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).

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).

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.

Qadri (PhD 1980, Liverpool) is Senior Svientist, Intl. Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Res., Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). Her work on infectious diseases and vaccines is carried out in collaboration with intl. and natl. organizations. She began her career (1981) as Asst. Prof., Dept. of Biochem., U. of Dhaka. She joined ICDDR,B in 1986 as a Post-doctoral Fellow and has remained there. She is overseeing a large feasibility study for introducing cholera vaccine in high risk people in the country. She has published +334 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her honours include: Gold medal from the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences for outstanding research in Biological Sciences for 2006. Prof. C.N.R. Rao Prize for Sci. Res., TWAS; Hon. Intl. Fellow, ASTMH; Ambassador, Am. Soc. for Microbiology (ASM) for Bangladesh; Christophe and Rodolphe Mérieux Found. Grand Prize, French Acad. of Sci.; Fellow, Bangladesh Acad. of Sci.; Member of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Tech. Bank for the LDCs.

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.

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.

Shamsher Ali (PhD from Manchester University, UK, 1965) was President of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) (2004-12); Founder Vice-Chancellor of Bangladesh Open University (1992-96); Founder Vice-Chancellor, Southeast University, Dhaka (2002-10); Professor of Physics, DU (Dhaka University: 1982-2006); served the Atomic Energy Commission (1961-1982); was Director, Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka (1970-78); is now life-long Honorary Professor of Physics (DU), Professor Emeritus, Southeast University; Awards include Hari Prasanna Roy Gold Medal, DU; BAS Senior Gold Medal; Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah Gold Medal and TWNSO and ROCASA Award for Communicating Science to the Public [see Springer (Opportunities and Challenges for the Asia-Pacific Region, Editors: Tan Wee Hin, Leo, Subramaniam, R. (Eds.)];; elected to Honorary Fellowship (the highest award) of World Innovation Foundation (HQ in UK) founded by Nobel Laureate Dr. Glenn Seaborg; Fellow, Islamic World Academy of Sciences and BAS;. Ali-Bodmer alpha-alpha potential(named after me and Bodmer) is of interest also to Astro Physics and is being used since 1966 in researches on nuclear cluster models and on nucleo synthesis in Supernova.

Em. Prof. Baron Marc Van Montagu (PhD, Organic Chemistry/Biochemistry, Ghent) is Chairman of the VIB - Intl. Plant Biotechnology Outreach and Pres. of PRRI. He discovered, with J. Schell, the Ti-plasmid and invented the Agrobacterium transformation technology, now used worldwide to produce GM plants. He made major contributions on fundamental plant sciences and on biotech agriculture, such as GM plants resistant to insects or tolerant to more environmentally friendly herbicides. He was Founding Member and Member of the Board of Directors of the biotech companies Plant Genetic System (PGS) and CropDesign, spin-offs from his laboratory. He has received numerous honours, including the Japan prize (1998), and the World Food Prize (2013). He is member of seven scientific academies worldwide, and Goodwill Ambassador for Agribusiness at UNIDO. He has produced +1000 publications, h-index 125.

Jean-Pierre EZIN is Emeritus Professor of mathematics of Université d'Abomey-Calavi. He held doctorat d'Etat in Geometric Analysis at Université Lille I, France. He has been Professor at Université Nationale, Bénin since 1982 ; senior lecturer at Université Lille I (1973-1982). He has been researcher at Abdus Salam ICTP,Trieste, Italy (1986-1988).He also was Commissioner of Economic Community of West African States for Education,Science and Culture from 2014-2016 and Commissioner of African Union for Human Resource,Science and Technology from 2008-2013. He is Founding Director of Institut de Mathématiques et de Sciences Physiques, Bénin from1988-2008. In between he was Recteur Université Nationale, Bénin (1990-1992).As other implications, he was member of Board of Council Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) of NSF, USA, and of Board of Council International Science Programme (ISP), Sweden from 2010-2013 and from 2011-2015 Chairperson of Agence Inter-établissement de Recherche pour le Développement (AIRD),France. He is initiator and founding member of Bénin Academy of Science. In 2014 he was honored by TWAS special Award " for building science capacity in Africa".

