Nadia Arrousse is a professor of chemistry with the School of Science and Engineering at Al Akhawayn University, in Ifrane, Morocco. Her career began with a bachelor's degree in analytical chemistry (2015), which she earned from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Faculty of Science Dhar el Mahraz. Then, she obtained a master's degree in organic chemistry (2017) from the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Fez. In 2018, Arrousse started her PhD at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, working on a doctoral project that merged three distinct disciplines, witnessing her interdisciplinary approach. She intertwined organic chemistry by synthesizing organic inhibitors, and theoretical chemistry by predicting synthesis reaction feasibility using DFT methods. She also employed Monte Carlo simulation to forecast the efficiency of these inhibitors against steel corrosion. With the third discipline, physical chemistry, she applied electrochemical methods to evaluate the inhibition efficiency of the synthesized products. As a postdoc, she followed two industrial projects in Portugal, working at PVD coatings and pitting corrosion in copper heat exchangers.

Lai received his PhD in biomedical engineering from the Malaysia University of Technology and Ilmenau Technical University in Germany through the German Academic Exchange Service PhD Sandwich Programme. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Malaya, and chief technology officer of BioSight Sdn Bhd. Lai was awarded a fellowship by the Association of Commonwealth Universities by the UK in 2021 for his research on recovered COVID-19 patients’ risk of hospital readmission. Later, Lai was conferred the Young Engineer Award 2021 by the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia. Lai was also awarded the IEEE-EMBS Early Career Achievement Award 2021 by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Malaysia Chapter the same year. Lai was elected as Fellow of Engineers Australia and Fellow of Institute of Engineers Malaysia. In 2022, Lai was bestowed the Board of Engineers Malaysia Most Prominent Young Engineering Leader Award by the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

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.

Nargiza Sataeva is a researcher with the Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Institute of Mountain Physiology and Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, Kyrgyz Republic. Her scientific interests focus on the investigation of the functional state of the central nervous system, the features of bioelectrical activity, and the psychophysiological features of adolescents. She is currently working on the following dissertation: “Comparative analysis of the parameters of bioelectrical activity of the brain and psychophysiological characteristics in adolescents from low mountains and high mountains.” More than 20 scientific publications have been published based on her research results. She was awarded a Certificate (2021) and a Certificate of Honor (2023) from the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic; a 1st-degree diploma as the “Best Young Scientist of the Year” (2023) in the Competition among young scientists of the Kyrgyz Republic, and has received a thank you letter (2023) from the Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, head of the interdepartmental working group, for organizing and managing the Congress of Young Scientists A. Kobyakov.

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.

Ahlam Zaid Alkilani is a distinguished associate professor and the dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Zarqa University, in Jordan, where she plays a pivotal role in shaping the academic landscape. Alkilani earned a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy and a Master of Science degrees in pharmaceutical sciences from Jordan University. In 2013, she obtained her PhD in pharmaceutical technology from Queen's University Belfast (UK). She runs several courses in various fields of pharmaceutical technology, specializing in areas such as physical and industrial pharmacy, cosmetics science, and drug delivery systems. Her research is focused on the design and physicochemical characterization of advanced polymeric drug delivery systems, in particular on transdermal drug delivery. For her scientific contributions, she received the Best Poster Award at the 15th Jordanian Pharmaceutical Conference (2014), in Amman, Jordan, and was honoured with the Best Poster Award at the 8th International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmaceutics & Novel Drug Delivery Systems (2016), in Madrid, Spain. Alkilani's research output is reflected in her H-index of 13 and citation count of around 2,000.

Suhair Sunoqrot is an Associate Professor of Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine at Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan’s (ZUJ) Faculty of Pharmacy. She holds a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Jordan in 2007, and a PhD in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013. Her research focuses on the development of nanoscale solutions to tackle delivery challenges of poorly water-soluble drug candidates, with special interest in the valorization of plant polyphenols both as therapeutic agents and as nanomaterial building blocks. She has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in reputable journals and currently holds the highest number of citations across ZUJ and the highest H-index at the Faculty of Pharmacy. Notably, she was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Daniel Turnberg Fellow at King’s College London. She received the PhosAgro/UNESCO/IUPAC Green Chemistry for Life Award and the TWAS Prize for Young Scientists from Jordan in 2018. She is currently the only Jordanian member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) (2019-) and a TWAS Young Affiliate (2021-).

