# delete all leading blank lines
# tip: can use /[[:space:]]/,$!d to delete all leading space
/./,$!d

# take the rename into consideration
s/publications_bib.html#/bandali-bib#/

# linkify author names
s|Amin Bandali|<a href="https://bndl.org">&</a>|
s|Nancy&nbsp;A. Day|<a href="https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~nday/">&</a>|