Speakers

Name: Pranee Liamputtong
University: VinUniversity, Vietnam

Short Biography: Professor Pranee Liamputtong is currently a professor in behaviour sciences at the College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity, Vietnam. Prior to taking up her position in Vietnam, Pranee has worked in several Australian universities including La Trobe University and Western Sydney University. Pranee’s particular interests include issues related to socio-cultural influences on childbearing, childrearing, motherhood, infant feeding practices, sexuality, and reproductive and sexual health. Her current research includes motherhood, HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, sexuality, sexual violence and impacts of air pollution on the health of mothers and babies. Pranee is also a qualitative researcher. She has published a number of books on the qualitative inquiry and health. Her most recent books include Qualitative Research Methods, 5th edn (2020); Research Methods in Health and Evidence-Based Practice, 4th edn (2022); Public Health: Local and Global Perspectives, 3rd edn (2023); Handbook of social inclusion, research and practices in the health and social sciences (3 volumes) (2022); Handbook of qualitative cross-cultural research: A social science perspective (2022); How to conduct qualitative research in the social sciences (2023); and Handbook of social sciences and global public health (3 volumes) (2023).

Name: Caroline Braet
University: Ghent university, Belgium

Short Biography: Dr. Caroline Braet (°1961) received her Ph.D. from the University of Ghent in 1993, with a specialization in the investigation of psychological aspects of childhood obesity.  She has achieved postgraduate specialisations in Developmental Psychology and in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. At the moment, she is a full professor and head of the Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology at Ghent University in Belgium. She is teaching deve­lop­mental and clinical aspects of childhood therapy and is researching programmes for children.

She also serves as the coordinator, supervisor, and a therapist at the Children’s University Hospital at Ghent University where she provides childhood obesity consultation and at the Ghent University Child Mental Health Center. She is the author or co-author of over 130 scientific publications.

Name: Dr. Tobias Kurth
University: Charite – Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Short Biography: Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD, is Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin Germany where he directs the Institute of Public Health. He further is an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, USA. Dr. Kurth obtained his MD from the University of Tübingen, Germany, and a doctorate in Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School. He has served as a resident in the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital of Essen, Germany. Moreover, he was a research fellow at the Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, and a director of research at Inserm Research Units in Paris and Bordeaux, France. At the Charité, he chairs the board of the PhD program in Health Data Sciences, is a member of the board of directors and directs the postgraduate Master in Epidemiology program of the Berlin School of Public Health.

Name: Professor Jakob Zinsstag
University: university of basel, Switzerland

Short Biography: Jakob Zinsstag, veterinarian, is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Basel and deputy head of department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Swiss TPH, where he leads a research group on the interface of human and animal health with a focus on health of nomadic people and control of zoonoses in developing countries under the paradigm of “one health”.

Name: Dr. Caroline Barakat
University: Ontario Tech University, Canada.

Short Biography: Dr. Barakat is an Associate Professor of Environmental/Occupational Health at Ontario Tech University, Canada. She received her Doctoral degree in Medical Geography from McMaster University, Canada. Her extensive research portfolio includes the effects of childhood exposure to adverse air pollutants and a comprehensive environmental health study involving over 30,000 residents of the United Arab Emirates. She is currently involved in research projects on behaviour changes aimed at reducing toxin exposures from personal care and household products. Dr. Barakat has authored over 65 publications in various journals and books, reflecting her research

interests in environmental health, particularly pertaining to children and adolescents. Dr. Barakat is also a peer reviewer for the Qatar National Research Fund. She is Topic Editor for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and a member of the Editorial Board for Universal Journal of Public Health. Dr. Barakat is serving as a Senior Research Associate for the Association pour la santé environmental du Québec – Environmental Health Association of Québec (ASEQ-EHAQ). She is involved in a project titled ‘Accessible Indoor Air in the Built Environment’ project. As a key member of its Steering/Advisory Committee, she focuses on advancing research on accessibility standards research.

Name:  Prof. Paul KS Chan
University:  The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China.

Short Biography:  Prof. Paul KS Chan is currently working as Clinical Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof. Chan is a specialist in Clinical Virology and received his medical degree from the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Chan has authored more than 500 publications in various journals and attained an H-index of 77. His publications reflect his research interests in respiratory tract infection, viral oncology, pathogenesis and epidemiology. Prof. Chan is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Virological Methods.

Name:  Prof. Willeke Van Staalduinen

University:  Age-friendly environments academy, Netherlands.

Short Biography:  “Willeke van Staalduinen (MSc.) is currently working as CEO of AFEdemy, Academy on agefriendly environments in Europe. Willeke received her Master degree in political science at the University of Leiden. She then worked as policy officer and researcher in Dutch Parliament, at a governmental agency on building health facilities and TNO Netherlands Applied Research Institute. In 2017 she co-founded AFEdemy and co-coordinated the Thematic Network on SHAFE. Since 2020 she is the vice-chair and grant holder of COST Action NET4Age-Friendly. She has authored several publications in various journals and books.