Sonal Gupta is a British Council Women in STEM fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Assistant Professor at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies. She is an energy professional and a passionate educationist with an eclectic mix of around 13 years in industry, academia, and research. Her area of research writing and presentations revolve around power systems, energy value chains, risk management, climate change, renewable energy, economics, and trading. She has published several national and international papers in peer-reviewed journals of repute and international conferences with web articles published in magazines. Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar is an interdisciplinary energy and sustainability engineer at the City University of Hong Kong. His studies mainly focus on sustainable and resilient built environment with an emphasis on circular business models and emerging technologies across critical infrastructure sectors. He has worked on key sustainability challenges that include energy systems modelling and analysis, waste valorization and material passports, carbon accounting and pricing. He possesses an interdisciplinary skillset that includes performance analytics, techno-economics, life cycle assessment, and nexus systems design, especially for the food-energy-water-waste nexus. His research works are real-time empirical and location or climate-specific studies. His recent works have appeared in journals such as Process Safety and Environmental Protection, Journal of Cleaner Production, Applied Energy, and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, among others. He is an active member of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) organizations and one of the founding directors of SusSo Foundation Cares, a Non-Profit Organization for uplifting public health in India. Desen Kirli (PI), holds the Elizabeth Georgeson Research Fellowship and specialises in energy systems modelling. Her focus spans smart local energy systems, distributed generation, and flexible assets like solar PV, storage and electric vehicles. She currently serves as Co-I on the EPSRC DISPATCH (£1.4m) and VPP-WARD Project (£1.8m), using AI to enhance climate resilience. Additionally, she is a co-investigator on the T-ENDURE Project with SJTU in China. Dr. Kirli holds additional roles as a Visiting Lecturer at North China Electric Power University, a Diversity and Inclusion Committee member, and develops and delivers research-driven courses such as Solar Energy with software and practical components. Collaborating with the Scene Community, Dr. Kirli develops solutions for energy communities in developing countries, addressing climate disasters. Her work on optimal energy scheduling earned her the Scottish Renewables’ Young Professionals Green Award. Aristide Kiprakis is an electrical power engineer by training, holding the Personal Chair of Agile Energy Systems at the School of Engineering of the University of Edinburgh. As a member of the Institute for Energy Systems, he leads the Agile Energy Systems Research Group, conducting interdisciplinary research in the areas of renewable energy conversion and integration, smart grids, and robotics and smart materials for energy applications. His research has generated 100 peer-reviewed publications. His administrative roles include the School's Directorship of Internationalisation - Students, responsible for the strategic development and delivery of the School's international academic partnerships. Vinay Kandpal stands out as an authority in finance and a dedicated mentor at Graphic Era University in Dehradun, India. As a senior faculty member within the Department of Management Studies, he offers his profound expertise on a breadth of subjects encompassing financial studies, business management, and pedagogy. Dr. Kandpal's academic credentials are noteworthy; he has earned both a D Litt (Post Doctoral degree) and a Ph.D. focusing on Finance from Kumaun University in India. Further enriching his scholarly background is his role as a Postdoctoral Fellow at PG Administracao-Paulista University – UNIP in Brazil. His zeal for research is evident through his extensive body of work which includes authorship of over 62 scholarly articles and six books addressing varied themes ranging from sustainable practices to financial technology advancements, urban development strategies for smart cities, effective risk management techniques, principles of circular economy to initiatives aimed at promoting financial accessibility.
