About the Contributors

414

Santo Banerjee (PhD, Physics; 2008) was a Senior Research Associate in Department of Mathemat- ics, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy and also a Research Scientist in Micro and Nanotechnology Unit in Techfab S.R.L., Chivasso, Italy from 2009-2011. Currently he is a Research Associate in the Institute for Mathematical Research, UPM, Malaysia. He is also a founding member of the International Science Association (ISCASS), Ankara, Turkey and head of the Department of Complexity and Network Dy- namics, ISCASS. He has 11 books and total 75 research articles in the field of Nonlinear Dynamics and its various applications. His current research area includes chaotic systems, laser and plasma, synchronization, cryptography, genetic engineering and soft computing, social and neural networks, non linear- ity in management, econophysics, et cetera. He has organized many international conferences. He was a keynote speaker in many international symposia, also reviewer of more than 30 SCI indexed international journals. He is an editor of International Journal of Chaos and Complex Systems (IJCCS) under ISCASS.

* * *

Şuay Nilhan Açikalin graduated from Bilkent University, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Department of International Relations in 2012. She plans to attend Master and Doctorate education. In 2007 she attended 11th National Philosophy Olympics as contestant and she presented a paper about “fractals” in Conference of Turkısh Mathematics Association. She has worked in many national and international projects as member of project team. She is now working as Coordi- nator of International Relations in the international company called Ni.Su. She has made Nİ.SU partner for European Summer School “Central Europe in the EU - After the Lisbon Treaty in 2010. She is Vice President and founding member of the International Science Association. She has been to abroad several times one of them is Erasmus experience at Denmark Aarhus University in 2011. She has some international articles, three international book parts, and one international announcement. Her main interests are European Union Integration, Leadership, and Peace Studies.

El-Sayed Mohamed El-Sayed Ahmed (E. Ahmed) was born in December 27, 1954. He had received the BSc. in Mathematics from Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Man- soura, Egypt in 1977. His MSc. in applied mathematics from the same department in 1980. He earned his Ph. D in Applied Math from University of London, U.K. in 1986. He became Associate Professor in Applied Math in 1991. He is Professor of Applied Math in faculty of Science of Mansoura Univer- About the Contributors

sity since 1997. He is member of Egyptian Mathematics Society, Reviewer for European Mathematics Society (Zentralblatt. Math.), and European Complex Systems Society. He has many important publications in Applied Mathematics. He had been awarded by the Egyptian Academy of Science (Amin Lotfy award) in 1988, 1994, and he had got Mansoura University prize in basic science (1994). His current research interests are complex systems, nonlinear dynamics, chaos applications in biology, economics, and social sciences.

Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar got his PhD in June 2012 and currently working as a Research Assistant Dr. at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Business. His research interests are mainly based on resistance in organizations, managerial control, critical management studies, as well as ethical and political aspects of organizing. His studies focus on understanding and figuring out the dark sides of the management and organizations in order to think about alternative forms. He is also interested in critical knowledge production that would help understand and transform the local necessities regarding business and society relationship in Turkey. Therefore, he has focused on the role of the business schools, transfer of management knowledge, and critical reflections regarding such issues. He visited University of Leicester School of Management between the dates of October 2009 – April 2010 as a visiting PhD student. He is also the member of “Centre for Philosophy and Political Economy” at University of Leicester.

Dimitris N. Antoniadis has more than 25 years in Programme and Project Management positions, from both sides as client and contractor, having covered all project phases from concept to handover. He has worked for major construction, infrastructrure, and utilities organisations in senior management roles for the delivery of projects such as: Egnatia Odos (£3.2Bn), Heathrow East Terminal (£1.4Bn), Thames Water Engineering Capital programme (£1Bn), and Nottingham BSF programme of works (£200M). Currently, he is the Head of Programme Management Office of UK Power Networks where he is setting up the department and all the relevant processes and systems for the management of an annual capital expenditure between (£250M - £300M) delivered by an extensive supply chain. He is a member of the International Centre for Complex Project Management, Scientific Board Member for the Business Systems Laboratory, and Associate Editor of the Journal Business Systems Review. He was awarded the PhD from Loughborough University for his research on the subject of “Managing Complexity in Project Teams” and has written a number of journal and conference papers and contributed chapters in books on complexity, leadership and other project management topics.

