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.

Babalola (Pr.Sci.Nat, MASSAF, FTWAS, FAS, FAAS, FISC, FRSB) is the Vice President of the Org. for Women in Sci. for the Developing World (OWSD) & TWAS. Baba, an NRF B-rated scientist with an MBA, sits on several editorial boards and acts as an International Advisor to a few others. She was with Int. Inst. of Tropical Agric (Nigeria), ICIPE (Kenya), Weizmann Inst. of Sci. (Israel), Univ of the Western Cape, and now North-West Univ (South Africa). She has 21 years of experience in rhizosphere research. She is passionate about capacity building & has trained 37 PhDs & 27 MScs. Many of her products are in academia in the UK, Italy, America, Canada, Australia, Sweden, & Africa. She authored 450 publications. She is an AAAS-TWAS science diplomacy alumnus, impacting the world in policymaking, diplomacy, and diplomatic engagement. Her international experience spans the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. She enjoys global partnerships, and her efforts have received many awards, including finalist status at GenderInSite 2020, Clarivate 2022 & 2023, & SAWISA 2024. Baba has an H-index of 83, 33,100 citations & 56 professional certificates. She is #1 in Africa for Soil Science & Plant Nutriti

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

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).

Prof. Agnès Binagwaho, MD, MD (Ped), PhD, is pediatrician and the founding, retired vice-chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. She previously worked as the executive secretary of Rwanda National AIDS Control Commission, as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, and as the Minister of Health. She served as a senior advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization. She is a senior lecturer at UGHE, at Harvard Medical School, and adjunct clinical professor at Dartmouth College, in the Unites States. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the World Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. She is an Emerson Elder and has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and was named among the 100 Most Influential African Women for 2020 and 2021.

Buschiazzo holds a BSc degree in Biology (Universidad de La Plata, Argentina), and a PhD degree in Chemistry (1999, Institute Leloir, Universidad de Buenos Aires). He later specialized in protein crystallography as a postdoc at the Institut Pasteur (IP) in Paris (Department of Structural Biology and Chemistry), where he obtained a tenured position in 2003. Since 2006 he has been head of the Lab of Molecular and Structural Microbiology at IP Montevideo (a member of the IP International Network) in Uruguay. Maintaining this double appointment, in 2016 he was promoted to associate professor in the Department of Microbiology (IP, Paris). His science is focused on microbiology, aimed at understanding molecular mechanisms of key proteins. A special interest is dedicated to pathogenicity determinants in Leptospira and other bacterial pathogens. Buschiazzo leads a team with strong expertise in the structural biology and biochemistry of bacterial signaling systems. His lab has uncovered how proteins change their shape and conformation in very specific ways, enabling bacteria to sense their environment and internal milieu, and trigger adaptive responses.

Cai (PhD, 1995, Fudan University, China) is professor and director, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); president, Gravity and Relativistic Astrophysics Division of the Chinese Physical Society; vice-president, Gravity, Cosmology and Astrophysics Division of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS); president, BRICS Association of Gravity Astrophysics and Cosmology. His prizes include the second place of National Natural Science Prize of China, Thomson Reuters global highest citation prize, the first place of Chongqing Natural Science Prize. He is a member of CAS. His research field is gravity and cosmology. In black hole physics, holographic properties of gravity, inflation model, dark energy, and gravitational wave physics, he has published more than 300 papers, these works received more than 20,000 citations and his h-index is 77.

Djimde received a pharmacy doctoral degree from the Ecole Nationale de Médecine et de Pharmacie of Bamako, Mali in 1988. He conducted post-doctoral research at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the supervision of Thomas E. Wellems in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases. While at the NIH, he started new training under the supervision of Christopher V. Plowe for a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA, which he obtained in 2001. During his PhD project he conducted seminal studies describing the first reliable molecular marker for chloroquine resistance and proposing a model for field monitoring of drug resistance using molecular markers, resulting in first-author publications on the New England Journal of Medicine and on The Lancet. He returned to Mali to start his own laboratory at the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC-Parasito), at the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, Mali. The primary goal of his research is antimalarial drug resistance, genetics, antimicrobial resistance and clinical drug development. With his team and collaborators he conducts field and laboratory based studies.

