Don Aitkin is Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Canberra, a post to which he was appointed in 1991. He was Vice-President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee in 1994 and 95. He has played an influential role in the evolution of national policies for research and higher education since the mid-1980s, when he was the Chairman of the Australian Research Grants Committee, a member of the Australian Science and Technology Council and the Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Australian National University. He was appointed the first Chairman of the Australian Research Council in 1988, and established the new body as a well-funded and comprehensive national research council of world class, trebling its funds during his term of office. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1975 and a Fellow of the Australian College of Education in 1995, and made an Officer in the Order of Australia in 1998.

Mads Andenas was Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (1999-2005), and Director of the Centre of European Law at King's College, University of London (1994-1999). He has been a Professor of Law at the University of Leicester since 2005. He is also a Senior Teaching Fellow in European Community Law at the Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford and at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. He has been Visiting Professor at University of Paris I (Sorbonne) in 2006 and University of Rome La Sapienza in 2004-6, in 2002–3 he held the Chaire W J Ganshof van der Meersch under the Fondation Philippe Wiener—Maurice Anspach at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He was appointed Honorary Fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in 2006.

Andenas is General Editor of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Oxford University Press) and of European Business Law Review (Kluwer Law International) and on the editorial boards of some ten other law journals and book series.

Andenas is a Barrister (England and Wales, Middle Temple) and is also admitted as an Advokat in Norway. He is a Bencher of Inner Temple. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Legal Studies and a Fellow of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law (where he is presently a member of the board). He is the Hon Secretary of the UK Association of European Law (since 1997). He was the Secretary General of the Fédération internationale de droit européen 2000-2002 and the Hon Secretary of the UK Committee of Comparative Law 1999-2005.

Andenas' research covers the relationship between national law and European and international law; comparative constitutional and human rights law and constitutional aspects of the EU and the WTO; procedure in international and national courts and administrative bodies, market regulation (competition, financial market supervision) and company law.

Andenas has published more than 40 books and his publications include:

• G Canivet, M Andenas and D Fairgrieve (eds) Judicial Independence and Accountability (BIICL London 2006).
• G Alpa and M Andenas Fondamenti del diritto privato europeo (Guiffré Milano 2005) 813 + xxi pp.
• M Andenas, B Hess and P Oberhammer (eds) Enforcement Agencies Practice in Europe (BIICL London 2005).
• G Canivet, M Andenas and D Fairgrieve (eds) Comparative Law before the Courts (BIICL London 2004).
• M Andenas and Y Avgerinos (eds) Financial Markets in Europe: Towards a Single Regulator (Kluwer Law International The Hague 2003).
• M Andenas and D Fairgrieve ‘Reforming Crown Immunity’ (2003) Public Law 730-52.
• D Fairgrieve, M Andenas and J Bell (eds) Tort Liability of Public Authorities in Comparative Perspective (BIICL London 2002).
• M Andenas and WH Roth (eds) The Right to Provide Services in EC Law (Oxford University Press Oxford 2002).
• M Andenas and D Fairgrieve ‘Misfeasance in Public Office, Governmental Liability and European Influences’ (2002) 51 ICLQ 757-780.

Hugh Benjamin (MEd in Drama and Education, Newcastle University,  D.Phil, York University) is Deputy Director of Stantonbury Campus in Milton Keynes, the country’s largest secondary school. Most recently he has been involved in the national initiatives concerning the introduction of Vocational Diplomas and the Specialist Schools movement. Hugh has been involved in educational consultancy work in Poland, Czech. Republic, Belgium and India. Hugh returns to the Oxford Round Table for his tenth year.

Prof. James Giordano, Ph.D. is Director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies and Vice President for Academic Programs at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, VA; University Affiliate Professor of Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroethics at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, and Senior Research Associate at the Wellcome Centre for Neuroethics and Uehiro Centre for Practical Philosophy at the University of Oxford, UK. As well, he is William H. and Ruth Crane Schaefer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Neuroscience and Ethics at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC. Previously Prof. Giordano was Samueli-Rockefeller Professor of Neuroscience and Ethics, and Director of the Program in Brain-Mind and Healing Research at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, and was Visiting Professor of Neurophilosophy and Neuroethics at Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelm’s Universität, Bonn, Germany.

