Zhang (PhD, 1995, U. of Reading) is a UNEP senior staff and Director, UNEP-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP), a joint center between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and UNEP. She is leading the implementation of a UNEP flagship programme focusing on the nexus of climate change, ecosystem services and sustainable development. She used to be a professor and Deputy Director at Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), Chinese Acad. of Sciences (CAS). Most of her previous research has concentrated on policy-relevant studies on rural development in China, particularly on poverty alleviation. In recent years, her team has also focused on action research in rural health, nutrition and education to assess effectiveness of policies and interventions. She has published more than 300 papers in natl. and intl. journals, and presented more than 30 policy suggestions to government. She received numerous awards, incl. Fudan Management Excellence Award (2014), TWAS Celso-Furtado Prize in Social Sciences (2013), "Ten Most Outstanding Women in Science" award, CAS (2012), "100 Talent" award, CAS (2007), "Outstanding Young Scientist" Award, NSFC (2003).

Amatore is Emeritus Director of Research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, and a Professor at the École Normale Supérieure and the Sorbonne University Pierre and Marie Curie, France. He obtained his Doctorat d’Etat ès Sciences from the Paris Diderot University. He is a Member of the French Académie des Sciences, where he served as an Academic Delegate for Education and Training; Member of the Academia Europaea, based in London; Foreign Member of The Chinese Academy of Sciences and of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences; Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, also based in London, and of the Chinese Chemical Society; Fellow and President of the International Society of Electrochemistry, based in Lausanne, Switzerland; Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, based in Philadelphia, US; and Honorary Member of the Israeli Chemical Society. He is Honorary Professor and Doctor honoris causa of eight major universities worldwide. He served as one of the 20 members of the High Council of Science and Technology, an advisory body to the French President. He received many awards and prestigious medals and is Knight of the French Legion of Honour.

Dr Abraham Aseffa is a Senior Scientist (formerly Director) at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute in Ethiopia. He graduated in Medicine from Addis Ababa University (1984) and studied Microbiology at the University of Leipzig, Germany (Dr. med, 1990, summa cum laude). He taught Microbiology at Gondar College of Medical Sciences (Ethiopia) until 1998 when he joined the WHO Immunology and RT at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland for postdoctoral research. He moved to AHRI in Addis as senior scientist in 2001. Dr Aseffa has conducted several studies on infectious disease microbiology, immunology and epidemiology in collaboration with national and international partners (>300 publications). He has keen interest in postgraduate student training. He works closely with the Min of Health in Ethiopia on capacity building for clinical and operational research and on translation of research findings into practice. Dr Aseffa has also been active on strengthening regional partnership particularly in clinical trial capacity building and health research ethics. He has served in several WHO/TDR, WHO and EDCTP advisory bodies. He is a member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS).

Azevedo is full professor at the Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, University of São Paulo (USP) in Piracicaba. He obtained his PhD in 1992 at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. He is Fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since 2010. Azevedo supervised 18 Master and 30 PhD students and 24 post-doctoral fellows. Azevedo has held positions as Coordinator of two Post-Graduate Programs, other administrative positions at USP, and Member of the Botany Advisory Committee at Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), among others. Azevedo is strongly involved with scientific editing and was a member of the Editorial Board of several journals. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Applied Biology (Wiley). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Scientia Agricola. He was Vice-President of the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors. He has published over 210 papers.

Barreto completed his Medical Studies and a Master in Public Health at Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. He was awarded a PhD from the University of London. He's a Professor at UFBa and a Senior Investigator at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. He leads a multidisciplinary research group studying poverty-related infectious diseases, allergy and asthma, the environmental and social determinants of health, health inequalities, and the impact of population-based health and social interventions on health. Recently he set up the Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health-CIDACS where is housed the “100 million Brazilians cohort” aimed to evaluate the impact of social programs on health. He was a lead organizer of the Lancet Series on Brazil, published in 2011. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers and has supervised 25 successful PhD thesis. He is an elected fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the World Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Professor at the LSHTM

Berkovits obtained his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Physics at Harvard Univ. in 1983, and his PhD in Physics at the Univ. of California at Berkeley in 1988. He moved to São Paulo in 1994, and is a citizen of Brazil since 2002. Berkovits is currently a full professor at the Instituto de Física Teórica of São Paulo State University (UNESP) and Director of the ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP‐SAIFR). He was awarded the 2009 TWAS Physics prize for his significant contributions to superstring theory and its covariant quantization and the 2021 APS John Wheatley Award for exceptional leadership in fundamental physics research in South America. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences, and the International String Theory Advisory Committee.

