Speakers

Jim Longhurst is Professor of Environmental Science and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Environment and Sustainability at UWE, Bristol.  He leads the university’s sustainability agenda ensuring that sustainability considerations are present in the university’s teaching, research, campus operations and civic engagement work. His 35 year research career has focussed on air and carbon management and urban sustainability.   He has produced over 225 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters and edited 24 books.  His career research and consultancy income exceed £14 million. He has been a panellist and reviewer for NERC, EPSRC and ESRC and for research bodies in Germany, Portugal and South Africa.  On behalf of Portugal’s FCT he chaired the   Global Changes Panel and the second stage Centre review. Since 2000 he has been the co-chair of the Annual Air Pollution Conference. He has advised national and international government departments, private companies and third sector bodies on air and carbon management. He cofounded the Institute of Air Quality Management. His biographical details were first included in Who’s Who in 2004.

He has held senior roles including Head of Department, Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, Associate Dean External Engagement and Associate Dean Research. He has served on most major committees of the university and led major reviews and initiatives including the Green Capital Strategy, the UWE Grand Challenge and a review and enhancement of the experience of disabled students. He chaired the HEA Education for Sustainable Development Advisory Group and the HEA /QAA Development Group which produced the UK reference point on education for sustainable development (ESD). He is a former chair of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, the Committee of Heads of Environmental Sciences, the GEES Subject Centre Advisory Board, and the QAA Benchmarking Panel for Earth Sciences, Environmental Science and Environmental Studies and of the GWR Sustainability Panel. He served as a Director of Society for the Environment and the Science Council.

His current national roles include Vice President of the UK Institution of Environmental Sciences, President of Environmental Protection UK, chair of the Board of Directors and Trustees for the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC), co-chair of the QAA and Advance HE Advisory Group which prepared  the updated guidance on ESD for the HE sector and Director of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership CIC.  He co-chairs Bristol’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change, chairs the University Advisory Group supporting South Gloucestershire Council’s climate action programme and on behalf of the EAUC serves on the Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education.

As a Senior ministerial adviser Tiina Vihma-Purovaara’s oversees:

-Coordination of the implementation of the international strategy for Higher Education and Research 2017-2025, including the coordination of Team Finland Knowledge network and International Forum;

–European STI cooperation with non-European Countries (Vice-Chair of European Research Area Committee ERAC group Strategic Forum for international STI Cooperation SFIC);

–Networking and  cooperation between the Ministry and the Higher Education Institutions, Finnish National Agency for Education, Academy of Finland, other Ministries and other actors in internationalisation of HE and science.

Lili-Ann Wolff is Doctor of Education and Associate Professor (title of docent) in environmental education at the University of Helsinki. She works as a lecturer in science education and is a member of Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) at the same university. Besides holding a master and doctorate in education, she has also graduated in science and in philosophy. Earlier she has also worked as a lecturer in philosophy of education.

She has been involved in environmental and sustainability education and in sustainability education research in various contexts. Accordingly, she has participated in policy work, made evaluations, and performed research both alone and as a member in several national and international project groups. She has also written books, and numerous and diverse articles and book chapters, both popular scientific and scientific.

She has a long experience of international cooperation and networking as a member of many strategic working groups, and she has been engaged in politics on many levels. Her research interest includes sustainability education from transdisciplinary and critical views combining education, philosophy and history of science, natural sciences and arts. Among her research topics are education in the Anthropocene, transformative learning, worldview education, sustainable leadership, and phenomenon based learning.

Dr. Liu Baocun is a professor of comparative education and the director of the Institute of International and Comparative Education (IICE) at Beijing Normal University. He is also the director of the National Center for Comparative Education at Beijing Normal University, the director of the National Center for International Education at Beijing Normal University. He serves as president of  Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA), president of  China Comparative Education(CCES), Board Member of World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), Board Member of Chinese Society of Education, Board Member of Chinese Society of Education Development Strategy, Supervisory Board Member of China Foreign Intelligence Introduction Society, co-editor of the International and  Comparative Education .

Dr. Liu received his PhD in Comparative Education from Beijing Normal University in 2002. With his specialization and research interests in comparative education, higher education, education policy and management, he has been involved in a wide range of national and international research and consultancy projects, and published more than 260 journal papers and 20 books. Among them, the most recognized books include Preparing Leaders for the Future: A Review of the Reinvention of Undergraduate Education in American Research Universities.( Beijing: Higher Education Press, China. 2011), Innovative Country Construction and the Reform of Higher Education (Beijing: Higher Education  Press , 2009), The Spiritual Homestead of the university (  Hefei: Anhui Education Press , China. 2009) ,The Formation and Development of World-class Universities.( co-authored with Wang Yingjie,Taiyuan: Shanxi Education Press,  China.  2008), Thirty Years of Educational Reform in China: Higher Education ( co-authored with Wang Yingjie,Beijing: Beijing Normal University Publishing Group, China. 2008), Innovation Education of  University: An International Perspective. co-authored with Wang Yingjie. Shanxi Education Press, Taiyuan, China. 2005) and Tradition and change of the Idea of A University ( Beijing: Educational Science Press, China,2004).