Aster Gebrekirstos (PhD, Gottingen University, Germany, 2005) is senior scientist and head of the dendrochronology lab, World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya, and affiliated with Erlangen University, Germany. Her research is in the area of forest ecology, dendroclimatology, climate change, applications of stable isotopes, land restoration. She led and participated in research projects across Africa and Asia. She set up dendrochronology labs in Ethiopia (2009) and in Nairobi (2013). She taught at Alemaya and Wondo Genet University, Ethiopia; as visiting professor at WASCAL, and Dresden University in Germany. She trained 20+ PhD students, published 80+ journal articles and book chapters. Her awards include: African Climate Award for excellence in climate change research (2014), Special Award for Groundbreaking Science (2009). Fellow of African Academy of Science (AAS), International Academy of Wood Science, conferred Eleonore Trefftz Visiting Professorship Dresden University. She is a vice-president of International Union of Agroforestry, chair of Environment Committee at AAS, member of science leadership at Past Global Changes (PAGES) and Mountain Research Institute (MRI).

Gonzales has been professor for 42 years of the Faculty of Sciences and Philosophy of the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (1979-2021) with a wide and recognized scientific career at national and international level from 1977 to the present day. Physician and biologist by profession, he is the first Doctor of Science at the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (1985) and also holds a PhD in Medicine (1999) with a post-doctorate at Monash University, in Melbourne, Australia (1987-1988). He is an Academic of Number at both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. During his 44 years of scientific life, he has devoted himself to research on the endocrine aspects of adaptation to high altitude, in particular to the hormonal mechanisms that regulate erythropoiesis. In Peru, residents above 2000m account for 30% of the Peruvian population. Gonzales is the author of 355 scientific publications, including 12 books and 14 book chapters. He has received 72 national and international awards during his scientific career. He is a referee of more than 60 international journals. He has advised 30 Bachelor's, 19 Master's and 8 Doctor´s thesis.

Goswami (PhD University of Calcutta, 1996) is currently a senior professor in the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India. Her topic of research is neutrino physics and physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. She is a member of the India-Based Neutrino Observatory collaboration. She has received several awards including the Humboldt fellowship from Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation, P. Sheel Memorial Lecture Award for women scientists from the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad, India, the C .V. Raman Mahila Vijnana Puraskara from Swadeshi Vijnana Andolana, Karnataka, and the J.C. Bose National fellowship of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India. She is an elected fellow of all the three science academies in India.

Hutz graduated in biology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 1973 and obtained her PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology from UFRGS in 1981. She was postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Pediatric Genetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (1982-1983); professor at the Department of Genetics at UFRGS. She was vice-president and president of the Brazilian Society of Genetics. Hutz has more than 270 published articles and an ISI h-index of 40. Her research field and experience is in genetics, with emphasis on human and medical genetics. In 2010, she received the SCOPUS-Brazil award and her PhD students obtained the CAPES Thesis Award by the Brazilian Ministry of Education, and Honorable Mention of same award in 2011 in the area of biological sciences. She was appointed as a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2011. Hutz was honored at the 60th Brazilian Congress of Genetics for her relevant contribution to the field. Her research aims to the diversity of the human genome and its effects on susceptibility to multifactorial diseases, and pharmacogenomics mainly of psychiatric disorders and infectious diseases.

