Agarwal obtained his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1994, from Malviya Regional Engineering, Jaipur and his Master of Technology and PhD (both in energy, in 1996 and 1999 respectively) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. After his postdoctoral fellowship (1999–2001) at University of Wisconsin-Madison (US), he joined IIT Kanpur in 2001. His interests are internal combustion engines, alternate and conventional fuels, optical diagnostics, laser ignition, fuel sprays, lubricating oil tribology, and large-bore engines. He has developed laser-fired hydrogen and compressed natural gas engines in automotive sizes, and the first electronic fuel injection system equipped with a locomotive engine for Indian Railways. Agarwal has published 525+ journal and conference papers, 63 books, 129 chapters, 17300+ Scopus Citations, and 26000+ Google Scholar citations. He is an editor of Fuel. He is a Fellow of NASI (2018), RSC (2018), AAAS (2020), and Combustion Institute (2022), and the recipient of many awards including Sir J C Bose National Fellowship (2019), and Clarivate Analytics India Citation Award-2017.

Banu's research focuses on mycobacterial infections, epidemiology, diagnostics, and therapeutics, all fields where she has fostered international and national collaborations. She is currently a senior scientist and head of the program for emerging infections under the Infectious Diseases Division at icddr,b, where she has been working since 1991. Among her achievements are establishing the state-of-the-art BSL 2+ mycobacteriology laboratory at icddr,b; conducting the first-ever MDR-TB sentinel surveillance in Southeast Asia; bringing in new tools and technology in advancing TB diagnosis and management; research on TB prevalence and transmission in prison settings; standardizing stool processing method for Xpert MTB/RIF assay; and the successful development and implementation of an innovative social enterprise model for TB diagnosis and management in the private sector which has been incorporated in the National Strategic Plan. Banu is a fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, and serves as a member in several scientific/programme committees, and has over 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Chandak, a physician scientist, is the former director of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, and Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose Fellow at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in biochemistry from the Institute of Medical Sciences, at Banaras Hindu University, and his PhD in biochemistry from Osmania University. He is a Fellow of all four National Science Academies in India. His research interests include understanding the genetic and epigenetic basis of complex disorders of pancreas, including chronic pancreatitis, type 2 diabetes, and intermediate traits associated with them, with a focus on the foetal origins of adult common diseases. His other passion includes reducing the genetic burden on the society through the development of robust, rapid and affordable genetic tests for common genetic disorders like hemoglobinopathies and musculopathies and extending prenatal diagnosis and genetic counselling to the common man. He has developed a whole blood-based screening-cum-confirmatory molecular test that can help in early identification and aid to eliminate sickle cell anaemia In India.

Chandrajith is working as a professor at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and has more than 30 years of teaching and research experience. He is mainly involved in research in the field of environmental geochemistry, with a particular interest in bridging chemical, biological and geological sciences to address diverse environmental problems, including hydrogeochemistry and medical geology. His current projects include freshwater geochemistry, the application of isotopes in low-temperature geochemical processes, the study of environmental relationships with human and animal health, and the reconstruction of Holocene climate changes using geochemical proxies. Chandrajith has published over 160 research papers in reputed international journals and written three books and 11 book chapters with a Google H-index of 39. He co-authored the book “Introduction to Medical Geology” published by Springer, Germany. He received the prestigious Georg Forster Research Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in 2022 and is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka.

Hasanuzzaman is a professor of agronomy at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He earned his PhD at Ehime University, Japan, and completed his postdoctoral research at the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. Subsequently, he became an adjunct senior researcher at the University of Tasmania. Hasanuzzaman has more than 400 Scopus-indexed publications, of which more than 250 in the Web of Science. His publications are cited over 27000 times as per Scopus with an H-index of 83 (as of November 2024). He is an editor and a reviewer for more than 80 peer-reviewed international journals and the recipient of Publons Peer Review Award (in 2017, 2018, and 2019). In 2014, he received the TWAS Young Scientist Award. He was also awarded the University Grants Commission Gold Medal, the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Gold Medal Award, the Global Network of Bangladeshi Biotechnologists Award and the Society for Plant Research Young Scientist Award. He is a Fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Linnean Society of London. He is a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate (2021, 2022).

Khan, a leading figure in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, boasts a remarkable career marked by prestigious accolades and ground breaking research. He holds a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Karachi. He has received many awards, including Gold Medals from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and recognition from Elsevier Publishers. His contributions to science have been acknowledged nationally with civil awards and Research Productivity Awards from the Pakistan Council for Science & Technology. Khan's establishment of a cutting-edge laboratory at the University of Karachi's International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences reflects his dedication to advancing research. Noteworthy achievements include pioneering work on enzyme inhibitors against diabetes, peptic ulcers, and leishmaniasis. He has advanced microwave-assisted synthetic chemistry in Pakistan, simplifying complex reactions. Khan's mentorship of young scholars and publication record demonstrates his commitment to fostering scientific excellence. With over 900 research papers published in reputable journals, his impact on medicinal chemistry is profound and far-reaching.

