Robert J.S. "Bob" Ross is Research Professor of Sociology and the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise in Clark University. The son of a teacher and a garment worker and the grandson of garment workers, Ross has cared deeply about workers and their conditions and has been learning and teaching about these matters since 1994. He is Vice-President of the Sweatfree Purchasing consortium, an organization of nineteen cities and states which are working to remove sweatshop labor from the supply chains of their public purchasing of uniforms. The author of Slaves to Fashion: Poverty and Abuse in the New Sweatshops, Ross has written extensively on the global apparel industry and labor conditions and workers’ rights in it. His writings on these and other issues have appeared in variety of professional and journalistic sources.

A million refugees arrived in Europe this year, says Alexander Betts, and "our response, frankly, has been pathetic." Betts studies forced migration, the impossible choice for families between the camps, urban poverty and dangerous illegal journeys to safety. In this insightful talk, he offers four ways to change the way we treat refugees, so they can make an immediate contribution to their new homes. "There's nothing inevitable about refugees being a cost," Betts says. "They're human beings with skills, talents, aspirations, with the ability to make contributions — if we let them."

Professor Jeffrey Sachs has been awarded the UCD Ulysses Medal for his global contribution. He is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, overcoming macroeconomic instability, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population.