Baralle (PhD 1969, U. of Buenos Aires -UBA) has been director general at Intl. Centre for Genetic Eng. and Biotech. (ICGEB) in Trieste, Italy (2004-14). He now leads the ICGEB RNA Biology Group and is vis. prof. in Buenos Aires. From 1968 to 1974 studied Medicine at UBA and completed his MD in 1984 at the U. of Naples. Previously, he worked at the Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas Fundación Campomar and at the MRC Lab. of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. From 1980 to 1990, he was university lecturer of pathology at Oxford and fellow of Magdalen College. In 1990 he joined ICGEB. He is an elected member of EMBO and of the Argentine Acad. of Sciences. In 1977 he published the first complete primary structure of an eukaryotic mRNA, βglobin mRNA. His current research focuses on RNA splicing and RNA-protein interactions in neurodegenerative diseases. He has published over 220 papers.

Banu's research focuses on mycobacterial infections, epidemiology, diagnostics, and therapeutics, all fields where she has fostered international and national collaborations. She is currently a senior scientist and head of the program for emerging infections under the Infectious Diseases Division at icddr,b, where she has been working since 1991. Among her achievements are establishing the state-of-the-art BSL 2+ mycobacteriology laboratory at icddr,b; conducting the first-ever MDR-TB sentinel surveillance in Southeast Asia; bringing in new tools and technology in advancing TB diagnosis and management; research on TB prevalence and transmission in prison settings; standardizing stool processing method for Xpert MTB/RIF assay; and the successful development and implementation of an innovative social enterprise model for TB diagnosis and management in the private sector which has been incorporated in the National Strategic Plan. Banu is a fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, and serves as a member in several scientific/programme committees, and has over 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Banerjee is Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. He obtained his BE in 1981 from the Bengal Engineering College (Calcutta University), the M.Tech. in 1983 from the IIT Delhi, and PhD in 1988 from the IIT Delhi. He was in the faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur from 1986 to 2009. His recognition includes the SS Bhatnagar Prize, the Citation Laureate award of Thomson Reuters, and Fellowships of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Sciences India, and the IEEE.

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.

Bambah obtained his MA (Panjab, Govt. Coll., Lahore) in 1945, PhD (Cantab, St. John's College) in 1950 and ScD (Cantab) in1970. He is professor emeritus of Panjab Univ., Chandigarh. His previous positions include: Fellow, St. John's College, Cambridge; member of the Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton; professor and vice chancellor, Panjab Univ., Chandigarh; professor, Ohio State Univ.; president, Indian Mathematical Society; vice president, Indian Natl. Science Academy; and general president, Indian Science Congress Assn. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award (ISCA), the Aryabhatta Medal (INSA), Ramanujan Medal (INSA), Ramanujan Lecture Award (IMS), Ramanujan Medal (ISCA); and Meghnad Saha Award (UGC). He is a fellow of the Indian Natl. Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India.

Balseiro has research positions at the Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and National Research Council (CONICET), Argentina. He is professor at the Instituto Balseiro, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, where he obtained his PhD in 1978. He works in condensed matter theory, in particular charge density waves and superconductivity, the electronic structure of high T superconductors and of strongly correlated systems as well as electronic and spin transport in nanostructures. His awards include: Guggenheim fellow; Hussay prize from CONICET; Teofilo Isnardi prize from the National Academy of Sciences (ANCFyN); and Konex Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Argentina.

Balasubramanian is Distinguished Scientist and Director of Research-Emeritus, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India. After his PhD at Columbia Univ. and postdoctoral research (Univ. of Minnesota), he joined the IIT, Kanpur in 1967. In 1977, he moved to the Univ. of Hyderabad as Professor and later Dean. In 1982, he joined the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, where he was Director (1992-98). He is Fellow of all science academies of India, the German Acad. of Sciences Leopoldina, the Mauritian Acad. of Sciences, the African Acad. of Sciences, and of AAAS, US; member, Intl. Molecular Biology Network and World Innovation Foundation; winner, TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences; Khwarizmi Award, Iran; Bhatnagar, FICCI, Ranbaxy, Goyal and Bhasin Awards, India; UNESCO KALINGA Prize; Indira Gandhi National Award of India, Popularization of Science; Padma Shri; and Chevalier de l'Orde National du Merite, France. His field of research is: the biology of the eye

