Arvid Kappas is professor of psychology and dean at Jacobs University Bremen. He has been conducting research on emotions for over three decades. After obtaining his Ph.D. at Dartmouth College in the USA in 1989, he has lived and worked in Switzerland, Canada, the UK, and Germany, as well as holding visiting positions in Italy and Austria.

He is a specialist in the scientific study of how people interact and communicate, specifically nonverbal communication and psychophysiology. Recently he has become interested in the interaction of humans and machines, particularly affective computing and social robotics.

He was the president of the International Society for Research on Emotion (ISRE) from 2013-2018 and is a fellow and member of several scientific organizations. One of his current research activities is with the EU-funded project ANIMATAS that focuses on advancing intuitive human-machine interaction with human-like social capabilities for education in schools.

Dr. Astrid Schütz holds the chair of personality psychology and assessment at the University of Bamberg and also is also the director of the competence center of applied personnel psychology there. Her research focuses on personality in social relationships.

She studies self-esteem, narcissism and emotional intelligence in social interactions and develops tools for assessment and training. She is the author of 87 peer-reviewed articles and the author/editor of 27 books in the area personality and assessment. She is associate editor of the ‘Journal of Individual Differences’ and of ‘Frontiers in Psychology’. She also is on the editioral board of ‘Self and Identity’.

        Professor of Evolutionary Psychology and Education at the University of Córdoba, Spain. She is the coordinator of the PhD program in Psychology Applied -2008-2017- with a Quality Award granted by the ANECA in 2008. She is Principal Investigator of the PAIDI Group on Coexistence and Prevention of school and youth violence ( www.uco.es/laecovi ).     

        She has been a principal researcher in projects of the National R & D Plan of the Board of Andalusia and National Coordinator in ten Projects of the European Union, of the Framework Programs, COMENIUS, VISTA, DAPHNE, COST, among others. Has published more than 100 scientific articles, most of them in journals collected in the JCR, several of them with high and medium impact index, such as Aggressive Behavior, Computer in Human Behavior, International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, British Journal of Educational Psychology, Psicothema, or Spanish Journal of Psychology.     

        He has directed 15 doctoral theses in the last five years. He has 4 years of research evaluated by the CNEAI. He is a member of the Panel of the European Research Commission - European Union - on Social Sciences and Humanities. Is Vice-President of the International Observatory on School Violence. He has been a member of evaluation committees of ANEP and ANECA, and Coordinator of the Commission for the Evaluation of the FPU Scholarships, Juan de la Cierva and Ramón y Cajal -España-. Belongs to the Editorial Committee of the Journals European Journal of School Psychology, Journal of Education, Culture and Education, Childhood and Learning, International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology and Psychology, Society and Education (Co-director).     

        He has been awarded the Honorary Distinction of the Junta de Andalucía for his merits on Educational Innovation and its participation in teacher training networks.