Ghanya Al-Naqeb is an Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences at the Department of Food Sciences and Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture Food and Environment, University of Sana’a, Yemen. She is currently also a research fellowship holder at the Centre Agriculture Food Environment at the University of Trento, Italy. At Sana’a University, she teaches several courses including biochemistry, functional foods, preventive nutrition, introduction to human nutrition, food processing and preservation, medical nutrition therapy, nutrition through life cycle, nutritional assessment, food analysis and research methodology. Al-Naqeb’s research focused on the role of the natural products from herbal plants and functional foods for disease prevention. Her research is providing new knowledge on the health benefits of the herbal plants as a folk remedy and searching about new effective natural products and functional foods for diseases prevention to be used as health supplements or nutraceuticals. She is the winner of the 2016 Elsevier Foundation Award for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World, in Biological Sciences: Agriculture, Biology, Medicine, for the Arab Region.

Sri Fatmawati completed her Bachelor of Science in chemistry at the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Indonesia, and obtained her master's and PhD degrees from Kyushu University, in Japan. Her research is primarily focused on the exploration of Indonesian natural products. For her significant contributions to science and development she was a co-recipient of the 2013 International Rising Talents of L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science. In 2016, she received the Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World. She is also renowned for her leadership role within scientific organizations. In 2018, she founded the Indonesia National Chapter of the Organization for Women in Science in the Developing World, which she is currently chairing. She served as the president of the Indonesian Young Academy of Sciences (2020–2022) and serves in the Executive Committee of the Global Young Academy for the term 2022–2024. She attended the 2023 World Laureates Association International Forum in Shanghai, China.

Prabhat K. Singh is an associate professor with the Radiation and Photochemistry Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India. He received his PhD from Homi Bhabha National Institute (2011) and pursued his postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, US. His current research interests include ultrafast spectroscopy, supramolecular chemistry, and the use of self-assembled materials to design optical sensors for bio-sensing and chemo-sensing applications. He was honoured with the Young Scientist Award by the Department of Atomic Energy, India (2013), and by the National Academy of Science, India (2017). He served as a member of the Indian National Young Academy of Science (2017–2021) and of the National Academy of Sciences, India (2017). He was a Young Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2017–2020) and, since 2023, is a fellow of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, India. He is also a member of the German Global Young Academy (2020). He has been selected as a Fellow of the Indian Chemical Society and Associate Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy for the year 2023 and has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).

Fernando Zorto is a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Research Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH). At UNAH, he teaches heat transfer, design projects, and research methods to engineers. He holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from UNAH and a Master of Science in project management from the Central American Technological University, also in Honduras. He is a PhD candidate in design, manufacturing, and managing industrial projects with Valencia Polytechnic University, in Spain. His research interests include atmospheric water harvesting, innovative projects, and aerospace systems. Since 2017, he has led the first satellite project in Honduras. He received the Honour of Merit of Engineering of the Pan-American Confederation of Mechanical, Electrical, and Other Fields of Engineering. In 2017, Zorto won the Best Essay about UNAH Scientific Research and Research Management at the XI Conference of Scientific Research UNAH.

María Eugenia Cabrera Catalán is a professor at the School of Physical Sciences and Mathematics and a member of the Institute of Physical Sciences and Mathematics, at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC), in Guatemala City. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from USAC, and a diploma in high energy physics from The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, in Trieste, Italy. She earned a PhD degree in physics from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Gravitation and Astroparticle Physics Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and with the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her research interests are in particle physics. She studies theory and phenomenology of physics beyond the Standard Model, collider phenomenology, theory and phenomenology of dark matter searches. In recognition of her contribution to science, Cabrera Catalán was awarded the 2021 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards in Physical Sciences for the Latin American and the Caribbean Region. She is a founding member of the Central American Network of High Energy Physics and Scientific Computing.

Priscilla Kolibea Mante is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. She obtained her PhD in pharmacology from the same university in 2013. She was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan Medical School, US, under the University of Michigan African Presidential Scholars programme through which she underwent her postdoctoral training until 2018. Her research focuses on the development of better therapeutic options for resistant epilepsy. She is currently working on developing a portable device that reduces the costs of diagnosing mental conditions while improving the therapy. Mante received the International Rising Talents Award in 2019, in the frame of the L’Oréal Foundation-UNESCO programme. She is a beneficiary of the 2019 Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World Early Career Fellowship. She is also a Fellow of the Africa Science Leadership Programme and a Young Affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences. Mante is also a registered pharmacist with a specialization in neuropharmacology.