Nadeem is a tenured professor in the Mathematics Department at Quaid-i-Azam University. He is an outstanding researcher and teacher, skilled in administrative duties. His research areas include peristaltic motion, blood flow through stenosis arteries, computational techniques, Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids, stretching and shrinking phenomena, stagnation flows, and analytical techniques to solve highly nonlinear differential equations. The main area of Nadeem's work is applied mathematics. He has considered highly nonlinear physical problems of applied nature obtaining their exact, analytical, and numerical solutions. He is an expert in analytical and numerical techniques. Nadeem has published more than 700 research papers in international journals of high impact factor. His impact factor is greater than 2,000 and his citations are over 30,000. He has received many awards including Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, Salam Prize, Best Young Researcher, Best Teacher, PAS Gold Medal, Raziuddin Gold Medal, PCST Awards, TWAS Young Affiliate, Fellow Pakistan Academy of Sciences, and Obada Prize, and has supervised 34 PhD and 120 Master of Philosophy Graduates.

Nagendra is the director of the School of Climate Change and Sustainability, Azim Premji University, in Bangalore, India. Her research covers forest conservation and urban sustainability. Her interdisciplinary work on forests combines remote sensing, biodiversity and institutional analysis, to elucidate the pattern-process link in human-dominated tropics. Her urban research spotlights city commons and ecosystems, to determine the resilience and wellbeing of the poor in the global South. Her awards include an honorary doctorate from Utrecht University in 2025, the 2009 US National Academy of Sciences Cozzarelli Prize, 2013 Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar award, and 2017 Clarivate Web of Science award. She is a well-known public speaker and writer, whose books include Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future; Cities and Canopies: Trees of Indian Cities; Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India’s Cities, and Bangalore Detectives Club series. She was a lead author of IPCC AR5, and is on the scientific committee of the Future Earth Program for Ecosystem Change and Society, and the Advisory Board of WRI Ross Cities, Future Earth Urban KAN, and EIT Climate KIC.

Pant earned his PhD from Jeonbuk National University, South Korea, in 2011. He is a pioneering chemist of Nepal and made a significant contribution towards fabricating advanced polymer and ceramic nanomaterials that have potential applications in the biomedical field and environmental remediation. His research on nanotechnology for the fabrication of hierarchical nanomembrane and nanoparticles using top-down and bottom-up approaches has greatly enhanced global knowledge in the field of advanced nanomaterials. He has been teaching and doing research for three decades, becoming a leader in the materials science and engineering discipline. Pant has published 88 SCI/SCIE-ranked journal articles and has 5,400 citations with h-index=43. He has more than 100 conference proceedings and non-ranked journal publications and is the author of 14 books and book chapters in chemistry and materials science. He is the editor of four SCI/SCIE journals and the reviewer of about 60 ranked journals. Currently, Pant is working as vice-chancellor of Far Western University, Nepal.

Singhal earned her PhD in 1990 from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India, where she is now a professor. She received fellowships from the Indian National Science Academy, Indian National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences India, International Bioprocessing Association, and Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India). She was a member of scientific panels and working groups, FSSAI, Government of India, and a member of the subject expert committee of national bodies of the Government of India, including BIRAC, DST, UGC, DBT, and TDB. She is a project evaluator for the European Science Foundation, was an associate editor with Carbohydrate Polymers, and is an associate editor with Sustainable Food Technology. She was a chairperson, Research Council, CSIR-CFTRI, and is a former member of the Research Council, CSIR-NIIST. She is a subject expert with the National Board of Accreditation and works in interdisciplinary areas encompassing chemical sciences, in particular, food chemistry, biological sciences, and engineering sciences, where she works with separation techniques, using supercritical carbon dioxide and chromatography.

Tyagi joined the Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), in 1986 through the BARC Training School. He obtained his PhD in 1992, then did postdoctoral research at Max Planck Institute, Stuttgart, Germany (1995–96). Presently, he is Dean and Senior professor at HBNI, Mumbai; and honorary professor at JNCASR, Bengaluru. His research interests are in the field of nanomaterials, and also functional, metastable, and hybrid materials. He has published about 680 papers in international journals and 15 books and supervised 38 students for their PhD. He has received many prestigious awards including the DAE-Homi Bhabha Science and Technology Award, MRSI Medal; MRSI-ICSC Materials Science Senior Award; MRSI-CNR Rao Prize in Advanced Materials; CRSI Bronze Medal; CRSI-CNR Rao National Prize in Chemical Sciences; CRSI-Silver Medal; Rajib Goyal Prize in Chemical Sciences; Metallurgist of the Year award from Ministry of Steel, GoI; National Prize in Solid State and Materials Chemistry; ISCA Acharya PC Ray Memorial Award and NETZSCH – ITAS Award by Indian Thermal Analysis Society and Vigyan Shri award from Government of India.