Balali-Mood (MD, Tehran Univ., 1968; PhD, Edinburgh Univ., 1981) is prof. of medicine and clinical toxicology; co-founder, Medical Toxicology Research Ctr (MTRC).and Clin Toxicol Dept (CTD), Mashhad Univ. of Medical Sciences (MUMS); clin. toxicol. adviser, OPCW and IPCS-WHO. His previous positions include: asst. prof. and dir. medical education, Ferdowsi Univ. Mashhad; res. fellow and lecturer, Edinburgh Univ.; dirs. MTRC and CTD, MUMS; and pres., Iranian Soc. of Toxicology and Asia Pacific Assoc. of Medi. Toxicol. He has received Int. and Nat. awards for teaching, research and medical care by Iranian authorities and Intl. organizations including Natl. Research Medal, Int Prof. Alireza Yalda Found. Award 2011 and The 2015 OPCW-The Hague Award. The National Elite Foundation recognized him as the Father of Toxicology of Iran and held commemoration in his birth place (Birjand, Mood) on 29 October 2016. Chief editor, JBUMS and assoc. editor of AJM. His membership includes: Iranian Medical Council; Iranian Acad. of Medical Sciences; Ir. Soc. Toxicology; Europ. Assoc. Poison Centr. Clin Toxicol; Asia pacific Association of Medical Toxicology and Program Advisory Committee, IPCS-WHO.

Balakrishnan (PhD 1979, Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore, India) is an Hon. Professor, at the Supercomputer Education and Res. Centre, Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He was Associate Director IISc (2005-2014). He has made important contributions to Aerospace Electronics, Computational Electromagnetics, Language Technologies, Information Security, and Information and Communication Technologies. His awards include: Padmashree, Pres. of India; Prof SN Mitra Memorial Award, IETE Diamond Jubilee Medal; Jawaharlal Nehru Lectureship of INSA; JC Bose National Fellowship; Hari Om Prerit Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Res. Award; and JC Bose Medals of Inst. of Electronics and Telecommunication Eng. for best papers. He is a Fellow of: TWAS, Indian Natl. Acad. of Eng.; Indian Acad. of Sciences; Indian Natl. Science Acad.; National Acad. of Sciences; Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Eng..

Bai was educated at the University of Science and Technology of China, Beijing from 1963-68 and Hefei, Anhui, China where he obtained his PhD in 1982. He is professor of statistics in the department of statistics at the Northeast Normal University, China. He was previously: Research associate of the Center for Multivariate Analysis, University of Pittsburgh; senior research associate at the Center for Multivariate Analysis at Penn State University; associate professor, department of statistics, Temple University, Philadelphia; professor of statistics, department of applied mathematics, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan, China; senior fellow and professor of statistics, department of mathematics and department of statistics and applied probability, National University of Singapore.

Akissa Bahri is currently Professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia. She was the Coordinator of the African Water Facility ‘2010-2015), the Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute, based in Accra, Ghana (2005-2010), and prior to that, Director of Research at the National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia. She has academic and professional experience in water resources management and the agricultural use of marginal waters, biosolids and their environmental impacts. She has received international honors from the Guinness Foundation (1984), the International Foundation for Science (1993), the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (1996), the 2009 "Prof. C.N.R. Rao Prize for Scientific Research", and the 2018 IWA Women in Water Award. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California at Davis in 2005. She holds an Agricultural Engineer degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie de Toulouse, France, a Doctor-Engineer degree from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, and a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from Lund University.

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).

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.

Badrie is professor of food microbiology and safety at the West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. She has served as Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation and Head of Dept. She is a past pres., Caribbean Inst. of Food Science and Techn., vice-pres. and dir. of publication, Caribbean Agro-Economic Soc., and public relations officer, Caribbean Acad. of Sciences. Her awards include: NIHERST Reudranath Capildeo gold medal winner in applied science and tech.. EU/CARPIMS scholar, Fulbright Researcher/Scholar; UNU fellow; TWAS/CARISCIENCE Young Female Scientist; European Union Lome IV-CULP-UWI fellowship; USAID Internatl. Dev.; Short-term Vis. Intl. Scholar; Assocn. of Commonwealth U. fellow, Intl.. She serves on the editorial board of three intl. journals.

Badran (MSc and Phd. at Mich State U.) is Chairman Board of Trustees U. of Jordan, Chancellor U. of Petra, with more than 120 pubs., including 46 books and 4 patents. He was awarded honorary doctorates from, Sungkyunkwan U., Seoul; an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Michigan State U.; West Watkins distinguished Lectureship Award and Hall of Fame Alumni Award from Oklahoma State U. USA; Honorary Professorship from Eurasian National U. Kazakhstan; Honorary Doctorate in Business, Yarmouk U., Jordan. Awarded Arab Thought Foundation for best Arab Scientist in higher education research; TWAS Regional Prize for Building Scientific Institutions; Asia award for Outstanding Contribution to education. Badran is a former Prime Minister of Jordan (2005), Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Education, Former Deputy Director General of UNESCO Paris 1990-1998, President Arab Academy of Sciences and AFED.

