Philip Hallinger is the Global Talent Chair Professor of Management in AMahidol University (Bangkok Thailand) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Education in the University of Johannesburg (South Africa).

Professor Hallinger has worked as a school teacher, school administrator and Dean, conducted training with more than 15,000 school principals across North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

In 2014 he received the Excellence in Research on Educational Leadership Award from the American Educational Research Association and the Roald F. Campbell Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement from the University Council for Educational Administration.

His research interests include instructional leadership, problem-based learning, management education, and sustainable development. His computer simulations have been translated into 10 languages and are being used in management training in 20 countries.

Professor Hallinger has published over 200 Scopus-indexed journal articles, which have achieved more than 67,000 Google Scholar citations. He has authored the most highly-cited articles in six different education journals.

Professor Qing-Guo Wang is a distinguished expert in Automation/AI, holding degrees from Zhejiang University. He has held academic positions globally, including the National University of Singapore and the University of Johannesburg, and is currently a Chair Professor at BNU-HKBU United International College.

His research, cited over 22,000 times, spans modeling, estimation, control, and optimization, with applications across diverse fields like industrial processes, energy, and medical technology.

He’s renowned for work in decoupling and PID control, process identification, and time delay systems.

Beyond academia, Professor Wang has significant practical experience, developing China’s first paper machine computer control system and contributing to control systems for various industries.

He holds five patents and has collaborated with major control companies.

Recognized as an exceptional educator, he has supervised numerous students and post-doctoral fellows. He also contributes extensively to professional organizations and journal editorial boards.

Professor Michael Henning, who joined the University of Johannesburg in 2010, earned his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1989 from the University of Natal.

His primary research lies in graph theory and hypergraph theory, significant areas of combinatorics and discrete mathematics. He has explored various topics within this field, including structural graph theory, distance, matchings, colourings, vertex covers, domination and independence in graphs and hypergraph.

His research focus in on domination theory in graphs and transversals in hypergraphs, topics on which he has written eight books.

He has over 600 publications and is ranked as the world’s top publisher in terms of the number of papers in prestigious international journals such as the journals Discrete Mathematics (115 publications) and Discrete Applied Mathematics (75 publications).

He has supervised 15 PhD students to date and has been a plenary speaker at several international conferences.

His expertise is recognized through his roles on the Editorial Boards of several prestigious journals, and he frequently referees for numerous academic publications.

Anthony J. O. Onwuegbuzie is a multiple award-winning author, researcher, methodologist, scholar, educator, thought leader, and mentor. Currently, he is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg and a Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa.

With a current h-index of 115 and more than 125,000 citations, he has had published more than 600 works, including more than 450 journal articles, 75 book chapters, and 6 books.

He has delivered more than 1,000 presentations, 250 methodological workshops, and 80 keynote addresses worldwide. He is former editor of Educational Researcher and is currently editor-in-chief of both the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches and the Journal of Mixed Methods Studies.

According to the AD Scientific Index World Scientist and University Rankings 2025, within the Field of Education, he is ranked #1 in the United Kingdom and #22 in the world in terms of number of citations over the last 6 years.

Kevin Durrheim is Distinguished Professor in Psychology at the University of Johannesburg, where he heads the UJ Methods Lab, promoting open access to open science in Africa. His research tackles how everyday discourse and identities shape and respond to social transformation. He studies intergroup relations, racism, segregation, polarization, and social change. With over 190 publications and an h-index around 65, his interdisciplinary work spans experimental, qualitative, and computational methods.

His areas of specialization are experimental social psychology; social interaction and cooperation; group solidarity; polarization and opinion-based groups; and machine learning and natural language processing. His co-authored and co-edited books include The Routledge International Handbook of Discrimination, Prejudice and Stereotyping (2021), Qualitative studies of Silence (2019), Race Trouble (2011) and Racial Encounter (2005).

He has also published South African research methods textbooks, Research in Practice and Numbers, Hypotheses and Conclusions.

Professor Matthias Bickelhaupt’s research focuses on the development of chemical theories and methods for the rational design of molecules, nanostructures, and materials, as well as chemical processes toward these compounds, based on quantum mechanics and computer simulations.

Prof Bickelhaupt is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at UJ as well as a Full Professor in the Science Faculty at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands), and an Extraordinary Professor at Radboud University (Netherlands).

Since 2016, he has published more than 190 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie and PNAS.

He served on the editorial advisory boards of ChemistryEurope, Chemistry – A European Journal, and Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, among others.

Prof Bickelhaupt is a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), and a Chemistry Europe Fellow. He is also President of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society.

Prof. Koop Lammertsma is a distinguished organic chemist specializing in physical and computational organic and inorganic chemistry, with a strong focus on phosphorus chemistry.

He earned his MSc from the University of Groningen and his PhD from the University of Amsterdam. Following postdoctoral work at University College London, the University of Erlangen, and the University of Southern California, he held academic positions at the University of Alabama (13 years) and was professor and head of organic chemistry at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam until 2016.

He received the International Arbuzovs Prize in Organophosphorus Chemistry, the highest distinction in the field.

He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg.

Prof. Lammertsma’s recent research interests focus on organometallic complexes, stereochemistry, reaction mechanisms, and green chemistry with an emphasis on sustainable and environmentally benign chemical processes.

He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles with 12,000 citations.