João A. Bastos is a Research Fellow at the School of Economics and Management (ISEG) of the Technical University of Lisbon. Prior to joining ISEG, João worked at the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics, in Portugal, and at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Switzerland. João holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Basabi Bhattacharaya is a Professor of Financial Economics in the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University. She has published about 20 research papers national and international journals, authored two books, and edited two other. Her research area includes risk management, stock market analysis in terms of causality and volatility, banking sector fragility, development banks, et cetera. She is a member of the editorial board of two reputed journals. She is Regional Director, Kolkata Chapter, PRMIA. She received Shiksha Rattan Puraskar (India International Friendship Society) in 2007.

415 About the Contributors

Devanjan Bhattacharya holds a PhD and M. Tech. specializing in Geomatics Engineering (IIT Roorkee), and a Bachelor’s in Information Technology (Delhi Univ.). His ongoing research is to auto- mate expert decision making in Geomatics through software solutions for sustainable development. In the past he worked in the software development domain as a Senior Engineer coding telecom network management system functionalities. Currently, he is involved with the Center for Infrastructure, Sus- tainable Transportation, & Urban Planning (CiSTUP), Indian Institute of Science (I.I.Sc.), Bangalore in the capacity of a GIS Specialist and Post Doctoral Research Associate on automating a procedure for deciphering and deciding on manageable traffic and emergency situations using remote sensing landscape images, GIS, GPS navigational data, and web & communication technologies for sustainable development. The techniques are useful for natural resource optimization, agricultural yield calculations and betterment, policy planning and long term goal setting. He has his focus on areas like: information technology, geo- informatics and ICT for sustainable development, knowledge-based expert systems, remote sensing, digital (satellite) image processing, geographical info. sys. (GIS), global pos. sys. (GPS), and geo- hazard warning. He has significant publications in the domain of utilizing ICT and geoinfor- matics for disaster management and warning.

Sharad Nath Bhattacharya is a faculty member at Army Institute of Management, Kolkata, India in the area of finance. He has been associated with Institutes like University of Calcutta, IMT – Ghazi- abad, et cetera. He is a post graduate in Commerce, specializing on Business Finance from University of Calcutta and is pursuing PhD in the area of Asset Pricing. He is also a member of Professional Risk Managers’ International Association, Kolkata Chapter. He has number of publications in national and international journals to his credit and has presented research papers at several Indian and International conferences. He is also involved in consulting activities in various organizations.

Jim Bright is an Australian Organizational Psychologist and Professor of Career Education and De- velopment at Australian Catholic University (ACU) National. He authored “Chaos Theory of Careers” with Robert Pryor. He has published a range of books relating to career development and organizational psychology, including “Stress: Myth Theory and Research,” “Resumes that Get Shortlisted,” “Brilliant CV,” “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” “Amazing Resumes,” “Getting a Brilliant Job: The Student’s Guide,” and “Land That Job in Australia.” Most recently, he has developed a practical model called beyond personal mastery that comprises mind and action steps required to capitalize and confront the challenges of continual change.

Mustafa Şahin Bülbül has graduated from Kafkas University, Faculty of Science and Literature, Department of Physics in 2002. He completed Master education at Kafkas University, Science Institute, Department of Physics in 2004. He worked as classroom and science teacher. He started to work as Research Assistant Kafkas University, Faculty of Education, Department of Physics Education in 2005. He has been working on his Doctorate at Middle East Technical University since 2007. He has articles, announcements, and a book.

Ulaş Çakar has been working in Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Business since 1999. He has been lecturing in his faculty since 2006. He has been member of module team in EU project “Rais- ing International Business Awareness-RIBA” (2005-2007). He got his PhD in 2007 with his thesis on

416 About the Contributors

“A Proposal for Ecological Organization Model: Epistemological Approach.” He has given lessons in management and organization such as Business Ethics, Organizational Behavior and Current Topics in Organization and Management. He has also given seminar on Turkish Management Culture at Nordhau- sen Fachhochschule Germany and Business Ethics courses at Kyungpook National University in South Korea. He has been at Center of Business Ethics Bentley University (Waltham, MA, USA) in 2010 as a visiting scholar. He has been coordinator of 2nd National Management and Organization Summer Semi- nar (2006), and member of organizational boards of 10th National Business Conference (2011) and 20th National Management and Organization Conference (2012) in Turkey. He is South Korean Academic Exchange coordinator in his Faculty. His research interests are business ethics, ecological management, chaos theory’s implications in the field of organization, epistemological origins of organization/management thought and cross-cultural studies on Turkish and South Korean organizational cultures.

