Ibrokhim Y. Abdurakhmonov received his BS in Biotechnology from the National University, Uzbekistan, in 1997, an MS in Plant Breeding from Texas A&M University in 2001, and a PhD in Molecular Genetics and DSc from the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan in 2002 and 2009, respectively. He became a full professor at the same university in 2011. He founded the Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics of Uzbekistan in 2012. He received the 2010 TWAS prize and ICAC Cotton Researcher of the Year 2013 for his outstanding contribution to cotton genomics and biotechnology. Dr Abdurakhmonov was elected as a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2014 and a member of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan in 2017. He served as the Minister of Innovative Development of Uzbekistan during 2017-2022. He was honoured as the 2022 Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship (Individual) by the China International Culture Exchange Center (CICEC) and Global People Magazine. He was appointed the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Innovations of Uzbekistan in 2023.

Ahmad (PhD, OSU) is Principal Investigator of Biosaline Research Projects since retiring as Professor of Botany and Dean, Faculty of Sciences, U. of Karachi. He has been awarded certificates of appreciation for research from the USDA in 1987; US AID, 1990; BOSTID-Natl. Acad. of Sciences, USA, 1994, CSIRO Australia, 1996 and Univ. of Karachi. He was president of the Pakistan Botanical Society from 1968-1970; Regional Director of Halophyte Biotechnology Center, U. of Delaware, 1995; and member of the Expert Committee for Establishment of the Intl. Center of Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in Dubai, UAE, up to 1990. He is currently a member of the Pakistan Acad. of Sciences and was elected as Secretary and Vice-President of PAS, Sind Chapter (2000-2004). He has been presented a shield for achievements and contribution in the field of Botany by faculty members of the U. of Karachi, 2014. He was most recently awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 6th International and 15th National Botanical Conference at Sardar Bahadur Khan University of Quetta (2017). His research work is concerned mostly with afforestation and agriculture at sandy deserts using saline water in irrigation.

AlMomin is a Senior Research Scientist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and Vice President of TWAS for the Arab partner since 2020. She contributed to the establishment of a Kuwaiti national biotechnology program and leads a Government initiative to establish a National Centre of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. She initiated the inclusion of KISR as an affiliated centre with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), being also Kuwait's Liaison Officer at ICGEB. AlMomin is a certified risk management professional from the International Federation of Biosafety Association (IFBSA) and is a member of several entities, including the Commission of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development, the International Council for the Life Sciences, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World. Her research interests are genetic engineering, diagnostics, population genetics, biodiversity and biosafety. She led several pioneer projects and introduced several scientific innovations in her country and MENA region. She serves as a chair and member of several national and international committees.

Arruda is a full professor, Department of Genetics, Institute of Biology, State University of Campinas (Unicamp). He received his PhD in genetics from Unicamp and has pioneered the field of plant molecular biology and plant genomics in Brazil. His research interests are on the understanding the regulation of gene expression in plants and its impact on amino acid metabolism and plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He has received honours including the National Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil; Scientific and Technological Merit Award, State of São Paulo; and 2001 RedBio Medal, Red Latino-Americana de Biotecnologia (FAO) for his contribution to the development of plant biotechnology in Latin America and Caribe. He was co-founder and scientific director of the plant biotechnology company Alellyx Applied Genomics.

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.

Badrie is professor of food microbiology and safety at the West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. She has served as Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation and Head of Dept. She is a past pres., Caribbean Inst. of Food Science and Techn., vice-pres. and dir. of publication, Caribbean Agro-Economic Soc., and public relations officer, Caribbean Acad. of Sciences. Her awards include: NIHERST Reudranath Capildeo gold medal winner in applied science and tech.. EU/CARPIMS scholar, Fulbright Researcher/Scholar; UNU fellow; TWAS/CARISCIENCE Young Female Scientist; European Union Lome IV-CULP-UWI fellowship; USAID Internatl. Dev.; Short-term Vis. Intl. Scholar; Assocn. of Commonwealth U. fellow, Intl.. She serves on the editorial board of three intl. journals.

