Nationality: Japanese
Current Position: Professor, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Oita University Faculty of Medicine, Oita, Japan
Education: Medical School 1979-1985 University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan

Position:
Resident 1985-1986: University of Occupational and Environmental Health
Senior Resident 1986-1989: University of Occupational and Environmental Health
Assistant Professor 1989-1995: Department of Psychiatry, University of Occupational and Environmental Health
Lecturer 1995-1999: Department of Psychiatry, University of Occupational and Environmental Health
Academic Visit 1999-2000: Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University, UK
Associate Professor 2000-2004: Department of Psychiatry, University of Occupational and Environmental Health
Professor 2004- : Department of Neuropsychiatry, Oita University Faculty of Medicine

Speciality:
Bipolar Disorder, Lithium, Brain Imaging, Mindfulness

Editorial Board:
World Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Austin Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Journal of Addiction Medicine and Therapeutic Science, Clinical Neuropsychopharmacology and Therapeutics

Hobby: Oil painting

My research interests are religion, mindfulness, brain imaging, suicide, depression, bipolar disorder, and psychopharmacology.

I am currently a PhD candidate in department of psychology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. My research focuses on Buddhist meditations (e.g. loving-kindness meditation, mindfulness meditation) and relevant concepts (e.g., appreciative joy). I am interested in how those practices or concepts originated from Buddhism benefit personal well-being and interpersonal relationship, not only among Buddhists but also in general population.
Most of my previous publications were associated with traditional or modern mindfulness-based interventions, such as Goenka’s Vipassana Meditation and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Currently, I am focusing more on Loving-kindness Meditation and relevant concepts, especially appreciative joy.
In addition, I attended several meditation retreats and also practice loving-kindness meditation every day. I also had experience of reviewing manuscript for journals.

Directions: Positive Psychology, Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Clinical Psychology
Keywords: Loving-Kindness Meditation, Appreciative Joy, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, Buddhism, Positive Emotion, Prosocial Attitude

Andrea Cipriani, MD PhD, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
- Senior Clinical Researcher
- Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist

After 10 years at the University of Verona as Lecturer in Psychiatry, I am now working in Oxford.
I have been working closely with world class academic institutions (Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and York in the UK; Universities of Ulm and Munich in Germany; University of Ioannina in Greece; Universities of Nagoya and Kyoto in Japan; University of Cape Town in South Africa) and important organisations, such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. Together with the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at WHO I have co-authored a manual on psychopharmacology, which provided evidence-based information to health care professionals in primary care especially in low- and middle-income countries. This manual is part of the Gap Action Programme of the WHO and is distributed by WHO as a reference source to assist physicians working in the primary health care through increasing their knowledge and improving their routine clinical practice in using evidence-based medicines for mental disorders.
I am currently Editor in Chief of Evidence-Based Mental Health. I am also in the Editorial Board of the Lancet Psychiatry and one of the Editors of the Cochrane Collaboration for Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis.

My main interest in psychiatry is evidence-based mental health and my research focuses on the evaluation of treatments in psychiatry, mainly major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I have carried out many systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomised controlled trials in psychopharmacology, however in the past few years I have been also investigating relevant issues in epidemiological psychiatry and public health, like patterns of drug consumption, risk of serious adverse events (most of all, suicide and deliberate self harm) and implementation of treatment guidelines.
My interest in the methodology of evidence synthesis has now a specific focus on network meta-analysis and individual patient data meta-analysis, trying to assess the validity, breadth, structure and interpretation of these statistical approaches to better inform the mental healthcare decision-making process.

Mohammad Azadpur is Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University. He received his PhD from the University of Virginia (1999) and joined the faculty at SFSU after a Mellon Fellowship and CRCL Post-Doctoral Fellowship at John Hopkins University (1999-2002).
In his work, Prof. Azadpur aims to develop and articulate post-analytic, post-colonial, and cosmopolitan forms of rationalism and humanism. Alongside Islamic philosophers (especially Alfarabi and Avicenna) and their modern critics (e.g., Corbin and Nasr), he draws from and respond to early Heidegger, later Foucault, new Wittgenstein, Kant and Hegel on the sublime, and McDowell. He has published a series of articles, and his book Reason Unbound: On Spiritual Practice in Islamic Peripatetic Philosophy appeared in 2011 with SUNY Press. Within the MEIS framework, he teaches courses on Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Political Philosophy, and Islamic Mysticism.

