Ron (PhD, 2007, University of Texas) professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito. Founding member and current secretary of the Ecuadorian Academy of Sciences. Young Affiliate of TWAS (2008–2013) and member of the Global Young Academy (2010–2013). He is curator of amphibians at the Museum of Zoology, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. His research focuses on two main venues: evolution and conservation. In his work on evolution he has contributed to the field of systematics and taxonomy of Neotropical amphibians. In the field of conservation, he has studied to global phenomenon of amphibian population declines. He is Director of the ARCA initiative, a large-scale study to inventory and characterize genetically the Ecuadorian biodiversity. He is editor in chief of FaunaWebEcuador, a web portal that publishes general information of Ecuadorian fauna.

Rosswall is former Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU). He has been Rector of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and is professor emeritus of water in environment and society at SLU. His research has focused on microbial regulation of nitrogen and carbon cycling from the micro- to the global scale. He has played an important role in the development of global change research as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).He was the inaugural Director of START, the capacity building component of the global change research programmes. His memberships include: Academia Europaea; Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry; and The World Academy of Arts and Science. He is, among many appointments, past Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and past member of the Steering Committee of the High-level Expert Panel (HLPE) of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS)..

Saad (PhD, 1987, University of Zürich, Switzerland) is Professor of cell biology and immunology at the Arab American University in Jenin, Palestine (AAUP), and past President of the Al-Qasemi Academic College, Baga Algharbiya, Israel. He was: Scientific Director of the Research and Development Regional Centre - The Galilee Society, Israel; Dean of Scientific Research at AAUP, Dean of Scientific Research Center at Al-Qasemi Academic College, Israel; Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Research Centre at Al-Qasemi Academic College, Head of the Higher Education Council of Al-Qasemi Academic College, and member of the Palestinian Council for Higher Education. His prizes include the Best Research Award of the Swiss Surgical Society for the development of versatile biodegradable biomaterials, the Best Research Award of The Israeli Society for Complementary Medicine, and the Hijawi Awards of AAUP for best undergraduate research projects, and Best Researcher at AAUP. He is a member of the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC).

Sadunishvili graduated from Tbilisi State University in 1975 with a diploma in biology/biochemistry at the Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Georgian Academy of Sciences. She obtained her degree of Candidate of Science (1980) and Doctor of Science (1995) in biology with studies on the structure, kinetics and regulation of nitrogen metabolism enzymes. Since then, working as Head of Laboratory at Durmishidze Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (DIBB), her research topics have expanded by studying structure-function changes in plant cells under contamination stress, microbial diversity, development of bio and phytoremediation technologies based on selected plants and microbial consortia, phytopathogenic bacteria and their specific bacteriophages. In 2013, she was appointed as Full Professor and Head of Department of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Georgia. In 2009, Sadunishvili was selected as Corresponding Member, and in 2015 Full Member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. She is an author of five monographs, and above 150 scientific publications, including reviews and book chapters.

Salama was educated at Ain Shams and Cairo (Faculty of Sciences) Universities. He obtained his MSc (1959), PhD (1962) and DSc (1987). He is emeritus research professor (entomology), Natl. Res. Ctr. (NRC), Cairo. His previous positions include: Head, Dept. of Pests and Plant Protection, NRC, 1976-87; chairman, Agricultural Res. Div., NRC, 1978-80, 1988; vice-president, NRC, 1986-87; and president, NRC, 1988-92. His awards include: State Prize for Biological Sciences, Egypt; Order of Sciences and Arts, First Rank; State Prize for Agricultural Sciences, Egypt; Order of Sciences and Arts, First Rank; and African Academy of Sciences/Ciba Geigy Prize, Agricultural Biosciences; Recognition State Prize in Basic Sciences, 1992; Nile (Mubarak) Prize in Advanced Technological Sciences, 2006 and Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation 2017. His membership includes the Islamic, African,TWAS and Egyptian Academies of Sciences, and Executive Committee, IUBS, Paris.

