Datta was educated at the University of Kolkata, India (PhD, 1968, and DSc, 1974). He is Distinguished Professor, Natl. Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi. His previous positions include: Vice chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University; General President, Indian Science Congress (2003-2004); founder director and Professor of Eminence, NIPGR; and President, National Academy of Sciences (2009-2010). His honours include: SS Bhatnagar Prize; Guha Memorial Award; GD Birla; BR Ambedkar; RD Birla; Sir Amulya Rattan Oration Award; Om Bhasin; TWAS Award; Adhar Chandra Mookerjee Award, Goyal Prize in Life Sciences; Ranbaxy Award; Padma Shree; Padma Bhushan; Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini, G. M. Modi Science award, Bharat Ratna Mother Teresa Gold Medal Award, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Gold Medal Award, Bharat Vikas Award, Glory of India Award, Best Citizens of India and Bharat Jyoti Puraskar. His membership includes: INSA; Indian Academy of Sciences; National Science Academy, India; and New York Academy of Sciences.

Dasgupta is Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Univ. of Cambridge and fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. Memberships include: fellow, British Academy and the Royal Society; member, Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; hon. fellow, London School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge, for. hon. member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; for. assoc., US National Academy of Sciences; and for. member, American Philosophical Society and Royal Swedish Academy of Science. His honours include: Volvo Environment Prize (2002), John Kenneth Galbraith Prize of the American Agricultural Economics Association (2007), Zayed International Prize for the Environment (2011), Blue Planet Prize (2015), and Tyler Prize (2016). He was made Knight Bachelor in 2002, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by, among other universities, University of Bologna in 2012 and Harvard University in 2013.

Dasgupta is professor in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. He did doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard University. Afterwards, he taught at the University of Minnesota for a few years before joining IISc in 1987. He has made important contributions in the theory of phase transitions, statistical mechanics of disordered systems, kinetics of surface growth and fluctuations, and dynamics of supercooled liquids near the glass transition. His awards include: Fellowship of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the DAE-Raja Ramanna Prize and the J.C. Bose National Fellowship. His memberships include all three science academies in India.

Das studied at the University of Queensland, Australia, where he obtained his BSc (Hons.) in Chemistry in 1965, Dip Ed in 1966 and PhD in 1969. He was previously: Foundation Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Malaya (UM) (1980-98); Head, Chemistry Department, UM (1987-90); Dean, Faculty of Science, UM (1990-98); Senior Professor & Director of Advanced Materials Characterization Allied Laboratories, UM (1998-99); Founding Vice-chancellor, Asian Institute of Medicine, Science & Technology University (2001-2007) and Founding Vice-chancellor, QUEST International University Perak ( 2007-2013). His awards include the National Science Award, 1988-89; the Gold Medal Award, Institute of Chemistry, Malaysia, 1993 and the Malaysian Scholarly Publications Council-Ministry of Education Award for his 2014 book "Tin in Applications: Meeting the green challenge". Now in a retired capacity, he volunteers his services as Emeritus Professor (UM), Senior Fellow or Academician (Academy of Sciences Malaysia), and Vice-President of the Malaysian Research & Development Organization (an NGO). In 2005, he was honored with the civil award of 'Dato Setia Di-Raja Kedah' from the State of Kedah.

Dalkara is a Professor of Neurology and a member of the Faculty of Medicine and the Director of the Neuroscience PhD programme and Institute of Neurological Sciences and Psychiatry at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. He received his MD, Neurology and PhD (Pharmacology) training at Hacettepe University, and did his Postdoctoral fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University. He held a joint appointment at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston between 1992-2020. Dalkara’s research focuses on the basic mechanisms of ischemic brain injury and migraine and on targeted brain drug delivery. He received 2013 TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences and has been awarded with several scientific honors in Turkey. He is a principal member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and Turkish Academy of Sciences.

Dajczer is professor of mathematics at the Instituto de Matematica Pura e Aplicada (IMPA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has made several important contributions in Riemannian geometry. His work has dealt especially with many aspects of the rigidity and deformation problem for isometrically or conformally immersed submanifolds in Riemannian ambient spaces. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he has been a Guggenheim fellow and a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Ermias Dagne is Prof. of Chemistry and Dir., African Laboratory for Natural Products (ALNAP). He is founding member, Natural Products Research Network for Eastern and Central Africa (NAPRECA). His main research area is natural products chemistry. He has more than 90 publications, mainly on the isolation and structure elucidation of natural compounds. His research was supported by grants from the Internatl. Foundation for Science, ISP-IPICS and Sida-SAREC (Sweden) and fellowships from the Humboldt Foundation (AvH, Germany) and Fulbright (USA). He is recipient of IFS/DANIDA (1997) and IOCD Pierre Crabbe (2003) awards. With his wife Tadelech he manages a natural products business Ariti Herbal (www.aritiherbal.com) and has created a versatile plant species-based database for African plants available on the web at www.alnapnetwork.com.

Daar is Prof. of clinical pub. health/global health/surgery at the Univ. of Toronto (UofT). He is member of UN Sec General's Sci Adv Brd. Went to med such in Uganda and London and obtained his PHD (DPhil) in transplant immunology/immunogenetics at Oxford U. In the Middle East, he helped start two med. schools. He has recently been found. chair, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (2009-11) and was chair, Adv. Board, UN Univ. Intl. Inst. for Global Health. He was member, UNESCO Intl. Bioethics Comm. He holds the world record for performing the youngest cadaveric donor kidney transplant. His awards include UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science, Hunterian Prof., Roy Col. Surgeons and Anthony Miller Prize for Research Excellence at UofT. He chairs the Sci and Strategic Adv Brd of AESA. His current research studies how to avoid knowledge divides and the exploration of how genomics and other biotechnologies can be used effectively to ameliorate global health inequities.

Cui is professor, National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology (NIAOT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); president, Chinese Astronomical Society; and associate director, Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy. She graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology (1975), and obtained her MSc (1982) and PhD (1995) at Purple Mountain Observatory and CAS Graduate School. From 2001-10, she was associate director, NAOC, and director, NIAOT. Her research focuses on astronomical instruments and technology for astrophysics. From 1985-86, she visited Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, and from 1986-94 she worked at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), Germany, for the Very Large Telescope project (VLT). From 1994-08, in China, she built the innovative telescope LAMOST. In 2009, she was elected as CAS academician.

Crombet (PhD,2004) is a Medical Doctor and Immunology Specialist (1997). Since 2009 she has been Medical Director of the Center of Molecular Immunology of Havana. She is Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences; Senior Faculty of the Superior Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana; Member of the Board of Directors of Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance, a joint venture between US and Cuba; Member of the Cuban and Latin-American Societies of Immunology; Member of the Cuban and American Societies of Oncology. She has published more than 100 papers and participated in more than 200 international congresses as speaker. Crombet has received several times the annual National Award of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, the Technological Innovation Award of the Cuban Ministry of Science, and the TWAS Prize for Young Scientists in Developing Countries (2007). Crombet's main area of expertise is cancer immunotherapy and her work has contributed to the registration in Cuba and abroad of two cancer vaccines and two monoclonal antibodies for several epithelial tumors, autoimmune diseases and COVID-19. She is member of the international panel of experts on COVID-19 of the InterAcademy Partnership.

Crewe is a Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, U. of Pretoria (UP); Em. Vice-principal of UP; former pres., Acad. of Science of South Africa; fellow, Royal Soc. of South Africa; fellow, African Acad. of Science, and Royal Entomological Soc. of London. He obtained degrees in chemistry and biochemistry at the U. of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. He obtained his PhD in entomology at the U. of Georgia where he developed his interest in chemical communication and social organization in social insects. He was director of the Communication Biology Research Group, U. of Witwatersrand, for 10 years; dean, Science Faculties at both the univ. of Witwatersrand and Pretoria, and pres., Entomological Society of Southern Africa. He has been awarded the Gold Medal, Zoological Society of South Africa, the Gold Medal, Acad. of Science of South Africa and Ordre National du Mérite rank Chevalier.

Coutsoudis is a public health scientist and a Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She obtained her PhD in 1993 from the same university, and made important contributions on child nutrition, breastfeeding and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Her awards include: the 2004 Nutrition Society of South Africa Award for her contribution to nutrition research in South Africa; the 2005 Amnesty International South Africa for protecting human rights in South Africa; the 2006 Convocation of University of KwaZulu-Natal for her outstanding contribution to medical science and society; and the 2009 Science for Society Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, of which she is a Fellow. She is also a Fellow of of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2000, she established the first community-based breastmilk bank in South Africa to provide donor breastmilk to AIDS orphans, and was one of the founding members of the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa, which she chairs. She is involved in putting in place low-cost technology for human milk banks.

