Tian (PhD, 1994, Institute of Physics CAS) is professor, Yanshan University, China and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His prizes include the National Natural Science Award, China; the Tan Kah Kee Science Award, China; the Top Ten Advances in Science China; the Top Ten Advances in Science and Technology of Chinese Universities.

Ugarte (PhD, 1990, Université Paris-Sud) is professor, Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, Campinas, Brazil. His activities have been related to the experimental study of structural and electronic properties of nanoscale systems (nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanowires, etc.), using high spatial resolution techniques associated with electron microscopy. He designed and implemented the Brazilian Electron Microscopy Facility, which was opened in 1999; this microscopy lab was the seed to the subsequent creation of the Brazilian National Nanotechnology Lab in 2011. His prizes include Latsis Prize, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; Guggenheim Fellowship, USA; Scopus Prize, Brazil; TWAS Prize in Physics. His is a member of the Brazilian science academy.

Varshney (PhD, 1985, University of Calgary, Canada) is a Professor of Microbiology and Cell Biology and Chair of Biological Sciences Division, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is fellow of Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; and the National Academy of Sciences (Allahabad), India. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize; GN Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences and Technology; JC Bose National Fellowship; Life Sciences Research Award of Novo Nordisk Education Foundation, India; Ranbaxy Research Award for basic research in medical sciences; PS Sarma Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists (India) and the first National Bioscience Career Development Award, among others. He is an honorary Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre of Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. He serves as a member/Chair on various advisory committees of research institutions and funding agencies.

Wyse (PhD, 1995, Porto Alegre, Brazil) is full professor of Biochemistry of the Institute of Basic Health Sciences at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. Her prizes include CAPES-Elsevier Award 2014, Pesquisador Gaúcho Award 2018 from the State Research Foundation and Scientist of the Year 2020 Award from International Achievements Research Center, USA. Her research work is focused on the neurotoxic mechanisms of homocysteine and neurometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as on neurobiology of menopause and neuroprotection, encompassing multiple experimental approach ranging from neurochemistry to behavior. Her studies have contributed to the understanding of biomolecule damage in hyperhomocysteinemic and homocystinuric patients and show potential to improve medical practice. She has published more than 400 scientific papers and has advised more than 70 masters and PhDs. Convinced that access to science and education are pillars to citizenship, she has launched a social project for underprivileged children of the public school system from the outskirts of her town, Porto Alegre. She published a book of poetry.

Zeng (PhD, 1986, Brussels Free University; Post-doc 1986-1987, Princeton University) is tenured professor of National School of Development at Peking University, Honorary Director of Center for Healthy Aging and Development Study at Peking University. He is also tenured professor of Center for Study of Aging and Human Development and Geriatric Division, School of Medicine, and Director of Center for Chinese Population and Socioeconomic Studies, Duke University. He is a foreign member of Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Distinguished Research Scholar of Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany. Up to July 2021, he published 369 articles (196 in English,173 in Chinese) and 31 academic books (11 in English, 20 in Chinese); he submitted 51 policy reports to government agencies; his articles/books have been cited over 14,354 times in other scholars’ publications, his h-index is 54 and i10-index is 174; he was awarded 4 international academic prizes and 16 national academic prizes.

Zhang (PhD, 1989, Hohenehim University) is professor and Dean of the Institute of Green Agricultural Development; President of National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University. He is member of Chinese Academy of Engineering and International Eurasian Academy of Sciences. His prizes include National Award of Nature Science, National Award of Science and Technology Advance, Science and Technology Award of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, TWAS Prize in Agricultural Sciences; IFA International Crop Nutrition Award; Outstanding Achievement Award of Hohenheim University and GCHERA World Agriculture Prize. He holds honorary degrees, scientist appointments and professorships from 15 universities, including Wageningen University and Lancaster University. He is a member of International Plant Nutrition Council,Scientific Panel for Responsible Plant Nutrition, International Society of Root Research, Chinese Society of Soil Science, Global Partnership of Nutrient Management Steering Committee-UNEP, Chinese Society of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Science.