He has received many honours and awards for his research and teaching in the field of education, including the Ministry of Education Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars Program, the Ministry of Education New Century Excellent Talents, Beijing Outstanding Award in Educational Sciences, Beijing Outstanding Award in Philosophy and Social Science, Wu Yuzhang Award in Humanities and Social Sciences. National Outstanding Award in Educational Science, the Ministry of Education Award on English-taught Courses for International Students, etc.

Yuzhuo Cai is a Senior Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at the Higher Education Group (HEG), Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Finland. He has been with the HEG for 19 years and was the Acting Professor of the unit from August 2013 to July 2014. He is the Co-Director of Sino-Finnish Education Research Centre, a network organisation involving over 20 Chinese and Finnish universities, and the Deputy Director of Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation (TRANSIT), an interdisciplinary research centre spanning three faculties at Tampere University. He is also in the coordination group of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Research Network at Tampere University.

He is Editor-in-Chief of Triple Helix: A Journal of University-Industry-Government Innovation and Entrepreneurship and a member of the Executive Committee of the Triple Helix Association. He is a guest professor at the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University and the Institute of China’s Science, Technology and Education Policy, Zhejiang University in China. He is a doctoral student supervisor at Peking University.

His main interests are in higher education research and innovation studies, focusing on interactions between innovations in higher education and transformations in society from a global perspective. He has published six books, three special issues, and over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including those in top/leading journals, such as Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, Minerva, Science and Public Policy, and European Planning Studies.

Hannele Niemi is Professor, Research Director at the University of Helsinki and been she has nominated as UNESCO Chair on Educational Ecosystems for Equity and Quality of Learning 2018-2021. She is also the Chair of The University Board at the University of Lapland.

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Zuoyu Zhou is a professor in the Faculty of Education of Beijing Normal University(BNU). He is also the Vice President of BNU, the President of the Educational Evaluation Branch of the Chinese Association of Higher Education, the executive member of the Chinese Association of Higher Education, and the Supervisor of the Supervisory Board of the China Education Association for International Exchange. He was a visiting scholar at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) and Boston College (BC) in 1999, and a Fulbright Senior visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford University in 2008.

He has taught at the School of Educational Administration, BNU since 1994, and served as Assistant Dean of the School of Educational Administration, BNU from September 1995 to August 1997, Vice Dean of the School of Educational Administration, BNU from September 1997 to February 2001, Vice Dean of the School of Education, BNU from March 2001 to October 2003, the Director of Social Science Department of BNU from November 2003 to January 2008, the first Director of Faculty of Education of BNU from January 2009 to July 2011, and the Vice President of BNU and Vice President of Xinjiang Normal University from August 2011 to July 2014. He was selected as one of the “New Century Excellent Talents Support Program” by the Ministry of Education, China (2006) and one of the “Hundred Talents Project of Social Science Theory in the New Century” by Beijing (2009). He has undertaken a number of projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Ministry of Education’s Major Research Project on Philosophy and Social Science, the Ministry of Education’s Post-grant Key Project on Philosophy and Social Science. He has published more than 90 papers in academic journals, and has published, edited and translated more than 10 education-related books. He is also the editorial board member of Journal of Education for Teaching, London Review of Education, KEDI Journal of Educational Policy, International Journal of Learning,etc.

Juha Teperi,MDPhD, worked as a researcher in both Finland and the UK before he held various senior management positions in Finnish National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health during 1997-2007. In August 2007, he moved to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, heading the first national innovation programme in health and social care. In 2011, he moved to Japan and worked as the director of the R & D Unit of the Sendai-Finland Wellbeing Center, facilitating new solutions to aging societies. In January 2014, Dr Teperi was appointed as the Dean of the School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere.  In January 2017, he was appointed as the Dean of Faculty of Social sciences.  From January 2019, till August 2021, he has been the Vice President of Tampere University in charge of research. During his career, Dr. Teperi has had numerous advisory assignments in national policy processes.

Dr. Jia Liu is a Chair Professor of Basic Sciences at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.  He obtained Bachelor and Master Degrees of Science majoring in Psychology at Beijing University, followed by a doctorate in Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT under the supervision of Prof. Nancy Kanwisher. His current interest is to combine cognitive science, neuroscience and computational science to understand the nature of intelligence and to develop human-like artificial intelligence.

Jun Wang is a professor and vice dean of the Faculty of Psychology, vice director of JoLii, and deputy director of IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University. She received her  PhD degree in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research mainly focuses on motor and cognitive rehabilitation after brain disorders, especially the structural and functional networks of the human brain using multi-modal imaging techniques in stroke, AD, MCI patients and aging people. She is currently involved in several national and international projects.