Gross (PhD 1966, UC Berkeley) is permanent member, Kavli Inst. for Theoretical Physics, UC Santa Barbara, where he was director (1997-2012). He was Thomas Jones Prof. of Mathematical Physics, Princeton U. Gross has made important contributions to particle physics and string theory, incl. the discovery of asymptotic freedom and development of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the nuclear, strong force; and the discovery and development of heterotic string theory. His awards include: MacArthur Prize; Dirac Medal; Oscar Klein Medal; Harvey Prize; EPS Particle Physics Prize; Grande Medaille d'Or; Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004. He holds hon. degrees from the US, Britain, France, Belgium, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Israel,Brazil and Argentina. He is a member of: US Natl. Academy of Science; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; American Philosophical Society; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Indian Academy of Science; Russian Academy of Sciences.

Maculan is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Systems Engineering and Computer Science of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE/UFRJ). He worked as Visiting Professor in European and North American universities, supervised over 60 Ph.D. theses and 150 M.Sc. dissertations, published 6 books and over 100 papers in scientific journals. Currently President of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies – IFORS, former President of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1990-1994) and National Secretary for Higher Education (2004-2007), his membership includes the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (Paris, France). He was honored with several awards such as: Doctor Honoris Causa (Université Paris 13), Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite (France) and Grand-Cross for Scientific Merit (Brazil).

Iqbal Parker is founding director of the ICGEB Cape Town Component (2007 - 2016); General Secretary of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2021 - present); founder sec. gen. of the Federation of African Societies for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1996 - 2012); vice President of Acad. Science of SA (2010 - 2016); Vice President of the African Academy of Sciences (2020 - present). He obtained his PhD from UCT in 1979. He and his team have identified a novel transcription factor responsible for transcriptional modulation of collagen gene expression and identified several genetic polymorphisms that are important in gene-environment interaction in the aetiology of oesophageal cancer. His awards include: DST/NRF research chair in cancer biology, an MRC funded Oesophageal Cancer Research Group; Outstanding Scientist Award by the Natl. Science and Technology Forum; Gold Medal from the South African Soc. for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Oettle Memorial Medal from the Cancer Association of SA. He is founding member of ASSAf and member of Islamic World Academy of Sciences.

Paulraj is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, USA. He obtained his PhD in 1973 at IIT (Delhi). He served in the Indian Navy from 1965 to 1991 where he led the development of military sonar systems. He also founded three national level research labs in India. He joined Stanford in 1992 where he pioneered MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) wireless technology that has revolutionized wireless performance and is incorporated into all Wi-Fi and mobile 4G./ 5G systems His recognition includes the 2024 RAE Prince Phillip Medal, the 2023 IET Faraday Medal, the 2011 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the 2014 Marconi Prize, the 2010 Padma Bhushan (Indian national award), the 2017 induction into the US Patent Office National Inventors Hall of Fame and the 2018 China Friendship Award. He is a member of nine academies, including the US National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering and several Indian S&T Academies . He is a fellow of IEEE and AAAS.

Rech has been a scientist at EMBRAPA Recursos Geneticos e Biotecnologia, Brazil, since 1981. He obtained his PhD in 1989 at the University of Nottingham, England. He is recognized by his studies on the recombinant DNA technology and its application for development of processes and products with economic and social impacts. His work focuses on the molecular and biochemical mechanisms that governt several types of protein-conformational expression. His awards include: Prize Estado de Sao Paulo Governator; Embrapa Prize for Research Excellence; Commander of the Order of National Scientific Merit, Brazil; and Fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

Sur is Newton Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT. He studies the cerebral cortex of the brain, and has discovered fundamental principles by which cortical circuits are wired during development and change during learning. He received his BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and his PhD from Vanderbilt University, Nashville. His awards include: Charles Judson Herrick Award, American Association of Anatomists; A.P. Sloan Fellowship; McKnight Neuroscience Development Award; Sigma Xi Distinguished Lectureship; Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT, Kanpur; Distinguished Alumnus Award, Vanderbilt University. He has been elected to the Royal Society, UK; National Academy of Medicine, USA; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; National Academy of Sciences, India; Indian National Science Academy; Neurosciences Research Program, USA; and Rodin Academy, Sweden.

Verez Bencomo is a chemist dedicated to understand the molecular basis of protection from infectious disease and to use this knowledge for the development of vaccines. He led this development from bench to introduction into preventive medical practice for 5 different vaccines: The first was Quimi-Hib, a conjugate vaccine against Haemophilus influenza type b using for the first time a synthetic carbohydrate antigen (Science, 2004) and prequalified by the World Health Organization. Quimi-Vio, a conjugate vaccine including the most prevalent Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes actually in the last clinical steps before commercial introduction in Cuba. In the period 2020-2021 during the COVID19 pandemic, he also led the development of a series of 3 vaccines call SOBERANAS. SOBERANA 02 is the only conjugate vaccine developed. The safety record of this vaccine platform allowed a quick introduction in children in Cuba as early as September 2021 allowing Cuba to be the first country in the world mass vaccinating children against COVID-19. He is “Knight of the Legion of Honor”, (France, 2015) and “National Hero” (Cuba, 2021)

Wong is professor of chemistry at Scripps Research Institute and National Taiwan U. and past president of Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan (2006-16). He received his BS and MS from National Taiwan University, and PhD (chemistry, 1982) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He taught at Texas A and M University for 6 years, then became professor and Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry at Scripps Research Institute (1989-2006) and director of the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei (2003-2006). He is a member of Academia Sinica, Taipei, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and US National Academy of Sciences. His research interests are in bioorganic and synthetic chemistry and biocatalysis, including development of chemo-enzymatic, synthesis of complex carbohydrates, glycoproteins and small-molecule probes for the study of carbohydrate-mediated biological recognition.

