Elif Koparal is the professor of Archaeology, and currently teaching in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in İstanbul. She conducted archaeological research in western Anatolia and participated in several international archaeological projects at İzmir, Antakya, Tokat, and Greece. Her research interests cover various areas in archaeology, including landscape, digital archaeology, theoretical archaeology, community, and engaged archaeology. She is also part of interdisciplinary networks bringing together scholars from different areas of academy and art. She is a member of international associations, including the European Association of Archaeologists, the World Archaeology Congress, the German Archaeology Institute, the Landscape Archaeology Congress, and the International Mediterranean Surveys Conference. She is awarded for her archaeological research by the American Research Institute in Turkey, the British Academy – Newton Fund, DAAD, ANAMED, and TUBITAK. Her publications in English and Turkish focus on urbanization, rural heritage, and critical theory in archaeology.

Alex Yusupov is the director of the Russia Programme at Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a political analyst deeply engaged with European security and international affairs. His career has taken him to some of the world’s most complex political environments, from Afghanistan to Myanmar, Central Asia to Eastern Europe, where he has worked on geopolitical strategy, fragile states, and resistance movements. His expertise in advising German and European policymakers makes him one of the most insightful voices on how global power structures are shifting.

Igor Jablokov is the Founder and Chairman of Pryon. Named an “Industry Luminary” by Speech Technology Magazine, he previously founded industry pioneer Yap, the world’s first high-accuracy, fully-automated cloud platform for voice recognition. After its products were deployed by dozens of enterprises, the company became Amazon’s first AI-related acquisition. The firm’s inventions then served as the nucleus for follow-on products such as Alexa, Echo, and Fire TV. As a Program Director at IBM, Igor led the team that designed the precursor to Watson and developed the world’s first multimodal Web browser.
Igor was awarded Eisenhower and Truman National Security fellowships to explore and expand the role of entrepreneurship and venture capital in addressing geopolitical concerns. As an innovator in human language technologies, he believes in fostering career and educational opportunities for others entering STEM fields. As such, he serves as a mentor in the TechStars’ Alexa Accelerator, was a Blackstone NC Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR), and founded a chapter of the Global Shapers, a program of the World Economic Forum.
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Igor holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, where he was named an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus, and an MBA from The University of North Carolina.