Chattaraj is a Professor at BIT Mesra. He was an Institute Chair Professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India. He received his PhD from IIT Bombay where he is now a Distinguished Visiting Professor. A former research associate of UNC Chapel Hill and FAU, Erlangen-Nürnberg. Received University Gold and Bardhaman Sammilani medals; INSA (Young Scientist) medal; CRSI Bronze and Silver medals; IAAM medal ; Associate, Indian Academy of Sciences; BM Birla Science Prize; BC Deb Memorial award ; Acharya P.C.Ray Memorial Awards (ICS and NASI); Prof. S. Basu Memorial Lecture Award, INSA; Prof. R.P.Mitra Memorial Lecture, DU; Prof. S.K.Siddhanta Memorial Lecture,BU. He is a member of the Indian Natl. Science Academy; Indian Academy of Sciences; National Academy of Sciences, India; West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology; Royal Society of Chemistry, UK and FWO, Belgium. He is Sir J.C. Bose National Fellow. He is a member of the Science Education Panel of the Indian Science Academies. He was Convener, CTS , Convener, Kharagpur Local Chapter, INSA, council member of CRSI, Dean (Faculty) and Head of the Chem. Dept., IIT Kharagp

Chen is professor at Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU). He obtained his BSc and MSc degrees from SYSU in 1983 and 1986, respectively, and PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, in 1989. He was elected to Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009. He served as dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at SYSU and vice-president of the Chinese Crystallographic Society. His prizes include Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Research (2014), TWAS Prize in Chemistry (2012), Thomson Reuters Research Fronts Award (2008), National Natural Science Prize of China (2007), and Distinguished Young Scientist Award by Qiu Shi Science and Technologies Foundation (1999).

Anwar Gilani (PhD, 1985, Uni. of Sydney), a distinguished Pharmacologist, worked at Aga Khan University, Karachi for 30 yrs, Dean, Health Sci at Mekelle Uni, Ethiopia, CEO of Pakistan Council for Sci & Technology and Vice Chancellor, Uni of Haripur, Pak. A natural product pharmacologist, Gilani has discovered himbacine as a prototype of cardio-selective antimuscarinic drug and showed presence of synergistic and side-effects neutralizing combinations in natural products. He carries the title of Distinguished National Professor, Fellow & Council member of Pakistan Acad. of Sciences. His h-index is 86 and his awards include: TWAS Abdus Salam Prize; Ibn-al-Haytham Prize; Aga Hassan Abedi Medal; Boehringer Intl. Research Award; Life-time Academic Achievement Award and three civil awards by the President of Pakistan (Pride of Performance, Sitara-i-Imtiaz & Hilal-i-Imtiaz). He served as advisor to WHO and IFS, and member of editorial boards of several journals of intl. repute including Phytotherapy Research and J Ethnopharmacology.

Gojobori (PhD, Kyushu U., Japan) is a Distinguished Professor, King Abdullah U. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, and Project Professor, Natl. Inst. of Genetics (NIG), Japan. He received Salvatore Gold Medal from Italy, Medal with Purple Ribbon from Japan. He is foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Science; member of Academia Europaea. He is Vice-President of CODATA. He is: section editor, BMC Genomics; founding editor, Genome Biology and Evolution; editor, GENE and FEBS Letters; and associate editor, Molecular Biology and Evolution and PLoS Genetics. He has more than 400 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. He contributed to the DDBJ/GenBank/EMBL database and the H-Invitational human gene database.

Dr. Jikun Huang is Professor at School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and Honorary Director of China Center for Agricultural Policy (CCAP) and Director of New Rural Development Institute in Peking University, Fellow TWAS, Honorary Life Member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), and Fellow of Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA). He is vice-president of Chinese Association of Agro-technology Economics. He received his BS degree from Nanjing Agricultural University in 1984 and PhD in agricultural economics from University of the Philippines at Los Banos in 1990. His research covers a wide range of issues on China's agricultural economics, policies and rural development. He received Award for China’s Outstanding Youth Scientists in 2002, Outstanding Achievement Award for Overseas Returning Chinese in 2003, Fudan Prize for Eminent Contributor to Management Science in 2008, and IRRI’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 2010. He has published more than 600 journal papers, including the papers published in Science, Nature and many leading journals in development economics. He is co-author of 20 books.

Jagadish is a Distinguished Professor and the Head of the Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology Group at the Australian National University. In 2021, he has been appointed President of the Australian Academy of Science, the latest of a long list of prestigious leadership activities. He has covered important editorial position in over 10 scientific journals. He published more than 650 journal papers, holds five US patents, and contributed, as co-author or co-editor, to over 15 books. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science; a Distinguished Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; a Visiting Professor at Oxford University, UK; a Distinguished Chair Professor for Research at the National Taiwan University, among many other positions. Among his awards are: the Lloyd Rees Memorial Lecture by the Australian Academy of Science (2020); the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal by the Australian Academy of Science (2019); and UNESCO Medal for contributions to the development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2018).