Akissa Bahri is currently Professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia. She was the Coordinator of the African Water Facility ‘2010-2015), the Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute, based in Accra, Ghana (2005-2010), and prior to that, Director of Research at the National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia. She has academic and professional experience in water resources management and the agricultural use of marginal waters, biosolids and their environmental impacts. She has received international honors from the Guinness Foundation (1984), the International Foundation for Science (1993), the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (1996), the 2009 "Prof. C.N.R. Rao Prize for Scientific Research", and the 2018 IWA Women in Water Award. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California at Davis in 2005. She holds an Agricultural Engineer degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie de Toulouse, France, a Doctor-Engineer degree from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, and a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from Lund University.

Founding Executive Director, University of California, Davis; President Emeritus, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO; Professor, Department of Biology, Washington Univ., St. Louis. Former director Natl. Inst. of Food and Agriculture, US Dept. of Agriculture. Education: BA in biology (1966) Goshen College, Indiana; PhD in plant pathology (1973) Michigan State Univ., East Lansing. Previous academic positions: Washington Univ., St. Louis, Missouri; Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. Member, US National Academy of Science; Fellow, AAAS and Academy of Microbiology; Foreign Fellow, National Academy of Sciences of India and Indian National Science Academy. Awards include the Wolf Prize in Agriculture; Dennis Robert Hoagland Award, American Society of Plant Biologists; Scientist of the Year, R and D Magazine; and Ruth Allen Award, American Phytopathological Society.

Prof. Chaibi (PhD Agriculture Engineering and Climate Technologies, Swedish U. of Agriculture Sciences) is Research Dir., Natl. Research Inst. for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia. His major accomplishments include the development of autonomous and integrated complex systems for supporting sustainable livelihood in areas poor in fresh water, thus providing communities with basic needs such as water food and energy. He was appointed in 2015 as GIZ senior advisor for the academic affairs and International affairs, and from 2008 to 2015 to serve the African Union in developing and coordinating processes in science, technology and innovations policy in Africa. He was elected Member, Governing Council, African Acad. of Sciences (AAS) representative of North Africa Region (2010), Fellow, AAS (2006), Fellow; IAS (2017). He served in various capacities as associate member of the Environmental Security panel under the NATO Science for Peace and Security and the EC Frameworks Programs.

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.

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.

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.

Egamberdieva is the Head of the research group at the Faculty of Biology, National University of Uzbekistan. She received her PhD in agricultural sciences from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. On the national level she has played a leading role in the implementation and evaluation of the national programmes and projects in agricultural research for sustainable development, and acts as a Chair of the Executive Committee of the OWSD Central Asia National Chapter, and Vice-Chair and National Focal Point Representative to the UNESCO-STEPAN (Science and Technology Policy Asian Network). Egamberdieva is also involved in science policy, and served on the advisory committee of the German Council of Science and Humanities (WR). She currently serves on the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), the science-policy interface of the UN Committee on World Food Security, and also acts as the Country Ambassador for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). She is a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA).

El-Beltagy served as Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. He is currently Chair, International Drylands Development Commission (IDDC); Professor, Arid Land Agricultural graduate studies & Research Institute (ALARI), Ain Shams University; Chair, Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt, Board Member of the Egyptian Academy for the Scientific Research & Technology; Chair, Food and Agriculture Research Council, Egyptian Academy of Science; Former President, governing board, CIHEAM; Chair, Global Forum for Agric. Research (GFAR); DG, ICARDA; The Golden Medal of CIHEAM & France Commander of the Order of Agric. in recognition of enhancing the Ag development in the Mediterranian ; Member of: Russian Acad. of Agric. Sciences, Moscow; Tajik Acad. of Agric. Sciences; Kyrgyz Agrarian Acad.; and Scientific Council, Azerbaijan Agric Acad. Awards include: Fellow of Univ. of Wales, UK; Al-Istiklal Medal, HM King Abdullah II bin Hussein of Jordan; Golden Medal Award, Armenia; hon. DSc, Univ. of Khartoum, Sudan; and member, Sultan Qaboos ‘first class’ order for Culture, sciences&Arts for enhancing Develop.of Ag in the Dry Areas.