Baharvand (PhD, 2004, Khwarizmi University) is a Professor, Founder, and Director of Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, Tehran, Iran. His prizes include Mustafa Prize, TWAS Prize in Biology, UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize, Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Prize in Biology, three Razi Research Awards from Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education, two Khwarizmi International Awards from Iran Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, two Dr. Hadavi’s Awards from Academy of Medical Sciences of Iran, Prominent Professor in 3rd term of Allameh Tabatabaei’s Award from Iran Vice Presidency for Science and Technology and National Elite Foundation, etc. He is a member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy, International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. He is currently the editorial board member of eight international journals (e.g., Journal of Biological Chemistry and Scientific Reports from Nature Publishing Group).

Bandyopadhyay completed her BTech and MTech in Computer Science from Calcutta University and IIT Kharagpur, respectively. She joined the Indian Statistical Institute as a faculty member after completing her PhD from the same Institute. She is currently the Director of the Institute. Her areas of research interest include computational biology and Bioinformatics, soft and evolutionary computation, data mining and machine learning, where she has published more than 325 research articles in journals, conferences and edited volumes. She has published six authored/edited books from publishers like Springer, World Scientific and Wiley. She has worked in and delivered invited lectures in various Universities and Institutes world-wide. She has received several awards and fellowships, including the Bhatnagar Prize, Infosys award, TWAS Prize, DBT National Women Bioscientist Award (Young), INAE Silver Jubilee Prize, Young scientist/engineer medals of INSA, INAE and Science Congress, JC Bose Fellowship, Swarnajayanti Fellowship and Humboldt Fellowship. She is currently a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India.

Biekpe is currently Professor of Development Finance and Econometrics, and Program Director of the MCom in Development Finance at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. He is also President of Africagrowth Institute and Executive Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Development Finance. He has an MSc in Applied Statistics and Operational Research (London) and PhD in International Finance (Queens, UK). Biekpe is a Chartered Statistician and Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of Great Britain and a Chartered Scientist of the Science Council of the United Kingdom. He is the Executive Editor of the African Finance Journal, Executive Editor of Review of Development Finance and Managing Editor Africagrowth Agenda Journal and Managing Editor of the Development Finance Agenda Magazine. Biekpe is a member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf), a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS) and a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Chaudhary is an Emeritus Professor at Tribhuvan University (TU), Kirtipur, Nepal. He has 40 years' experience in teaching, research and academic administration. He was Executive Director of one of TU research institutes; served as a member of the National Planning Commission of Nepal; Chair of the Board of Governors of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development; Trustee of the National Trust for Nature Conservation; team leader of national, regional (Bhutan, China, India, Nepal) and international (Italy, Norway, USA) programmes. He contributed to policy formulation for the Government of Nepal in the fields of biodiversity and environment; widely travelled on foot in mountains of Nepalese Himalaya; visited 10 major herbaria (France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Russian Federation, UK, USA); received 28 awards and medals; led 28 research projects; supervised five PhD and over 60 Master’s theses. He also established in his name a Gold Medal Award at TU, and a science scholarship in a secondary school in the village where he was born and received his primary education. A new plant species from Nepal, the Saussurea ramchaudharyi (Asteraceae), was named after him.

Chen is a professor of Physics at University of Science and Technology of China, where he received his PhD in 1992. He is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the director of the Key Laboratory of Strongly Coupled Quantum Materials of Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research is focused on high-temperature superconductors, strongly correlated electronic materials and other quantum materials. He has received several distinguished awards, including the First Prize of State Natural Science Award of China, the Bernd T. Matthias Prize in International Superconducting Materials and TWAS Prize in Physics. He has been an Advisory Board of Solid State Communications and Science Bulletin, and an associate editor of Science China Materials.