Mahouton Norbert Hounkonnou is a full Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin. His works deal with noncommutative and nonlinear mathematics, and complexity. He authors books. He serves as a member or associate editor of editorial boards for renowned book series and journals in mathematics and mathematical physics. He supervised 37 PhD and 40 M. Sc. students from various continents. He was awarded a series of recognitions for the excellency of his works such as the Prize of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 1996, the Tokyo University of Science President Award in 2015, and the 2016 World Academy of Sciences C. N. R. Rao Prize for Scientific Research "for his incisive work on noncommutative and nonlinear mathematics and his contributions to world-class mathematics education ";. He is the President of the Network of African Science Academies, former President of the Benin National Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. His membership extends to African Academy of Sciences, Academy of Science of South Africa, Académie Hassan II des Sciences et Techniques du Maroc, InterAcademy Partnership Advisory Committee, etc.

Moraes R., biologist (PhD, 1996, Aarhus University) is director, professor and researcher, Herbario Nacional and Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz; editor in chief of Ecology in Bolivia journal; member of the Bolivian science academy; focal point for Bolivia in the Women for Science Program of the InterAmerican Association of Science Academies. She documented flora and vegetation in the lowlands of Bolivia and has specialized in the study of native palms of Bolivia. Her prizes include 2006 Jubilee Award from the International Foundation for Science; 2016 Procer Pedro Domingo Murillo in the Degree of Civic Honor of the Municipal Council of La Paz; 2017 Grand Master in the Adela Zamudio degree, Chamber of Deputies. She published 18 edited books; 44 chapters; 61 articles; 23 prologues, editorials and other publications; among others. Starting in 2021 Dr. Moraes was appointed for president of the Bolivian Academy of Sciences.

Rada got her BSc in biochemistry and pharmacy from Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), Bolivia, and she holds a master's degree in public health with major in epidemiology. She is Researcher at the Cytogenetics Unit, Genetics Institute, Medicine School, UMSA and a Professor, Assistant Professor, and Guest Professor in several national and international courses. She was a member of the Regional Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Council for Science (RCLAC ICSU) and Past-President of the Regional Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Council of Science (RCLAC ISC). She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Bolivia, focal point for Bolivia in the Women for Science programme of the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences, member of the Latin American Network of Biological Dosimetry, member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, member of the Bolivian Genetics Society. She has published a book chapter and several scientific articles. Her main research topics are: human genetics, cytogenetics, epidemiology of genetic diseases, and biological dosimetry.

Toledo, a Bolivian biologist who earned a PhD in 2010 from Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands, is a professor, researcher, and laboratory coordinator in the Biology Department at Gabriel René Moreno University in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She held the position of botanist in the BOLFOR project, research coordinator in the Bolivian Institute of Forest Research, and executive director at Noel Kempff Mercado Museum of Natural History. Toledo studied the vegetation diversity and structure, and the plants used by indigenous peoples in the Bolivian lowlands. From her participation in several projects, she obtained many publications, including book chapters, books, and scientific papers. She also presented results at (inter)national congresses and has made contributions to human resource development by supervising graduate students and training local people. She was chief editor of the Journal of the Bolivian Botany Society and the Kempffiana Journal. Currently, Marisol Toledo is a member of the Academy of Sciences of Bolivia; National Advisory Committee of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund; and in international research networks ( RAINFOR, 2ndForests).

Alencar da Silva obtained his PhD in 1988 at IMPA-Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro. Currently, he is a professor at UFAL-Federal University of Alagoas in Maceió, State of Alagoas, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the president of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, coordinator of the Center for Research in Computational Mathematics in Maceió, member of the Scientific Council of the Research Foundation of the State of Alagoas, member of the Council for Basic Education of CAPES (Brazil’s Graduate Studies Agency), and member of the Scientific of IMPA. He was vice-rector for Research and Graduate Studies at UFAL and he was honored with the Grand Croix of the Order of Scientific Merit, granted by the President of Brazil in 2010.

Carlos Alberto Aragão de Carvalho (BSc, 1973, MSc, 1976, PUC/RJ; PhD Princeton, 1980): retired Professor of Physics, UFRJ (1994 - 2016); specialist in Quantum Field Theory & its applications. Currently: Director of Scientific and Technological Development, Finep/MCTI. Previously: Research Associate, CERN (1980-81); Research Associate, CNRS, University of Paris XI, Orsay (1981-82); Assistant Professor (1982-88) & Associate Professor (1985-93), PUC/RJ; Director of Innovation, Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development - ABDI (2005); Director of Scientific and Technological Development, Finep/MCTI (2005 - 2007); President, Brazilian National Research Council - CNPq (2010); Director-General, National Center for Research in Energy & Materials - CNPEM (2011-14); Director of Innovation & Technology, Inmetro (2014-2016); Technical Consultant, Naval Agency for Nuclear Safety and Quality - Brazilian Navy (2017-2023). Member: Brazilian Academy of Sciences and Brazilian National Academy of Engineering. Prizes: Medal & Great Cross, Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit; and Medal, Order of Naval Merit.

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

Artaxo is professor of environmental physics at the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. He obtained his MSc and PhD in physics also at USP. He has previously worked at NASA, Harvard University (USA), Antwerp, Stockholm and Lund Universities. His main interest is in global climate change with a focus on the role of aerosol particles in the radiative balance as well as on environmental issues in Amazonia. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and member of the IPCC. He has been honored on several occasions: In 2004 he received a Senate vote of approval for his Brazilian scientific work on Amazonian environment, and awarded a Doctor of Philosophy Honoris Causa in 2009 at the University of Stockholm, Sweden. He is one of the most cited Brazilian researchers with more than 480 papers, with 51,300 citations in Google Scholar, with an h-index of 105. Has 24872 citations in the Research ID with an h-index of 83. Published 27 papers in the Science and Nature family of journals. He received the prize of "Most Influential Researcher" from Clarivate in 2014, 1015, 2018 and 2019.

Ohara Augusto is a Full Professor at the Biochemistry Department, Chemistry Institute, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Augusto´s research interests always focused on the understanding of the multiple roles of radicals and oxidants in physiology and pathophysiology. She received several prizes for her contributions to the redox area and supervised many students. Presently, she is the Director of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Redox Processes in Biomedicine (Redoxoma) (http://redoxoma.iq.usp.br/) in São Paulo, Brazil.

Azevedo is full professor at the Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, University of São Paulo (USP) in Piracicaba. He obtained his PhD in 1992 at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. He is Fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since 2010. Azevedo supervised 18 Master and 30 PhD students and 24 post-doctoral fellows. Azevedo has held positions as Coordinator of two Post-Graduate Programs, other administrative positions at USP, and Member of the Botany Advisory Committee at Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), among others. Azevedo is strongly involved with scientific editing and was a member of the Editorial Board of several journals. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Applied Biology (Wiley). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Scientia Agricola. He was Vice-President of the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors. He has published over 210 papers.

Barbosa is professor in the Departamento de Matematica, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Campus do PICI, Fortaleza, Brazil. A well known mathematician and expert in differential geometry, he has made outstanding contributions to the stability of minimal immersions of surfaces in the Euclidean space, and towards precise, simple conditions to decide when critical points for the variational problem of minimizing area are minimal. He has been awarded the Medal of Scientific Merit of Brazil, is fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the Academy Cearense of Sciences, and is a member of the Brazilian and American Mathematical Societies and the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science. He was, for two terms, the president of the Brazilian Mathematical Society. Recently he became Professor Emeritus and President of the Ethics Commission of the Universidade Federal do Ceará.