Manuel Pacheco Coelho (1961) has aggregation, PhD, Master, and Graduation in Economics from Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão /Technical University of Lisbon. He is Assistant Professor in ISEG/UTL. His research interests include: natural resource and environmental economics, regional economics, microeconomics, and quantitative methods. He is in charge of coordination of post-graduation in energy and environmental economics. He is a Teacher of the Doctoral Program MIT /Portugal on Sustainable Energy Systems.

Sam Cole is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo teaching economic development, futures studies, tourism, and community. He trained as a theoretical physicist (Im- perial College, Sussex, Cambridge) before working as a development economist in several national and international agencies. His major books include “Thinking about the Future: A Critique of the Limits to Growth” and “Worlds Apart: Technology, Income, and North-South Relations.” He is a regular contribu- tor to the journal Futures, most recently Alliterative Logic: A Theory for Post-normal Times. His current publications includes Creative Chaos: Globalization, Agglomeration, and the Metropolis (Journal of Economic Geography) and Synergy and Congestion in the Tourism Life Cycle (Tourism Management).

Pranab K. Dan obtained his B.E and M.E degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Bengal Engi- neering College, Shibpore affiliated to Calcutta University, India in the year 1980 and 1982, respectively and the PhD degree in Production Engineering in 1996 from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His research and professional experience is in the area of Industrial Engineering. He is a Reader in Industrial Engineering in the School of Engineering & Technology at the West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata. Earlier he taught at the Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management as well as at Army Institute of management, Kolkata. Before joining academics, he worked in several industrial organizations at middle and senior positions. He is also a member of CII Eastern Region Education Committee. He consulted a number of companies in the area of Industrial Engineering & Management and conducted a number of training programmes for engineers and executives in industry. He chaired technical sessions in national and international seminars/workshops. He has about fifty publications in various international and national journals.

Sidney Dekker is Professor in the School of Humanities at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Previously Professor at Lund University, Sweden, and Director of the Leonardo Da Vinci Center for Complexity and Systems Thinking, he gained his Ph.D. in Cognitive Systems Engineering from The

417 About the Contributors

Ohio State University, USA in 1996. He has worked in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and England, has been Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and visiting Professor in healthcare safety in both Melbourne, Australia and Manitoba, Canada. He has recently been flying part-time on the Boeing 737NG with an airline out of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is author of several best-selling books on system failure and human error. Recent ones include “Behind Human Error” (2010), “Drift into Failure” (2011), “Patient Safety” (2011), and “Just Culture (2nd ed.)” (2012).

Şefika Şule Erçetin graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences Department of Business Administration at Anadolu University in 1984. In 1987 she has started to work as research assistant at the Division of Educational Administration, Supervision, Planning, and Economics at Hacettepe University, and completed the doctorate there. In 1994 she was invited by The University of Texas at Austin, where she worked as visiting scholar for six months. Since 2003 she has been working as professor. In 2009-2012 she directed many international and national projects about “organizational intelligence, municipalities, vocational education,” as project coordinator. Since 2010 she is the head of the company she established Ni.Su with “Quantum Performance in Project Management” project. She is the president, management board member, and founder member of the International Science As- sociation. She has a lot of published articles both national and international journals. She has written seven books and edited seven books one of them in English with the name “Organizational Intelligence in Question.” She is Editor in Chief of different national and international journals. She is one of rare academicians in Turkey who interests in “chaos, complexity, and quantum leadership” since 1990. She has directed thesis and she gives seminars about these topics. Other main research fields of her are organizational intelligence, stupidity and wisdom, leadership and vision, fuzzy logic, children at risk, women and peace studies, and social media.

Manuel Alberto M. Ferreira (1951) is an Electrotechnic Engineer from Lisbon Technical Univer- sity, Master in Applied Mathematics by Lisbon Technical University, PhD in Management-Quantitative Methods by ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute, and Aggregate in Quantitative Methods by ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute. He is Former Chairman of the Board of Directors and Vice- President of ISCTE- Lisbon University Institute. He is Full Professor at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute Department of Quantitative Methods. Research interests include: mathematics, statistics, stochastic processes-queues and applied probabilities, game theory, applications to management, finance, and social problems, and Bayesian statistics-application to forensic identification.