Chakraborti (PhD, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Jadavpur University, India, 2003; and Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France, 2013) is professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. He was: registrar, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); dean, School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, JNU; dean of research and development, BML Munjal University, India; professor, chair of quantitative finance, Ecole Centrale Paris, France (now CentraleSupélec); lecturer in theoretical physics, Banaras Hindu University, India. He had postdoctoral tenures at Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, and Helsinki University of Technology, Finland (now Aalto University). He is Founding Member, Center for Complexity Economics, Applied Spirituality and Public Policy, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, OP Jindal Global University, India; International Member, Centro Internacional de Ciencias A.C., Cuernavaca, Mexico; council member of Centre for Quantum Social and Cognitive Science, Memorial University, Canada. He was awarded the Young Scientist Medal of the Indian National Science Academy (2009) for work in econophysics.

Dikshit has made significant contributions to molecular pharmacology with special emphasis on redox/NO biology and metabolism. In the area of neutrophil biology she enhanced our understanding of how nitric oxide modulates neutrophil differentiation, survival, free radical generation, NETosis, chemotaxis, and microbicidal activity. She has investigated the role of iNOS in metabolic regulations and insulin sensitivity. She led the anti-thrombotic drug discovery team at Central Drug Research Institute, and one of their new chemical entities has received permission for phase I clinical trial in India. She initiated a programme on drug and biomarker discovery in the area of fatty liver disease at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, with significant contributions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, under a Department of Biotechnology - Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) project, she undertook preclinical and pharmacokinetic evaluations of AYUSH herbal formulations for mitigating SARS- CoV2 and associated pathologies. Dikshit has published 200+ papers, 23 reviews, and 8 patents, edited 3 books, and has supervised 37 PhD and 10 MD theses.

Fotuhi-Firuzabad obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology and Tehran University in 1986 and 1989 respectively, and MSc and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1993 and 1997 respectively. He is a professor of electrical engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. His research interests include power system reliability, distributed renewable generation, demand response and smart grids. His scientific activities include more than 650 papers, and supervising more than 100 master's and doctoral theses. He is the recipient of several national and international awards including: World Intellectual Property Organization Award for the Outstanding Inventor (2003), and Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems (PMAPS) International Society Merit Award in 2016. Fotuhi-Firuzabad is a visiting professor at Aalto University, Finland. He served as the editor-in-chief of IEEE Power Engineering Letters from 2017 to 2022. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (2014) and Associate Fellow of the Iran National Academy of Sciences.

Kabir earned his MSc in biochemistry in 1983 from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), University of Dhaka (DU), Bangladesh and his PhD in nutritional biochemistry in 1990 from the Laboratory of Nutrition, Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku University, Japan. He then held a postdoctoral position under a joint fellowship with the United Nations University and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the National Food Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan (April 1994-April 1995). He was a professor at BMB, DU from December 1997 to January 2023, when he retired. Previously he was associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Life Sciences, Kuwait University, Kuwait (September 2004–June 2009, on leave from DU); associate professor, BMB, DU (December 1991–December 1997); assistant professor, BMB, DU (April 1990–December 1991); and lecturer, BMB, DU (April 1984–March 1990). He was a visiting scientist as a JSPS Fellow at Tohoku University, Japan (December 2003–May 2004); and at Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Karlsruhe, Germany (August 1998–March 1999).

Mukherjee is currently a professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He is a recipient of the NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Award, the Indian National Science Academy Medal, the S. S. Bhatnagar Prize, TWAS young affiliateship and the Swarnajayanti fellowship of the Government of India. He was recently featured by the Department of Science and Technology, India, as one of the 75 scientists under 50 who are shaping Indian science. He is an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Mukherjee is or was in the editorial advisory boards of several journals: Inorganic Chemistry, Inorganica Chimica Acta, Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers, The Chemical Records, and Scientific Reports. He is currently serving as an associate editor of Inorganic Chemistry. He works on self-assembled discrete organic and coordination molecular architectures including their use as molecular vessels in catalysis, sensing, light harvesting and drug delivery. He has published over 205 papers in peer-reviewed journals with a current h-index of 65.