Sekaran, head of research and development at UCSI Hospital, is a Fellow of the Academy of Science Malaysia (since 2017) and of the Royal Society of Pathologists, London (since 2019). Her main expertise is in infectious diseases, with more than 270 published papers, over 6,000 WoS citations, and a h-index of 42. To date, 24 Masters and 23 PhDs have graduated under her supervision. The main areas of investigation are on Dengue and other infectious organisms. She has received multiple awards for kits developed, owns more than 20 patents, and was awarded Woman Bioinnovator of the year (2008) and “Anugerah Innovasi Negara 2009 for Molecular Diagnostics of Dengue Infections". She investigates the effects of diabetes and obesity on severe dengue, setting up serological assays to differentiate flaviviruses and vaccine development. Recently, she ventured into stem cells for regenerative medicine. She directed the WHO collaborating centre (2003–2007), a member of the faculty committee for postgraduate degrees, counsellor and coordinator for various degree programmes. Sekaran was also the head of the virology diagnostic laboratory at the University Malaya Medical Centre (2001–2007).

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.

Dr. Chandrima Shaha is a biologist, currently, JC Bose Chair Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata. She is the immediate past President of the Indian National Science Academy and Former Director of the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. Her research interests center around the elucidation of the processes that influence cell death programs under varying physiological conditions in diverse organisms. She is an elected fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology. She served as Vice-President of International Affairs of the Indian National Science Academy and as a member of the Councils of all three National Academies. Notable awards include the Ranbaxy Science Foundation Award for basic sciences; the J.C. Bose National Fellowship; the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal of INSA, Shakuntala Amir Chand Award of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Prof. Archana Sharma Memorial Award of the National Academy of Sciences, Life Time Achievement Award of Biopharma Honors and the Chandrakala Hora Memorial Medal and others.

Shakoori is professor emeritus, dist. natl. prof. and director, School of Biological Sciences, U. of the Punjab, Lahore and prof. of cell biology at the U. of Massachusetts Medical Centre, Worcester. He obtained his Dr.rer.nat. from the U. of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, 1972. He has been co-dir., Centre of Advanced Mol. Biology, and chair. of the dpts. of zoology and microbiology and molecular genetics at the U. of the Punjab. He was awarded Pakistan's Highest Academic Award, Aizaz-i-Kamal; Dist. Scientist of the Year Award 2011 in Zoology, Pakistan Acad. of Sciences; the Civil Award Tamgha-i-Imtiaz and Scientist of the Year Award by the Min. of Ed., Pakistan. He has been a senior Fulbright fellow, senior DAAD fellow and obtained a fellowship from the Royal Soc. (1999). He is fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and life fellow and pres. of the Zoological Society of Pakistan (2002-2006).He received Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Excellence Award in Science & Technology in 2012

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.

Silva is prof. of biochemistry at the Federal Univ. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), dir. of the Jiri Jonas Natl. Center of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and scientific dir. of the Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. His research interest revolves around the understanding of biological recognition processes, especially how proteins correctly fold, misfold into species involved in neurodegenerative diseases, and form supramolecular complexes, such as virus particles. His work has opened new vistas for the use of pressure perturbations in the field of protein folding, structure and dynamics. He was nominated fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. His honours include: Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit (Great-Cross), TWAS Prize in Biology and the FCW Prize in General Science from Fundação Conrado Wessel.

Singh is professor emeritus, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and INSA senior scientist at Banaras Hindu University. After obtaining his PhD at Banaras Hindu University in 1967 and completing postdoctoral work at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, he has worked in various capacities at Kurukshetra University, Kumaun University, Colorado State University and Banaras Hindu University. His honours include: SS Bhatnagar award; Swami Pranavanand Saraswati award; Pitamber Pant Fellowship; Dr. Birbal Sahni Gold Medal; and Professor SB Saksena Memorial Medal. He is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India, and the International Society for Tropical Ecology. He is a member of the Council, International Association for Vegetation Science, Sweden.

Singh (PhD, 1975, Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore) is SERB-Distinguished Fellow, Dept. of Biophysics, All India Inst. of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. His honours include: Prof. DM Bose Memorial Lecture Award, Bose Inst. (2013); Bhramara’s YT Thathachari Award in Life Sciences (2012); Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award, INSA (2011); Goyal Prize in Life Sciences (2007); Prof. GN Ramachandran CSIR Gold Medal for Excellence in Biol. Sciences and Technology (2006); Prof. GN Ramachandran 60th Birthday Commemoration INSA Medal (2006); Sir JC Bose Memorial Award, Indian Science Congress (2006); KK Foundation Award for Sci. and Tech. (2001). He is a fellow of: Indian Natl. Science Acad. (INSA); Indian Acad. of Sciences; Natl. Acad. of Sciences, India; Biotec Research Soc. of India. He was Vice-President, INSA (2007-2009) and Editor-in-Chief, Proceedings of INSA (2011-13).