• Ethics
• Metaphysics and Epistemology
• Islamic Philosophy
• Analytic Hegelians (Sellars, McDowell, and Brandom)
• Early Heidegger
• New Wittgenstein
• Later Foucault

Dr Itai Ivtzan is passionate about the combination of psychologyand spirituality. It makes his heart sing. He is convinced that if we befriend both psychology and spirituality, and succeed in introducing them into our lives, we will all become super-heroes, and gain super-strengths of awareness, courage, resilience, and compassion. Isn't this an amazing prospect? Dr. Itai Ivtzan is a positive psychologist, a senior lecturer, and the program leader of MAPP (Masters in Applied Positive Psychology) at the University of East London (UEL). He is also an honorary senior research associate at University College London (UCL). Over the past 15 years, Dr. Ivtzan has run seminars, lectures, workshops and retreats in the UK and around the world, in various educational institutions and at private events. He published several books, as well as numerous journal papers and book chapters. His main areas of research are positive psychology, mindfulness, and spirituality. Dr. Ivtzan is confident that mindfulness meditation has the power to change individuals – in fact, whole societies – for the better. Accordingly, he has been investing much time in studying mindfulness academically, writing books about it, teaching it, and training mindfulness teachers. He is the author of Awareness is Freedom: The Adventure of Psychology and Spirituality and co-author of Mindfulness in Positive Psychology: The Science of Meditation and Wellbeing, Second Wave Positive Psychology: Embracing the Dark Side of Life, and Applied Positive Psychology: Integrated Positive Practice.

My current research focuses on positive psychology. More specifically, my research aims to investigate positive psychology concepts in a way that would help us understand their combined potential in enhancing wellbeing. As part of my research I study mindfulness, eudaimonic happiness, meaning in life, and self-actualisation. In my research I raise questions involving these issues and focus on the factors that are capable of enhancing or weakening our ability to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives. These factors include:
• The relationship between religion/spirituality and wellbeing
• Cultural influences on wellbeing
• Mindfulness and its impact on the self-concept
• Gender effects on wellbeing
• Empathy and wellbeing
• Developmental aspects of self-actualisation
As part of my research I have been devising, with Dr Kate Hefferon, a positive psychology intervention program for cancer patients. Following our combined research we have identified six interventions (including, for example, Meaning, Mindfulness, and Physical activity) to support cancer patients in remission. Our work won the UEL Research Development Fund (RDF) ($10,000). The grant supports the writing of an application for a large scale grant ($900,000) for a positive psychology resilience program for cancer patients, to be submitted to the BCC (Breast Cancer Campaign) at the end of 2013.
I have been made Honorary Senior Research Associate in the prestigious UCL, where I collaborate with other colleagues in the research and supervision of positive psychology studies.
Many of my papers have been published in high quality peer reviewed journals. I am deeply engaged in and committed to high quality research, and expect my publication record to steadily grow as my work progresses. I have also presented my research in various international conferences. Finally, I am the associate editor of the "International Journal of Psychological Studies".

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Indian Buddhism; Indology; Socially Engaged Buddhism; Ancient South Asian Archaeology, History & Civilization; Pali Language & Literature; Ancient Indian Epigraphy; Ancient Indian Topography.

Prof. Mayssah El Nayal has been a professor of psychology since 1999, and is currently the Head of the Psychology Department and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Beirut Arab University (Lebanon). She is a graduate of the Psychology Department, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University (Egypt).
As an academic, she is both a researcher and a referee of a number of papers submitted either for publication or for promotion in various areas of the Arab World. Her work as a researcher includes no less than 80 published research papers and more than 10 published books. Her research interests are focused on clinical psychology, personality and positive psychology.
Prof. El Nayal also has a number of interdisciplinary initiatives: in 2010she launched the Women’s Studies Diploma at the Faculty of Arts, BAU, and organized two international conferences in 2014 and in 2015. She is fluent in both English and Arabic.

Her research interests are focused on clinical psychology, personality and positive psychology.

Natasha Heller has studied at Brown University (BA, Religious Studies) the University of Michigan (MA, Buddhist Studies), and Harvard University (PhD, East Asian Languages and Civilizations). Before arriving at UCLA, she spent two years as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research engages the relationship between Buddhism and secular culture in China from the Tang dynasty through the Ming. She is currently at work on a monograph that explores the cultural competencies necessary to be a successful monk through the life of the Yuan-dynasty Chan master Zhongfeng Mingben. Other projects in progress also take up the interface between Buddhism and culture, ranging from the reception of a ritual commemoration written by lay Buddhist of the early Ming dynasty, to an examination of rites for rain in monastic codes, to Buddhist themes in tales of injustice and retribution. Her most recent publication is “The Chan Master as Illusionist: Zhongfeng Mingben’s Huanzhu Jiaxun,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 69.2.

East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Religion, Buddhist Studies.

Serie McDougal, III is an Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies, in the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. He received his B.S. in Sociology from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Additonally, he has a Masters degree in Africana Studies from the State University of New York at Albany, NY, and a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
Dr. McDougal's research areas of interest consist of Africana Psychology, Afrocentric Education, and Afrocentric Social/ Political Theory. Dr. McDougal teaches undergraduate courses reflecting these topics, and he teaches graduate seminars as well. He guides students to publish the Imhotep journal. He advises student groups on SF State's campus, including the historic Black Student Union.

Africana Psychology, Afrocentric Education, and Afrocentric Social/ Political Theory.

Yung-Jong Shiah received his Ph.D degree in psychology from the University of Edinburgh. He is an associate professor at Graduate Institute of Counseling Psychology and Rehabilitation Counseling of National Kaohsiung Normal University in Taiwan. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yung-Jong_Shiah

My main current area of research is Buddhism and sciecne in terms of nonself, meditation, self-cultivation, wisdom/beliefs and psychology via conventional and unconventional perspectives.