Pandey is distinguished scientist at the Centre for Innovation and Translational Research, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India; and executive director (honorary) at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, India. His major research and technological development interests are in industrial and environmental biotechnology and energy biosciences. Pandey has been Highly Cited Researcher (top 1%) according to Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science since 2018 (h-index 126; citations ~69,000) and has been ranking first in India in biotechnology and eighth in the world in the Stanford University, USA, Citation Report (since 2020). He is fellow of many societies such as World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies; Indian Chemical Society; International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability; National Academy of Sciences, India; Association of Microbiologists of India; International Organization of Biotechnology and Bioengineering; Biotech Research Society, India; and is academician of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Austria. Pandey has been visiting professor in 15 countries.

Pant obtained her MSc in botany from Tribhuvan University, and a PhD in biotechnology from Hiroshima University, Japan. Her major fields of research are application of plant tissue culture in threatened, endangered and economically important plant species in Nepal. She is currently a professor in Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, and also leads Annapurna Research Centre, a non-governmental, and non-profit organization, as a research director. Since over two decades, her active leadership has contributed significantly in developing and promoting tissue culture technology for economic benefit for the people of Nepal through her groundbreaking research. Pant is one of the very few Nepali scientists who have passionately and consistently worked in this important field of research. She has made significant contributions to academics as well as in human resource development in her country by supervising PhD and master’s students. She has contributed to the establishment and development of biotechnology education and research in Nepal by her involvement in various activities.

Prasad (PhD, Harvard University, 1989) has been chair professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India, since November 2018. He was distinguished professor (till April 2020) and dean, School of Mathematics (2011–2013), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai; president, Commission on Developing Countries of International Mathematical Union (2018–22); and president, Indian Mathematical Society (2022). He is an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science (1995), and Indian National Science Academy (2003). He was awarded: Swarnajayanti Fellowship for Mathematics (1998–2003); JC Bose Fellowship (2010–2015 and 2015–2020); and Mega Grant, St. Petersburg, Russia (2018–2021). Prasad received the S.S. Bhatnagar Award for Mathematical Sciences (2002), and the TWAS Award in Mathematics (2019). Among his professional recognitions are: membership, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (1992–93, 2006–07); research professorship, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, USA (2014); Chaire Jean Morlet, Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques, Marseille, France (2016). He was an Invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2018.

Rangappa has developed more than 7,000 synthetic small molecules and implemented some of them against therapeutically important proteins. He served as a postdoctoral fellow, research associate, and visiting professor in more than 10 countries. He is a Fellow of: Royal Society of Chemistry, London; National Academy of Sciences, India; Biotech Research Society of India; and Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, India. He has published over 600 research papers in peer reviewed journals, and holds 13 patents for small-molecule inhibitors of therapeutic targets. Three of his patented compounds namely DMBO, NPB, and AMPC have been sold commercially as pharmacological inhibitors of growth factors, BAD protein, TFF3, NF-κB, CXCR4, c-MET, human methionyl-tRNA synthetases, Wnt/β – catenin, EGFR, TGFβ, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, heparanase and many more therapeutically relavant proteins which are constitutively expressed in various human cancers respectively. His publications received over 15000 scientific citations, with an h-index of 62. He has guided 61 candidates for PhD degree, and presently 3 students are working on their doctoral research under his supervision.

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao is the Group Vice-Chancellor of BITS Pilani, overseeing campuses in Pilani, Hyderabad, Goa, Dubai, and Mumbai. Before joining BITS in 2023, he served as Director of IIT Delhi (2016-2021) and was a Chair Professor at IIT Bombay & IIT Delhi. A globally recognized Nanoelectronics researcher, he has 500+ research papers, 50+ patents (20 US-issued), and 15 licensed patents, including IP used in millions of ICs. He co-founded two deep-tech startups, Nanosniff & Soilsens, with successful products. Prof. Rao played a key role in India's Nanoelectronics programs and is a Fellow of IEEE, TWAS, INAE, IASc, NASI, and INSA. He has supervised 52 Ph.D. students working globally. His 40+ awards include the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Infosys Prize, IEEE EDS Education Award, and three honorary doctorates. He also chairs multiple national committees on Education, Research, and Innovation. He is the BoG Chairperson of JNCASR & NIFTEM, two institutions of national importance in India..

Moslehian is a professor of mathematics at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. He is the President of the Iranian Mathematical Society. His research areas mainly include operator theory and functional analysis. He was a senior associate at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics - ICTP (Italy) and a visiting professor at several universities in England, Sweden, and Japan. He is the editor-in-chief of the journals Banach Journal of Mathematical Analysis, Annals of Functional Analysis, and Advances in Operator Theory being published by Birkhäuser/Springer.