Joshi, an internationally acclaimed scientist, was a senior professor in the department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, before joining Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT) as their provost, and founding director for the International Center for Cosmology (ICC). He is regarded as a scholar, physicist, and an expert on cosmology. Joshi’s research interests are general relativity and cosmology. He has made fundamental contributions in black hole physics and gravitation theory. His extensive analysis of general relativistic gravitational collapse has been widely recognized as providing significant insights into final fate of massive collapsing stars in the universe, formation of space-time singularities, and cosmic censorship. His research which mainly revolves around Cosmology and Gravitation Physics, has been reported in more than 200 research papers in international journals of repute, and also in monographs from Oxford University Press (OUP), Cambridge University Press (CUP) and other books on the subject. He has held visiting faculty positions in several countries doing research, lecturing on these topic.

Karunaweera is the chair, senior professor of parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and honorary visiting fellow at the School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA. Trained as a medical parasitologist she has extensive teaching and research experience in tropical diseases, with special emphases on vector-borne diseases. Elected Fellow of National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, she is the first Sri Lankan elected as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a Distinguished International Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She received several research grant awards, both international and local, including Tropical Medicine Research Centre Award, by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, US. Fellowship awards received include Harvard University’s Senior Research Scholar Award (2005/6); Fulbright Advanced Research and Lecturing Award (2005). She is the founder president of Sri Lanka National Chapter of Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and current president of Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists.

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).

BSc from University College Dublin (1987), MSc from University of Edinburgh (1988), and PhD from University of Oxford (1991), received a post-doctorate scholarship at the University of Sydney (2002). She is a full professor of Universidade de Brasilia and a CNPq scholarship holder (1A). She has experience in animal genetics and breeding, in conservation of animal genetic resources and landscape genetics. McManus has published more than 500 articles in peer-reviewed journals with the editorial board, 24 book chapters, more than 550 abstracts in conferences, and supervised more than 200 students. She participates in joint projects at the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa, among others. She is a reviewer for 38 national and international journals, and 11 development agencies, as well as associate editor for Tropical Animal Health and Production. She was the director of international affairs for CAPES/Ministry of Education, Brazil. McManus is a Brazilian Academy of Science member and commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit. Currently, is responsible for research collaboration in FAPESP/São Paulo/Brazil.

Musoke (MBChB, PhD) is a professor, pediatric infectious diseases specialist in the department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Makerere University, and has carried out research with the Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University research collaboration since 1995. She has conducted multiple perinatal HIV prevention clinical trials with US National Institute of Health Division of AIDS network (HIVNET/HPTN/IMPAACT), including the landmark HIVNET012 (Ugandan vice-chair), single dose nevirapine (NVP) to mother and infant for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, which have informed WHO guidelines for PMTCT. She has also conducted pediatric HIV treatment clinical trials to improve antiretroviral therapy for children in resource-limited settings, and pediatric TB diagnostics and treatment. In 1999, she received the Recognition Award, for outstanding contributions to advancing the prevention of perinatal HIV transmission, Canada, and in 2017 the National Bioethics Award, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, Uganda. Musoke is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and in 2016 she was appointed fellow of the Uganda Academy of Sciences.

Paz got his PhD from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina, and held a postdoctoral position both at the Universtity of Maryland and at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), United States, where he was also a staff member. He is a leader in quantum information. He made major contribution to the theory of quantum open systems and to the study of the process of decoherence. He contributed to the theory of quantum error correction and to design new quantum algorithms for physics simulations. He played a key role to establish a strong experimental basis for quantum technologies in Argentina. As a director of the Physics Department of UBA he played a key role to position it as a leading institution in the region. He is plenary full professor at UBA, superior investigator at CONICET and since December 2019 has been the vice-minister of Science in Argentina. Paz received the 2015 Argentinian Presidential Prize in Science, the TWAS Prize in Physics, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the W. Bessel Prize; and the Bunge and Born, and Konex prizes in Argentina.

