Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest holds all his educational degrees in pure mathematics and had one-year post-doctoral experience in statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. Currently, he is a professor of mathematics at Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania, and the president of the International Institute for General Systems Studies, Inc., Pennsylvania. In 2001, he was inducted into the Honorary Fellowship of the World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics. His research interests are wide ranging, covering areas like economics, finance, management, marketing, data analysis, predictions, mathematics, systems research and applications, philosophy of science, etc.
Jeananne “Nan” Nicholls became a faculty member at Slippery Rock University’s (SRU’s) School of Business in 2011 after spending over 20 years in the private and non-profit sectors. Her research interests include working with student scholars in the areas of participation in student clubs/organizations, marketing education, service learning, ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and health care. Her desire to help students succeed was recognized in 2015 when she received SRU’s President’s Award for Academic Advising. Nan was also named as the 2016 Distinguished Educator by her Pittsburgh AMA peers.
Kurt Schimmel joined Slippery Rock University’s School of Business in 2011 as a Professor of Marketing and Dean of the College of Business, Information and Social Sciences. His doctorate in business administration is from Cleveland State University and his master’s in business administration is from Duquesne University. Currently, Kurt teaches in the areas of marketing and management at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. An active researcher with interests in decision making and pedagogy he has published over 75 peer reviewed manuscripts.
Sifeng Liu is an expert on grey system theory and is currently the Director of Institute for Grey Systems Studies at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China. He obtained his Masters and PhD from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan. He is IEEE Fellow and Co-Chair of the committee on grey systems at IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.