Keynote Speakers

Dr. Xiaochun Qiao

 Dr. Xiaochun Qiao is a professor at the Institute of Population Research, Peking University, vice president of China Population Association (CPA), the pioneer member of International Network of Health Expectancy and Disability Process (REVES), vice president of International Commission of Historical Demography (ICHD), and editor-in-chief of the Journal of China Population and Development Studies (CPDS). He got B.S.in Computational Mathematics at Liaoning University in 1982, and then started working at the population census office of Liaoning Province. He got both master and PhD degrees in demography at Renmin University of China in 1987 and 1994, respectively, and conducted post-doc research and to be research associate at Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA from 1999 to 2001. He was an overseas fellow at the Institute of Developing Economy, Japan External Trade Organization, Japan in 2003, and visiting professor of Department of Sociology at University of Waterloo, Canada in 2008. He served as editor-in-chief of the leading journal of Population Research (in Chinese) from 1994 to 1999 and executive editor-in-chief of Journal of Population and Development from 2006 to 2020. He was a council member of IPPF at Asia and Oceania, and was invited by UN, UNFPA, and WHO as advisors. His research interests focus on population policy, population Aging, Health Expectancy, Population Census, Population Projection, and Quantitative Methods for Social Sciences. He has published more than two hundred articles and fifteen books in both English and Chinese.

 Anja Heikkinen

 Dr. Anja Heikkinen is a Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Culture of Tampere University in Finland (https://equjust.wordpress.com/). During her career she has been working as a teacher of mathematics, sciences and philosophy in gymnasia, vocational college and folk high school, as a planner and a chief of educational affairs in state and municipal administration, and as a lecturer and professor in fields of vocational, adult and general education in universities of Jyväskylä and Tampere, besides as a visiting scholar in number of universities in Europe and elsewhere. She has been initiating networks and collaborative projects of historical, cross-cultural and gender-critical research and studies in vocational and adult education across all continents, as well as acting a convener and steering committee member in national and European research associations, such as the European Educational Research Association and the European Society for the Research on Education of Adults. In all her actions, she has promoted dialogue and collaboration between researchers, practitioners and policymakers in tackling the problems of participation, equality and justice through adult, vocational and higher education. Lately, she has been occupied with initiatives to open universities to the urgent and intertwined challenges of rapidly increasing forced migration, social and economic inequalities and environmental degradation. Her mission is to transform the university into a societally and environmentally responsive community, where studies and research are integrated into a transformative action, which promotes equality, justice and well-being of the human and non-human inhabitants on the planet earth. Some of these ideas are included in her recent publications, such as Disciplinary Struggles in Education (https://trepo.tuni.fi//handle/10024/115765), Myths and Brands in Vocational Education (https://www.cambridgescholars.com/myths-and-brands-in-vocational-education) and Adult Education and the Planetary Condition (https://issuu.com/svv-ohjelma/docs/adult_educ_planetary_cond_2016).

Ahmed Shafiqul Haque

Dr. Ahmed Shafiqul Huque is a Professor of Political Science at the McMaster University, Canada. His research and teaching interests are in public administration and management, public policy, development, South Asian government and politics, governance and climate change. He has published thirteen books and numerous research articles in leading international journals including Public Administration Review, Governance, Public Management Review, International Review of Administrative Sciences, International Journal of Public Administration, Journal of Comparative and Comparative Politics, Pacific Affairs and Asian Survey. Dr. Huque was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Public Administration and Policy, and Contributing Editor for Southeast Asia for the on-line Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Policy. He has provided consulting services to various organizations including the Companies Registry of Hong Kong Government, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and assessed grant applications for NORAD and DFID.

 Tanja Joona

Tanja Joona is Professor of Arctic Sustainability Science and Adjunct Professor of Public International Law at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. She is the Principal Investigator of the Strategic Research Council's REBOUND consortium, which explores pathways towards a just green transition in the Arctic. Her research focuses on Arctic governance, comprehensive security, preparedness, sustainability, resilience, and the just green transition, with particular emphasis on the rights and participation of local communities in environmental, land-use, and energy governance. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the Arctic Initiative program (IV) and a visiting researcher at the Northern Arizona University (2026). She has multiple positions of trust in the society e.g. she serves as Chair of the Arctic Working Group of the Baltic Sea Commission

Ahsan Ullah

Throughout his professional career, Professor Ahsan Ullah has held significant positions across a range of esteemed international development, research, and academic institutions. His affiliations include Plan International; BRAC—one of the world’s largest and most influential NGOs; the Southeast Asian Research Centre (SEARC) at City University of Hong Kong; the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand; and several Canadian universities including the University of Ottawa, Saint Mary’s University, and McMaster University. He has also served at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt, where he was Associate Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) and Assistant Professor at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP). Professor Ullah has provided consultancy services to prominent international organizations, including the World Bank, Dalhousie University (Canada), and International Development Department (IDD), UK. Prior to his current role at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), he played a pivotal role in shaping migration and refugee studies at AUC through strategic leadership and interdisciplinary research collaboration. Over the course of his career, Professor Ullah has successfully secured more than three million USD in competitive grants to support research and development initiatives. His work has spanned diverse geographical contexts, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), reflecting a global engagement with critical issues in migration, development, and international relations.

  Nikolay N. Yagodka

 Nikolay N. Yagodka is a political science researcher and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) in Moscow, Russia.  (ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2354-3115) (e-mail: yagodka-nn@rudn.ru).

  Katja Heikkinen

Katja Heikkinen, is a Doctor of Sciences in Health Sciences and a registered nurse. She is a leader of Master education and research in the faculty of a Health and Well-being at the Turku University of Applied Sciences in Finland (https://www.turkuamk.fi/en/about-us/organisation-and-management/health-and-well-being/).  She is a chair of the TUAS Research Ethics Committee. Board member of strategic management Cohehre (Consortium of Institutes of Higher Education in Health and Rehabilitation in Europe) https://www.cohehre.com/). She has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed and national publications and produced educational materials and written chapters for textbooks. She has contributed to national evidence-based guideline work on COPD patient care and surgical pain management through Hotus, the Nursing Research Foundation in Finland. Nursing Research Foundation sr, (NRF) in Finland (LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katja-heikkinen-25a50b51/)

Dr. Said Al-Riyami

Dr. Said Al-Riyami is an Associate Professor of Management and the Dean of the College of Economics & Political Science (EQUIS accredited), at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. Before joining academia, he worked in different public institutions. Dr. Said obtained his Ph.D and MBA from the University of Texas at El Paso, USA. He has published number of articles in Web of Science and Scopus Indexed journals. His main research interests include organizational leadership, job embeddedness, ostracicism, organizational behaviour and proactivity. Email: saidalriyami@squ.edu.om

 Dr. Bijon Kumar Sil

Dr. Bijon Kumar Sil is currently working as Consultant R&D at Mp Biomedicals Asia Pacific, Singapore. Dr. BIJON has completed his PhD at the age of 30 years from University of Surrey, UK and postdoctoral studies from Kittasato University, Japan in Immunology. He is the director of The Awesome Place an emerging Technology based R&D organization. His main area of interest focuses on Biomedical Sciences. His area of expertise includes Den, Immuno, Pattho, PCR, HCV, ELISA, Infect, RT-PCR, HIV, RT, Mab, MULTIPLEX-PCR, HBV, MULTIPLEX, Pab, and Chemillumi. He is author and co-author of 32 journal papers and attended over 20 international conferences world-wide.