Poveda (PhD, 1998, Water Resources) is full Professor, Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Medellín, Colombia. Member of: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Academies of Sciences of Colombia and Spain. Scientific steering committees: Global Energy and Water Cycles Research Program of the Global Climate Research Program, Scientific Panel for the Amazon, Global Change and Human Health Program. He was part of the 2019 International Mission of Experts convened by the Colombian government to develop the road map for science, education and technology in Colombia for the XXI century. He has been elected as visiting fellow at: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA (2001-2002), Centre for Hydrology and Ecology, Wallingford, UK (2005), National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado (2010 and 2019), and Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany (2019). He is the author and co-author of 9 books, and more than 200 peer-reviewed papers published on hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, hydroclimatology, climate change, human health and water resources engineering.

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.

Ratsimbazafy (PhD, 2002, State University of New York, USA and French Habilitation, 2011, University Antananarivo, Madagascar) is a faculty lecturer at the University of Antananarivo. He has published over 200 research papers, review articles and book chapters. Furthermore, he is the co-vice chair, Madagascar section, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC) Primate Specialist Group; the director of Houston Zoo, Madagascar Program; and the president of the Madagascar Primate Research Group. Additionally, he is a member of Malagasy Academia and African Academy of Sciences. He has won many international awards and prizes such as: the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1998); the Galante Award (2002) of the International Primatological Society; and the Disney’s Hero Conservation Award (2015). Recently, he received from the Council of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) the Lifetime Honorary Fellow 2019, which is the highest honor awarded by ATBC. He also received the African Primatological Society Award 2019. In February 2020, he was elected the president of the International Primatological Society.

Sanginga has been director general of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) since 2011. He has more than 35 years of experience in international agricultural research and development, research administration and management, and resource mobilization, particularly in the fields of applied microbial ecology, plant nutrition, and integrated natural resources management in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Before joining IITA, he was director of the Nairobi-based Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT-TBSF, 2003-2011). His career has focused on mentoring and capacity building of young scientists, entrepreneurship, and agriculture/agribusiness in Africa. He has published more than 120 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals and was honored with the International Foundation for Science Sven Brohult Award for his contribution to agricultural and agroforestry research. Born in DR Congo (DRC), Sanginga did most of his postgraduate training at IITA and his PhD in Agronomy/Soil Microbiology under a joint program in DRC, Burundi, and Rwanda. Under his leadership, IITA has tran

Sayed is dean of engineering, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. He has served as distinguished professor and chairman of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he founded the Adaptive Systems Laboratory (1996). Recognized as a highly cited researcher and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, he served as president of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) in 2018-19. An author of over 570 scholarly publications and six books, his research involves several areas including adaptation and learning theories, data and network sciences, statistical inference, and multi-agent systems. His awards include: 2020 Norbert Wiener Society Award, 2015 Education Award from IEEE-SPS; 2014 Papoulis Award from European Association for Signal Processing; 2013 Meritorious Service Award and 2012 Technical Achievement Award from IEEE-SPS, 2005 Terman Award from American Society for Engineering Education, 2003 Kuwait Prize, and several Best Paper awards from scientific organizations. He is a fellow of IEEE, European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP), and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

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.

Shaabani (PhD, 1994, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran) is full professor, Shahid Beheshti University (SBU), a member of Academy of Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran, and past-president of SBU. His prizes include Distinguished Professor of the Iran Universities selected by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran; Distinguished Professor selected by Iran's National Elites Foundation, (first edition of Allameh Tabatabaei Award); Prize of the International Kharazmi Festival in Basic Science; and Iranian Chemical Society’s Distinguished Chemist. Shaabani’s main expertise is the discovery and design of novel isocyanide-based multi-component reactions ( I-MCRs) in the synthesis of biologically important heterocyclic compounds, preparation of neoteric functional materials with functionalization/modified nano-materials and natural polymers via I-MCRs and applied in drug delivery and materials biomedical platform. He has published more than 350 publications including several review articles and book chapters and more than 100 presentations in conferences.

