications. He is specialized in the synthesis and surface functionalization of 2D- carbon nanomaterials including MXene, graphenes, cellulose nanocrystals, and metal oxides.

Dr. Mahmoud is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), Cellulose and Renewable Materials, ACS Colloids and Surface Sciences. He is co-author of 46 peer-reviewed papers, 5 book chapters, 2 patents, and 3 patent applications. He is recipient of The Excellence Award, NRC Montréal, Canada (2011); NSERC fellow, CNRC Canada.