José António Filipe (1964) did PhD in Quantitative Methods (Operations Research) by ISCTE-IUL; Master in Management Sciences by ISCTE-IUL; Graduated in Economics by Instituto Superior de Eco- nomia e Gestão, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. He is Assistant Professor in ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute Department of Quantitative Methods. He is Investigator of BRU-UNIDE/ISCTE-IUL. His interests are directed to mathematics, statistics, stochastic processes - queues and applied probabilities, game theory, applications to economics, management, finance, and social problems, and environmental and natural resource economics.

Kousik Guhathakurta is in the Faculty of Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode in Finance and Control group. An engineering graduate with MBA in Finance, he has over ten years of experience in industry and nine years in teaching. His research interests include quantitative finance and econophys-

418 About the Contributors

ics He has published and presented several research articles in reputed journals and conferences. He has done his PhD on “Indian Stock Market: Examination of Validity of the Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) Model to Stock Price Behaviour with Particular Emphasis on the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model” under Economics Department, Jadavpur University. Kousik has conducted several Management Development Programmes and in-Company trainings on Finance. He is member, steering committee, Kolkata Chapter, Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA).

Michael P. Hanias was born in Athens, Greece in 1961. He received the B.Sc. degree in Physics from Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and the Ph.D. degree from Aristotelian University of Thes- saloniki, in 1984 and 1993, respectively. From 1989 to 1993, he was Teaching and Research Assistant at the Laboratory of Solid State, Physics Dept., Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and, from 1994 to 2011, he was Scientific collaborator at TEI of Chalkis (Department of Physics and Chemistry) and Research Associate at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Sciences - Faculty of Physics Department of Electronics, Computers, Telecommunications and Control. From 1992 to 2012 he was involved in various NATO & European Union R&D projects related to chaotic electrical properties of semiconductors and semiconductors devices. Since 1989, he has published many papers (45) and has been referee to many scientific journals while his references are over 350. His research interests include electronic transport phenomena, non linear chaotic circuits, chaos in electronics, time series prediction, neural networks, and econophysics.

Joshua Haworth received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Miami University, Ohio, USA. His thesis project included the analysis of human posture in unstable environments, and changes that develop during balance training. Particularly, he found a love for chaos and complexity mathematics, growing intrigued with the nonlinearities of behavior uncovered through such approaches. In the spring of 2009, as interim faculty at Penn State-Berks, he taught Kinesiology and Biomechanics and worked with research projects focused on the complex organization of human gait variability. Joshua is in the third year of his Doctoral program at the Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility, at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; with advisor, Dr. Nicholas Stergiou. His dissertation work incorporates eye-tracking technology with posturography to identify sensorimotor strategies used for the maintenance of stance in the presence of complex visual displays; investigating the criticality of chaos in the organization of perception-action coupling. In essence, how babies, children, and adults sway and where they look while moving. Funded by Autism Speaks and NASA, the goal of these projects is to explore the development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for neuro-motor dis-coordination. Beyond science, Joshua loves to bicycle and travel the world; and even more, his wife Rebecca.

Ahmed Sadek Omar Hegazi (A. S. Hegazi) had been born in 1950. He had received the BSc. from Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Egypt, his MSc. was in pure mathematics from the mathematics Department of Mansoura University. He received PhD in Pure Mathemat- ics from Germany (1984). He is currently Professor of Pure Math. in faculty of Science in Mansoura. His current research interests are lie algebras, quantum field theory, fractional calculus, chaos control, and synchronization.

419 About the Contributors

Fernando Juarez has a Degree in Psychology, PhD in Psychology (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain), and is pursuing a Global Executive Master in Business Administration (University of Miami, USA). He is author of more than 60 scientific publications and more than 200 technical papers and a Senior Lecturer in risk factors and complexity in the financial statements, the relationship of organizations with the environment through relationship marketing, leadership and quality of life and well-being, as well as in the psychological approach to business management and community. He was Founder and Editor of International Journal of Psychological Research (2007-2009), and is a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals and of different research centers, having created various masters and specialization programs for several universities. He has given numerous conferences, participating in symposia and national and international meetings, and has coordinated large scale recruitment projects, focused on behavioral and functional competencies in virtually all public administrative institutions of Colombia. He currently works as a professor and researcher in the Faculty of Business Administration at the Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia.