Deen is a Distinguished University Professor, Senior Canada Research Chair in Information Technology and Director of the Micro- and Nano-Systems Laboratory at McMaster University, Canada. His current research interests include nano-/opto-electronics, nanotechnology and data analytics and their emerging applications in health and environment. His research records include more than 600 peer-reviewed articles and two textbooks “Silicon Photonics-Fundamentals and Devices” and “Fiber Optic Communications-Fundamentals and Applications”. He was awarded four honorary doctorate degrees in recognition of his exceptional research and scholarly accomplishments, exemplary professionalism and valued service, especially to the developing world. He is elected to Fellow status in twelve national academies and professional societies including the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences – India, IEEE, ECS and APS. He served as the elected President of the Academy of Science, RSC from 2015 to 2017. Most recently, he was elected to the Order of Canada (July 2018), the highest civilian honor awarded by the Government of Canada.

Erra-Balsells (PhD, 1979, University of Buenos Aires, UBA, Argentina) is consultant full professor, Departemento de Quimica Organica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UBA and visiting prof. Faculty of Agriculture, Ehime University, Japan, and investigator (superior), Argentine National Research Council. She is member of the IMSF office board, representative of Central and South America. She was: vice-president and president, Argentine Society of Mass Spectrometry; secretary, vice-president and president, Argentine Organic Chemistry Society; editor and editor-in-chief, Journal of the Argentine Chemical Society (AQA). Her awards and honors include: AQA, Dr. P.A. Berdoy prize; AQA, Dr. L.C. Guglialmelli prize; Institute of Ibero-American Culture & Ministry of Education of Spain; V Centenary 1492-1992 Award; Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences, international research fellow; Konex foundation (Argentina) Konex Diploma in Organic Chemistry. She is fellow of the Latino-american Academy of Sciences (ACAL). Research interests: chemistry and photochemistry of MALDI matrices. Design of new MALDI matrices for biosystems analysis. Intact single cell MS analysis, at real time.

Specializing in metabolomics, natural products chemistry, and plant biochemistry, Farag completed his PhD at Texas Tech University, USA, in 2003. In 2005, after spending time as a postdoctoral fellow at The Samuel Noble Foundation, USA, and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, USA, he became assistant professor in 2005 at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Egypt. Since 2009, Farag has been working as a part time visiting professor at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, to participate in teaching plant metabolomics and chemomterics modelling for master students, and in 2009–2010 he held the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship in Germany. Farag now works full time as a professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC) where his research work focuses primarily around applying innovative biochemical technologies (metabolomics) to help answer complex biological questions in medicine, herbal drugs analysis and agriculture. For his highly cited publications of close to 5000 citations and an H index of 32, Farag was selected as a top researcher in the field of plant biology in Africa by the American society of plant biology, United States.

Garcia (Ph.D. 1990, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a Professor at the Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analysis at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and São Paulo State Academy of Sciences. She is a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and an editor at Current Opinion in Microbiology, Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, Methods X, Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences and Associate Editor of Current Research of Microbial Sciences ( 2020- ). Integrated several committees in Brazilian funding agencies and is a consultant of several international agencies such as Welcome Trust, European Research Council, US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Medical Research Council. Chair of the International Affairs Committee at The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and a collaborator of the Provost of Post-Graduation at the University of São Paulo.

Gray is President/CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, Research Professor in Paediatrics at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Member (Professor) in the Vaccine & Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, in Seattle. A Medical Doctor, specialising in Paediatrics, she started her research career in the field of preventing mother to child transmission of HIV-1 (PMTCT). She was awarded a Fogarty Fellowship to study clinical epidemiology at Cornell and Columbia Universities (1999), enabling her to broaden her investigative interests to include: clinical trial design; vaccine. She developed her research in post-natal transmission, focusing on breast-feeding, infant survival and post-exposure prophylaxis. Gray collaborated in multi-country efforts to find short-course and affordable antiretroviral interventions for PMTCT. She co-founded with James McIntyre the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) at Baragwanath Hospital, which is now a world-renowned research unit focused on HIV prevention and treatment with grants awarded through competitive international processes from the NIH, USAID, amongst others, amounting to over R120 million pa.