Ya-ping was educated at Fudan University and Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is a professor of KIZ, CAS; vice president, CAS; honorary president, Yunnan University; president, Chinese Society of Genetics. His awards include Prizes for Young Scientists of China; Science and Technology Prizes for Youth in China; Qiu Shi Science and Technologies Prizes for Outstanding Young Scientists, Hong Kong; Natural Science Prizes of China, Second Grade; Biodiversity Leadership Awards, Bay and Paul Foundations, USA; May 4th Youth Medal of China; Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Science and Technology, Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation; Natural Science Prizes of China, Second Grade; and Cheung Kong Scholars Achievement Award, Ministry of Education of China, and Li Ka Shing Foundation. He is a member of CAS.

Barma is Professor Emeritus with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at the TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Hyderabad and former Director of TIFR. After PhD from the State University of New York Stony Brook (1974), he did postdoctoral work at Michigan State University and joined TIFR in 1976. He has worked in the areas of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, phase transitions, and disordered systems. Between 2002-05, he served as chair of the IUPAP C3 Commission on Statistical Physics and is currently a vice president of IUPAP. Honours include: INSA Young Scientist Award; Bhatnagar Prize; Indian Science Congress SN Bose Centenary Medal; Goyal Prize. He is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (New Delhi), the Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore), and the National Academy of Sciences (Allahabad), and a recipient of the JC Bose Fellowship. He was conferred the Padma Shri by the Govt. of India.

Bharat Chattoo is a professor in the department of microbiology and biotechnology centre, MS University of Baroda, coordinator of the Biotechnology Programme and director of the Centre for Genome Research. He is the founder vice chancellor of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University. He obtained his PhD from the University of Delhi. Subsequently, he worked at the University of Rochester Medical Centre and has been a visiting scientist/professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, National Institute of Bioscience and Human Technology, Rice Genome Programme in Tsukuba, Japan, and Ciba-Geigy in Basle. He was a staff scientist at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, and also worked at the Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basle. He serves on several committees of the Government of India and Gujarat state and has published extensively.

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.

Dhar obtained his MSc in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur and PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology. He has been at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai since 1978. He has worked on the problems in disordered systems, in particular relaxation in disordered magnets. His most influential work has been in the area of self-organized criticality, finding models which can be solved exactly. He is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, and of the National Academy of Sciences. He is recipient of the Young Scientist Award, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Physics, the JR Schrieffer Prize of the ICTP, TWAS prize in Physics, and the SN Bose medal of the Indian National Science Academy.

Jerew is a member of Iraqi Academy of Sciences, and a leading Iraqi scientist who has made original research contributions on varied topics in control system engineering, electronic and computer engineering, and informatics and computer software. He is also currently Advisor for Technical Education and Programmes Development, Ministry of Manpower, Sultanate of Oman. He has occupied several top scientific and academic administrative positions, improving teaching, research, and higher education in Iraq. He is the author of 40 books and is a well known writer in the Iraqi and Omani media. He is a member of the Arab Science Academies, Syrian Academy of Arabic Language, Iraqi Engineering Society, and has won the state prize, science medal, science merit in Iraq, and the Gdansk Technical University Medal of Poland. He was named as one of the Arab Pioneers in Electronic Engineering, 2005.

Jorge Kalil is Professor of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Director, Immunology Laboratory, Heart Institute, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo; Adjunct Professor at the GWU, USA; Coordinator, iii-Institute for Investigative Immunology; Former Director, Butantan Institute; Past President, International Union of Immunological Societies. Graduated in Medicine, Doctor of Science in Human Biology, University of Paris VII, in Jean Dausset’s laboratory (Nobel Prize 1980 for HLA). He was Visiting Professor, Stanford School of Medicine, and International Scholar, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He studies the mechanisms of immune recognition and distinction of self and no self, with over 550 publications (ISI) and several patents. He is member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Grand Cross of the Brazilian National Order of Scientific Merit, Chevalier of the National Order of Merit of France, Doctor Honoris causa by Sorbonne Universités and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He represents Brazil in the ICGEB.

Dr. Laurencin is the University Professor of the University of Connecticut (the 8th in history). He is the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He did his B.S.E. degree in Chemical Engineering at Princeton, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School (Magna Cum Laude) and his PhD from M.I.T.. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering in the U.S.. He is an elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Sciences. the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and an Academician and Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He has been honored three times by U.S. Presidents. He received the Presidential Faculty Fellow Award from President Bill Clinton and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama. He received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the United States' highest honor for technological achievement in ceremonies at the White House.

Lee received a PhD degree from Caltech in 1975. He specializes in space and plasma physics. Before 1995, he performed research at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, U. of Maryland and U. of Alaska. Upon returning to Taiwan in 1995, Lee served as the Dean of the College of Science, National Cheng Kung U., Director of National Space Program Office, founding President of the Natl. Applied Research Laboratories, President of Natl. Central University, and Minister of National Science Council. He is a distinguished research fellow of the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica. Lee's honours include the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, the Presidential Science Prize in Taiwan, Academician of Academia Sinica, Elected Member of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and International Academy of Engineering, Russian Academy of Engineering (IAE).