Kellner (PhD 1996, Columbia U., New York, American Museum of Natural History) is prof. and researcher at the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro since 1997, investigating paleobiodiversity and development of ancient ecosystems. Described +60 species, published +200 original studies (publications total +800). Advised +50 master, PhD students and postdocs. Organized field activities to remote areas of Brazil, Iran, China, Chile and Antarctica. Headed several scientific meetings and is involved in communicating science, through publications, documentaries and exhibitions such as During the Time of the Dinosaurs (1999-landmark in Brazil), exhibitions in Japan and New York. Among awards and honors: TWAS Prize 2010 and Ordem Nacional do Mérito Centífico (Brazil, 2010). Elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and TWAS and honorary member of other organizations.

Khan (PhD 1980, Indian Agric. Res. Inst.) is principal scientist and leader of the widely-reputed push-pull programme at the Intl. Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Kenya. He is Thomas Odhiambo Dist. Res. Fellow of icipe. He is a fellow of the African Acad. of Sciences, the Entomological Soc. of America and the Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Soc., UK. He is an adjunct prof. of entomology at Cornell U., USA, and extraordinary prof. at the North-West U. in South Africa. Khan is a council member of the Intl. Congress of Entomology. In 2010 he received the Nan-Yao Su Award for Innovation and Creativity in Entomology and the ESA Distinguished Scientist Award, and in 2011, the TWAS Prize in Agricultural Sciences and in 2015 Louis Malassis International Prize for Outstanding Career in Agriculture for his contribution in the field of agriculture and food

Kumar has a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, and a PhD from Cornell University, both in Electrical Engineering. He was with Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, N.J., USA, for over 6 years. Since 1988 he has been with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where he is a Professor, and also the Chair of the Electrical Sciences Division. From 1988 to 2003 he was the Coordinator at IISc of the Education and Research Network Project (ERNET), India's first wide-area packet switching network. He has been elected Fellow of the IEEE (the Insitution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He received the IISc Alumni Award for Excellence in Engineering Research for 2008.

Lacerda (PhD, Biophysics, 1983) is Titular Professor, Federal U. of Ceará in Fortaleza, Ceará and Fluminense Federal U. in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is a CNPq-National Research Council of Brazil Senior Researcher (1A) and a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He is a Member of the FEC-Academy (Future Coasts Academy) and of ISME (International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems); under these institutions and UNESCO-UNEP he has coordinated global research programmes on mangrove conservation and coastal zone management in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. He received the Excellence Award in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, U. of Florida (1995); the BUNKA-SUMITOMO Prize of Scientist of the Year (1999); and the Bunge Prize 2011 in Oceanography. In 2018 received the National Order of Scienctific Merit from the Federal government. Lacerda has authored over 290 journal papers, 80 book chapters and 21 books and majored over 100 PhD, MSc and Postdoc researchers.

Lee (PhD 1991, Northwestern U.) is Dist. Prof. and Vice President for Research, Korea Advanced Inst. of Sci. and Tech. (KAIST), Daejeon. He is hon. prof., U. of Queensland, Shanghai JiaTong U., Wuhan U., Beijing U. of Chem. Tech., Chines Acad. Sci., and Chairman of Global Future Council on Biotech., World Econ. Forum. His honours include: Natl. Order of Merit; Natl. Sci. Medal; Ho Am Prize; POSCO TJ Park Prize; Citation Classic Award; Merck Metabolic Engg. Award; Marvin Johnson Award; Highly Cited Researcher. He is Fellow, AAAS; Am. Acad. of Microbiology; Soc. for Industrial Microbiology and Biotech.; Am. Inst. of Chem. Engg.; Am. Inst. of Medical and Biological Engg.; Korean Acad. of Science and Tech.; Natl. Acad. of Engg. of Korea; and International Member, Natl. Acad. of Engg. USA; Natl. Acad. Of Sci. USA. Foreign Member, Royal Society UK. He is editor-in-chief of Metabolic Engg., and editor of many intl. journals. He was Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Tech and also Biotech. World Econ. Forum and Founding Chairman of World Councel on Indust. Biotech. He has published more than 710 journal papers and holds more than 800 patents

Liu has been a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, China since 1999. He is the founding Director of the Center. Liu has made fundamental contributions in atmospheric chemistry, air pollution and climate change. He has published more than 160 papers which have received more than 6500 citations. He is one of the first few Chinese geoscientists in the prestigious ISI Highly Cited Researchers list. He was elected as an Academician of Academia Sinica in 2012. He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1994. He is also a Fellow of the Chinese Meteorological Society. In addition, Liu served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR) from 1988 to 1991.

Lopes is full professor at the Mathematics Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. After obtaining his PhD in 1977 from the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Maryland, College Park. He was appointed Comendador of the National Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil, in 2005, and elected to Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2007.