Prof. Giordano is Editor-in-Chief of the journals Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine, and Synesis: A Journal of Science, Technology, Ethics and Policy; Associate Editor for the international journal Neuroethics, neuroscience and ethics editor (and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief) for the journal Pain Physician, and Executive Editor-in-Chief of the book series Advances in Neurotechnology: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (published by CRC Press).

The author of over 150 publications in neuroscience, pain, neurophilosophy, and neuroethics, his recent books include: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives in Neuroethics (with Bert Gordijn, Cambridge University Press); Maldynia: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on the Illness of Chronic Pain (Taylor-Francis/Informa); Pain: Mind, Meaning, and Medicine (PPM Press); and Pain Medicine: Philosophy, Ethics and Policy (with Mark Boswell; Linton Atlantic Books).

Prof. Giordano received a BSci in physiological psychology (cum laude) from St. Peter’s College; MA in neuropsychology from Norwich University, VT; and MPhil (philosophy of psychology) and PhD (bio-psychology) degrees from the City University of New York, NY.  He completed a NIEHS post-doctoral fellowship in neuropathology and neurotoxicology at the Johns Hopkins University, MD, and was a Visiting Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany. Prof. Giordano completed post-graduate training in bioethics at the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy of Loyola University, IL, and was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in recognition of his work.

His ongoing research addresses the neuroscience, and neurophilosophy of pain, and the neuroethics of pain research and treatment. Specifically, his work seeks to engage and explore the ethical issues that arise in and from neuroscientific and neurotechnological research and its applications in healthcare, public life and socio-cultural conduct.  He and his wife Sherry, an artist and ethologist, live in Alexandria VA.

Maria Elvira Gomez is currently the Rector of La Universidad Nacional Experimental Francisco de Miranda, as well as a Senior Lecturer.  She received her degree in Philosophy from La Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1971, and received her teaching credential for Higher Education in 1983 from La Universidad Simón Bolívar. 

Dr Medwin Hughes, DPhil, DPS, FRSA, is Principal of Trinity College Carmarthen. A graduate of the University of Wales Aberystwyth and Trinity College Oxford, he is the founder of the Welsh American Academy. He is currently Chairman of Kaleidoscope, a UK wide church sponsored project that provides holistic support to people on the margins of society. He serves on a number of national cultural and educational committees and has been an educational adviser/expert to the Council of Europe. He received an Honorary Doctorate from Rio Grande University, Ohio in 2005.

John Maxwell Irvine was born in 1939, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, earning a B.Sc. in mathematical physics in 1961. He went to the University of Michigan on an English-Speaking Fellowship, gaining an M.Sc. in 1962, before returning to the University of Manchester, Ph.D. 1964.  Professor Irvine served with distinction as Vice-Chancellor of Aberdeen University, Scotland and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, England. He has been Vice President of the Institute of Physics, and a Director of the Public Health Laboratory Service. He is a past Chairman of the Science and Engineering Council’s Nuclear Physics Committee, Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Joint Information Services Committee and the Innovation Strategy Group of the West Midlands Regional Development Agency. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, The Institute of Physics, The Royal Astronomical Society, The Royal Society for the Arts and is a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management and a Governor of the English-Speaking Union. He was created a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for the West Midlands in 1999.  He holds honorary degrees from the Aberdeen, Aston, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Robert Gordon’s Universities and the College of William and Mary, Virginia. He is an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is currently a Commissioner for Commonwealth Scholarships, a member of the European Universities Association’s Panel on Quality Management. He is Chairman of the Manchester Branch of the Institute of Physics and the National Inquiry into Energy Policy in Scotland He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Birmingham and Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester. He Chairs the committee for a National Energy Policy for Scotland.

Professor Rassie Malherbe – BA LLB (Stell) LLD (RAU), teaches Constitutional Law and a Certificate in Drafting of Statutes. He publishes in the area of constitutional law, human rights law and education law. He serves on the Executive Committee of the South African Society for Education Law and Policy, as well as the Executive Committee of the Inter-University Centre for Education Law and Policy. Professor Malherbe is co-author (with Prof IG Rautenbach) of Staatsreg, the only Afrikaans-language constitutional law textbook.