Fang is professor and director of the Department of Agricultural Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Microbiology (IOM), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He was the director of IOM from 2000 to 2004 and elected a member of CAS in 2003. He has made important contributions in plant virology and plant biotechnology. He has characterized the genomes of several plant viruses including cauliflower mosaic virus and rice yellow stunt rhabdovirus. He successfully developed the transgenic tobacco plants resistant to both tobacco mosaic virus and cucumber mosaic virus, which were planted as early as 1992 at the largest scale in the world at that time. He also analyzed and improved the CaMV 35S promoter which has been widely used in plant biotechnology. More recently, he developed an artificial miRNA approach to control plant virus infection.

Specializing in metabolomics, natural products chemistry, and plant biochemistry, Farag completed his PhD at Texas Tech University, USA, in 2003. In 2005, after spending time as a postdoctoral fellow at The Samuel Noble Foundation, USA, and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, USA, he became assistant professor in 2005 at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Egypt. Since 2009, Farag has been working as a part time visiting professor at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, to participate in teaching plant metabolomics and chemomterics modelling for master students, and in 2009–2010 he held the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship in Germany. Farag now works full time as a professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC) where his research work focuses primarily around applying innovative biochemical technologies (metabolomics) to help answer complex biological questions in medicine, herbal drugs analysis and agriculture. For his highly cited publications of close to 5000 citations and an H index of 32, Farag was selected as a top researcher in the field of plant biology in Africa by the American society of plant biology, United States.

Fu (PhD, 1989, in physical geography, Peking University) is professor at the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China. He worked at RCEES as an assistant professor (1989-1990) and associate professor (1991-92) before his post-doctoral research training at the Institute for Land and Water Management, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1992-94).He became full professor of RCEES in 1994, and deputy director in 1996. Fu was the director general of Bureau of Natural Resources and Environment, CAS 2001-2008. Since 2009 he is a Professor and Chair of Steering Committee in RCEES. He is an elected member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011, elected International Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society Edinburgh UK in 2015. He is Vice President of International Geographical Union in 2018-2026 and Member of Science Advisory Committee of IIASA in 2017-2022. He is recipient of the National Natural Science Prize of China in 2005 and 2020, and The Alexander von Humboldt Medal of European Geoscience Union in 2020.

Garidkhuu is president of the Mongolian National Academy of Sciences and professor at the Mongolian Univ. of Scs. and Technol.. PhD,1975; DSc, 1993, Russian State Agrarian Univ., Timiryazev, Russian Acad. of Scs.. He was: leading Sci. worker and Snr. Engr.,Mongolian Land Org. Expedition; Snr. Sci. worker, Inst. of Chem. and Mongolian Acad. of Scs.. Garidkhuu, is renowned for his fundamental and significant contribution to the development of Mongolian agriculture. Publs.:Soil Sci. of Mongolia;Mongolian Land Resources; Physical, chemical and biological properties of Mongolian Soil;and 300 Sci. articles in occupational journals. Membs.:Acad. of Nat. Scs. of Mongolia;Russian Acad. of Scs.;Kazakhstan Acad. of Scs.. Awards:Science Merit Badge of Mongolia; Golden Star Medal of Mongolia;Golden medal, WIPO; Golden medal of Sinyagin,Russian Acad. of Scs.;Hon. Doctorates and Prof.,Russian Acad. of Scs., Krasnoyarsk Agrarian Univ.; Honored Worker of Science, Pioneer in Agric. Devel. of Mongolia.

Aster Gebrekirstos (PhD, Gottingen University, Germany, 2005) is senior scientist and head of the dendrochronology lab, World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya, and affiliated with Erlangen University, Germany. Her research is in the area of forest ecology, dendroclimatology, climate change, applications of stable isotopes, land restoration. She led and participated in research projects across Africa and Asia. She set up dendrochronology labs in Ethiopia (2009) and in Nairobi (2013). She taught at Alemaya and Wondo Genet University, Ethiopia; as visiting professor at WASCAL, and Dresden University in Germany. She trained 20+ PhD students, published 80+ journal articles and book chapters. Her awards include: African Climate Award for excellence in climate change research (2014), Special Award for Groundbreaking Science (2009). Fellow of African Academy of Science (AAS), International Academy of Wood Science, conferred Eleonore Trefftz Visiting Professorship Dresden University. She is a vice-president of International Union of Agroforestry, chair of Environment Committee at AAS, member of science leadership at Past Global Changes (PAGES) and Mountain Research Institute (MRI).