L. Douglas Kiel is a leading author in the application of the theories of complexity and chaos to management and organizations. Kiel’s more than 60 published works range from the development of new theories of organizational change, to the management of complexity, to knowledge management. His book, “Managing Chaos and Complexity in Government: A New Paradigm for Change, Innovation and Organizational Renewal” (1994), received the 1994-95 best book award from the Public and Non- Profit Sector division of the Academy of Management. In 2003, he completed his editorial responsibilities with the UNESCO sponsored Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems with a 42 chapter edited volume entitled “Knowledge Management, Organizational Intelligence and Learning, and Complexity.” This volume was presented at the Rio +10 Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. This volume appeared in a second edition as a three volume E-Book in 2010. More than 100 different academic journals cite Kiel’s works. His work is most widely cited in the literatures of public administration, policy studies, business management, and healthcare management. Academic journals from fields as diverse as economics, geography, psychology, music, and nuclear science also cite Kiel’s works.

Nuray Kisa has graduated from Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education, Division of Primary Education in 2007. She has started Master education in Hacettepe University, Division of Educational Administration, Supervision, Planning, and Economics at the same year. She is still attending doctorate there. She has started to work as Research Assistant at Niğde University in 2009, then appointed to Hacettepe University to go on education and still working there. She has worked in many national projects as member of project team. She has three international announcements with full texts, four international papers, and two international book parts. She is the founder member of the International Science Association.

L. Magafas was born in 1965. Now he is Professor in Electrical Engineering Department of Kavala Institute of Technology. He finished his B.A. studies in Physics Department in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Ph.D studies in Electrical Engineering Department of Democritus University of Thrace.

420 About the Contributors

His research work includes econophysics, complex systems, microelectronic devices, and non linear electronic circuits. He is author of over 50 published works in international journals, books, conference proceedings, et cetera. There are about 120 citations to his published work.

Ahmed Ezzat Mohamed Matouk (A. E. Matouk) had been born in March 19, 1976. He had received the B.S. in Mathematics from Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt in 1999. He had got the M.S. in applied mathematics from the same department in 2005, thesis title “Chaos and Synchronization in Some Nonlinear Electronic Circuits.” His Ph.D. thesis entitled by “On Synchronization of Fractional Order Dynamical Systems.” He has been with the Math- ematics Department, Faculty of Science at Hail University, Hail, Saudi Arabia since 2007. His research interests include fractional calculus, chaos theory, bifurcation theory, chaos synchronization, chaos control, complex networks, mathematical modeling of electronic circuits, and economical systems and fractional inequalities.

John McCaskill completed his PhD in 2012 from the University of Texas at Dallas where he serves as the Director of Assessment in the Office of the Provost. John also serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Public Affairs program at the University of Texas at Dallas. His dissertation topic involved the use of agent based modeling to test policy options in complex humanitarian interventions. John’s current research interests focus on the use of agent based modeling to test policy and behavioral theories in public administration and political economy. John’s previous publications examine U.S. national security with regard to energy policy. His professional background includes over 20 years of military service as well as 17 years in the building products industry specializing in sustainable building products. John’s design work in the building products industry has resulted in the award of three patents with a fourth pending.

Maria Isabel Craveiro Pedro has a PhD in Industrial Management by the Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, where she is Assistant Professor. She is an investigator of CEGIST/ IST. Her main field of research is industrial management.

Nihan Potas graduated from Başkent University, Department of Statistics and Computer Sciences in 2005. She has been working as Research Assistant at Gazi University, Faculty of Trade and Tourism Edu- cation, Department of Computer Application Education, Discipline of Education for Computer Software since 2006. She has completed her Master education at Gazi University, Faculty of Science, Department of Statistics in 2009. She is now attending Doctorate education in Ankara University, Faculty of Sci- ence, Department of Statistics. She has worked in many national and international projects as member of project team and expert of statistic. She is now working as Research and Development Coordinator in the international company called Ni.Su. She is in the management board and founder member board of the International Science Association. She has written one national and three international book part. The book part in “Organizational Intelligence in Question” is “Organizational Intelligence Scale II (Uni- versity Version).” She has one personal book called “Testing the Equality of Coefficients of Variation and Comparisons.” Her main interests are applied statistics, risk analyzes, and improvement of scales.

Robert Pryor has worked continuously in the career development field since 1974. For 17 years he was employed with the New South Wales Government as a careers counsellor, researcher, trainer, policy analyst, and team manager. He was the first psychologist to become a Senior Research Scientist in the

421 About the Contributors

Public Service. For the last 15 years he has worked in his own training and test development consultancy, Congruence. In addition he is a consultant and director of a multidisciplinary medico-legal consultancy, the Vocational Capacity Centre. Robert conducts employability assessments for organisations and courts not only in Australia but also in Great Britain and South Africa. He has lectured at the University of Sydney, Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales. He has been a Visiting Senior Research Fellow (University of NSW) and is currently the Adjunct Professor, School of Education, Australian Catholic University. He is the longest ever serving member of the APS Ethics Committee (18 years) and also spent another five years on the Ethical Guidelines Committee. Robert authored over 150 government publications and has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters as well as over 30 other professional articles. He has constructed and developed over 20 psychological tests and served on the editorial boards of several national and international journals. Robert’s dominant academic interest at present is the application of chaos theory to psychology and with Professor Jim Bright, has pioneered the Chaos Theory of Careers.

Isao Shoji graduated from the University of Tokyo, Department of Mathematics in 1983 and received Ph.D. from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Department of Statistical Sciences in 1996. At present he is Professor in Graduate School of Systems & Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8573 Japan. He is also member of Japan Statistical Society, Japanese Association of Financial Econometrics and Engineering (JAFEE), American Mathematical Society. His research interest is time series analysis, quantitative finance, et cetera. He has published many international articles and got prize for best papers in 1994 Journal of Japan Insurance Society. He is an associate editor of Advances and Applications in Statistics and Asia-Pacific Financial Markets since 2006.

Nicholas Stergiou is originally from Thessaloniki, Greece, and his career has spanned many miles and a few decades. He obtained his Bachelor’s from Aristotle University at Thessaloniki Greece, his Master’s from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and his Doctorate degree in Biomechanics from the University of Oregon. Currently, he is serving as the Isaacson Professor and Director of Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Dr. Stergiou’s research interests include studying human movement and the variability associated with it using techniques from nonlinear analyses. His studies are following the theoretical framework of optimal movement variability that he has developed. Dr. Stergiou has published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers and a very popular textbook named “Innovative Analysis of Human Movement.” He has been continuously funded by several federal agencies of the United States of America. He collaborates with researchers from around the world including Australia, Ireland, and Greece. Outside research, Dr. Stergiou loves reading theology and history of the byzantine times and being active at his Orthodox Christian church with his wonderful wife Ann.

George Tzetzis is an Associate Professor of Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. He obtained his Bachelor’s from Aristotle University at Thessaloniki Greece, his Master’s from Springfield College at Springfield MA, and his Doctoral degree at the Democritus University of Thrace. His research interests are on the fields of motor learning, sport psychology and sports management. His studies are combining cross-scientific approaches on learning and performance enhancement. Dr. Tzetzis has published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers, teaches in four different universities in Greece, and he is Visiting Professor in UNCG in the

422 About the Contributors

United States. He has been funded and participated in several European and Greek research projects. He has large professional experience since he worked in world sport organizations and national sports enterprises. He is a member of many national and European scientific associations.

Srikant Vallabhajosula is originally from Hyderabad, India. He completed his Bachelor’s in Me- chanical Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India and Master’s in Mechanical Engineer- ing from University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He pursued his Doctorate in Biomechanics at University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. After completing his PhD, he worked as a post doctoral Research Associate at the Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility with Dr. Nicholas Stergiou. Currently, he is serving as an Assistant Professor at Elon University, Elon, North Carolina, USA. His research focuses on understanding the biomechanics of stair climbing under different conditions and in different populations, evaluating the efficacies of different treatments in people with Parkinson’s disease in terms of improvement in their balance and gait, and pursuing questions related to motor learning. Besides research, Dr. Vallabhajosula also loves to write poems and short stories, listening to music, and playing cricket, tennis, and racquetball.

423