Barbara Albert became Rector of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE)  in April 2022. Prior to taking office she was Professor of Inorganic Solid State and Structural Chemistry at the Technical University, Darmstadt (2005-2022) and Professor of Solid State Chemistry and Materials Science, University Hamburg (2001-2005). At the TU Darmstadt she was Vice-President for Research and Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. She received her PhD and Habilitation at the University of Bonn. Barbara Albert is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and a past president of the German Chemical Society. As a member of the Supervisory Board of Evonik Industries AG she chairs the Supervisory Board Committee for Innovation and Research since 2018.

Professor Jón Atli Benediktsson became President of the Governing Council and Rector of the University of Iceland in July 2015. Prior to taking office Jón Atli Benediktsson was a professor in the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was the Pro-Rector for Science and Academic Affairs from 2009, and served in various other administrative capacities within the University of Iceland. Professor Benediktsson received his PhD from Purdue University, USA in 1990. His research is in the areas of remote sensing, image analysis, signal processing and biomedical engineering and he has published over 300 papers and book chapters in his field. Professor Benediktsson has been a member of the Science and Technology Policy Council of Iceland since 2012. He is the Chair of the Icelandic Rectors´ Conference and sits on the council of the European University Association. Jón Atli was elected President of the Aurora Universities Network in 2020.

Barbara Buchenau was Vice-Rector for Social Responsibility, Diversity & Internationalisation at the UDE from 2018 – 2022. In her research, Buchenau addresses the evolution of North American (anti-) urban imaginaries across the centuries. As the speaker of the Graduate Research Group “Scripts for Postindustrial Urban Futures: American Models, Transatlantic Interventions” she works with urban developers and researchers in the US and Germany to better understand the problematic legacy of the rust belts left by the montane industry in North America and Europe.

Salvador Anton Clavé is the Principal Investigator of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) Research Group on Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies (GRATET) and Director of Research of Tourism Innovation at Eurecat - the Technology Centre of Catalonia. His research concentrates on the analysis of the evolution of tourism destinations; visitor attractions and theme parks; destination image, planning, policies and governance; tourism sustainable development; visitors spatial behavior; and issues concerning ICT and tourism. He was the recipient of the prestigious Roy Wolfe Award from the Recreation, Tourism and Sports Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers in 2021 for his outstanding contributions to the field and discipline of tourism geography.

Florian Freitag has been Professor of American Studies and co-lead of the Aurora pilot domain “Cultures: Identities and Diversities” since 2019. Among other topics, Freitag is interested in tourism and theme parks and has co-directed three interdisciplinary research groups on theme parks, two of which were funded by the German Research Foundation DFG. Together with 11 international colleagues from history, geography, performance studies, tourism studies, and other disciplines, Freitag has just completed Key Concepts in Theme Park Studies, a transdisciplinary introduction to theme parks.

Prior to becoming Vice-Rector, Karen Shire was the Director of the Essen College for Gender Research (EKfG), and Scholar-in-Residence at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. She is a former member of university council, and serves on scientific boards and selection committees at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Max-Weber-Foundation and the Institute of Work and Qualification in Germany. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990, and was guest professor at the University of Tokyo, the Collegio Carlo Alberto and the City, University of London. She has authored and edited 10 books and numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her current research concerns are translational labor regulation, and the transformation of gender regimes.

Bernd Sures studied chemistry and biology at the Ruhr-University Bochum and received his PhD and Habilitation in Zoology and Ecology at the University of Karlsruhe. At the UDE he also leads the DFG funded collaborative research unit on acquatic ecology. He is the author of more than 200 articles in international peer reviewed journals and received the Karl-Asmund-Rudolphi award for outstanding research in the field of environmental parasitology in 2004. He has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Brno (Czech Republic), Johannesburg, and is extraordinary professor for environmental sciences and management at the North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. He is currently serving on the scientific board of the research center “One Health Ruhr” in the Research Alliance Ruhr.