Shabani (PhD, 1986, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium) is professor of mathematics and mathematical physics, University of Burundi (UB); president, Burundi Academy of Sciences; past vice-president, African Academy of Sciences and African Mathematical Union. He is president of the Burundi National Commission for higher education; and director of the University of Burundi Doctoral School. He was director of the UNESCO Harare Cluster Office and representative to several African countries and regional economic commissions. He was vice-rector of UB; deputy secretary general of the Association of African Universities. He is president of the International Advisory Board of the Africa Centre of Excellence on Innovative and Transformative STEM Education at Lagos State University, Nigeria (funded by the World Bank); president of the International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Africa; member of the Executive Committee of the Global University Network for Innovation, Barcelona, Spain; member of the High Level Panel of the Pan African University; coordinator of the African Union quality assurance cluster; member of African Academy of Sciences.

Stashenko is the director of the National Research Center for the Agroindustrialization of Tropical Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, CENIVAM. She has directed the research work of more than 300 new professionals in Chemistry, at undergraduate and graduate levels, which have been the basis for her publication of over 250 scientific articles. She has coauthored 11 patents. Research topics include the application of chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques to the study of secondary metabolites from aromatic plants, to the determination of pesticide residues in various materials, and to petrochemistry and organic geochemistry. Stashenko founded the National School on Chromatography where she has taught over 150 specialized courses on separation sciences to practicing professionals from research labs and industry.

Whitelock is an astronomer at, and former director of, the South African Astronomical Observatory and an honorary professor at the University of Cape Town. She obtained her BSc and PhD at the University of London. Her primary research interests are the late stages of stellar evolution, mass-loss and variability. She also works on galactic structure, near-by galaxies and the cosmic distance scale. She is involved in astronomy education, astronomy for development, and international coordination and collaboration. She has served as president of the International Astronomical Union’s Division VII (Galactic Systems), is a member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, an honorary fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK) and an honorary member and fellow—and former president—of the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP). She is the recipient of the 2018 de Beers Gold Medal of the SAIP and a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from Rhodes University in 2020.

Yang received his PhD degree in 1993 from the University of California, Davis, United States. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he joined the City University of Hong Kong in 1994 and was promoted to chair professor of mathematics in 2007. He was the president of Hong Kong Mathematical Society (2016-2020). Yang is a member of the European Academy of Sciences, Hong Kong Academy of Sciences, and a foreign member of Academia Europaea. He is also a fellow of American Mathematical Society.

Zhao is a chair professor at University of Hong Kong (HKU), and a Changjiang chair professor at Northwest University, China. He earned BSc and MSc from Jilin University in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and a PhD from Curtin University in 2000. Zhao’s research fields are metamorphic petrology, Precambrian geology and supercontinents. He has published 460 papers, cited for 64,814 times (h-index 137). Zhao has received many awards and honors, including State Natural Science Award (Second Class, 2014), Highly Cited Researchers (2014-2022), 29th Khwarizmi International Award (First Class; 2016), Chair Professorship of Changjiang Scholars Program (2017), and TWAS Prize in Earth, Astronomy and Space Sciences (2018). He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America (2014), a Member (Academician) of the Chinese Academy of Science (2019), Fellow (Academician) of The World Academy of Science for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (2020), and HKU Distinguished Research Achievement Awards (2021). He was the Editor-in-Chief of Precambrian Research (2010-2021) In the 2023 Best Scientists Ranking (Research.com), he stands No.10 in the world and No.1 in China in earth sciences.

Zhu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), professor of biogeochemistry and environmental soil science, is the science director of the Institute of Urban Environment, CAS. Zhu is a leader in taking multi-scale and multi-disciplinary approaches to soil and environmental problems. He obtained his PhD in environmental biology from Imperial College, London in 1998. He is currently the co-editor-in-chief of Environment International (Elsevier), founding editor of Soil Ecology Letters, and an editorial member for a few other international journals. He is a scientific committee member for the International Science Council (ISC) programme on Human Health and Wellbeing in Changing Urban Environment, and served for nine years as a member of the Standing Advisory Group for Nuclear Application, International Atomic Energy Agency (2004-2012). Zhu is the recipient of many merit awards, among them including the TWAS Prize in Agricultural Science 2013, and the National Natural Science Award 2009. Zhu has published over 400 papers in international journals. He is an ISI highly cited researcher.