Charles Mould (D.Phil., University of Oxford) was a regular soldier in the British Army and was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment. Whilst in the army he read for an electrical engineering degree, and subsequently served in Germany, and in technical appointments to do with the design of anti-tank guided missiles. He left the army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and went into educational administration.  He worked for Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) and became Registrar (head of the administration).  Later he was appointed Secretary of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, a post which again was in administration, being responsible for finance, personnel, buildings, etc., for the second largest library in the UK, having nearly 400 staff, and about 100 miles of books, now increasing annually by 2 miles. He has always had a keen interest in music, and particularly in early keyboards. His Doctorate is in the Development of the English Harpsichord, and in 1995 he finished the third edition of 'Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440 - 1840', which at over 800 pages of  text he describes as possibly the largest doorstop ever published by Oxford University Press!

Canon Brian Mountford served as Fellow and Chaplain of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and Vicar of Southgate in North London, before becoming Vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, in 1986. He is also an honorary Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. During his time, St Mary’s has become a center where Christian theology intersects with other academic disciplines and the modern challenge to traditional theology is taken seriously. St Mary’s has three main functions: the church of the University of Oxford (the Vice Chancellor’s installation happened there last September); a parish church; and a tourist center - the ‘most visited parish church in England’. Canon Mountford is also Chaplain of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, the only remaining all-women’s college, and Chairman of the ‘Gatehouse’ drop in center for the homeless. His book Perfect Freedom will be launched in the USA this July after initial success in the UK and his most recent books Christianity – a ten minute guide and Happiness – a ten minute guide will be published at the end of this year.

Godehard Ruppert studied Catholic theology, philosophy, education and journalism at the University of Bochum and Munster from 1974 to 1979, completing his diploma exam in Catholic theology at the Ruhr University in Bochum in 1979. He completed a Doctorate  in theology at the University of Wurzburg in 1984 and a Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Hannover in 1990.

From 1979 to 1984 Dr. Ruppert served as academic staff in the Department of Education Science I at the University of Hannover and continued to teach there until 1991 when he took the position of professor of religious education in the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg. Dr. Ruppert served as Dean at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg from 1994-1996 and Vice-Rector from 1996 to 2000. His current position, which he has held since 2000, is Rector of Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg. Since 2002 Dr. Ruppert has also served as the President of the Virtual University Bayern.

Professor Ryszard Tadeusiewicz studied at the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow (Poland) from which he graduated (with honors) in 1971. Additionally, after receiving his degree in Automatic Control Engineering, he studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the Medical Academy in Krakow, as well as undertook studies in the field of mathematical and computer methods in economics. Since April 1971 he has done research in the areas of bio-cybernetics, automatic control engineering, and computer science. In 1975 he was awarded the Ph.D. degree, and in 1981 the degree of Doctor of Sciences (habilitation). In 1986 he became Professor and in 1991 the Full Professor at the AGH University of Science and Technology. He obtained 9 Honorary Doctor awards from Polish and foreign Universities. He has written and published over 600 scientific papers, which were published in prestigious Polish and foreign scientific journals as well as numerous conference presentations - both national and international. Prof. Tadeusiewicz also wrote over 70 scientific monographs and books, among them are highly popular textbooks (which had many reprints). He was supervisor of 54 doctoral thesis and reviewer of more than 200 doctoral thesis. In 2003 all Polish scientists elected him to be President of IEEE Computational Intelligence Society – Polish Chapter. In 1996, in universal and secret elections he was elected the Vice-Rector for Science of the AGH University of Science and Technology, and in January 1998 its Rector. He was re-elected 1999 for the term 1999 - 2002 and again 2002 for the term 2002-2005. In February 1998 Prof. Tadeusiewicz was elected the Corresponding Member of Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts (PAU), in February 2000 he become Foreigner Member of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, and in May 2002 he was elected for the grade Corresponding Member of Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).

Mr. Mamuka Tavkhelidze was born in 1954 in Tbilisi. He graduated the Pedagogical Faculty. He is a Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Academy of the Humanities, the author of over 30 scientific works and manuals. He is the author of "European Didactics" which was prepared on the Department of the Humanities and was published with the assistance of the Fund “Open Society, Georgia”.

In 2004 Mr. Mamuka Tavkhelidze and his colleague Bela Gomelauri published the monograph “Quality Management of Higher Education - Accreditation” in which are analyzed the theoretical bases and the main principles of the quality management systems and is considered the experience of Grigol Robakidze University in academic quality assurance. It is worth mentioning that this book is the first work in Georgia concerning the problems of academic quality management in higher educational institutions. 

