The APRU DSN Executive Committee

The APRU Doctoral Student Network is governed by an Executive Committee consisting of 10 elected Board Members with 2 years tenure, all doctoral students.  The Committee may create other positions to serve the interests of the organization. In each DSC, participants are welcome to put their candidacy for the ExCo Member.

Executive Committee Members 

Lin Zhenghang Chairperson	Lin Zhenghang PhD Candidate in Management Science and Engineering Tsinghua University in Beijing, China Research interests: Contractors’ Strategy and Project Management. Email: linzhenghang@gmail.com
Diya'uddeen Basheer Hasan Vice-Chairperson	Diya'uddeen Basheer Hasan PhD Candidate in Department of Chemical Engineering University of Malaya, Malaysia Research interests: packed-bed reactor for hydroxylation of petroleum refinery effluent and photocatalytic degradation application to petroleum refinery effluents Email: diyauddeen73@yahoo.com
Yuan Xiaohui Secretary	Yuan Xiaohui Ph.D. Candidate in Urban Planning Tsinghua Univeristy, Beijing, China Research interests: Urban and Regional Planning Email: xiaohuiyuan100@gmail.com
Aurelio Vilbar Director of IT Management	Aurelio Vilbar Ph.D. Candidate in Language Education (English) University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines Research interests: Education, ICT for Development, Computer-Assisted Language Learning, multiculturalism, intercultural competence, and language planning Email: apvilbar@gmail.com
Fahad Kidwai Directors of Research and Publications	Fahad Kidwai Ph.D. Candidate Dentistry National University of Singapore Research interests: Human Embryonic Stem cell differentiation into different lineages Email: fahadkidwai@nus.edu.sg
Stefan Gruber Director of Research and Development	Stefan Gruber Ph.D. in Law The University of Sydney Research interests: Cultural Heritage Law and Policy in China and Asia, Sustainable Development in the Asia-Pacific Region, International and Comparative Environmental Law, Laws of War Email: stefan.gruber@sydney.edu.au
Christopher Belmonte Director of Special Projects	Christopher Belmonte University of Tokyo, Japan Research interest: Sustainability of increasing coconut diesel blend in the Philippines Email: chrisjbelmonte@yahoo.com
Bin Tang Director of Special Projects	Ph.D. Candidate in Economics Keio University, Japan Research interests: Small Business, Chinese Economics Email: taohin2002@gmail.com
Nurshuhada Zainon Director of Communications	PhD in IT in Construction Industry University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Research interests: Measure the technological change patterns specifically in the construction industry, as well as the strategy of IT infrastructure in coping with such situation Email: zshuhada@gmail.com

Adjunct Members

Roger Baars Adjunct Member	Roger Baars Ph.D. Candidate in Geography University of Auckland, New Zealand Dissertation topic: Regional Integration in Southeast Asia: Norms, Identities and Cooperation Culture Email: roger.baars@gmail.com
Susan Pyke Adjunct Member	Susan Pyke PhD in Creative Writing Department of Culture and Communications, University of Melbourne Research interests: creative writing, ethnographic research Email: susanmpyke@gmail.com
Ramesh Chandra Paudel Adjunct Member	Ramesh Chandra Paudel PhD. Candidate Arndt Corden Department of Economics Australian National Univeristy Research interests: Macroeconomics, landlocked economies, International Trade, Reform and Liberalisation, Economic Policy Email: ramesh.paudel@anu.edu.au
Marek Tesar Adjunct Member	Marek Tesar PhD Candidate, Critical Studies in Education University Of Auckland Research interests: Early childhood education, Constructions of childhood, Subjectivities and power relations, Stories, fairy tales and storytelling Email: m.tesar@auckland.ac.nz
Hongping Xia Adjunct Member	Hongping Xia Ph.D Candidate University of Hong Kong, Hongkong Research interests: Oncology and current research interests include cancer gene therapy and drug development Email: xiahp1982@gmail.com