Zhu received B.Eng. degree from Zhejiang University in 1982 and PhD degree from McMaster University, Canada, in 1991. He joined Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University as a faculty member in 1994 and served as department chair from 2009 to 2014. He has served as a vice-president of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen since 2017. Zhu works on polymer reaction engineering and materials, advanced polyolefin products, and smart polymers. He has trained 140 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, published 378 papers, received 13900 SCI citations, given 300 invited seminars. He was elected to Canada Research Chair in 2001, as a fellow to Chemical Institute of Canada in 2009, to Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2010, to Engineering Institute of Canada in 2011, and to Royal Society of Canada in 2014. He was bestowed the highest honor Distinguished University Professor by McMaster University in 2015 and awarded the primary R.S. Jane Memorial Award by Canadian Society of Chemical Engineering in 2016. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of several academic publications. He is an active consultant for polymer industries.

Zhu (PhD, 1999, Donghua University), member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is currently the director of the State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials at Donghua University. She has served as the vice-president for Chinese Materials Research Society (C-MRS) since 2016 and the Chinese Association of Women Scientific Workers since 2019. She is recognized as a pioneer in the discovery and development of melt spinning process theory of polymer-based nanocomposite fibers in China. She published over 600 SCI papers, 10 books and chapters. Over 300 Chinese Invention Patents were filed and granted. Her honors and awards include Second Prize of National Award for Technological Inventions (2020), National Innovation Competition Award (2017), First Prize of Shanghai Natural Science Award (2018), First Prize of Shanghai Award for Technological Invention (2015), the Cheung Kong Scholars (2013), Shanghai Science and Technology Elite (2011), Second Prize of National Award for Progress in Science and Technology (2006).

Ahmed (PhD, 1987, Mines ParisTech, France) is Retired Professor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, India. An earth scientist, he worked extensively on groundwater hydrology in his 37 years’ career at CSIR- National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad. Later he was Chair Professor in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He led a large number of national and international projects on Earth science including the National Aquifer Mapping, India using heli-borne geophysics. He has about 200 SCI publications and supervised 40 doctoral students. He is Secretary of the Asian-GWADI. His awards include National Geoscience Award, International Prize for Water Sciences, National Mineral Award, INC-IAH Excellence Award, NGRI-AHI National Lecture Award, IGU-Annie Talwani Memorial Prize, Young Scientist Award. He is Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of India. Ahmed has led the Indo-French Centre for Groundwater Research in Hyderabad for almost two decades as its founder head. He has been visiting Fellow to the Aligarh Muslim University and visiting professor to Kashmir University, India. Presently he is Consultant in Islamic University of Science and Technology, Kashmir

Alouini is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, California, USA, in 1998. Alouini is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America (OSA)). Other recognitions include his selection as Fellow of the African Academy of Science in 2018 and Member of the Academia Europaea in 2019. Over the last years, Alouini has been addressing the uneven global distribution, access to, and use of information and communication technologies by studying and developing (i) new generations of integrated space-air-ground networks as a solution to provide connectivity to far-flung, less-populated, and/or hard-to-reach areas and (ii) novel thrifty wireless networks to achieve digital inclusiveness for low-income neighborhoods.