Holden earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Oslo in 1985, and is Doctor honoris causa, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi. Since 1986 he has been working at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, where he became a full professor in 1991. He is Secretary General of the International Mathematical Union (2015–2022); Vice-president of the European Mathematical Society (2007–10) and Secretary (2003–06). Holden is an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (President 2014–16), the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, the Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Sciences. He is Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics too.

Jahiruddin (PhD, 1986, Aberdeen University) is a Professor of Soil Science, former Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and former Associate Director of Central Laboratory at Bangladesh Agricultural University. He obtained BAS Gold Medal Award 2009, Global Research Impact Award 2017, BAAG Gold Medal Award 2018 and Soil Care Award 2018. He is a Fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS). Professor Jahiruddin has a very high record of research publications in relation to Micronutrient problems, arsenic contamination and conservation agriculture. He worked as a team leader for research priority setting in agriculture and development of vision document -2030 and beyond in Bangladesh: Land and Soil Resource Management.

Lu, Ph.D. from Columbia University, worked at AT&T Bell Labs; later joined the Electronics Research and Service Organisation (ERSO) of Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to lead Taiwan’s National Submicron Project. He is the Chairman and CEO of Ardentec Corp., and serves as the President and CTO of Macronix International. He has published more than 500 technical papers and has been granted 160 patents. Lu has been elected as an IEEE Fellow, American Physical Society Fellow, Fellow of National Academy of Inventors, and ITRI Laureate. He has been awarded the IEEE Third Millennium Medal; the IEEE Frederik Philips Award; and the 2013 Presidential Science Prize, the highest award in Taiwan. In 2018, Lu was elected as an Academician of Academia Sinica, the first CEO from industry to have been honored by Academia Sinica.

Mayor is an Indian cell biologist. After studying chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, he was awarded his PhD in life sciences from The Rockefeller University, New York, and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. In 1995, he joined the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, a centre of TIFR where he has been studying the fine structure and the function of the membrane of living cells using methods derived from biology, chemistry, and physics. He has been elected as a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian Science Academy, a Foreign Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (USA), and European Molecular Biology Organization. He has been awarded the TWAS Prize in Biology and the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences. He serves as Director of NCBS, and was Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) at Bangalore, and is founding director of Centre for Cell and Molecular Platforms (CCAMP), a technology enabler and biotech start-up incubator; together these make up the Bangalore Life Science Cluster, a multi-institutional organization that he has driven since 2015.

Lynn Morris was appointed as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Wits University from 1 April 2021. Her previous positions include Interim Executive Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Principal Medical Scientist and head of the HIV Virology Section at the NICD, Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a joint appointment as Research Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Honorary appointment as a Senior Scientist at CAPRISA. She completed her undergraduate studies at Wits University and obtained a DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1988. Lynn is an NRF A-rated researcher (leading international scholar) who has made significant contributions to our understanding of how the antibody response to HIV develops and her laboratory conducts validated end-point assays for HIV vaccine clinical trials. She has been recognised through several national and international awards including the Wits Vice Chancellor’s Research Award and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize in Medical Sciences. She has supervised 30 PhD and MSc students, has published over 270 papers holding a current author H-Index of 63

Ngila (PhD,1996, University of New South Wales) holds MSc in Chemistry (1992), Bachelor of Education in Science (1986), Kenyatta University (KU). Her research is in water quality monitoring and nanotechnology for water treatment. She taught at KU (1989-1997); University of Botswana (1998-2006); University of KwaZulu Natal (2006-2011); and University of Johannesburg (2011-2017) as a Full Professor of Analytical/Environmental Chemistry. She was Head of Applied Chemistry Department (2013- 2016) and Ag. Director of the Water Node of the Nanotechnology Innovation Centre (2015) at the University of Johannesburg; Deputy Director at Morendat Institute of Oil and Gas, (April 2017- Feb 2020) and Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Riara University, Kenya (Feb 2020-current). She has over 200 journal articles. She trained over 30 Doctoral Students, 33 Masters and 22 Honours Students and 18 Postdoctoral Research Fellows. Awards include 2017 African Union Kwame Nkrumah and 2016 South Africa Distinguished Women in Science. Member of Academy of Science of South Africa; African Academy of Science. Currently Co-Chair of the 2021 Commonwealth Science Conference hosted by Royal Soc. and AAS.