B.Sc., Mech.& Nuclear Eng., Federal Univ. of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Brazil, 1981, PhD, Mech.&Aerospace Eng., North Carolina State Univ., USA, 1985. Assoc. Professor, UFRJ, 1987, Professor, 1994. Author, 570 papers, 10 books, Supervisor, 49 MSc, 38 PhD, 17 PosDoc. 15 Editorial Boards incl. Int. J. Heat & Mass Transfer. Editor, Annals Braz. Academy of Sciences. President, Braz. Assoc. Mechanical Sciences, ABCM, 2000-2001, Scientific Council, Int. Centre for Heat & Mass Transfer, ICHMT, from 1993, Exec. Comm., from 2006, EC Chairman 2017-2018. Congress Comm., Int. Union of Theor. & Applied Mech., IUTAM, 2012-2018. Exec. Comm., Braz. Academy of Sciences, 2012-2015. ICHMT Hartnett-Irvine Award, 2009 & 2015. ICHMT Fellowship Award, 2019. Nat. Order of Scientific Merit, 2009 & 2018 (Grã-Cruz), Nat. Order of Naval Merit, 2018. Member, Braz. Acad. of Sciences, 2009, Nat. Eng. Acad., 2011, The World Acad. of Sciences, TWAS, 2012. Doctor Honoris Causa, Univ. de Reims, France, 2018. President, Nat. Comm. of Nuclear Energy, CNEN, 2015-2017. Leverhulme Visiting Prof,Univ. College London, UK. Senior Tech. Counselor, DGDNTM, Braz. Navy, from 2017. Member National Council of Energy Policy, 2020-2022

Cordoba De Torresi is professor, Institute of Chemistry of the University of São Paulo (USP). She graduated in chemistry (1983) and got her PhD (1988) at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, working with electrochemistry, spectroscopy and materials science. After a postdoctoral internship at Université Pierre et Marie Curie, National Centre for Scientific Research, France (1988–1990), she moved to Brazil as a researcher at State University of Campinas and Federal University of São Carlos. She joined the Institute of Chemistry, USP in 1996, and became a full professor in 2006. She has served as president of the Undergraduate and Graduate Commissions and vice-provost of research of USP. Her main interests are research on electrochromism, chemical sensors and electrocatalysis enhanced by plasmonics. She received: Tajima Prize from the International Society of Electrochemistry; National Order of Scientific Merit, Commander category, from the Presidency of the Republic; American Chemical Society Award for Brazilian Women in Chemistry, Scientific Leader category. She is a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of Sciences of the State of São Paulo.

Cordani is emeritus professor, Institute of Geosciences, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. He was trained in geochronology at UC Berkeley (1963) under the guidance of John Reynolds, and obtained his DSc (USP) in 1968. In the 60’s he established a geochronological laboratory that gained international recognition. At the USP he was director of the Institute of Geosciences (1987-1991) and Institute of Advanced Studies (1994-1997). He was president of the International Union of Geological Sciences (1988-1992) and the 31st International Geological Congress (Rio de Janeiro, 2000). He has published ca. 280 scientific articles, and received many awards, among which the Great Cross of Scientific Merit (Brazil), the José Bonifacio Gold Medal (Brazilian Geological Society), and the TWAS medal lecture. He is member of the academies of science of Brazil, Argentina, France and Portugal.

Colli, a biochemistry professor at the U. of São Paulo (USP), received his PhD under the supervision of Isaias Raw and did postdoc work at PHRI, NYC, USA with M. E. Pullman (1966-1968) and M. Oishi (1968-1969). Returning to Brazil in 1970, he established a group, at the Ins. of Chem. (IQUSP), to work with Molecular Parasitology, particularly with Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease. He was dean of IQUSP twice, and of the Butantan Inst. (the Snake Farm). He was pres. (2006-2009) of the Brazilian Technical Committee on Biosafety (CTNBio). He received the title of Doctor (h.c.) from the U. of Buenos Aires, the Great Cross Medal of the Natl. Order of Scientific Merit from the Brazilian govt. and is a member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. In 2014 he was awarded the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Prize for Science and Techn., the most prestigious scientific prize in Brazil. Since 2003 he is an Associate to the Science Director of FAPESP for the areas of Health and Biology.

Clegg's research in evolutionary genetics combines statistical analyses with modern molecular techniques. Major accomplishments include characterizing the dynamics of linkage disequilibrium in plant and animal populations, showing that plant chloroplast gene evolve slowly, pioneering the use of DNA sequence data in plant phylogenetic inference and using molecular data in the study of crop domestication. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, Darwin Prize from Edinburgh University and the Award of Distinction from UC Davis, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Anthony Clayton is the Professor of Caribbean Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies, Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey and Affiliated Scholar at Florida International University. He was formerly a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology (Jamaica), and an International Associate at the University of St Andrews. He is a Fellow of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences and Distinguished Fellow of the Caribbean Association of Eastern European Trained Professionals. He has over thirty years of international experience in policy development in national security and policing, energy security, environment and resources, and planning and development. He is the Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica. In 2015 he was awarded Jamaica's Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander.