Shahnaz, Senior Members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Fellow of Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, received her PhD degree from Concordia University, Canada, as a winner of the Canadian Common Scholarship. She has been a professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology since 2015. She was a recipient of Bangladesh Academy of Science Gold Medal for her contributions in science and technology. Recently, her nomination has been approved and she has been inducted into IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu as a Professional Member into the Eta Chapter of the board of governors. She has been elected as 2022 IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Committee chair-elect and she is serving as the 2023–24 IEEE WIE committee chair. She has been appointed as 2022–23 member, IEEE New Initiative Committee; 2021–23 Member, IEEE History Committee; liaison between IEEE History Committee and IEEE WIE. She has served as 2021–23 chair, IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) Women in Signal Processing; 2021–23 liaison between IEEE SPS and IEEE WIE; 2021–22 member, IEEE Educational Activities Board Faculty Resource Committe.

Shinwari (PhD, Kyoto University) was postdoctoral fellow, Japan International Research Centre of Agricultural Sciences, and reported two new family of genes (DREB) that respond to drought, cold and salt stresses. He is distinguish national professor and emeritus, and was vice-chancellor, secretary general of Pakistan Academy of Sciences; vice-president of Islamic World Academy of Sciences; CEO of herbal products company Qarshi. He published several books, policy documents, and 470 publications in journals of international repute with 18,000+ citations; h-Index 68 and i10-index 287. Shinwari organized and participated in ~450 international conferences and workshops. He received UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science; civil awards Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, and Best University Teacher from the President of Pakistan. He was member and vice-chair, UNESCO-World Commission for Ethics in S&T; treasurer, Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia. For his expertise he was appointed member InterAcademy Partnership (IAP)-Biosecurity Working Group; Open Science Working Group; IAP Elections Committee; special advisor, Alliance of International Science Organizations.

Wasay is currently Alicharan endowed professor of neurology at Aga Khan University (AKU); past president, Pakistan Society of Neurology and Pakistan Stroke Society; president, Neurology Awareness and Research Foundation; chairman, advocacy and awareness task force of World Federation of Neurology; editor, Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences; chief editor, Jahan e Aasab (neurology public awareness magazine); chair, seed grants research committee at AKU; and co-chair, Non-Communicable Diseases Think Tank at AKU. Wasay received several national and international awards for educational, research and advocacy activities, including Teachers Recognition Award (American Academy of Neurology), Distinguished Teacher Award (Pakistan Society of Neurology), Outstanding Teacher Award (AKU), Gold Medal for Research (Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences), Advocacy Leader of the Year Award (American Academy of Neurology), Victor Rivera Award (UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA) and Lester R. Bryant Founders Award (Marshall University, Huntington, USA). He was awarded fellowship of the Pakistan Academy of Medical Science and Gold Medal in Health Sciences by the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

Ahmed (PhD, 1987, Mines ParisTech, France) is Retired Professor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, India. An earth scientist, he worked extensively on groundwater hydrology in his 37 years’ career at CSIR- National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad. Later he was Chair Professor in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He led a large number of national and international projects on Earth science including the National Aquifer Mapping, India using heli-borne geophysics. He has about 200 SCI publications and supervised 40 doctoral students. He is Secretary of the Asian-GWADI. His awards include National Geoscience Award, International Prize for Water Sciences, National Mineral Award, INC-IAH Excellence Award, NGRI-AHI National Lecture Award, IGU-Annie Talwani Memorial Prize, Young Scientist Award. He is Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of India. Ahmed has led the Indo-French Centre for Groundwater Research in Hyderabad for almost two decades as its founder head. He has been visiting Fellow to the Aligarh Muslim University and visiting professor to Kashmir University, India. Presently he is Consultant in Islamic University of Science and Technology, Kashmir

Badshah earned his PhD in 1994 from Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad. He is Vice Chancellor of the University of Buner and Ex-Professor Emeritus and Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, QAU, Islamabad. He is a Fellow of Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS); Chemical Society, Pakistan; and Associate Editor of the Journal of Chemical Society of Pakistan. His prizes include Research Productivity Award from Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (2001-16); Gold Medal from PAS; Best Teacher and Best Paper Awards from Higher Education Commission, Pakistan; and Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (TI) from Government of Pakistan.