Savino was graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (1974), got his MSc degree in Histology and Embryology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1979), PhD degree in Cell and Tissue Biology at the University of São Paulo (1982), and had a post-doc training in Cellular Immunology at Necker Hospital, Paris (1983-1985). Presently, he is full researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences; Editor-in-Chief of the journal NeuroImmunoModulation and Associated Editor of Frontiers in Immunology. He received international awards, namely the title of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (France), Doctor Honoris causa by Sorbonne Université (France), the Luis Federico Leloir Medal (Argentinian government), Guest of Honor (National University of Rosário, Argentina) and Eduardo Charreau Award (Argentinian Government). His research is focused in cellular immunology, with emphasis in cell migration in the hemopoietic system; neuroimmune interactions; cell therapy and immunotherapy in neuromuscular diseases.

Serwadda is a leading scientific expert in Africa's HIV response since early 1980's. Current research focuses on evaluation of population based HIV intervention and strengthening provision of comprehensive HIV services in Uganda. Previous roles included head of Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, dean of School of Public Health and executive director of Rakai Health Science Program. He is a Fellow of the Uganda National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Medicine, US. He received a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Makerere Medical School, Masters in Public Health and an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Currently he is a professor in Department of Disease Control, Makerere University School of Public Health. He chairs and serves in a number of boards, and is also on a number of editorial boards.

Zuowei Shen is a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at NUS. Joining NUS in 1993, he became a Professor in 2002 and Distinguished Professor in 2009. He held the Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professorship from 2013 to 2021. At NUS, he served as Vice Provost, Dean of the Graduate School, Dean of the Faculty of Science, and Head of the Department of Mathematics. For his service, he received the Singapore Public Administration Silver Medal. He has been a speaker at major conferences like the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) and the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM). His achievements include the Singapore National Science Award and the Wavelet Pioneer Award from SPIE. He is a Fellow of the AMS and SIAM and a member of the Singapore National Academy of Science, TWAS, and the European Academy of Sciences.

Ben Zhong Tang is Distinguished Presidential Chair Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ). He is interested in materials science, macromolecular chemistry and biomedical theranostics. Tang received BS and PhD degrees from South China University of Technology and Kyoto University, respectively, and carried out postdoctoral research at University of Toronto. He joined the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in 1994 and moved to CUHK-SZ as Dean of School of Science and Engineering in 2021. He was elected to Chinese Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of Chemistry, and World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries. Tang has published >1,600 papers, with >125,000 citations and an h-index of 158 (Google Scholar, 08/08/2021). He has been listed by Clarivate Analytics as a Highly Cited Researcher in both areas of Chemistry and Materials Science since 2014. He received National Natural Science Award (1st Class) from the Chinese Government in 2017. He is serving as Editor-in-Chief of Aggregate published by Wiley.

Ticianelli obtained his BSc degree in 1976 and his PhD in 1985 in Physical Chemistry at University of São Paulo. He developed his full academic carrier at the Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos (IQSC) and in November 2003 reached the category of Full Professor. Ticianelli was head of the Department of Physical Chemistry of Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos for four years and the Director of this Institute from 2006 to 2010. He is member of the São Paulo Academy of Science and of the Brazilian Academy of Science. He collaborated in the writing of two textbooks in the Electrochemistry area. Publication of scientific research includes 220 scientific papers in journals listed in several indexing platforms. He has given several plenary conferences and has presented tenths of invited lectures and keynotes in national/international scientific meetings. He has acted as advisor for over 50 MSc and PhD theses in the Post-Graduation programmes at the Institute of Chemistry of São Carlos. He is an expert in fuel cells, particularly the proton exchange membrane alkaline and solid oxide systems.