Barreto completed his Medical Studies and a Master in Public Health at Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. He was awarded a PhD from the University of London. He's a Professor at UFBa and a Senior Investigator at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. He leads a multidisciplinary research group studying poverty-related infectious diseases, allergy and asthma, the environmental and social determinants of health, health inequalities, and the impact of population-based health and social interventions on health. Recently he set up the Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health-CIDACS where is housed the “100 million Brazilians cohort” aimed to evaluate the impact of social programs on health. He was a lead organizer of the Lancet Series on Brazil, published in 2011. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers and has supervised 25 successful PhD thesis. He is an elected fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the World Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Professor at the LSHTM

Bauzer Medeiros is Full Professor at the Instituto de Computação of Unicamp, the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, in Brazil. She earned her MSc in 1979 from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and her PhD in Computer Science in 1985 from the University of Waterloo, in Canada. She received Brazilian and international awards for research, teaching, and work in fostering the participation of women in information technology. Her research is centred on the managing scientific data, including handling very heterogeneous data sources. She coordinated large transdisciplinary and multi-institutional projects in agro-environmental planning, biodiversity and health, involving, among others, sensor data streams, satellite images, photos, videos, sound, clinical data and all kinds of textual sources. As the President of the Sociedade Brasileira de Computação (2003–2007), she launched some of the first countrywide initiatives to attract women to computing. She is recognized in Brazilian and international forums for initiatives associated with public policies in science and technology and in open data, and coordinates open science activities at the Brazilian Acad

B. Noronha received his BS degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 1987, MSc degree in 1989, from the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering (COPPE)-UFRJ, and PhD degree in 1994 from COPPE-UFRJ and Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse – Lyon, France. In 1996, he joined the catalysis group of the National Institute of Technology, Brazil. He worked in a postdoctoral position with Prof. Daniel Resasco at Oklahoma University from 1999–2000. He has been a visiting professor in a research chair at the Ecole Centrale de Lille in the Biomass Valorisation Group at Unité de Catalyse et de Chimie du Solide since 2019. He is a category 1A researcher of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and a researcher of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Brazil. Since 2008, he has been one of the Brazilian representatives on the International Association of Catalysis Societies. In 2021, he was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

Beraldo is professor of chemistry at Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. She obtained her PhD degree (Docteur d’État ès Sciences Physiques) from Université Paris VI (1984). She spent one year as senior intern at the Chemistry Department, Illinois State University (1996), and was invited professor at Université Paris XIII (1993, 1999, 2010). Beraldo is interested in inorganic chemistry and medicinal inorganic chemistry. She supervised 11 postdoctoral interns, 24 PhD dissertations and 12 master theses. She has published 146 articles and 3 book chapters. Her h-index is 43 in Google Scholar and 38 in Web of Science. Beraldo was lecturer in the opening lecture at the 2016 Annual Congress of the Brazilian Chemical Society. She has received the top scientific rank awarded by the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), and was coordinator of the CNPq Chemistry Advisory Committee (2012-2013). Beraldo is a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the medal of the National Order of Scientific Merit from the Brazilian Government (2018) and the Simão Mathias Medal from the Brazilian Chemical Society (2016).

Berkovits obtained his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Physics at Harvard Univ. in 1983, and his PhD in Physics at the Univ. of California at Berkeley in 1988. He moved to São Paulo in 1994, and is a citizen of Brazil since 2002. Berkovits is currently a full professor at the Instituto de Física Teórica of São Paulo State University (UNESP) and Director of the ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP‐SAIFR). He was awarded the 2009 TWAS Physics prize for his significant contributions to superstring theory and its covariant quantization and the 2021 APS John Wheatley Award for exceptional leadership in fundamental physics research in South America. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences, and the International String Theory Advisory Committee.