Chatterjee is a Professor of Pharmacology, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, India. Upon completing her MBBS and MD from University of Calcutta, she received her PhD from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Her work as a medical immunopharmacologist includes multiple aspects of Leishmania biology that includes (i) delineating the immunopathology of Post Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL), a disease unique to South Asia, and especially challenging as it has no animal model; (ii) development of diagnostic/prognostic objective molecular tools for monitoring anti-leishmanial therapy; and (iii) studying redox-dysfunction as an effective leishmanicidal approach. In sum, the thrust of Chatterjee’s work is translational research in Indian Leishmaniasis with a view towards facilitating a greater understanding of disease pathogenesis through worldwide collaborations across geographic borders, and supporting the ongoing kala-azar elimination programme. She is a member of four Indian science academies and has over 175 publications in leading International journals (Clin Infect Dis, J Invest Dermatol, J Clin Invest, J Inf Dis).

Dube is Emeritus Scientist of Indian National Science Academy and Csir JC Bose National Fellow, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India. Her research focus is on the endemic organism Leishmania sp., a protozoan parasite causing Kala-azar, a neglected tropical disease and a major health problem in pockets in the Indian sub-continent. She identified novel vaccine and drug targets using functional genomics and proteomics, leading to the development of indigenous protein vaccines. This also led to the detection of new biomarkers for drug resistance in Leishmania. She developed and established the first non-human primate model for preclinical evaluation of a potential antileishmanial drug/vaccine, and generated fluorescent Leishmania organism for rapid drug screening which were recognized nationally and internationally. Member of the three Indian science academies, she has received awards such as Sir J.C. Bose National Fellowship, Indian Council of Medical Research Kshanika Oration, and Dr. B.N. Singh Memorial Oration among others.

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). In 2023 she has been awarded with UNESCO Carlos Finley Prize for Microbiology.

Islam, an internationally reputed scientist in agrobiotechnology, has played a key role in establishing the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering at BSMRAU, Bangladesh. He did PhD at Hokkaido University (HU), and postdoctoral research at the HU, University of Goettingen, University of Nottingham, and West Virginia University under the fellowship programs of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Alexander von Humboldt, Commonwealth, and Fulbright, respectively. He is one of the top 2% of researchers in the world. He collaborated with Sophien Kamoun and led international scientists to rapidly identify the origin of the first epidemic outbreak of wheat blast in Bangladesh. His team developed a novel rapid diagnosis of wheat blast fungus in collaboration with researchers in China and the USA. He is Editor-in-Chief of Bacilli and Agrobiotechnology, and CRISPR-Cas Methods, and Editor of Physiologia Plantarum, Scientific Reports, Physiologia Plantarum, PLOS One, Frontiers in Microbiology, and CAB Reviews. He is an elected Fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences and the American Phytopathological Society. He received many awards and medals for his accomplishments.

Jha is a Professor Emeritus at Tribhuvan University and a foremost ecologist of Nepal. He is credited for developing the ecology discipline in Nepal, and creating a strong network of ecologists in South Asia. He was born in Nepal in 1953 and completed his education in India, including MSc and PhD. He joined Tribhuvan University as Assistant Lecturer in 1976, retired as Professor in 1997, and appointed Professor Emeritus in 2017. He led the Botany discipline in Nepal as Head of the Central Department of Botany for almost a decade, taught at the post-graduate level for four decades, established a culture of research and publication, and inspired young botanists in the country for research. Jha is credited with supervising 11 PhD students at Tribhuvan University in the Institute of Science and Technology, the highest number in that institute. In addition, he has served as a reviewer of nearly five dozen PhD theses in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Australia. Jha is an Academician of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology. He has made significant contributions toward understanding the ecology and environment of Nepal.

Mahadevan (PhD, 1998, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) is a condensed matter theorist working as a Professor at the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, in India. She is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science, and was a Member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) C20 Commission on Computational Physics from 2015 to 2021. She has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials as well as of ACS Energy Letters since 2021. She was a recipient of the NASI (National Academy of Sciences, India)-Scopus Young Scientist Award in 2010 and of the TWOWS Award for Young Women Scientists in physics/mathematics in Asia region in 2010. Her research interests involve using a combination of ab-initio and model Hamiltonian methods in understanding properties of materials - with a focus on electronic structure and magnetism.

Mitra is a Professor, Machine Intelligence Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. She was in the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH), Aachen, Germany (1992–94) as a Fellow under the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She was Visiting Professor at Computer Science Department, University of Alberta, Canada; Meiji University, Japan; and Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark. Mitra received the National Talent Search Scholarship (1978–1983) from National Council of Educational Research and Training, India; the University Gold Medal (1988); the Outstanding Paper Award (1994) by Transactions on Neural Networks, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), for her pioneering work in neuro-fuzzy computing, the CIMPA-INRIA-UNESCO Fellowship (1996), and Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship (2018–2020). She was the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) Chair Professor 2018–2020. Mitra has been awarded the prestigious J. C. Bose National Fellowship, 2021. She is a Fellow of IEEE, Indian National Science Academy (INSA), International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR), Fellow of INAE, and of National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).

