Our three Pathway Leads bring strategic oversight and leadership to our Strategic Pathways, establishing a programme of engagement and collaboration opportunities for Queen Mary staff, students and associates/partners over the next year.
Dr Burnay is a Visiting Global Law Professor at the University of Leuven as well as an Associate Researcher at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies. He has an interdisciplinary background in law, political science and history, and holds a PhD in Law from the University of Leuven and a Double MSc degree in International Affairs from Peking University and the London School of Economics.
His main research interests are in global law and governance; the study of the political and legal aspects of EU-China relations in global governance; as well as the comparative study of the rule of law in Europe and Asia. He has published extensively on the law and politics of contemporary China, their interface with international law, and implications for human rights and the rule of law in EU-China relations.
Matthieu said: "My aim as Strategic Pathway Lead for Rights, Inclusion and Diversity is to help the research communities at the university working on these themes translate their research into impact. I also want to enhance the visibility of our research in the two strategic regions of Europe and Africa in particular."
Professor Christophe Eizaguirre, Professor of Evolutionary and Conservation Genetics and Head of Queen Mary’s Biology Department, leads the Resilience and Sustainability pathway, which covers subjects including community cohesion, planetary health, innovation and Artificial Intelligence.
Chris is an evolutionary biologist who has dedicated his career to protecting endangered marine species. He completed his PhD in evolutionary biology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (Ploen, Germany), where he explored the genomic mechanisms that contribute to the formation of new species. Chris joined Queen Mary in 2013, and became a Professor in Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics in 2021.
In 2009, Chris developed The Turtle Project in collaboration with conservation NGOs from the Cabo Verde archipelago, as well as the University of Cabo Verde and the National Institute of the Sea (IMar). The Turtle Project is built as a citizen-science research programme that involves local University students, local communities and authorities. This strategy has proven efficient to develop different conservation strategies to improve the state of the sea turtle population.
Chris advocates for the translation of research into policy via capacity building and knowledge transfer to improve the protection of wildlife. He will continue this endeavour as the lead for our Resilience and sustainability theme.
Chris said: "In this role, I want to work with academics from around the University to engage with non-governmental and civil society organisations and international networks to place the biodiversity and environment crisis at the centre of our actions."
Dr Jonathan Filippon, Senior Lecturer in Health Systems in the Centre for Public Health and Policy at Queen Mary’s Wolfson Institute of Population Health, leads the Health, Recovery and Reform Pathway. This academic theme includes reform of healthcare systems, as well as trauma and recovery.
Jonathan has a BSc in General Nursing, an MSc from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and a PhD in Public Health from Queen Mary. He has worked in clinical settings and done research in South America and the UK, mostly in the field of public and mental health policies, primary care, and healthcare access.
His research focuses on the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare, studying aspects related to Health Systems and Social Welfare. He explores the effects that the commodification of healthcare access has on healthcare financing, workforce arrangements, service delivery and utilisation.
He has recently published with colleagues the book Capitalism, Austerity and Health in Brazil: perspectives from political economy (Portuguese language), reviewing the most recent developments and reforms of the Brazilian National Health System.
At Queen Mary he has been facilitating international cooperation with overseas institutions and fostering collaborative work in the field of health systems and health policies. He has ongoing collaborations with the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (USP/Brazil), the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES/Brazil), University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass/US) and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh/Greece).
Jonathan said: "I am very excited by the prospect of building on the ongoing work of the Queen Mary Global Policy Institute health, recovery and reform Pathway. I will focus on increasing the engagement of our past, current and future students with policy analysis and implementation, developing an identity for Health Policy Impact at Queen Mary that uses the QMGPI as a platform to reach the local and international community."