Mathur is J C Bose National Fellow at Manipal Academy of Higher Education. Formerly Distinguished Professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India and Dean, Natural Sciences Faculty; he was the founding Director of UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in Basic Science, Mumbai University. He obtained his PhD in 1976 at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He has been an Advisory Editor of the Journal of Physics B and of EPL (Europhysics Letters). Among his prizes are the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in the Physical Sciences, the J C Bose National Fellowship, the European Union’s Erasmus-Mundus Scholarship in Optical Science and Technology, the Royal Society Guest Research Fellowship at Oxford University, and the Fulton Fellowship of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, London. He has been a visiting professor at Aarhus, Tohoku, Swansea, Oxford and Imperial College London. Currently he is the Scientific Committee Expert for the 2019 edition of the International Junior Science Olympiad being organised in Doha, Qatar.

Narinder Mehra is the Vice President (international affairs) of the Indian National Science Academy, Hon Emeritus Scientist of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Former Dean (Res) and Founder Head Dept. of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He is former Secretary General and Vice President of Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia Oceania (FIMSA) and Life member of Asia Pacific Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Association (APHIA). He is council member, International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and International Histocompatibility association. His honors include India’s highest S.S. Bhatnagar award, Ranbaxy Science foundation award, Chevalier of the National Order of Merit (France), IROST Khwarizmi international award (Iran) and B.R. Ambedkar award for excellence in Research (ICMR). He is member Honoris Causa of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Medical Sciences of India and holds Hon Fellowship of Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of UK . He holds hon. professorship from four universities.

Mohan is Chairman of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and President of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, India. He obtained PhD in 1987 and DSc in 1997. He has over 1530 publications including 986 original research articles in peer reviewed journals, 367 review articles and 186 chapters in text books. His work has a h-index of 145 and has over 174,000 citations. He has received Fellowships from all the four Royal College of Physicians of UK and Ireland, American College of Endocrinology and the American College of Physicians. He has received 200 awards including the prestigious Dr. B.C. Roy Award by the Medical Council of India and the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centenary Award from the Indian Council of Medical Research. In 2012 he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards given by the Govt. of India. He was conferred Hon. Doctorate from Deakin University of Melbourne in 2017. He has been conferred with the prestigious Harold Rifkin Distinguished International Service in the Cause of Diabetes Award by the American Diabetes Association in 2018 for his pioneering work in the field of diabetes and he is the first Indian to receive this award. He

Professor and Head of the Institute of Pharmacology and Molecular Biology at the Federal University of São Paulo. Obtained her PhD at Unifesp and post-doctoral training as a Fogarty fellow at the Univ. of Southern California. Since 1985, she is a 1A research fellow of the National Research Council for the Scientific and Technological Development. Her research field is molecular and cell biology of glycoconjugates. At Unifesp, she was the first woman to become Pro-Rector of Undergraduate and Pro-Rector of Research and Graduate programmes. She is a member of several national science and education councils and has received several national and international awards and honours. She is president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS), co-chair of the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences and Governing Board member of the International Science Council. She is member of the BAS, The World Academy of Sciences, and the Latin America Academy of Sciencies. Former president of the Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2007-2008), honorary president, vice-president (2007-2011) and president (2011-2017) of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Sciences

Phan is professor at the International University, Vietnam National University of Hochiminh City (HCMIU) and vice president of the Vietnam Mathematical Society. He obtained his PhD in 1978 and DSc in 1988 at the Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences. He was the founder-president of HCMIU. He is also professor-head of Department of Optimization and System Theory at the University of Science of Hochiminh City, adjunct professor at the University of Ballarat, Australia, vice president of the Mathematical Council of the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development, member of the Scientific Council of the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM) and the National Council for Mathematics Professorship. He is an associate editor of a number of international mathematical journals.

Phu is professor at the Institute of Mathematics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. He obtained his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1983 and Habilitation (Dr. sc. nat.) in 1987 at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He was awarded as Werner Romberg Distinguished Guest Professor of the Heidelberg Graduate School of Mathematical and Computational Methods for the Sciences, University of Heidelberg, Germany in 2008. He is Corresponding Member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 2004 and Corresponding Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 2010.

Ruffolo is a professor at Mahidol U. He obtained his PhD in 1991 at U Chicago. He developed a classic transport equation for solar energetic particles and precision modeling of their observed distribution in space. He created new theories of turbulent transport of cosmic rays, including an explanation of solar particle dropouts in terms of solar wind turbulence and topological trapping. He led the establishment of a neutron monitor in Thailand, which detects galactic cosmic rays at the world's highest geomagnetic cutoff energy. He has twice served as a rapporteur of the International Cosmic Ray Conference. He was awarded the Golden Eagle Award from the American Academy of Achievement and the 2017 Outstanding Scientist Award of Thailand. His memberships include the Thailand Academy of Science and Technology and the American Geophysical Union.