BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Executive Committee
Zafra Lerman
President
Zafra Lerman is an American chemist, educator, and humanitarian. She conducted research on isotope effects at Cornell and Northwestern Universities in the US, and the ETH, Zurich, Switzerland. From 1986 to 2010, she chaired the American Chemical Society's Subcommittee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights. She has been successful in preventing executions, releasing prisoners of conscience from jail and bringing dissidents to freedom. She has received over 40 awards for her work in education, human rights, and science diplomacy, including the 1999 Presidential Award from U.S. President Clinton, the 2005 Nyholm Prize for Education from the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the 2015 Science Diplomacy Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the 2016 Andrei Sakharov prize for human rights from the American Physical Society (APS), and the 2016 Peace and Justice award from the UN NOVUS Summit. She was honored three times by the U.S. Congress with speeches about her work in 2002, 2004 and 2013. Her work has been featured on many national and international television and media outlets.
Ann Nalley
Vice President
Ann Nalley is a Professor of Chemistry and Clarence Page Endowed Chair in the Department of Chemistry, Physics and Engineering at Cameron University, a position which she has held since 1969. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree at Northeastern Oklahoma State University, a Master's Degree in Analytical Chemistry at Oklahoma State University, and a Ph.D. in Radiation Chemistry from Texas Woman's University. She served as the President of the American Chemical Society (the largest scientific society in the world) in 2006. She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among her many awards are the 2015 ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences and induction into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.
Lynn Hogue
Secretary
Lynn Hogue has more than 40 years of experience in chemistry education. She is retired after 17 years as the Associate Director of Miami University’s Center for Chemistry Education. While at the Center, she also was the director of its teacher and student programs and was a lead instructor for more than 50 funded National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Petrochemical Refiners Association, and Ohio Board of Regents programs. She is co-author of 14 teacher resource books. Lynn is a widely traveled guest lecturer and workshop presenter at the national and international levels.
Emma Zajdela
Treasurer
Emma Zajdela is a Ph.D. Candidate in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Her research focuses on developing mathematical models to understand and predict complex social phenomena, particularly to understand how conferences catalyze scientific collaboration which will be used to help with the collaborations formed at the Malta Conferences. Emma previously served as Treasurer of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics student chapters at University of Illinois Chicago (2017-2018) and Northwestern University (2021-2022).
Members of the Board
Stanley Langer
Stanley Langer was responsible, inter alia, for international relations at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), London for almost 39 years and now runs a small consultancy, Science for Development. He served as the RSC’s representative on the ACS’s International Activities Committee for several years. He was also Secretary to the RSC’s IUPAC Committee and was Secretary of the UK’s delegation to the IUPAC General Assembly, as well as having been a Titular member and Secretary of IUPAC's CHEMRAWN Committee. Stanley has been actively involved in the Malta conferences since their inception in 2003.
Winnie Nakiyingi
Winnie Nakiyingi is a master of research and report writing with a specialization in mathematical and statistical processes. She is an alumna of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), where she currently works as a Research and Academic Coordinator at the AIMS Research and Innovation Center in Kigali, Rwanda. Winnie has a wealth of experience in data collection, analysis, and report writing and a passion for contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially quality education and gender equality. Because of this, she founded Words That Count, an organization that promotes Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) among African women and girls. Winnie is one of the Science Diplomacy alumni at the United Nations Institute and Training and Research (UNITAR), and the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) in Switzerland. More recently, she has been selected as one of the laureates for the prestigious Women In Africa (WIA) Young Leaders Program.
Victor Piercey
Victor Piercey is the Director of the Honors Program and a Professor of Mathematics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. He holds a Ph.D in Mathematics from the University of Arizona, a M.S. in Mathematics from Michigan State University, a J.D. with a Certificate in International and Comparative Law from Columbia Law School, and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities (concentrations in History, Economics, and Russian) from Michigan State University. He conducts research on data science for genocide prevention, ethics in mathematics, and teaching and learning scholarship. In addition, he serves on the board of directors for the Mathematical Association of America and is the treasurer for Our Brothers Keeper homeless shelter in Big Rapids, Michigan.
Maryam Tehrani
Maryam Tehrani is an American data scientist, a graduate of the University of California Riverside (UCR), and a graduate of University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) school of business with education in international business and trade. Beside the foregoing graduate studies, she has earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Tehran University. She serves as a board member of Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) LA chapter in promoting awareness about application security by identifying some of the most critical risks facing organizations. Her data science work covers research in myopia surgery to develop new product lines as well as improving existing devices. She has an extensive background in business strategy as well as having worked in the petrochemical industry as a chemical engineer.
Stel Valavanis
Stel Valavanis is a serial technology entrepreneur having founded onShore Security and several other companies. He has generally been the public face of his companies, speaking at conferences and conducting interviews on cybersecurity, technology, and entrepreneurship as well as hosting a podcast on cybersecurity. He has served on several private companies and non-profit Boards. He serves on the Private Director’s Association Cybersecurity Committee and led the development of its cybersecurity board governance curriculum. His advisory role extends to startups in the incubator he founded, The Gallery.