Altshuler Alvarez graduated summa cum laude from the Physics Faculty, University of Havana, Cuba in 1986, and got his PhD in 1994. Among his research interests are superconductivity, complex systems, granular matter and porous materials. Altshuler is Professor at the Physics Faculty, University of Havana. He has been Invited Researcher at the Texas Center for Superconductivity (USA), the Ecole supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielle (ESPCI) Paris (France), the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters (Norway), and the Rockefeller University (USA) among others. Altshuler is Editor in Chief of the Cuban Journal of Physics, and an editorial board member of Granular Matter and Physical Review Applied. He has authored several books, such as Guerrilla Science: Survival Strategies of a Cuban Physicist (Springer, 2017). Among his hobbies are guitar playing (and composition), cartoon drawing, writing of short stories, elderly caregiving, snorkeling, plumbing, car fixing, tasteless cooking, and a dangerously long etcetera performed with different levels of love, audacity and mediocrity. He is also an avid science communicator–where a vitriolic sense of humor often plays a key role.

Atangana is Full Professor at the Institute for Groundwater Studies, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. His research interests are, but not limited to, fractional calculus and applications, numerical and analytical methods, and modeling. He is the author of more than 270 research papers and five books in top tier journals of applied mathematics and groundwater modeling. He is the founder of numerous mathematical operators, for example fractional differential and integral operators with singular and nonlocal kernels (Atangana-Baleanu derivatives and integral), fractal-fractional calculus, piecewise calculus, and some numerical methods. He serves as Editor in top tier journals in various fields of study. He has been invited as plenary, keynote speaker in more than 30 international conferences. He has graduated more than 21 masters and 10 PhD students and has supervised several postdoctoral researchers from different countries. He was elected Highly Cited Mathematician in 2019, Highly Cited Mathematician with Crossfield Impact in 2020, and Highly Cited Mathematician in 2021. He is a recipient of the Obada Prize 2020, the TWAS-Hamdan Award 2020 and many others.

Badshah earned his PhD in 1994 from Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad. He is Vice Chancellor of the University of Buner and Ex-Professor Emeritus and Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, QAU, Islamabad. He is a Fellow of Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS); Chemical Society, Pakistan; and Associate Editor of the Journal of Chemical Society of Pakistan. His prizes include Research Productivity Award from Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (2001-16); Gold Medal from PAS; Best Teacher and Best Paper Awards from Higher Education Commission, Pakistan; and Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (TI) from Government of Pakistan.

Bhargava is a world-renowned multidisciplinary scientist with decades of leadership in the academia and industry. His contributions in nanotechnology, catalysis and metallodrugs for cancer treatment are outstanding. His award-winning Global PhD programme with the laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology broke new ground and established a unique connection between his native India with his adopted Australia. Regarded as the topmost researcher in mercury pollution control, Bhargava's achievements place him among the top 1 per cent scientists in mines and mineral engineering. He has co-authored over 600 highly-cited refereed journal articles, two books, 14 book chapters, 12 relevant patents, more than 120 lectures. He is known as a solution-provider to many industries. Holding distinguished professorships at top universities in six countries, he is an outstanding ambassador of Australian higher education around the world. An inspirational figure to many, he pushed boundaries and developed innovative ways for how universities should collaborate with industry, creating jobs and changing lives.

Chatterjee is a Professor of Pharmacology, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, India. Upon completing her MBBS and MD from University of Calcutta, she received her PhD from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Her work as a medical immunopharmacologist includes multiple aspects of Leishmania biology that includes (i) delineating the immunopathology of Post Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL), a disease unique to South Asia, and especially challenging as it has no animal model; (ii) development of diagnostic/prognostic objective molecular tools for monitoring anti-leishmanial therapy; and (iii) studying redox-dysfunction as an effective leishmanicidal approach. In sum, the thrust of Chatterjee’s work is translational research in Indian Leishmaniasis with a view towards facilitating a greater understanding of disease pathogenesis through worldwide collaborations across geographic borders, and supporting the ongoing kala-azar elimination programme. She is a member of four Indian science academies and has over 175 publications in leading International journals (Clin Infect Dis, J Invest Dermatol, J Clin Invest, J Inf Dis).