James Sievert is from Los Angeles. He received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge, and then went on to work for several newspapers in California. After completing his Ph.D. in modern European history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he taught history at an international university in Japan for two years. Since then he has been living in Basel for almost two decades, working as a writer and editor. In addition to writing works of nonfiction, primarily on environmental issues in Italy, he has penned numerous works for theater, which have been produced at venues in both the United States and Europe, including the FEATS festival in Brussels, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, the Chameleon Theatre Circle in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

James Woudhuysen is a physics graduate. He is a visiting professor of forecasting and innovation, School of Engineering, London South Bank University. He wrote about chemical weapons (The Economist, 1978); a multi-client study on e-commerce, 1988. Consulting for 50 blue-chip companies and for eight major cities in Britain. Books on construction and energy. He is a manager, worldwide market intelligence, Philips Consumer Electronics, 1995-7.

Joanna J. Bryson researches cognition. She is interested how it relates to explaining human culture, and natural intelligence more broadly. She designs intelligent systems to model and test scientific theories.

IBM Watson lists her as one of the most important AI researchers.

Luke Gittos is a solicitor practising criminal law and legal editor for the online magazine spiked. He also convenes the London Legal Salon, a discussion group on the law and politics, and recently set up the City of London Appeals Clinic. He regularly appears in the media to comment on legal and political issues. His first book, „Why Rape Culture Is A Dangerous Myth: From Steubenville to Ched Evans“, was published in September 2015.

Luzi Stamm entered the Swiss Parliament in 1991 and he has been re-elected ever since. He is a vice President of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). Stamm works as a lawyer. He is also has a Master’s degree in economics. He is a member of the Swiss Parliament’s foreign policy commission and the commission for legal issues. Stamm was also president of the regional court in Baden (AG) and a member of the European Council in Strasbourg. As a hobby, he played for many years the piano in a local Rock’n Roll Band called „Roaring Sixties“.

Marko Kovic is an author and podcaster. He’s also a lecturer at the University of Zurich (sociology), Kalaidos Uni of Applied Sciences (cyberpsychology) and the Lucerne Uni of Applied Sciences (risk perception). He is interested in dynamics of societal change and power imbalances.

Christen is manager of the research network „Ethics of Monitoring and Surveillance“ at the University Zurich, and also works as a science journalist and research consultant. A former research associate at the Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Zürich, and visiting scholar in the Psychology Department at the University of Notre Dame, USA, his research covers empirical ethics, neuroethics, ethics and information technology, and methodological questions in neuroscience.

Martin Naef is a member of the Social Democratic Party. In 2011 he was elected to the Swiss Parliament, where he is a member of the foreign policy commission. He is also co-president of the Parliamentary group Switzerland-EU. Naef studied law at university and has worked as a youth advocate. He was also member of the Zürich Cantonal Parliament. Today, Naef is the staff manager of the Guardianship office of the city of Zurich. He is a fan of the Zurich football Club (FCZ) and he is big advocate of culture.

Martyn is a former Islington by-election independent candidate, and continues to campaign on local democracy. He is also a self-employed management consultant advising large-scale companies and public-sector organisations on using digital workplace technology. Martyn writes, speaks and produces debates about a wide variety of issues, including design, innovation, privacy, free speech and the impact of technology on society.

Follow Martyn at www.martynperks.com

Former President of the University of Zurich; President of the ETH Board.