Our People

Dr Emmanuel Tsekleves is a Professor in Design in Global Health Design Innovation and the Co-Director of the Future Cities Research Institute at Lancaster University. Emmanuel is the convenor for the Design Research Society Special Interest Group on Global Health. His research addresses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in health and wellbeing, championing a ‘Blue Zone’ lifestyle (people living healthy into old age), by involving stakeholders and communities in the business of health, so that we and the planet can stay healthy. Emmanuel has published over 100 articles in international research publications and his research has been featured by national and international media outlets reaching over 15 million readers. 

Nick Dunn is Executive Director of ImaginationLancaster where he is also Professor of Urban Design. His research into urban futures has been funded by the AHRC, EPSRC, the UK’s Government Office for Science and the Ministry of Defence. Nick’s expertise on cities, futures, and design led to his appointment as an Ambassador for the Design Council. He is also an Official Advocate for the International Dark Sky Association in recognition of his ongoing work to protect the night skies for present and future generations. Nick has worked with the Alliance for Healthy Cites, European Commission, World Health Organization, and sits on various scientific committees and advisory boards. He has curated exhibitions and given talks at public festivals and conferences around the world. His recent publications include Designing Future Cities for Wellbeing (2020), Rethinking Darkness: Cultures, Histories, Practices (2020), and Future Cities: A Visual Guide (2020).

Dr Keivan Navaie (Senior Member, IEEE) is a Reader on AI and Cyber-Physical-System at the School of Computing and Communications. His research interests include distributed cloud and edge computing, dependable connectivity in cyber-physical systems, applications of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cognitive communications networks. Keivan is also interested in the scaling behaviour of complex systems, especially networks and cities. He serves on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. He is a fellow of IET, a Senior Fellow of HEA, and a Chartered Engineer in the UK.

Dr Mageswari Ranjanthran is a professional marketeer with significant experience in leading corporate marketing and internal communications for multi-million dollar companies across diverse industries for several years before she chose to enter academia. She is experienced in academic and consultancy research, from the development of new ideas to problem-solving, conceptual and content development with a competitive advantage. She has over a decade’s lecturing experience, mainly in the areas of tourism, innovation, digital economy and marketing. Dr Mageswari has obtained inter-disciplinary degrees in Communication, Tourism Development and Tourism Planning/Sustainable Tourism Development, and conducted research for her PhD in behavioural intention of European tourists to Malaysia. Presently, her research interest focuses on tourism marketing, holistic well-being, healthy ageing and small-scale sports events tourism. She is a certified trainer for Global e-commerce Talent (GET) from Alibaba Business School. She actively participates in international academic events as workshop trainer, keynote speaker, session chair and moderator. She is an active member of the South East Asia Research Academy (SEARA) and also Leading the Publication Team for Batch 4 and 5 in SEARA.

Kirsti Ashworth is an Atmospheric Scientist whose research focuses on the intersection of land, atmosphere and society spanning air pollution and climate, urban design and green-blue-grey space, and mental health and wellbeing. She brings techniques including laboratory experiments, in-situ observations, questionnaires and surveys, and computer simulations to explore how the interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere affect us, and how our actions and behaviours affect our environment. She investigates the influence of urban outdoor public space on health and wellbeing and health inequities. From developing advice for policymakers and planners in the use of green space to improve urban air quality, she has become increasingly interested in the wider societal benefits (and disbenefits) of such places. She is currently working with a range of partners to elucidate the attributes that improve health and wellbeing for different communities and people.  

Goh Yi Sheng is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts at Sunway University. She is a design researcher who has broad interest in creating solutions for a better society, among which include community sustainability, place making, healthy ageing, and consumer research. As part of the effort of FCRI Resilient Cities theme, Dr Goh is working on disaster relief management targeting senior citizens in order to enhance the resiliency in urban Malaysia. Currently, she is also working on a place making project of fishing villages in Malaysia and a time banking project for elder orphans in Malaysia. In addition to these topics, she has published papers on design/aesthetic research, branding, and consumer behaviour.

Prof. Ts. Dr. Angela Amphawan received her PhD in optical communications from University of Oxford, UK. She then won the prestigious Fulbright Award to work on optical devices and networks at the Research Laboratory of Electronics and MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. She currently leads the Photonics Laboratory at Sunway University. She is currently on the National 5G Task Force for development of 5G infrastructure. She also serves on the IEEE Joint Sensor and Nanotechnology Councils. She has won the International Academic Award by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, several Excellent Service Awards, Teaching Awards, Best Paper Awards and exhibition medals. She is also a recipient of the distinguished Telekom Malaysia scholarship. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright Foundation, Telekom Malaysia and Ministry of Higher Education.

Yuka Fujimoto is a Professor in Business Management and Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate) at Sunway’s Business School. Her research areas include community-business interface for creating inclusive business; inclusive human resource management policies and practices; and work-life enrichment for different social groups.  She holds a Bachelor of Business Management First Class Honours from the University of Queensland and a PhD in Business Administration from Monash University. She has published over 30 journal articles and book chapters to date, with research published in leading journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, Business and Society and British Journal of Management. She is a recipient of best paper proceedings at Academy of Management and Asia Academy of Management conferences. She is also an author of a textbook, Human Resource Management (Pearson), which approaches the topic from a wellbeing perspective. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Management & Organization and served as an executive member of Academy of Management (AOM), U.S. Diversity Inclusion Theme Committee, focusing on Member Inclusion at AOM. Currently, she is serving as part of the global committee in AOM, Organizational Behavior division.

Alison Stowell is a senior lecturer at the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology, Lancaster University and co-Principal Investigator for the UK Research and Innovation Natural Environment Research Council funded Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives: Rethinking the consumer attitude and behaviour gap. She is a qualitative social science researcher, and her research focuses on societal, organisational and management responses to waste. She has collaborated and led on numerous interdisciplinary projects and been funded by URKI (NERC; ESRC); REPIC LTD; JTAC WEEE Fund; WBCSD (not for profit) and Nestle. During  this time she has been attentive to electronic waste, but more recently her interest has broadened to other complex forms of waste handling such as plastics.  Her research has been published in management and organisation, environmental studies, material science and ethnography journals and co-authored book chapters and books.

A university lecturer, administrator and scholar with extensive experience of working cross-culturally with a variety of students and work colleagues.  Stephen, made the mid-career transition to academia after working as a retail manager, commercial fisherman, as well as a fishmonger which allowed for first hand experiences of the sustainability challenges we face and is a core driver of his endeavours.  Stephen is a clear, concise communicator and tentative relationship builder who is able to work well with students, colleagues and the public, pursing to engage with a magnitude of stakeholders to ensure a holistic approach to sustainability solutions. He is well-skilled in delivering formal lectures, workshops, seminars and public events on a variety of topics using a magnitude of digital tools to cater for in-person and online engagements. Seeking to develop impactful research and utilise academic studies for their tangible and implementable benefits to academia, business and society at large.