Professor John Newman is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He holds the position of Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta and is currently Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics, Monash University. He has taught at Monash University, Tsinghua University (Taiwan), Massey University (New Zealand), National Chengchi University (Taiwan), and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and served as Chair, Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta (Canada) from 2002 to 2011. His research interests include cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, and typology. His publications cover English and German historical linguistics, Mandarin and Chinese dialects, Austronesian, and Papuan. He has carried out fieldwork in Sarawak (Malaysia), Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) and Alberta (Canada). He served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cognitive Linguistics (2014-2019).

Dr. Sophia Duan is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of Department, Information Systems and Business Analytics in the School of Accounting, Information Systems and Supply Chain at RMIT University. Her research focuses on the intersection between the social and technical aspects of digital technology, looking at the effective use of digital technology for digital transformation in business and society. She is particularly interested in conducting impactful research that has practical significance to the sustainable development of society for a better digital future. Sophia published more than 60 articles in high-quality peer-reviewed academic outlets. She has attracted over $250K national and international competitive research funding to support her research activities. Sophia has recently been named as one of the "Top 25 Analytics Leaders in Australia" by the Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia - the only analytics association in Australia.

Dr. Catherine Lou is a Senior Lecturer in supply chain and logistics, Victoria University Business School; Research leader in Business at Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities; Victoria University, Australia. Her current research interests cover supply chain optimisation and sustainability, social procurement, visitor economy supply chain, international students’ wellbeing, industry’s inclusion and diversity. Dr. Lou recently published a book in Supply Chain Management and Corporate Governance Artificial Intelligence, Game Theory and Robust Optimisation by a leading publisher Routledge. She has led/co-led research projects funded by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government (DFAT), state government, Victoria University and industry partners.

Dr. Lou was awarded as the Young Professional of the Year in 2018 by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Australia; Excellence in Research (Individual - Early Career) by Victoria University Business School in 2021. She is the current Australian Chair/Global Vice Chair (Australasia) for Women in Logistics and Transport; National Council Member for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Australia.