Over the years Mr. Mamuka Tavkhelidze has worked in various administrative posts - he was the to the Rector of the State Pedagogical Institute, assistant to the Minister of Education of Georgia, Head of the Educational Department, and has worked as a lecturer in the State Pedagogical University. Since 1992, Mamuka Tavkhelidze has been the Rector of Grigol Robakidze University. Thus, he is the founder of this University and has played the major role in formulating out the educational strategy and tactics of the University.
                                                                 
In 1994, Professor Mamuka Tavkhelidze was elected as a member of the certifying accreditation Council of the educational institutions of Georgia. At present, he is also the President of the Federation of Private Institutions of Georgia.

In 1998, for exceptional contribution to the sphere of education the President of Georgia Mr. Tavkhelidze was awarded the Honours Order.

In 2000, the Pierre Fauchard Academy elected Professor Mamuka Tavkhelidze as a fellow of this International Honour of Dental Organization.

Geoffrey Price Thomas is President of Kellogg College, Oxford and Director of Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

He was educated at Maesteg Grammar School, University College of Swansea (BSc), and Churchill College, Cambridge (PhD). He is also a Master of Arts of the University of Oxford.

Following one year as a Research Associate at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge (1966-67), he became a Staff Tutor at University College of Swansea (1967-78). In 1978 he moved to the University of Oxford as Fellow of Linacre College and Deputy Director of the Department of External Studies. In 1986 he became Director of Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. He remained a Fellow of Linacre until 1990, when he became the first President of Kellogg College and an Honorary Fellow of Linacre.

He has been a visiting scholar at the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, University of Washington, University of California, Berkeley, and Northern Illinois University. In 2002 he delivered the Louise McBee Lecture at the University of Georgia.

He is a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and has been a member of the Council of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Universities Association for Continuing Education, and a member of the Cabinet Office Committee of Inquiry on the Public Understanding of Science.

Since 2002 he has been a member of the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.

Richard Tur is a CUF Lecturer at Oxford University. Richard Tur MA. LLB Hons (Dundee) holds university qualifications in Law, Jurisprudence and Philosophy and has been Benn Law Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford since 1979. His subject groups consist of  Constitutional and Administrative Law : Contract : Criminal Law : Introduction to Law : Philosophy of Law : Lawyers’ Ethics.  Publications include:
R H S Tur, 'Time and Law' (2002) 22(3) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 463-488 [+]

R H S Tur, 'Resources and Rights: Court Decisions in the United Kingdom' in Rosamond Rhodes, Margaret P Battin, and Anita Silvers (eds), Medicine and Social Justice: Essays on the Distribution of Health Care (OUP 2002)
R H S Tur, 'Legislative Technique and Human Rights: The Sad Case of Assisted Suicide' (2003) January Criminal Law Review 3-12
R H S Tur, 'Two Theories of Criminal Law' (2003) 56(2) SMU Law Review 797-818

Julie Underwood, a nationally recognized authority on school law, became the eighth dean of the UW-Madison School of Education in August 2005.

Underwood taught at UW-Madison from 1986 to 1995 on the faculty of the Department of Educational Administration (now Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis). She has returned to Madison after serving from 1995 to 1998 as dean of Miami University ’s School of Education and Allied Professions and from 1998 to 2005 as associate executive director and general counsel for the National School Boards Association in Washington , D.C.

At the NSBA, she led a legal advocacy program on behalf of the nation’s public school boards, including producing friend-of-the-court briefs and legal strategies before the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts. She also was responsible for the 3,000-member Council of School Attorneys.

At UW-Madison, Underwood has served as chair of the Department of Educational Administration (1993-94), associate dean of the School of Education (1994-95), and co-director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Policy at the Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public Affairs (1990-93).

She has co-authored several books, including School Law for Teachers (Prentice Hall, 2005), Legal Aspects of Special Education and Pupil Services (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1994), and The Principal’s Legal Handbook (Education Law Association, 1993).

She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from DePauw University (1976), a law degree from Indiana University (1979), and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Florida (1984).

As head of the School of Education, Dean Underwood oversees the third largest college on campus. The School is composed of eight departments and enrolls nearly 2,500 undergraduate students each year. About half of the undergraduates are pursuing teacher-preparation programs; the rest are pursuing such programs as art, dance, rehabilitation psychology, and exercise science.