Ciarlet graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in 1961; got his PhD in Mathematics in 1966 at Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland; and his Doctorat d'Etat-es-Sciences at the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, in 1971. He was a professor at the University Pierre et Marie Curie from 1974-2002. From 2002-2011, he was Chair Professor at City University of Hong Kong, where he is currently University Distinguished Professor. His honours include: Grand Prize from the Academy of Sciences in Paris; von Humboldt Research Award; Shanghai Prize for International Cooperation in Science and Technology; and eight honorary degrees from universities in Romania and China. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, French Academy of Technologies, Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences, Romanian Academy, National Academy of Sciences of India, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong.

Chuchani is most known for his important research in homogeneous, unimolecular gas phase pyrolysis or elimination of organic molecules and, in particular, about their mechanisms. Through this work, he has provided highly reliable data and a number of challenging problems to quantum chemistry, reaction kinetics, and organic reactivity. Conceptually, his research has broadened the area of mechanistic organic chemistry to the gas phase, where it can be connected to gas phase ion chemistry. He is emeritus professor in Chemistry, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC) in Caracas, Venezuela. He has received several international and national awards, including Venezuela's Premio Nacional de Ciencia, and is a member of many scientific academies and societies.

Chu and colleagues were the first to achieve superconductivity above liquid nitrogen temperatures with YBaCuO (90 K). Such and related work has established him as a leader in the field of high temperature superconducting oxides. He is Founding Director and Chief Scientist, Texas Center for Superconductivity; Professor of Physics and T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, University of Houston; President Emeritus and University Professor Emeritus, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Honorary Chancellor, Taiwan Comprehensive University System. He has received the U.S. National Medal of Science and numerous international awards, as well as 10 honorary doctorates and 7 honorary professorships. He is a fellow/member of the American Physical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Sinica, National Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other organizations.

Choudhary is an eminent bioorganic chemist and Director of the Intl. Center for Chem. and Biol. Scs.. He has 962 res. pubs. with an impact factor 1646, citations 9,447 and h index 38. His work bridges the gap between structures of new chem. constituents and their pharm. properties. He is distinguished for his pioneering work in discovering hundreds of new molecular entities and their role in the treatment of various diseases. He has discovered the most potent anti-epileptic and anti-leishmanial compounds, which completed phase-1 clinical trials. His research in the field of enzyme inhibition has led to advances at fundamental level, exploring the potential of enzyme inhibition based therapeutics. He established several research centres in Pakistan and helped to set up research units in Africa, South and Central Asia. He trained hundreds of foreign researchers, including women scholars.

Chou obtained his PhD at UC Santa Barbara in 1971 and was a postdoc. at Toronto Univ. in 1972. He is chair prof. and dir. of the Research Center for Biodiversity, China Medical U. He was: Dir., Inst. of Botany, Academia Sinica, and dir., Life Sci. Research Promotion Center for NSC, 1989-1996; vice-pres. and Natl. chair prof., Natl. Sun Yat-Sen U., 1999-2002; pres. and chair prof., Natl. Pingtung U. of Sci. and Tech., 2002-2006; and vice-pres., IUBS, 1997-2000, PSA, 2011-2015; Vice-Pres. and EC member, SCOPE. His honors: Academic Award in Agriculture, MOE; Distinguished Research Award, NSC; Highest Award of International Academic Cooperation, Russian Academy of Science, 1999; and Life Time Achievements Award 2009, by Inter. Allelopathy Foundation. Life Time Contri. to Biol. Sci. Award, and Life Time Achiev. Award of Bot. Soc. of Taiwan. He is an Academician, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 1994.

Chopra (PhD, Edinburgh) is chancellor of the Central University of Kerala, India. He was educated at the University of Delhi and Indian Agricultural Research Institute where he began his research career in 1958. He has held key positions in the government of India including Dir. Gen., Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and Member, Planning Commission. He sat on the Boards of Trustees of IRRI, ICRISAT and CYMMIT, and was a member of the Science Council, CGIAR. He is a fellow of the Indian Natl. Science Acad.; Indian Acad. of Science; Natl. Acad. of Science India; Natl. Acad. of Agricultural Science and Eur. Acad. of Science, Arts and Humanities. His honours include: Padma Bhushan, India; Aryabhata Award, INSA; Biological Science Award, FICCI; and Borlaug Award. He served as president of the Natl. Acad. of Agricultural Science, and has received DSc (h.c.) from six universities.

Chopra (PhD, Delhi School of Economics,1969). She was formerly director, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University, where she was professor (1980-2009). She has been on the editorial and policy boards of several international journals including Environment and Development Economics, and Ecological Economics, and was Senior Associate of the Ecological and Environmental Economics Programme hosted by the ICTP, Trieste, Italy (2002-2006). She was member, Assessment Panel of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2001-2005) and co-chair of its Working Group on Response Options. She is a fellow of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm and of the South Asia Network of Development and Environmental Economics. She was President of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (2010-2012 and 1998-2000) and President of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (2004). Currently, she co-edits " Ecology, Economy and Society: the Journal of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics