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.

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.

Dr. Kifah Gharzeddin received his PhD in Field Crops from Tishreen University, Syria in 2017. His primary research interests include studying multiple breeding methodologies applied to Chickpea and Faba bean, molecular genetics, and biometrics. Between 2008 and 2017, Kifah led the faba bean breeding program in Syria in collaboration with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), where this program resulted in the release of two superior varieties of faba bean in Syria in 2014.
Dr.Gharzeddin has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Biology of Carleton University, Ontario, Canada since 2020 where he developed a chickpea breeding program in partnership with national and Internation research institutions and plant growers in Eastern Ontario.

Phyu Phyu Lwin is an environmental scientist from Myanmar, who earned her PhD in agricultural science from Kyoto University, Japan, in 2018. She holds a MSc in forest sciences and forest ecology from Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany (2013) and a BSc in forestry from University of Forestry (now University of Forestry and Environment Sciences), in Yezin, Myanmar (2006). She currently serves as a saff officer with the Forest Research Institute, Forest Department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC).
Her initial interest focused on nature and conservation of natural forests, but then she realized that forests and people are intimately connected, and moved towards social science, intertwining them with nature and ecosystems. She is involved in providing information for policy reform in the forestry sector; she develops strategies to secure local livelihoods, and 'knowledge, attitude and practice' methods. Being aware of the importance of indigenous knowledge for forests well-being, she is exploring the traditional knowledge of local people who live in nearby forests, to merge this precious heritage with scientific data.

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.

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.

Munkhtsetseg Tsednee is a scientific researcher at Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS), in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She earned a PhD in biotechnology from the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan (2013); and a MSc (2005) and a BSc (2003) in chemistry, both from the National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. She worked at Academia Sinica (Taipei), the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Tokyo, as a postdoctoral researcher (2013-19), before returning back to MAS. She is a plant expert, interested in understanding the molecular basis of abiotic stress-adapted plants. Her research focuses on plant response to nutrient stresses and plant metal hyperaccumulation under soil heavy metal pollution. She has expertise in developing mass spectrometry based approaches for metabolomics and metal speciation. She received awards from Academia Sinica, Taiwan Society of Plant Biologists, Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences; and served as a member of professional associations including Association for Women in Science (2015-present), Japan Society of Plant Physiologists (2017-2019), Taiwan Society of Plant Biologists (2012-2015).

Lamya Al-Haj is an assistant professor at Sultan Qaboos University, with a PhD in molecular biology from University College London (2014), and an MSc in environmental science and technology from the University of New South Wales (Australia), in 2006, where she received the Boban Marcovic Prize in Environmental Science. Her research is focused on the production of biofuels and HVP’s from microorganisms using genetic engineering tools and production of biodiesel from waste date seeds. She is the recipient of national and international awards: the Sultan Qaboos University's award for outstanding scientific contribution, and the Al Mara award for Innovation and Technology, 2019. At the international level she is the recipient of the Gulf Intelligence-Occidental award 2016, L’Oréal UNESCO award for women in science-Middle East fellowship award (2018) and most recently the Young Global Leader 2020 award from the World Economic Forum. Al-Haj aspires to promote STEM education, R&D and youth development initiatives in the Arab world creating positive change. In past years she has delivered numerous scientific, inspirational and motivations talks targeted to the Arab youth and women.