Villa is an Associate Professor at the Department of Radiology and Oncology of the Faculdade de Medicina of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and Head of the Innovation in Cancer Research of the Center for Translational Research in Oncology of the Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo (ICESP), São Paulo, Brazil. She graduated in Biological Sciences, USP and has a PhD in Sciences from the Institute of Chemistry of USP (1978). She was a researcher at the São Paulo branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research from 1983 to 2011, and was its director from 2006 to 2010. She is a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. In 2018 she received the Biology Prize from The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Trieste, Italy. Her research involves studies about human papillomavirus (HPV), cervical cancer, anogenital cancer, head and neck cancer, HPV infections in women and men, prophylactic HPV vaccines. As of end-2019, she had published 334 scientific articles (h-index: WOS 60). She made more than 500 presentations as invited speaker in meetings throughout the world. She has mentored 13 MSc, 20 PhD students and 8 Pos-Doctoral fellows.

Wu (PhD, 1993, Zhejiang University) is president and professor, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou; fellow, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, IEEE, China Computer Federation, Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, Chinese Association of Automation. He was: joint PhD student, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI); visiting professor, the University of Arizona. His prizes include: IEEE/Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Best Paper Awards; Distinguished Young Scholars of National Science Foundation of China (2005); Second Prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award (2010); the HLHL Science and Technology Innovation Award of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (2011); Second Prize of National Technology Invention Award (2014); First Prize of Innovation Award of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (2016); Top-10 Achievements in Science and Technology in Chinese Universities (2016).

Yang (PhD) is a professor, Institute of Psychology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She has been working on psycholinguistics and comparative studies between language and music processing, with over 200 papers published on journals in the fields of psychology, linguistic sciences and cognitive neurosciences. She is a member of Standing Committee, and Fellow, Chinese Psychological Society; member of Division of Phonetics, Chinese Society of Linguistics; President, Society of Neurolinguistics, Society for Chinese Language Modernization (2020-2022). She was Director, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1997-2006; President of Chinese Psychological Society, 2009-2013; Chief-editor for Acta Psycologica Sinica, 2006-2009, and Advances in Psychological Sciences, 1997-2006. She received awards: National Excellent Scientist from China Association of Science and Technology, 2014; Life span achievements, 2015, and Achievements in academic development, 2016, from Chinese Psychological Society.

Zaritzky has received the degree of Chemical Engineer, Faculty of Engineering, University of La Plata, (UNLP) Argentina in 1971 and PhD degree in Chemical Sciences from the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina), in 1984. She has carried out an extensive original work of scientific research and technological development in Food and Environmental Engineering, and is internationally considered among the core of recognized specialists, reaching the highest research category in Argentina (Superior Researcher of the Scientific and Technological National Research Council, CONICET). Full Professor of Transport Phenomena- Chemical Engineering Department - UNLP, she also specialized in Food Preservation. Professor Emeritus since 2016, Zaritzky has focused her research interests in the application of Chemical Engineering principles to the design and optimization of food processing and preservation, and waste-water treatments. Author of 247 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and 50 book chapters, she has also 6 approved patents. She participated in more than 70 technical works contributing to technology transfer.

Armienta is a senior researcher at the Geophysics Institute of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Her investigations have unraveled groundwater contamination sources and determined the geochemical processes involved in the environmental mobility of arsenic and heavy metals. She developed methods to remediate contaminated water with native rocks. Results of her studies were applied by authorities to solve pollution problems. She identified chemical species in water related to the activity of hazardous volcanoes, to be used for volcanic risk assessment. Armienta is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Popocatépetl volcano. She has authored more than 180 scientific publications in international journals and books. She was the Mexican coordinator of the Iberoarsen network aimed to solving arsenic problems in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. She is a National Research Level III (highest) by Mexican National Science Council; she was awarded Juana Ramírez de Asbaje merit by UNAM, Academic and Research Trajectory recognition by the Mexican Association of Geohydrology, and Earth Sciences Teacher of the Year award by the Mexican Geophysical Union.