Mary Amoako (nee Adjepong) is a lecturer and dietician with the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in Kumasi, Ghana. At KNUST, she teaches metabolism in health and diseases, nutrition through the human life cycle, and nutrition in emergencies. She holds a Bachelor of Sciences in biochemistry and biotechnology and a Master of Philosophy in human nutrition and dietetics, both from KNUST. She earned a PhD in human nutrition from Michigan State University, East Lansing (US) and a professional certification as a registered dietician with the Allied Health Professions Council, Ghana. She is interested in global nutrition, dietetics, child and maternal nutrition. She received the Borlaug Higher Education in Agricultural Research Development (2014), and the Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (2016), both from USAID. She is an early-career fellow of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World. In 2023, she received the L'ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science Young Talents Award, for Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities Sustainable Development Goals grant.

Fekadu Gurmu Balcha is a Senior Researcher at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2016 he obtained his PhD in plant breeding from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa. Through the first controlled crossing experiments in Ethiopia, he developed two vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) varieties exhibiting farmers' desired traits (high dry matter content and high yield). The varieties were released in November 2019 and received good acceptance by farmers, seed producers and consumers. They are currently grown by the majority of the sweet potato producing farmers. In 2017, he received awards and letters of recognition from the Ethiopian former Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr. Hailemariam Desalegn, and from the former President of the South Regional State in Ethiopia, His Excellency Mr. Dessie Dalke, in recognition of his contribution to food and nutrition security through the development of bio-fortified sweet potato varieties, seed production and technology dissemination to end-users. In 2020, he was awarded as an outstanding researcher by the Southern Agricultural Research Institute.

Dimobe is an Assistant Professor at the Insitute of Environmental Science and Rural Development, University of Dédougou, in Dédougou, Burkina Faso. Since January 2019, he has been working as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Dédougou. In 2020, he received the African-German Network of Excellence in Science grant for junior researchers. Dimobe earned a Master of Science in botany (2007), and in applied plant biology (2010), both from the University of Lomé, Togo, and a PhD in botany and plant ecology (2017) from the University Ouaga I Professor Joseph KI-ZERBO, in Burkina Faso, and Rostock, in Germany. From 2017–2020 Dimobe worked with the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use as a research scientist and member of the Earth Observation Applications Unit. His research interests include climate change, natural resources management, biogeography, conservation, and biomass modelling. He is involved in capacity building, especially in the use of open access earth observation data and software for addressing environmental change problems. In 2015, he spent six months at the University of Rostock, Germany, as a visiting scholar.

Eric Djomo Nana is a Senior Researcher/Assistant Professor and Head of the Wildlife Research Unit at the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development in Cameroon. He is also currently a Research fellow in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and a Master of Science in environmental impact assessment from the University of Dschang in Cameroon and a Taught Masters in Parasitology from the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon. He earned a PhD in ecology from Charles University in Prague, in the Czech Republic. His research interests are in wild meat use and trade and how that affect threatened species, local livelihoods, and facilitate spill over of highly pathogenic viruses. He has published several articles in peer-reviewed impact factor journals and has won several research grants and awards. He is an affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences since 2021. He is the current President of Cameroon's chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology. He is also an adjunct professor at the Higher Institute of Environmental Science in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Phyllis W. Muturi is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Embu, in Embu, Kenya, where she teaches Agricultural Sciences. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Master of Science in Crop Protection, both from the University of Nairobi, in Nairobi, Kenya, and her PhD in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology from Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda. Her interests include Crop Protection and Crop Improvement. She has more than six years of teaching and research experience. She is the Students’ Academic Advisor for Plant Breeding, Biotechnology and Crop Protection programmes. She is a member of the Biotechnology Technical Committee (2020–2022), a member of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (2019–2021), and the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (2019–2021). She was awarded Early Career Fellowship by Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World last year. In 2019, she received a visiting scholarship from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Uppsala) and in 2018 she was awarded the Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund Research Fellowships at Biosciences eastern and central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Onjamirindra Sarobidy Rakotonarivo is a research fellow at the Department of Forestry and Environment at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar. She holds a Bachelor of Science in agricultural sciences and a Master of Science in Sustainable Tropical Forestry. She earned a joint PhD in environmental and development economics from Bangor University, UK, and the University of Copenhagen, the Netherlands, in 2016. Her research interests are in nature-climate interventions in Africa, such as forest conservation, restoration, and climate-smart agriculture. She uses a mixed method approach, including field experiments and qualitative approaches, to study the political and socioecological factors that increase their effectiveness. By identifying what does and doesn’t work, and under what conditions, her research aims to support the design of policies that contribute to the long-term well-being of people and nature. She also has a track record of supporting evidence-based policy and working in multi-stakeholder engagement.

Lydia Rhyman earned her PhD in computational chemistry (2013) from the University of Mauritius, where she is currently a research fellow in the Computational Chemistry Group. Her research interests lie in the use of computational chemistry methods, as a tool that provides insights into chemical systems at molecular levels, to complement experimental results and to solve chemistry-related problems that cannot be assessed at the experimental level. One such example is the characterization of molecular structures and the elucidation of reaction mechanisms. She actively promotes computational chemistry in Africa, as well as science education among girls in secondary schools and at tertiary level. She organises capacity-building activities to encourage students to orient their research toward tackling issues that the African continent is facing. She raises awareness of responsible research practices and integrity. She is an affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences, a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the Global Young Academy, and the Commonwealth Chemistry Early Career Network Committee representing the African region.

Tonjock Rosemary Kinge is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Bamenda, in Bamenda, Cameroon, where she teaches mycology, plant pathology and botany. She earned a Master of Science in Botany and a PhD in Botany (Mycology) from the University of Buea, in Buea, Cameroon. Her scientific interests include: mycobiome analysis, fungi diversity, mushroom domestication and conservation, plant pathogenic fungi assessment and control, ethnomycological studies and multidisciplinary research. Tonjock is a member of the Cameroon Academy of Young Scientists. In 2019, she was named Fellow of the Africa Science Leadership Programme at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In 2020, she became an affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. She won a TWAS-Chinese Academy of Sciences postgraduate fellowship (2008–2009), China; a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Free State, South Africa (2016–2017); and a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Florida (2017–2018), in Gainesville, Florida. Currently, she is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Halima Twabi is an associate professor of statistics at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Malawi. She holds a Bachelor of Science in statistics, as well as a Master of Science and a PhD, both in biostatistics from the University of Malawi. She studies causal inference for observational data, multivariate statistics, longitudinal and survival analysis, and statistical modelling and analysis of social and health data. Her recent work involves developing causal inference methods for non-experimental studies with multiple outcomes. In 2020, she received the L'Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Sub-Saharan Africa Young Talent Award for her work on applying causal inference to maternal and child health. In 2023, she was nominated treasurer of the International Biometric Society Sub-Saharan Africa Network, and treasurer of the IBS Malawi region. She is a founding member of the Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics network in Malawi, and collaborates on the project "Strengthen Modelling and Analytics Capacity and Ecosystem for Women’s Health" funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.