Sopory is currently Senior Emeritus Scientist at ICGEB.. Former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Until 2011, he was the group leader of plant molecular biology and Director ( Interim) at ICGEB, New Delhi. He discovered the involvement of the glyoxalase system in plant cell stress response, by demonstrating that genetic engineering of the glyoxalase pathway leads to enhanced salinity tolerance; and that methylglyoxal levels in plants under stress are dependent on the enzyme glyoxalase I and glutathione. He also showed that methylglyoxal can act as stress signal in plants. He is a fellow of all science academies of India, and the winner of the Bhatnagar, Maheshwari and Saligram Sinha Awards of India. He was given the Padamshri, one of the highest civilian awards, by the President of India.

Sukumar (PhD, 1985) is professor of ecology, Indian Institute of Science. His work originally focused on the behaviour and conservation biology of elephants, expanding later to tropical forest ecology and climate change. Sukumar is Fellow of: Indian Acad. of Sciences; Indian Natl. Science Academy; Natl. Acad. Sci. India. He has held visiting positions at Princeton Univ., Columbia Univ. and Kyoto Univ. He has contributed extensively to Indian government policy on nature conservation, and has been a member of the Indian Board for Wildlife and the Project Elephant Steering Committee. He was Chair, IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group (1997-2004). He is the author of four books and over 200 scientific papers, and the recipient of several awards, including: Presidential Award, Chicago Zoological Soc. (1992); Order of the Golden Ark (1997); Whitley Gold Award for Internatl. Nature Conservation (2003); Internatl. Cosmos Prize (2006); JC Bose Natl. Fellowship (2011). He contributed to the work of the Intergov. Panel on Climate Change that shared the Nobel Peace Prize (2007).

Azim Surani, born in Kenya received a PhD in 1975 at Cambridge University under Professor Sir Robert Edwards FRS (Nobel Laureate, 2010). Surani joined the Babraham Institute in 1979, and discovered ‘Genomic Imprinting’ in 1984, and subsequently, novel imprinted genes and their functions, with contributions to its mechanism through establishment and erasure of DNA methylation. In 1992, he was elected the Marshall-Walton Professor, and subsequently Director of Research at Cambridge University. His recent work established the genetic basis for germ cell specification and epigenetic programming towards resetting of the epigenome. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001, awarded a Royal Medal in 2010, and in 2014, the ISSCR McEwen Award for Innovation.

Svasti (PhD 1972,U. of Cambridge) is em. prof. of biochemistry, Mahidol U., and head, Lab. of Biochemistry, Chulabhorn Research Inst., Bangkok. He is former president of: Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists (1990-1992), Science Soc. of Thailand (2008-2011). He is currently pres., Protein Soc. of Thailand and chairman, Marsi Foundation. He received the Outst. Scientist of Thailand Award (2002), Natl. Res. Council of Thailand Outst. Researcher Award (2003), A-IMBN Dist. Lecture Award (2012). He was a founding member of the Thailand Acad. of Science and Techn.. He is also council member, Asia-Pacific Intl. Molecular Biology Network, Asian-Oceanian Human Proteome Organization, and Asian-Pacific Protein Assoc.. He was awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand; Knight Grand Cross of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant; and Dushdi Mala Medal.

Teixeira graduated in biological sciences, and obtained a MS degree in molecular biology at University of Brasília (1986). She received her PhD in Biochemistry in 1990 from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and did postdoctoral training on molecular parasitology at the University of Iowa, in the US. In 1997, she became an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where she became a Full Professor in 2013. In 2005, she was awarded an international grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She acted as Vice-Head and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology at UFMG and President of the Brazilian Society of Protozoology (SBPz). She also acted as Head of the Centre for Vaccine Technology at UFMG (CTVacinas) where she is currently Vice-Director. For more than 30 years, she has studied genome, gene expression and host-parasites interactions involving Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania species with the aim of developing new treatments and methods to control Chagas disease and leishmaniasis.

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).

After retirement from WHO on 1st July 2014, Touré is researcher in medical entomology and professor of cell biology and genetics at the Faculty of Medicine and Odonto-stomatology (FMOS) of Bamako, Mali. He was the disease vector research Manager for WHO/TDR from June 2001-June 2014. Before joining TDR, he was a researcher in medical entomology and professor of cell biology and genetics at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy (FMPOS), Bamako, Mali; director general of the National Research Council (CNRST) of Mali; and head of the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC), FMPOS. He holds a PhD (1985) in life sciences (vector population ecological genetics) from Université de Droit, d'Economie et des Sciences d'Aix-Marseille III, France. His honours include: Etoile d'argent du Mérite National du Mali avec effigie Abeille. He was a member of several WHO and WHO/TDR steering committees and technical advisory committees of research institutes in Mali and West Africa.