Advisors

Yolinda Yok Yee Chan Advisor	Yolinda Yok Yee Chanis a PhD candidate in the School of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She obtained her postgraduate qualifications in international economic law at Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) and Bachelor of Commerce at the Unverisity of Adelaide, Australia. Her research interest focuses on the role of law on development. Her phD thesis explores the implications of globalisation on small developing countries and investigates the role and impacts of international economic laws (with a particular reference to the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services-GATS) in influencing and shaping the competing paradigms of development. Prior to her PhD studies, Yolinda worked as a trade official and diplomat, principally serving in Suva, Brussels, and Geneva. Recently, Yolinda was recalled from her studies by her employer to take up the role of being 'Fiji Pavilion Manager' at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which was officially held from 1 May 2010 to 31 October 2010, in Shanghai, China. Email: yolinda.chan@gmail.com
Jeet Sapkota Advisor	Jeet Sapkota is expecting Ph.D. in International Studies from the Waseda Universitys Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies (GSAPS) in March 2011. He is serving as a Research Fellow at the Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration (GIARI), and Research Associate at the Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo. He wrote Ph.D. dissertation entitled Impacts of globalization on Quality of Life: Panel Data Evidence from Developing Countries and the Asia-Pacific. Jeet was elected as the APRU-DSN ExCo Member at the 10th APRU-DSC and is serving as Vice-Chair since the 11th APRU-DSC. He is also a member of EAEA, AAS and JASID. Email: jbsnepal@gmail.com
Candace Weddle Advisor	Candace Weddle  is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, specializing in the art and archaeology of ancient Rome. She holds a B.A. in Classical Languages from Baylor University and an M.A. in Art History from Tulane University, with a concentration in Medieval European art. She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and scholarships, including a Fulbright awarded by the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to conduct dissertation research in Turkey, and a residential fellowship from the Ko University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations in Istanbul.  Candace is a field archaeologist and has excavated at the site of the Roman imperial fleet harbor at Classe, outside of modern-day Ravenna, and with a Romanian-led team at a prehistoric settlement site in Transylvania. She has also participated in an extensive field and geophysical survey of a Byzantine town in the modern Turkish province of Corum. In 2009 she served as a member of the Austrian Archaeological Institutes scientific team at the important Greco-Roman city of Ephesus on the west coast of Turkey. Email: candaceweedle@gmail.com
Ye Kyaw Thu Advisor	Ye Kyaw Thu is a research associate at Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies (GITS), Waseda University, Japan and is pursuing a doctors degree there. A native of Myanmar, he holds a master's of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies from Waseda University, and a bachelor's of Physics from Dagon University, Myanmar. His research interests include human-computer interaction, wearable computing, natural language processing and education for children. He has been working to find efficient and user-friendly text input interfaces for Asian syllabic languages such as Myanmar, Bangla, Khmer, Nepali and Thai. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, IEICE, IPSJ, HIS, SGRA, ASJ and MCPA.    Email: yekyawthu@aoni.waseda.jp
Alex Montes Advisor	Alex Montesis a Doctoral Candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research interests include Latin American literature, foundational literatures, pan-Latin American identity, and U.S. popular culture of the Cold War. His PhD research is on Latin American revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara. Alex was elected to the DSN Executive Committee at the 9th APRU Doctoral Student Conference and served as Director of Research and Development during his first term, helping to develop and launch the League of Friends academic network.
Jennifer-Ann Bayan Advisor	Jennifer-Ann Bayan is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Southern California. She holds a B.S. degree from California State University, Fullerton in Biological Sciences and Genetics. Her research at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Neurosurgical Institute in Los Angeles contributed to developing innovative therapeutic approaches to delivering chemotherapeutics to brain tumors. Currently, her doctoral research interests are focused on the intrinsic effects of various genes on -cell and islet mass and understanding how -cells regenerate in order to give rise to a novel therapeutic approach to treating diabetes. Jennifer-Ann is also actively involved in the USC Graduate Professional Student Senate, USC Pharmacy Graduate Association, USC School of Medicine Graduate Student Association, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, Associated Pacific Rim Universities-Doctoral Student Network (APRU-DSN), and American Diabetes Association.    Email: bayan@usc.edu

Old Members

Anastasia V Kouznetsova Chair of 9th APRU Doctoral Student Conference	Anastasia is a PhD candidate in Law at Far Eastern National University, Vladivostok, Russia. She holds an MBA from Kyung Hee University, Seoul, RoK, and a J.D. and LL.M. from Far Eastern National University. Her current research is on the effectiveness of worker's rights protection by labour unions. Anastasia's areas of interest are labour and employment law, industrial relations law, and worker's rights protection. She teaches labour and employment law at Far Eastern National University. Email: anastasiakouz AT gmail DOT com
Himali Wettasinghe Fellow Member	Himali is a PhD student at University of Sydney, Australia in the Faculty of Education and Social work. She holds a MISD from University of New South Wales and a BCOM from Macquarie University. Her current research is titled Acts of Transgression and Socio Cultural Discourses. Himali's main areas of interest are domestic violence, cultural rights vs women's rights, socio-cultural discourses, repositioning and reproduction of self.
Maryam Nabavi Fellow Member	Maryam is a PhD student in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Her academic and professional background has intersected in the areas of anti-oppression research, policy and activism. Her interests in cultural studies inform her research on the social, political and cultural processes of social citizenship learning across issues of identity for first generation immigrant youth in Canada. Maryam is a member of the Journal Committee for APRU DSN.  Maryam is actively involved with the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education at UBC Email:  mnabavi AT interchange DOT ubc DOT ca
Raphael Funwa Iluyomade Fellow Member (Advisor)	Raphael is a PhD from the National University of Singapore. A former chairperson of DSN and the chair of the 7th APRU DSC in NUS, Singapore, he has agreed to stay on as Adviser to the Executive Committee.  Email: raphkate2 AT yahoo DOT com
Stephen R. Nagy Adjunct / Fellow Member	Stephen is a Research Associate at Waseda Universitys Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies. Educated at the University of Calgary, Canada and Waseda University, Tokyo, he is also serving as the President of the Waseda University Doctoral Student Network (WUDSN) and a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS). His research is centered on the implications of migration to Japan, the manner integration will take place and future constructs of Japanese identity, nationality, citizenship and Japans ability to navigate through this process. Email: nagystephen AT hotmail DOT com
Yu Hui Adjunct / Fellow Member	Yu is a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, National University of Singapore. Email: hibiscushui AT gmail DOT com
Ahmed Imran Adjunct / Fellow Member	Ahmed is a PhD candidate and Research Assistant / Project Administrator (NCISR) at the School of Accounting and Business Information Systems, Australian National University. His research interests include ICT adoption, implementation and strategy in the public sector, ICT in Least Developed Countries (LDC) and e-government. Email: Ahmed DOT Imran AT anu DOT edu DOT au
Brian T. Sutch Adjunct Member	Brian is a PhD candidate in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California.  His current research is on in silico prediction of nucleic acid aptamers. His area of interests include computational pharmaceutics, biophysical chemistry, bioinformatics and molecular dynamics simulation. Email: bsutch AT gmail DOT com
Maria E. Bulaeva Adjunct Member
Marco Cuevas-Hewitt Adjunct Member	Marco is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia. His research interests principally revolve around globalisation and social movements and his work combines ethnographic, philosophical, and historical approaches. His current doctoral research concerns post-Cold War politics in the Asia-Pacific region. Marco considers himself a scholar-activist and is committed, through his research, to working towards both social and environmental justice. In his free time, he is also an avid hiker and active street artist.