President

Prof. Abdullah Aljughaiman received his PhD from the University of Idaho, USA, in 2002. He is currently Dean of the Research and Consulting Institute and the Director of the National Research Center for Giftedness and Creativity at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. The primary focus of Dr. Aljughaiman's professional activities is the development and education of gifted and talented students. He has published books, book sections, and peer reviewed articles on the identification of and services for gifted children. Dean Aljughaiman has received multiple awards for his professional and administrative work in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the USA. His research and practice have been supported by funds from King Faisal University and the Ministries of Higher Education, Education, and Planning of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Recently, he received a grant from the Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia to support a research project titled "Etiological Bases of Giftedness".

Vice President

Heidrun Stoeger, PhD, is a Full Professor for Education at Regensburg University, Germany. She holds the chair for School Research, School Development, and Evaluation. She has published books, chapters and articles in the fields of talent development, educational psychology and education. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal High Ability Studies and member of the editorial board of the German Journal of Talent Development. Her main interests in the field of talent development and excellence are underachievement, teacher trainings, the Actiotope Model of Giftedness, and learning and motivational training programs.

Secretary General

Albert Ziegler, PhD, is Chair Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He is the Founding Director of the State-wide Counseling and Research Centre for the Gifted. He has published approx. 300 books, chapters and articles in the fields of talent development, excellence, educational psychology and cognitive psychology. Presently he serves as the Secretary-General of the International Research Association for Talent Development and Excellence (IRATDE) and as the Editor-in-Chief of Talent Development & Excellence. His main interests in the field of talent development and excellence are the development of exceptional performances, the Actiotope Model of Giftedness, Educational and Learning Capital, sociotopes, and motivational training programs.

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Homepage: http://www.psycho.ewf.uni-erlangen.de/mitarbeiter/ziegler/

Treasurer

 Professor Jiannong Shi is director of the Division of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and also the director of the Research Center for Supernormal Children, Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the president of the Asia-Pacific Federation of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. His research on giftedness and talent development includes neuropsychological as well as educational studies and embraces various age groups and domains. He has published books, chapters and articles in the fields of talent development, educational psychology and education, among them Discovering Gifted Children and Developmental Psychology of Gifted Children. He was a visiting scholar at various Univeristies including Yale University, the University of Michigan and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. He twice received the Excellent Scholar Award.

Executive Officer

 Dr Wilma Vialle is a Full Professor in Educational Psychology and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong. She teaches child development, psychological foundations of education and gifted education, and supervises a number of postgraduate research students in related fields. Her interests are predominantly in the nature of intelligence and creativity, with a particular focus on giftedness. She has published extensively on topics related to giftedness and children’s learning. She is the chief editor of the ‘Australasian Journal of Gifted Education’ and is on the editorial board of several international journals. In 2006 she was awarded the Eminent Australian for her contributions to gifted education.

Assistant to the Executive Committee

Ms. Qian Liu is a postgraduate student of the Institute of Psychology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is conducting research on gifted children under the tutelage of Professor Jiannong Shi in pursuit of a PhD degree. Her major is Developmental and Educational Psychology. Ms. Liu's research interests include thinking biases and cognitive ability, interest and motivation, gifted children's social cognition and brain development; such as the development of theory of mind, gifted children's moral cognition development and prosocial behaviors.

International Relations Officer

Matthew Berki is currently employed as a consultant in the technology transfer office of King Faisal University, the King Faisal Institute for Research and Consulting, Saudi Arabia. Matthew received his MA in TESOL from Eastern Michigan University and his BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan.