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.

Goulart graduated as a pharmacist at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, where she then got her PhD in Science (1983). She did postdoctoral studies in London, Münster, and Paris. She was a Visiting Professor at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Chimie, Paris (2004–2005, 2007, 2008). She is now a Full Professor at the Federal University of Alagoas, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology (UFAL); a researcher 1B at Brazilian Research Council (CNPq); and full member of the Brazilian Academy of Science (ABC), since 2015. She has published 210 articles, nine patents, 12 book chapters. She received several awards: Young Scientist Award by CNPq (1985); Foreign Young Chemist Award (1997) at International Symposium-Electroorganic Synthesis ’97, Japan; National Award Marie Curie - Distinguished Women on Chemistry by the Brazilian Society of Chemistry (SBQ) (2011); Jabuti Award (2012); Award Roberto Alves de Lima, by UFAL (2018); Prêmio Inovadores by Inova, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (2020); and Brazilian Women in Science, Scientific Leadership by SBQ/American Chemical Society (2021). She supervised 31 MSc, 40 PhD students and 10 postdoctoral fellows.

Pant earned his PhD from Jeonbuk National University, South Korea, in 2011. He is a pioneering chemist of Nepal and made a significant contribution towards fabricating advanced polymer and ceramic nanomaterials that have potential applications in the biomedical field and environmental remediation. His research on nanotechnology for the fabrication of hierarchical nanomembrane and nanoparticles using top-down and bottom-up approaches has greatly enhanced global knowledge in the field of advanced nanomaterials. He has been teaching and doing research for three decades, becoming a leader in the materials science and engineering discipline. Pant has published 88 SCI/SCIE-ranked journal articles and has 5,400 citations with h-index=43. He has more than 100 conference proceedings and non-ranked journal publications and is the author of 14 books and book chapters in chemistry and materials science. He is the editor of four SCI/SCIE journals and the reviewer of about 60 ranked journals. Currently, Pant is working as vice-chancellor of Far Western University, Nepal.

Nunes is a professor of chemical and environmental science and engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, where she also served as vice provost for faculty and academic affairs. Prior to joining KAUST, she led the Department of Membranes for Renewable Energy at the Helmholtz Association, in Germany and was previously an assistant and associate professor of physical chemistry at the State University of Campinas in Brazil, following a postdoctoral Humboldt Fellowship in Mainz, Germany. In recognition of her contributions to physical sciences (chemistry), Nunes was named the international 2023 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for Africa and the Arab States. She is a Fellow of the São Paulo Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the North American Membrane Society, and an honorary member of the European Membrane Society.

Qaim was educated at Govt. College/Punjab Univ., Lahore, Pakistan. He earned PhD at Liverpool Univ., DSc at Birmingham Univ. (UK), and Habilitation at Köln Univ. He is advisor in nuclear chemistry, Res. Ctr. Jülich; prof., Köln Univ.; senior teacher at FH Aachen; hon. prof., Govt. College Univ., Lahore, and chief editor, Radiochimica Acta. He is chair, Education Committee of World Council on Isotopes, Korea/USA, and Tutor at the IAEA-supported intern.school on Radionuclides held in Korea. His work covers radiochemistry, nuclear data and radionuclides in medicine. His awards include: Eötvös Medal and hon. Fellowship, Hungarian Physical Society; hon. Citizenship and hon. Doctorate, Debrecen Univ., Hungary; hon. Doctorate, Yorker Intern. Univ.; JARI Award Medal, Pergamon Press; Medal of Honour, Egyptian Atomic Energy; Medal of Honour, Rajshahi Univ.,Bangladesh; Medal of Honour, Government College University Lahore, Pakistan; Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan; Hevesy Medal of Radiochemistry; and Becquerel Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry, London. He was Research Professor of TWAS for Bangladesh. He is foreign fellow, Pakistan Acad. of Sciences and fellow, Islamic World Acad. of Sciences.

Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, PhD organic chemistry from Cambridge University (1968), has 1222 international publications in organic chemistry ( 245 books, 764 research publications, 80 international patents and 70 book chapters. He is the Editor-in-Chief of six European chemistry journals and Editor of "Studies in Natural Product Chemistry" (75 volumes, Elsevier). Awarded UNESCO Science Prize (1999), elected Fellow of prestigious Royal Society (UK)( 2006). Conferred honorary doctorate degrees by the Cambridge University (UK) (1987), Coventry University (UK) and Bradford University (UK). Elected Honorary Life Fellow of Kings College Cambridge,Awarded high Civil Award of Austria i“Große Golden Ehrenzeischen am Bande" (2007).Elected Vive President (TWAS). Won TWAS Prize for Institution Building (Durban,2009), Elected as President of NASIC (Network of Academies of Science of Islamic Countries (2003-present). Elected Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and won highest "International Science & Technology Collaboration Award from President Xi Jinping of China. Institutions in China and Malaysia have been named after him https://aurins.uitm and http://cpecinfo.com/hunan-university

Ramasesha is a professor in the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He obtained his PhD in 1977 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He was post-doctoral research associate at the Universities of Oxford and Princeton. He has been awarded the BM Birla science prize and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize in chemistry. He is a J.C. Bose National fellow and fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. His area of research is modeling electronic and magnetic and nonlinear optic phenomena in molecular materials and low dimensional extended systems. He has developed exact diagonalization methods to study molecular magnets, extended the density matrix renormalization group methods to study static and dynamic properties of electron states in conjugated polymers and spin chains.

Rao is Linus Pauling research professor and Hon. president, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. After obtaining his PhD at Purdue U. and completing postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, he returned to India in 1959 and has since worked in various capacities at the Ind. Inst. of Science and other institutions. His honours include: 77 honorary causa doctorates; Hughes and Royal Medals of the Royal Society, London; Einstein Gold Medal, UNESCO; India Science Prize; Dan David Prize; Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize; dist. research professor, U. of Cambridge; laureate, Khwarizmi Intl. Award, Iran; Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, by Emperor of Japan, Order of Friendship of Russia, Chevalier De La Legion D'Honneur of France. He was conferred the highest award for materials research, the von Hippel award by the Materials Society in 2017. He is a member of 27 science academies including the Royal Society, US National Academy of Sciences, and Pontifical, Australian, Canadian, Russian, Brazilian, French and Japan academies. He is the recipient of the highest civilian honour of India, Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India).

Sathyamurthy is a theoretical chemist and founder director of the Indian Inst. of Science Education and Research, Mohali. He has made outstanding contributions to molecular reaction dynamics: Relating features of potential energy surface to dynamical outcome; utility of time-dependent quantum mechanics to reactive scattering; and fractals in chemical processes. He has also focused on determining stability and degradation of polysilanes; analysing state of water clusters in a confined nonpolar environment; shapes of boric acid clusters; roles of pentagon and hexagon motifs; and stacking interactions in aromatic systems. He is a fellow of IAS, Bangalore, and INSA, New Delhi. His honours include the INSA Young Scientist, Bhatnagar, Raman and FICCI Awards of India, he was JC Bose National Fellow, Dept. of Science and Technology, New Delhi. Hon. Prof., JNCASR, Bengaluru.

Professor Emeritus at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela. After receiving PhD in Physical Chemistry from Southampton University, UK, Scharifker joined the faculty of Simon Bolivar University in 1980, shaping an Electrochemistry research group and serving successively as Department Head, Research Dean, Vice Rector and Rector. He has published more than 120 research papers in international journals with over 8000 literature citations (h = 39) and holds 3 patents of invention. He received several honours, including the Tajima Prize from the International Society of Electrochemistry, the Prize for Scientific Work in Chemistry from the National Council for Science and Technology Research of Venezuela, and the Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Prize from the Polar Enterprises Foundation. He was Rector of Universidad Metropolitana (2011-2021), is Fellow and past president of the Venezuelan Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, and member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences.

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.

Shah is a professor and director of the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences, and UNESCO chair on bioorganic medicinal and natural product chemistry at the University of Karachi, Pakistan. His research explores the intersection of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology. He has authored six books and edited four books (all with Elsevier), nine book chapters and more than 550 research articles with a cumulative impact factor exceeding 1,900. National and international agencies, including OPCW, IFS, ISECO-COMSTEC, TWAS-COMSTECH, DTRA US, HEC, PSF have provided financial support to his research, and 50 scholars have completed their PhD studies under his supervision or co-supervision. He is a Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, and the Islamic World Academy of Sciences. He received the Atta-ur-Rahman gold medal in 2006, and the Dr. Raziuddin gold medal in 2015, both from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, as well as the civil award Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, conferred by the President of Pakistan (2015). He is a recipient of the Abdus Salam cash prize in chemistry, and serves as an editor of the Journal of the Chemical Society of Pakistan.

Vinod Singh is a Professor of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur. His research work falls in the area of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, more specifically, asymmetric synthesis. He has developed several new chiral ligands/catalysts for enantioselective reactions. Singh’s work has been recognized with several awards and honors such as Padma Shri (2014), Distinguished Alumnus Award by BHU (2012), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize (2004), and Swarnajayanti Fellowship Award (1998), among others. He is Fellow of all the science academies of the country. He is an Editor of an Elsevier journal - Tetrahedron Lett. He is a Member, Editorial Advisory Board of Org. Lett. and J. Org. Chem. As a Founding Director of IISER Bhopal for more than 10 years (2008-2018), Professor Singh set up the whole campus in 200 acres land from scratch. He has served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of SPA Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal. He also held the additional charge of Directorship of MANIT Bhopal and the Mentor Director of IIIT Bhopal. He had been a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC to PM) during 2009-2014.

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.

Strumia is an emeritus professor of chemistry, Faculty of National University of Córdoba, and superior investigator of CONICET, ARGENTINA. Strumia has directed fifteen doctoral and four master's theses and has more than 165 scientific international publications in the field of polymer and dendritic chemistry. Her main research interest are the synthesis and chemical modification to obtain new functional materials or hybrid nanomaterials with specific application properties. She was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019. During her scientific career she has received important awards such as: INNOVAR 2007 (Mention in the Applied Chemistry area), INNOVAR 2010 (Mention in the Technology Linkage and Transfer category) of the National Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Ministry of Economy and Production; Award for Scientific Career on the Day of Women and Girls in Science awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Province of Córdoba (2022); Konex 2023 Award in Science and Technology: Diploma of Merit (September 2023) and Konex Platinum Award (October 2023) in the area of Organic Chemistry.

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.

Tian is prof. at East China U. of Science and Tech., Shanghai. In 1999, he was appointed Cheung Kong Dist. Prof. by the Education Ministry of China. His current research interests include the syntheses of novel functional organic dyes for solar cells and chemosensors as well as development of interdisciplinary materials science that determines the electronic and optical properties of materials. Tian has already published over 500 papers in international journals and applied 90 Chinese patents. ISI Web of Science shows that his publications have been cited over 50,000 times (data by Nov. 28, 2022) and his h-index = 118 (data by Nov. 28, 2022). Now Tian is associate Editor of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces and Science China Chemistry as well as Intl. Advisory Board Member for Chemical Science, Advanced Optical Materials and Chem. Asia J. etc. He was selected as a member of the Chinese Acad. of Science (2011) and a Fellow of TWAS (2013). Prof. Tian serves as Vice-President of Chinese Chemical Society since 2019.

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.

Toma is prof., Inst. of Chem., U. of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He obtained his PhD in 1974 in a program sponsored by the US Natl. Acad. of Sci. and the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas, Brazil, under J. M. Malin and H. Taube, and postdoc, CALTECH (1979). His publ. include 360 papers and reviews in intl. j., with +6700 citations, 13 books, 25 patents. He has been responsible for the Supramolecular NanotechLab, and is head of the USP Center on Nanotech. and Nanosci.. He has advised over 60 PhD and MS theses. His honours include: Henrich-Rheinboldt Prize, 1987; TWAS Chem. Prize, 1996; Simao Mathias Medal, 1997; Guggenheim Fellow Awd., 1999; Fritz-Feigl Prize, 2001; Abrafati-Petrobras Prize, 1996; Grã-Cruz Medal, Braz. Pres. of Republic, 2006; Innovation Prize from Petrobras, 2011; Innovation Prize, Braz. Chem. Soc., 2012, Jabuti Literature Prize, 2014. He is member of the Braz. Acad. of Sci., and IUPAC.

Tyagi joined the Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), in 1986 through the BARC Training School. He obtained his PhD in 1992, then did postdoctoral research at Max Planck Institute, Stuttgart, Germany (1995–96). Presently, he is Dean and Senior professor at HBNI, Mumbai; and honorary professor at JNCASR, Bengaluru. His research interests are in the field of nanomaterials, and also functional, metastable, and hybrid materials. He has published about 680 papers in international journals and 16 books and supervised 40 students for their PhD. He has received many prestigious awards including the DAE-Homi Bhabha Science and Technology Award, MRSI Medal; MRSI-ICSC Materials Science Senior Award; MRSI-CNR Rao Prize in Advanced Materials; CRSI Bronze Medal; CRSI-CNR Rao National Prize in Chemical Sciences; CRSI-Silver Medal; Rajib Goyal Prize in Chemical Sciences; Metallurgist of the Year award from Ministry of Steel, GoI; National Prize in Solid State and Materials Chemistry; ISCA Acharya PC Ray Memorial Award and NETZSCH – ITAS Award by Indian Thermal Analysis Society, Lifetime Achievement Award from REAI and Vigyan Shri award from Government of India.

Verez Bencomo is a chemist dedicated to understand the molecular basis of protection from infectious disease and to use this knowledge for the development of vaccines. He led this development from bench to introduction into preventive medical practice for 5 different vaccines: The first was Quimi-Hib, a conjugate vaccine against Haemophilus influenza type b using for the first time a synthetic carbohydrate antigen (Science, 2004) and prequalified by the World Health Organization. Quimi-Vio, a conjugate vaccine including the most prevalent Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes actually in the last clinical steps before commercial introduction in Cuba. In the period 2020-2021 during the COVID19 pandemic, he also led the development of a series of 3 vaccines call SOBERANAS. SOBERANA 02 is the only conjugate vaccine developed. The safety record of this vaccine platform allowed a quick introduction in children in Cuba as early as September 2021 allowing Cuba to be the first country in the world mass vaccinating children against COVID-19. He is “Knight of the Legion of Honor”, (France, 2015) and “National Hero” (Cuba, 2021)

Wang is academic advisor, Academic Committee, State Key Lab., professor of chemistry, Changchun Ins. of Applied Chem. (CIAC), Chinese Acad. of Sciences (CAS); Hon. Editor-in-chief, Analytical Chem. (Chinese). He was previously: deputy director and director, CIAC, CAS; visiting professor: U. of Houston (USA), Dijon U. (France), Kyoto and Yamanashi U. (Japan), and the Hong Kong U. of Science and Tech.. His awards include: Natl. Science Congress Award; 5 CAS Awards; 5 Awards and 1 Special Out. Award in Jilin Province; 3 Natl. Natural Science Award; first winner of the 10th Kharazmi Intl. Festival, Tehran, Iran; and the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, 1997. He is a member of CAS (1991). Hon. Member, Japanese Analytical Chem. Society (2006). Published 830 SCI papers citated over 25000 times with H index 78. Selected in the global Highly Cited Researcher 2014 (2002-2012)

Wong is professor of chemistry at Scripps Research Institute and National Taiwan U. and past president of Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan (2006-16). He received his BS and MS from National Taiwan University, and PhD (chemistry, 1982) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He taught at Texas A and M University for 6 years, then became professor and Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry at Scripps Research Institute (1989-2006) and director of the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei (2003-2006). He is a member of Academia Sinica, Taipei, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and US National Academy of Sciences. His research interests are in bioorganic and synthetic chemistry and biocatalysis, including development of chemo-enzymatic, synthesis of complex carbohydrates, glycoproteins and small-molecule probes for the study of carbohydrate-mediated biological recognition.

Wong obtained his BSc (1973) from the Chinese U. of Hong Kong and PhD (1976) from U. College London. After 2 years as a postdoc at Harvard, he returned to U. College London. From 1980 to 1982, he did research at the Shanghai Inst. of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), The Chinese Acad. of Sciences (CAS). In 1983, he joined the Chinese U. of Hong Kong and is now Emeritus Prof. of Chemistry and Research Professor. He also chairs the Management Committee, Shanghai-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory in Chemical Synthesis, SIOC, CAS. His research interests are concerned with syntheses and studies of natural and non-natural molecules, as well as synthetic methodologies. He has published more than 275 research papers, invited reviews and book chapters. He is member of CAS and the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences, and the winner of Humboldt, Croucher and Ramsay fellowships and the National Natural Sciences Prize of China.