Naqib is currently serving as a Professor at the Department of Physics, University of Rajshahi, where he is leading the theoretical condensed matter research group. In terms of scientific productivity, this group ranks among the top in Bangladesh, and has been consistently producing high-quality publications in the fields of computational condensed matter physics, and superconductivity in hole doped cuprates. Naqib obtained his PhD from Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK, in 2003. He had postdoctoral experience both at the Quantum Matter Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK, and at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, New Zealand. His research interests include superconductivity in high-Tc cuprates, magnetic and transport properties of strongly correlated electronic systems, DFT calculations on MAX phase nanolaminates, superhard materials, novel low-Tc superconducting systems and topological insulators, semimetals and superconductors. Naqib has published 130 papers in Scopus indexed journals of international repute so far. His papers have been cited over 2200 times.

Omirov graduated in mathematics and applied mathematics from Novosibirsk State University (1993). From 1993 to 1996 he taught in Namangan State University as a Lecturer. Then he studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan (1996–1999). PhD and Doctor of Sciences theses were successfully defended at the Institute of Mathematics (Tashkent) in 2000 and 2006, respectively. From 2005 till 2016 Omirov worked at the Institute of Mathematics as Leading Scientific Fellow. Since 2016 he has been the Head of Department of Algebra and Functional Analysis at the National University of Uzbekistan. Omirov won the Postdoctoral Fellowship of the International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the independent states of the former Soviet Union (INTAS), Belgium (2005–2006). He was awarded the Diploma of Professor of Algebra (2013) by the Supreme Attestation Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He was a Visiting Scholar at University of California, San Diego, USA, for 10 month in 2019–2020, thanks to a Fulbright Scholar grant.

Panda (PhD, 1994, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India) is Director, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali Punjab, India; and Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. He was a Chair Professor of Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and also served as Head of Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay. He is a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India; Indian Academy of Sciences; and Indian National Science Academy. He received several awards and honours including G.N. Ramachandran Gold Medal, J.C. Bose National Fellowship; Tata Innovation Fellowship; Swarnajayanti Fellowship; Outstanding Research Investigator award by Department of Atomic Energy-Science Research Council; National Biosciences Award; Sun Pharma Research Award; Central Drug Research Institute Award for Excellence in Drug Research; S.C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Pure Science of IIT Bombay; P. S. Sharma Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists; and Fogarty International Research Award of the National Institute of Health, USA. He is an Associate Editor of BMC Molecular and Cell Biology.

Goswami (PhD University of Calcutta, 1996) is currently a senior professor in the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India. Her topic of research is neutrino physics and physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. She is a member of the India-Based Neutrino Observatory collaboration. She has received several awards including the Humboldt fellowship from Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation, P. Sheel Memorial Lecture Award for women scientists from the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad, India, the C .V. Raman Mahila Vijnana Puraskara from Swadeshi Vijnana Andolana, Karnataka, and the J.C. Bose National fellowship of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India. She is an elected fellow of all the three science academies in India.

Joshi, an internationally acclaimed scientist, was a senior professor in the department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, before joining Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT) as their provost, and founding director for the International Center for Cosmology (ICC). He is regarded as a scholar, physicist, and an expert on cosmology. Joshi’s research interests are general relativity and cosmology. He has made fundamental contributions in black hole physics and gravitation theory. His extensive analysis of general relativistic gravitational collapse has been widely recognized as providing significant insights into final fate of massive collapsing stars in the universe, formation of space-time singularities, and cosmic censorship. His research which mainly revolves around Cosmology and Gravitation Physics, has been reported in more than 200 research papers in international journals of repute, and also in monographs from Oxford University Press (OUP), Cambridge University Press (CUP) and other books on the subject. He has held visiting faculty positions in several countries doing research, lecturing on these topic.

Karunaweera is the chair, senior professor of parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and honorary visiting fellow at the School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA. Trained as a medical parasitologist she has extensive teaching and research experience in tropical diseases, with special emphases on vector-borne diseases. Elected Fellow of National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, she is the first Sri Lankan elected as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a Distinguished International Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She received several research grant awards, both international and local, including Tropical Medicine Research Centre Award, by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, US. Fellowship awards received include Harvard University’s Senior Research Scholar Award (2005/6); Fulbright Advanced Research and Lecturing Award (2005). She is the founder president of Sri Lanka National Chapter of Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and current president of Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists.