Tsai (Ph. D. 1978, Purdue) is Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica. He is President of Taiwan Biophysics Society, and former president of Taiwan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Taiwan Magnetic Resonance Society. He was the Kimberly Professor of Chemistry at The Ohio State University until 2006. From 2006-2014 Tsai served as Director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry of Academia Sinica. His honor includes an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1983-1985), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1985-1990), the Distinguished Scholar Award of The Ohio State University (1992), Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1992), and Distinguished Alumnus Award (Purdue College of Pharmacy). He also serves as an Associate Editor of Biochemistry since 2010. He was elected to Academician of Academia Sinica in 2012.

Tuteja (PhD 1982, DSc 2008, U. of Lucknow, India) is Prof. and dir., Amity Inst. of Microbial Tech., Amity U. (India). He has made significant contributions in crop improvement under adverse conditions using genetical and microbial approach, developing marker-free transgenic crops with stress tolerance. He was group leader and sen. scientist, Intl. Centre for Genetic Engg. and Biotech. (ICGEB), New Delhi, India; postdoc fellow, UCLA and NIH, USA. He is a fellow of FNASc., FNA, FASc., FNESA and FNAAS. His honours include: Genomic Pioneer Award; Best Scientist Award, Natl. Envl. Science Acad.; Vigyan Gaurav Samman Award, Council of Science and Tech. UP; and the Goyal Prize Award, Kurukshetra U.. He is editorial board member of Arch. Biochem. Biophys, Plant Physiol. Biochem., Plant Signaling and Behavior and The Open Plant Science J.. He has published +300 papers and edited 9 books.

Tyagi is professor, Delhi University South Campus, India. He has served as head, Dept. of Plant Molecular Biology; chairman, Board of Research Studies; and dir., Interdisciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics at Delhi University South Campus; and dir., Natl. Inst. Plant Genome Research, India. He has made important contributions to genome sequencing of rice, tomato and chickpea, investigated transcriptome profile and characterized function of several novel genes/regulatory elements related to rice reproductive system and stress responsive networks by forward and reverse genetics approaches. His awards include: JC Bose Natl. Fellowship; DBT Natl. Bioscience Award; NASI Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award; BP Pal Memorial Award; Birbal Sahni Medal; and Om Prakash Bhasin Award for Sci and Tech. He is a member of: Ind. Natl. Science Acad.; Natl. Acad. of Sciences India; Ind. Acad. Science and Natl. Acad. of Agric. Scs., India; Former President, Natl. Acad. of Sciences India.

Val has been investigating environmental adaptations of fish of the Amazon, their use for food security, and fish farming for the last 40 years. He contributed to personnel training in the Amazon and headed the National Institute for Amazonian Research for 8 years. He is an accredited professor at the Graduate School of the University of Laval, Canada, and in local schools. He maintains intense international collaboration and is member of the Canadian Society of Zoology, the American Fisheries Society, the Society for Experimental Biology (UK) and of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, acting as its Vice-President for the Amazon. He was awarded: Commendation of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Class Commander, 2002, and Grand Cross Class, 2013), American Fisheries Society's Excellence Award (2004); Grand Order of Legislative Merit of the State of Amazonas (2008); Citizenship award of the Amazonas State (2015); and the prestigious Anísio Teixeira Prize for Higher Education (2016).

Van Sluys (PhD in genetics and microbiology, 1989) is a full professor at the Universidade de São Paulo. Her research focuses on plant-microbe interaction relevant to agriculture and the natural environment, emphasizing genome evolution and how transposable elements may account for genetic diversity. She contributed to spreading biotechnology and genomics in Brazil and supervised over 50 students working in the field, now based in Brazil or abroad. Among other activities, she also contributed to organizing the Plant Molecular Biology research community in Brazil. She published over 100 papers, attended scientific meetings as a speaker, and organized multiple symposia and conferences. Van Sluys served as life-science adjunct panel member at FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) for 15 years, and at the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq) for 4 years. She also served on several international evaluation research panels, including the National Academies, USA. Van Sluys has been a member of the São Paulo Academy of Sciences since 2015, served at the National Council for the Economic Development (2016–2018), and was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2016.