Member

Hamza Umer

Research field:Economics

●What are your current research interests?

Lab and Field Experiments, Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics, Islamic Finance, Labor Market

●What do you enjoy most about research?

The opportunity to conduct economic experiments with diverse people and understand unique factors (such as religion) that influence decision-making is the most interesting aspect of my research.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

A systematic analysis of behavior in different contexts.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I always enjoyed education and selecting research as a career was a natural choice for me. Along the way, my parents provided me the necessary strength to pursue my interests in research. Correspondingly, several professors have further inspired research interests in me and I hope to emulate their footsteps.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

At the moment there are three key goals. First, I would like to continue exploring unique factors that influence economic decisions. I believe such a research can enrich our understanding about unexplored aspects of decision-making that can ultimately help in micro-level policies. Second, I would like to continue field research (RCTs & Experiments) in the less developed societies and suggest evidence-based policies for enhancing wellbeing. Third, I would like to collaborate with other researchers and explore the application of economic experiments in the related research fields.

Haitao Cheng

Research field:International trade theory

●What are your current research interests?

trade and the environment, border carbon adjustments, carbon pricing

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Develop interesting models, obtain interesting results.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Research means solving the questions that you cannot answer with Google.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

Google usually does not work well in answering my questions. So, why not do it by myself?

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

Publish good papers in good journals.

Tetsuya Aoki

Research field:platform strategy

●What are your current research interests?

Platform, Marketing, Metaverse

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Finding and Meeting creative people

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Creative exploration

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

Goslings lead the geese to water

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

boundary spanner of academia and industry

Yuta Kittaka

Research field:Industrial Organization

●What are your current research interests?

Consumer search / platform economics / experimental economics

●What do you enjoy most about research?

そんなもの ウチにはないよ

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

紆余曲折

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

紆余曲折

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

師匠のような

Kohei Matsumoto

Research field:My research fields cover the intersection of marketing, strategy, and public policy.

●What are your current research interests?

I am analyzing the relationship between firm competition and innovation. My current research topic includes the competitive response of national brand manufacturers to private labels.

●What do you enjoy most about research?

The most enjoyable moments are when I come up with a new research idea to extend current research findings and share such ideas with my colleagues.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

I would say accumulating research findings.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I enjoyed studying firms’ rise and fall at a management strategy seminar as a bachelor’s student, which led me to become a researcher.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

By analyzing companies, I would like to provide important managerial implications.

Maria Lohan Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast (UK) / HIAS Bridges Distinguished 2024

Research field:Social Science and Health

Professor Lohan is a Professor of Social Science and Health at Queen’s University Belfast, as well as UNESCO Chair in Gender Equality and a HIAS Bridges Distinguished Visiting Professor 2024-2027.
Professor Lohan’s research focuses on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender equality.
Within this field Professor Lohan has advanced a focus on engaging men and boys in SRHR and especially on implementing and evaluating comprehensive sexuality education (in schools and in prison settings). This work has a multi-country focus in Ireland and the UK, and with international collaborators in Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor Lohan has led over ten multi-disciplinary studies as Principal Investigator. These multi-institutional studies have been funded interalia by the National Institute of Health and Care Research, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, and UK Aid.
For the past five years, Professor Lohan has been a consultant to the World Health Organization in leading out systematic reviews of the global evidence on male engagement in SRHR and gender equality. Following compilation of the evidence, Professor Lohan was commissioned by WHO to lead a multi-institutional team to conduct a global research priority setting exercise on ‘Masculinities and SRHR’.
She has published prolifically in leading academic journals including the Lancet and BMJ journals. This includes a recent publication with HIAS professor, Mizanur Rahmen. During her visiting position with HIAS, she is keen to develop further international research collaborations, engage in capacity building for early career researchers, foster gender equality in and beyond academia and sink into Japanese culture.

●What are your current research interests?

Health and Gender Equality , especially Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and especially men’s/boys’ engagement in SRHR

●What do you enjoy most about research?

I enjoy engaging with different perspectives and i especially enjoy learning about multi-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives.

●What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Finding out what you can, the best way that you can

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I guess I liked reading and writing – and university life – and I just kept at it. Once you get your PhD, you are qualified, and once you get your first job, you are on your way to a career.

●Message to young researchers

Don’t be afraid of the blank page, it gives you space to start (again).

René Belderbos Full Professor, Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven (Belgium) / HIAS Bridges Distinguished 2024

Research field:Economics and Strategy of Innovation and Multinational Firms

I am a full professor of Strategy at KU Leuven (Belgium) and part-time professor of International Corporate Strategy at Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT (The Netherlands). My research focuses on innovation strategies and international business strategies of multinational firms.

●What are your current research interests?

Innovation, Intellectual Property Rights, R&D collaboration, Location decisions, Innovative entrepreneurship, Industry-Science linkages

●What do you enjoy most about research?

To be able to follow my curiosity.

●What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Rigor & Relevance
●What inspired you to become a researcher?

My first efforts to do research for my Master thesis.

●Message to young researchers

Collaborate and learn, following your curiosity.