Bouskela is Full Professor and Director of the Clinical Research Unit at the State University of Rio de Janeiro; Director of Technology and Innovation at the Rio de Janeiro State Foundation for Research Support; Member of the Managing Committee for Health at the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication; Full Member of the National Academy of Medicine; Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences; Full Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; Associate Member of the Académie Nationale de Médicine of France and recipient of the Tiradentes Medal given by the Government of Rio de Janeiro state. She obtained her PhD in 1978 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro after spending 3 years at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) and at University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and her Docent degree in 1992 at the University of Lund, Sweden.

Bozza is a senior investigator and head of Laboratory of Immunopharmacology at Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Brazil; she got her MD from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, and her PhD in cellular and molecular biology from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Brazil. She received postdoctoral training under Dr. Peter Weller at Harvard Medical School as Pew Latin American Fellow. Bozza is a senior scholar of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Science. She has mentored the work of 24 postdoctoral, 29 PhD and 30 MSc students. Her group's long-term goal is to conduct translational studies that contribute new knowledge on the interplay of metabolic and inflammatory mechanisms in the pathogenesis of emergent and/or severe infectious diseases, aiming at identifying biomarkers and therapeutic targets, including dengue, Zika and COVID-19. In response to the COVID-19 emergency, her group characterized mechanisms involved in thromboinflammation and hypercoagulability in severe COVID-19 patients, and contributed to defining immunometabolic mechanisms involved in infection.

Campos de Carvalho was Director of the Department of Science and Technology at the Ministry of Health in Brazil. He was scientific director of the National Cardiology Institute and is Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He graduated in medicine and obtained his PhD at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He did postdoctoral work at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he now holds a visiting position as Professor. He received 3 national prizes from the Brazilian Federation of Experimental Biology Societies and the Heart Institute (Incor) Prize for his work on cell therapies in cardiac diseases. He was a Fogarty Fellow and is a fellow of the American Heart Association. He was in the Council of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (2009-2013) and is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 200 papers in indexed journals, edited 3 books and 25 book chapters. He tutored 81 master, PhD and post-doctoral students

Canuto (PhD, 1979, University of Uppsala, Sweden) is Professor at the University of São Paulo. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and Sao Paulo State Academy of Sciences. Co-editor-in-Chief of the Spectrochimica Acta A, member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, editorial board of the Chemical Physics Letters (2003-2009), Specialist Editor of the Computer Physics Communications (1987-1990, 2002-2006) and Associate Editor of the Brazilian Journal of Physics (2000-2009). Coordinator of Physics and Astronomy at CAPES-Ministry of Education (2011-2018). M. N. Saha Lecturer (2002) for the IACS (Calcutta, India), honored by the University of Havana (2005); official report for the Nobel Committee of Physics and Chemistry in connection with the Chemistry Nobel Prize (2013), member of the International Jury for Unesco-L’Oréal Prize Women in Science (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017). Vice-President for Research (Provost) of the University of São Paulo (2018-2022). Honored with a special issue of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry (2011).

Chaimovich is an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry, U. São Paulo (IQUSP), Brazil; Adjunct Coordinator for Special Programs, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Former positions: Director, IQUSP; Research Provost, USP; President Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Vice-President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, President of the Brazilian Science and Technology Council, CNPq; Vice-President for External Affairs, ICSU; Co-Chair, InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science. His research focuses on fundamental and applied aspects of surfactant aggregates in Chemistry and Biochemistry, including experimental and theoretical analysis of specific ion effects on the properties of surfactant aggregates. Prizes and Distinctions: Brazilian Order for Scientific Merit; TWAS Medal; Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, France; Scopus Prize, Elsevier. He is a member of the Academies of Science of Brazil, Chile, Latin America, and Venezuela and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (USA). Contributes regularly to publications in national and international Science Policy.