Mamun obtained his BSc (Honours) and MSc (Thesis) from Jahangirnagar University, and secured 1st class 1st position in both the examinations. He received his PhD degree from the University of St. Andrews (UK) under the Commonwealth Scholarship. Mamun was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (Germany), the Commonwealth Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (UK), the Max Planck Research Fellowship (Germany), among others. Mamun received the AvH the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award in 2009. He was awarded the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Gold Medal in 2004, the TWAS Prizes for Young Scientists in Developing Countries in 2006, among other recognitions. He has published over 400 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals, and has written a textbook published by the Institute of Physics (London).

Raqib, received her MSc degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Dhaka University and her degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Medicine from Karolinska Institute, Sweden (1990-1995). She then returned to Bangladesh in 1995, to join as assistant scientist the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), where she was promoted associate scientist and then scientist in 2002 and 2006, respectively. Raqib received post-doctoral fellowship award from the Ellison Medical Foundation in 2005. She was appointed as the head of the Nutritional Biochemistry Lab in 2008 and was promoted to senior scientist in 2010, and to international senior scientist the next year. Raqib developed an immunological method to diagnose active tuberculosis which was patented in the USA (co-inventor David Sack). Her work on host directed therapy in infectious diseases with Agerberth and Guðmundsson generated first human data of successful clinical recovery, leading to two patents. Her studies on arsenic-mediated immune modulation generated new human data. She has published over 153 peer reviewed articles and mentored several MSc, PhD and post-doctoral students.

Seraj has been teaching molecular biology and working on ways for producing salt tolerant rice for Bangladesh using molecular biological and biotechnological approaches. Along with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), she helped fine-map salt tolerant loci from Pokkali for introgression in a marker-assisted backcrossing approach into commercial rice. She has characterized many Bangladeshi rice landraces as salt tolerant and elucidated the mechanism of Horkuch, whose loci are being introgressed into commercial rice using fluorescent markers. She is working on the only halophyte which can set rice-like grains and which is endemic to the whole coastline of Bangladesh. Several genes from this Oryza coarctata have been cloned into salt sensitive rice. In addition several regulatory genes known to confer salt tolerance have been cloned into sensitive rice. She is the founder director of a center under Dhaka University for conduction of online bioinformatics classes from January 2017. She has supervised 11 PhD students and over 70 Masters students. She has organized many conferences and workshops in Molecular Biology.

Shaabani (PhD, 1994, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran) is full professor, Shahid Beheshti University (SBU), a member of Academy of Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran, and past-president of SBU. His prizes include Distinguished Professor of the Iran Universities selected by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran; Distinguished Professor selected by Iran's National Elites Foundation, (first edition of Allameh Tabatabaei Award); Prize of the International Kharazmi Festival in Basic Science; and Iranian Chemical Society’s Distinguished Chemist. Shaabani’s main expertise is the discovery and design of novel isocyanide-based multi-component reactions ( I-MCRs) in the synthesis of biologically important heterocyclic compounds, preparation of neoteric functional materials with functionalization/modified nano-materials and natural polymers via I-MCRs and applied in drug delivery and materials biomedical platform. He has published more than 350 publications including several review articles and book chapters and more than 100 presentations in conferences.

Baharvand (PhD, 2004, Khwarizmi University) is a Professor, Founder, and Director of Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, Tehran, Iran. His prizes include Mustafa Prize, TWAS Prize in Biology, UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize, Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Prize in Biology, three Razi Research Awards from Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education, two Khwarizmi International Awards from Iran Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, two Dr. Hadavi’s Awards from Academy of Medical Sciences of Iran, Prominent Professor in 3rd term of Allameh Tabatabaei’s Award from Iran Vice Presidency for Science and Technology and National Elite Foundation, etc. He is a member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy, International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. He is currently the editorial board member of eight international journals (e.g., Journal of Biological Chemistry and Scientific Reports from Nature Publishing Group).

Bandyopadhyay completed her BTech and MTech in Computer Science from Calcutta University and IIT Kharagpur, respectively. She joined the Indian Statistical Institute as a faculty member after completing her PhD from the same Institute. She is currently the Director of the Institute. Her areas of research interest include computational biology and Bioinformatics, soft and evolutionary computation, data mining and machine learning, where she has published more than 325 research articles in journals, conferences and edited volumes. She has published six authored/edited books from publishers like Springer, World Scientific and Wiley. She has worked in and delivered invited lectures in various Universities and Institutes world-wide. She has received several awards and fellowships, including the Bhatnagar Prize, Infosys award, TWAS Prize, DBT National Women Bioscientist Award (Young), INAE Silver Jubilee Prize, Young scientist/engineer medals of INSA, INAE and Science Congress, JC Bose Fellowship, Swarnajayanti Fellowship and Humboldt Fellowship. She is currently a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India.