Grossi de Sa (PhD, 1987, U. Paris VII) is the head of the Plant-Pest Molecular Interaction Group, EMBRAPA Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (1989-) and professor, Catholic U. of Brasília (2004-). She was president, Brazilian Soc. of Biotechnology; coordinator, Area of Biotechnology (2008-13) and member, CTC-ES, CAPES, Brazil (2008-14). Currently, she is member, Internatl. Advisory Committee, CAPES, and full member, Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. She is a recipient of the Scopus Award 2010 (Elsevier/Capes). Her research emphasizes on plant biotechnology, acting on themes, which include plant defense proteins (proteinase inhibitors, alpha-amylase inhibitors, lectins, defensins, osmotins), insecticidal proteins, plant-pests molecular interaction, development of GM plants for tolerance/resistance to biotic stress and abiotic stress and development of biopharmaceuticals.

Guharay (Ph.D.,1982, University of Nottingham), is currently Advisor Projects and Services with a Mesoamerican Information Services for Sustainable Agriculture, SIMAS. Earlier he served as Program manager Climate Smart Cocoa World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), Scientist Research for Development, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT); Programme Leader for Integrated Pest Management and Agroforestry, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Professor of Plant Protection, National Agricultural University, Nicaragua (UNA) and Research Assistant Professor Biophysics, State University of New York at Buffalo. He is a member of the Latin American Society of Agroecology. He elucidated the biophysical basis of mechanoreception by discovering stretch-activated ion channels. His research helped to scale the biological control of vectors of Malaria in Nicaragua and laid the foundation of ecological management of agroforestry systems in Mesoamerica. He was awarded National Scholarship for Ph.D. studies by Govt. of India in 1978, the Research Scientist of the year by CATIE 2003, and the Coffee personality of Nicaragua by RAMACAFE 2006.

Heong is Qiushi Chair professor Zhejiang University and Sr. Advisor, Center for Agricultural Biosciences Internatl. (CABI), Malaysia . He obtained his BSc (zoology) from U. of Malaya; his MSc, PhD and DSc from Imperial College, London. He is recognized internationally as an authority on science, technology and the implementation of pest ecology, biodiversity, ecological engineering, farmers' decision-making and pest management. He has served as a snr. res. off., Malaysian Agric. Res & Development Inst, and principal scientist, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines. His honors include: Medal for Agriculture Development, Medal for Scientific Excellence from the Govt. of Vietnam; St Andrews Prize, US Council of Agric S and T Charles Black Award, TWAS Prize for agriculture, WB Marketplace Award, COM+Award for communication, Intern Plant Protection Award of Distinction and Zhejiang Westlake Friendship Award, Research Star Award. He is fellow of Academy of Science, Malaysia.

Hungria got her PhD in Agronomy (Soil Science) from Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and held postdoctoral positions at the universities of Cornell, California-Davis (USA) and Seville (Spain). She has been a Researcher at Embrapa since 1982, at Embrapa Soja (Londrina) since 1991, and a Researcher of National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) since 1992. She is a Professor of microbiology and biotechnology at the University of Londrina, and supervised more than 100 MSc and PhD students. Her experience is in agronomy with emphasis on soil biotechnology: biological nitrogen fixation, biodiversity; taxonomy and phylogeny of prokaryotes, microbial ecology, soil microbiology, plant growth promoting bacteria; plant physiology; inoculant production; technologies of inoculation; omics sciences; microbial culture collections. She has over 500 refereed scientific articles, book chapters, books and technical publications. She launched more than 20 technologies, including microbial strains and commercial inoculants. She received more than 20 prizes, including the TWAS-Lenovo Science Award (2020). She is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.