Confirmed Speakers

Prof. Cristina Albuquerque,

Vice Rector, Coimbra University

Portugal

Cristina Albuquerque has a PhD in Humanities (University of Fribourg), and a post-PhD in Social and Political Philosophy (University Paris Descartes/ Sorbonne Cité). She is associated Professor with habilitation at the University of Coimbra (College of Psychology and Educational Sciences) and researcher at the Center of Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Coimbra. She has been either a member or coordinator of European financed projects in the fields of extreme radicalization, social auditing and trafficking in human beings, social mediation, transition communities, among others. Currently she is a member and work package coordinator in some European projects in the areas of gender equality and security assurance processes in multicultural neighbourhoods. She has several publications in the fields of public/social policies, employability, integration and education policies and social justice, as well as ethics, human rights and social policy. She provides scientific advice on various scientific and social intervention projects. Currently she is Vice-retor of the University of Coimbra for education and academic affairs (ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-8554).

Dr. Nensi Manusheva

Psychiatrist, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University

North Macedonia

Nensi Manusheva currently works at the University Clinic of Psychiatry, as a psychiatrist and Head of the Psychophysiology department performing QEEG and polysomnography methods.

Also she is a full Professor at the Department for Psychiatry and Medical Psychology at the Medical Faculty, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia. Her main field of interest are Psychiatry, mental health and Psychophysiology.

Prof. Fahri Saatcioglu

Molecular & Cell Biologist, University of Oslo

Norway

Prof. Fahri Saatcioglu is a prominent Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Oslo and a Senior Researcher at the Oslo University Hospital, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of cancer, particularly prostate cancer. His research has made significant contributions to the understanding of hormone action and stress signaling pathways in cancer, particularly in the context of prostate cancer.

Beyond his core scientific work, Prof. Saatcioglu is also deeply interested in yogic practices and philosophy, serving as an instructor and conducting scientific research on their potential well-being benefits.

Francesca Biagini has been the LMU's Vice President for Mathematics since 2025, and Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity since 2019. She has held the Chair of Applied Mathematics since 2009 and led LMU’s Department of Mathematics for nine years. From 2020 to 2021, she served as President of the Bachelier Finance Society, and from 2017 to 2019, she was Secretary of the SIAM Activity Group for Financial Mathematics and Engineering.

As Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity, she launched the WeCare@LMU initiative, which provide support for students and employees at LMU. The initiative comprises counselling services as well as information and events on various topics relating to wellbeing overcoming psychological and personal challenges.

Prof. Biagini received the Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize in 2019 and has since served on various advisory boards of the Max Planck Society.

Prof. Francesca Biagini,
Vice President for Mathematics,
Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich

Germany

Dara G. Ghahremani, Ph.D. is an Associate Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and the Semel Insitute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He received his PhD in the Neuroscience area in the Psychology Department at Stanford University and was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA.

His research aims to understand self-control behavior, its neural basis, how it is compromised in substance abuse, and how it may be strengthened using both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. The interventions employed for potential enhancement of self-control behavior include pharmacological agents that show promise for enhancing cognitive function and non-pharmacological approaches (e.g., controlled breathing) that promote autonomic balance. His recent studies on non-pharmacological approaches have focused on the YES! for Schools program, a biopsychosocial workshop for adolescents that promotes self-regulation.

Dr. Dara Ghahremani

Researcher, UCLA, USA

Dr. Emma Seppälä,

International Keynote Speaker,
Lecturer, Yale University, USA

As a best-selling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker, Seppälä teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. A psychologist and research scientist by training, her expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her best-selling book The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016) has been translated into dozens of languages. Seppälä is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

Annelies Richmond

SKY Campus Happiness Global Director

Annelies Richmond is a global trainer in breathwork, meditation, and leadership with over 24 years of experience through the Art of Living Foundation and the International Association for Human Values. A former New York City ballerina, she discovered how breathwork builds calm and resilience, inspiring her to found the SKY Campus Happiness Program, now in 120+ universities and reaching 450,000+ students and faculty.

As Global Director of the SKY Campus Happiness Programs, Annelies has trained 2,000+ instructors in over 15 countries and speaks at top institutions including Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, UPenn, USC, Columbia, the United Nations, and Google.

Ditte Hoffmann Kærslund

Senior Lecturer, International Business Academy, Denmark

Ditte Hoffmann Kærslund is a senior lecturer at IBA Erhvervsakademi Kolding (International Business Academy). She teaches in the Academy Programme Entrepreneurship and Design, working at the intersection of design and business.

The past ten years she has explored how intuition can be taught to students, and over the past six months she has begun integrating breathwork techniques into her courses. She is currently working on the research project Designerly Ways of Breathing. The value of the study is expected to lie in providing new empirical insights into how embodied and consciousness-based methods – such as Sudarshan Kriya Yoga –may enhance design practice and serve as an inspiration for shaping future educational models in Scandinavia. She is trained as a textile designer from Design School Kolding and has spent the past 18 years primarily engaged in teaching.