Amer Ahmed Al-Qaaod is a collaborative physicist with more than eight years of international experience, who is researching in reactor physics, nuclear systems design, particle transport simulations, application in low energy neutron physics, dosimetry and radiation shielding-detection modelling. He completed his doctoral and post-doctoral training in nuclear physics in Cairo, Egypt, and then moved to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, where he started a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in 2018. During his fellowship, he worked as a consultant in shielding design in the Nuclear Science and Instrumentation Laboratory, part of the Physical and Chemical Science Division at the International Atomic Energy Agency, before moving to the German National Metrology Institute (PTB), in September 2020. He is an expert in Monte Carlo simulation tools for modelling nuclear processes, Python programming language, and has a solid knowledge of radiation measurements equipment. He published more than 10 peer-reviewed publications and one scientific book in particle physics, and delivered oral and poster presentations at several international conferences.

Noushin Arfatahery is a PhD researcher at Free University of Berlin, Germany, in collaboration with the Alfred Wegner Institute for Polar and Marine Research Wadden Sea Station in Germany and Charite University's Department of Molecular Microbiology in Berlin, Germany. She holds a Bachelor of Medical Science and a Master of Food Microbiology at Tehran University of Medical Science in Iran. Her research interests include aquaculture, microbiology, immunology, antibiotic resistance, and seafood production in order to contribute to a sustainable food supply. She was nominated in 2017–2018 and 2019 for the John Maddox Prize by Standing up for Science. She is also currently a member of Aquacultur Europe. She was a finalist for the 2022 Aquaculture Award for Environmental Impact in the UK.

Paula Echeverría-Galindo is a scientific researcher with the Institute for Geosystems and Bioindication at the Technical University of Braunschweig, in Germany. At the same institute, she earned a magna cum laude recognition for her PhD degree in natural sciences. Paula holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, and a master’s degree in Limnology and Marine Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has over 10 years of experience as a teacher of biology, geosciences and climate change. Her research interests are in climate change and its impact on aquatic communities. Paula is focusing on modern ecology and paleolimnological reconstructions, using multiple aquatic microorganisms, sedimentology and geochemical approaches to understand how the systems adapt and respond to global warming. Her research work has been carried out in the neotropics and on the Tibetan Plateau. She was awarded with a grant to expand her research in the neotropics examining paleolimnological data from volcanic lakes in Guatemala. She has been involved in activities related to gender equality and scientific outreach.

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.

Elías Peraza has been the Educational Technological Prospective Manager of the Directorate of Educational Technology, Salvadoran Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, since 2022. He conducts studies in science, technology and innovation (STI), prioritizing those of interest to the education system, including emerging technologies. He graduated in business administration from the University of El Salvador in 2010 and earned a master’s degree in business management for innovation and internationalization from the University of Basque Country, Spain, in 2011. In 2019, Peraza received a PhD in economics with cum laude distinction from Universities of Burgos, Valladolid and Salamanca, Spain. He studied both his master’s and doctorate thanks to scholarships from the European Union. Peraza has published academic and diffusion articles about systems of innovation, STI policies, business innovation behaviour, and economic policy. Regarding awards, he got the Ruben Dario Central American Award for Academic Excellence in 2009, and participated in the 22nd TWAS-LACREP Young Scientist Conference at Rio de Janeiro.

Lobna Said is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Microelectronics System Design Master Program at Nile University in Egypt. At the same university, she teaches electric circuits and electronics courses. She holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in electronics and electrical communication from Cairo University, Egypt. She earned a PhD in electronics and electrical communication from Cairo University, Egypt. Her research interests are interdisciplinary, including modelling, optimization, linear and nonlinear circuits and systems, and chaos theory. In recognition of her contributions to science and development, Said was a winner of the 2019 State Encouragement Award for Engineering Science. In 2019 and 2020, she was the recipient of Dr. Hazem Ezzat Prize for the Outstanding Researcher. In 2020 and 2021, Her name was in the top 2 percent of scientists according to the Stanford Report. In 2021, she was awarded the IEEE Outstanding Branch Counsellor & Branch Chapter Advisor Award.

Roberto Rodriguez-Labrada is the Deputy Director of the Cuban Neurosciences Centre, in Havana, Cuba. He earned a PhD in health sciences (2013) from the University of Medical Sciences of Havana. He was the Deputy Director of research at the Centre for the Research and Rehabilitation of the Hereditary Ataxias, in Holguín, Cuba (2006–2019) where he ran projects on the epidemiological, clinical and neurophysiological characterization of Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2, improving the disease staging, the description of biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and treatment strategies. He won international awards from the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (2017), the International Brain Research Organization (2007, 2011) and the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (2008), as well as prizes from the Cuban Academy of Sciences (2014, 2019) and the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (2014–2019). In 2019, he received the Carlos J. Finlay Order, the highest Cuban recognition awarded to researchers. In 2012, he became a Young Affiliate of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and, in 2019, a member of the Steering Committee of the Pan American Hereditary Ataxia Network.