After completing my undergraduate education at Bilkent University (Turkey), I continued my studies at the University of Cambridge, receiving first my MPhil and then my PhD in Assyriology/Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, funded by a Chevening Open Society Scholarship and the Board of Higher Education of Turkey. After teaching for several years at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, I moved to eastern Turkey to start the Archaeology Department of Bitlis Eren University, and I was the Head of Department until the end of 2018. I have been a visiting researcher at the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman in 2011 (Mellink Fellowship), at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 2014 (Fulbright Fellowship), and at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History of Uppsala University in 2019 (Swedish Institute Fellowship). I have also held a Newton Advanced Fellowship here at Leicester in the UK. I have previously co-directed several fieldwork projects: the Cambridge University Kilise Tepe Excavations (southern Turkey, 2009-13), the Cide Archaeological Project (survey, Black Sea coast, 2010-1), the Sirwan Regional Project (survey, northern Iraq, 2012-5), and the Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey Project (survey, southern Turkey, 2013-7). I am currently co-directing the Çadır Höyük excavations, which is a joint American, British, Canadian and Turkish archaeological excavation project conducted in north-central Turkey, and the Taşeli-Karaman Archeological Project, which was initiated in 2018 as a continuation of the Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey Project, to study the Göksu River Basin in its wider geographical context in the hope of better understanding its role as a network hub connecting the eastern Mediterranean world to the central Anatolian Plateau.

Ken Buetow is a human genetics and genomics researcher who leverages computational tools to understand complex traits such as cancer, liver disease, and obesity. He currently serves as director of Computational Sciences and Informatics program for Complex Adaptive Systems at Arizona State University (CAS@ASU), is a professor in the School of Life Sciences in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; is a core faculty in the Center for Evolution and Medicine in the Biodesign Institute at ASU; and is director of bioinformatics and data management for the National Biomarker Development Alliance.

Professor Buetow previously served as the Founding Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology within the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute.

Peter Gerbrands is a Researcher at the of Utrecht University School of Economics, where is develops the data infrastructure FIRMBACKBONE. He teaches data science courses and econometrics as well as supervising bachelor, master, and Ph.D. theses. His research interests are agent-based simulations, social network analysis, complex systems, big data analysis, statistical learning, and computational social science. He applies his skills primarily for policy analysis, especially related to illicit financial flows, i.e. tax evasion, tax avoidance and money laundering and has published in Regulation & Governance, and EPJ Data Science. Prior to becoming an academic, Peter had a long career in IT consulting. In the Fall of 2023, he was a Visiting Research Scholar at SUNY Binghamton in NY.

Electrical and Computer Engineer (NTU, Athens), M.Sc. and Ph.D. on Artificial Intelligence (Univ. Paris VI, France). Formerly senior researcher in the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (NTU, Athens). I have taught a variety of courses on intelligent, complex and biological systems and cognitive science. I have participated in numerous national and european R&D projects and I have authored about a hundred articles in journals, books and conference proceedings, at least half of them as a single author. I am frequent reviewer for journals, conferences and research grants. My research interests lie on the intersection of biological, complex and cognitive systems and applications.

Dr. Morteza Mahmoudzadeh is an assitant professor at the University of Azad at Tabriz in the Department of Managent and the director of the Policy Modeling Research Lab. Dr. Mahmoudzadeh did a degree in Software Engineering and a PhD in System Sciences. Dr. Mahmoudzadeh currently works on different regional and national wide projects about modeling sustaiblity and resilience of industrial ecosystems, innovation networks and socio-environmental systems. He also works on hybrid models of opinion dynamics and agent based models specifically in the field of modeling customers behavior and developing managerial tools for strategic marketing policy testing. His team at Policy Modeling Research Lab. currently work on developing a web based tool with python for systems modeling using system dynamics, Messa framework for agent-based modeling and Social Networks Analysis.

Bruce’s research interests are in using agent-based models that simulate outgroup aversion on network environments and understanding the innovation adoption impacts of groups (affinity and aversion) on adopting a new innovation. Recently he has been exploring modeling of cultural evolution with a focus on modeling institutions as an evolutionary process with variation, transmission and selection. Bruce holds a Ph.D. from University of Central Florida (2023) and has published in IISE Annual Conference, JASSS, and the CSS Annual Conference.

As a business strategist, I help international entrepreneurs establish compliant ventures across the UAE. From selecting optimal legal structures to navigating complex government frameworks, my mission is to deliver seamless corporate setup solutions that allow founders to scale with total confidence.