Babalola (Pr.Sci.Nat, MASSAF, FTWAS, FAS, FAAS, FISC) is the Vice President of the Org. for Women in Sci. for the Developing World. Baba, a National Research Foundation B-rated scientist with 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 rhizosphere research experience. She is passionate about capacity building & has trained 37 PhDs & 25 MScs. Many of her PhD products are in academics in the UK, Italy, America, Canada, Australia, Sweden, & Africa. She authored 400 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 the finalist, GenderInSite 2020, Clarivate 2022, 2023 & SAWISA 2024. Baba has an H-index of 79, 30,000 citations & 56 professional certificates. She is #1 in Africa for Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

Azzam is distinguished professor of electrical engineering, University of New Orleans (UNO). After receiving his BSc (Cairo University, 1967) and PhD (University of Nebraska, 1971), he held postdoctoral and faculty positions at the University of Nebraska until 1979 when he joined UNO. He was Fulbright scholar and visiting professor at Université de Provence, France, and professor of physics at the American University in Cairo. He served as topical editor for the Journal of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and Applied Optics, and as member of the OSA Publications Council. His honours include: 2005 GG Stokes Award of SPIE, International Society for Optical Engineering; 1993 Photonics Circle of Excellence Award; 1993 R and D Award; 1988 Outstanding American Inventor; 1985 Fulbright Scholar (France); and fellow of the Optical Society of America and SPIE.

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

Ayupov was educated at Tashkent State University. He is the director of V.I Romanovskiy Institute of Mathematics, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences(former Institute of Mathematics, National University of Uzbekistan); professor, National University of Uzbekistan; and chairman, Algebra and Functional Analysis Department. He was previously: Dep. Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of Uzbekistan; Chairman, Supreme Attestation Commission under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan. His awards include: Uzbekistan Academy Prize for Young Scientists; Uzbekistan Youth Union Prize for Young Scientists; All Soviet Union Youth Prize in Sciences and The First Degree State Prize of Uzbekistan in Science and Technology. He is a member of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences (elected in 1995) and American Mathematical Society. He was a senior associate, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, 2008-13. Member the Senate of the Republic of Uzbekistan since 2021, Hero of Uzbekistan (2021).

Dr. Jean Claude Autrey, CSK, BSc (London), MSc, PhD, DSc (Exeter), FTWAS, FMAST, FRSB, CBiol, was previous Director of the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute where his career spanned over 40 years. He is the Chancellor of the University of Mauritius, Past President of the Mauritius Academy of Science and Technology, General Secretary of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists and Chair of ACP Sugar Research Programme and Chair of the ACP Scientific Advisory Group on Sugar, Chair Board of Directors, Bonsucro Ltd, London. He has served on various national and international bodies many of which he has chaired. He is a Member of The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS). He is an appointed member of the Conservatoire Board since May 2015.He is Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (CSK) and Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International.

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

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.

Assem is vice-president of the Agricultural Research Center in Egypt. She was the former director of the Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Research Institute (ARC). She is specialized in plant molecular biology and biotechnology. She visited and exchanged her experiences as a visiting scientist at several universities and biotech companies in the USA. Assem is a member of the African Union High Level Panel on Emerging Technologies and the former vice-chair of the Genetic Sciences National Committee of the Egyptian Academy of Science and Technology, Egypt. She is a Fulbright Alumnus, USA (2002-2003). Assem is a member of the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Programme, Faculty of Agriculture, Banha University, Egypt. She was a team leader for one of the groups updating the Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy (2019) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Egypt, and she received the FAO Prize 2017. She participated in several basic and applied national and international research projects, she has several publications in peer reviewed journals, and is a reviewer for some national and international funding schemes.

Dr Abraham Aseffa is a Senior Scientist (formerly Director) at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute in Ethiopia. He graduated in Medicine from Addis Ababa University (1984) and studied Microbiology at the University of Leipzig, Germany (Dr. med, 1990, summa cum laude). He taught Microbiology at Gondar College of Medical Sciences (Ethiopia) until 1998 when he joined the WHO Immunology and RT at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland for postdoctoral research. He moved to AHRI in Addis as senior scientist in 2001. Dr Aseffa has conducted several studies on infectious disease microbiology, immunology and epidemiology in collaboration with national and international partners (>300 publications). He has keen interest in postgraduate student training. He works closely with the Min of Health in Ethiopia on capacity building for clinical and operational research and on translation of research findings into practice. Dr Aseffa has also been active on strengthening regional partnership particularly in clinical trial capacity building and health research ethics. He has served in several WHO/TDR, WHO and EDCTP advisory bodies. He is a member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS).

Artaxo is a professor of environmental Physics at the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo (USP). He has worked at NASA, Harvard University (USA), the universities of Antwerp, Stockholm, and Lund, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. His primary interest lies in global climate change, in research on the Amazon region. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the US AAAS, and a long-time member of the IPCC. He is the vice president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Sciences. He has been honored with numerous prizes, including the Doctor of Philosophy Honoris Causa title in 2009 from the University of Stockholm and the 2024 PIFI Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He published 519 scientific works and presented more than 1200 papers at international conferences. He has 73,701 citations in Google Scholar, with an H-index of 129, and 61,071 citations of his works in ResearchGate, with an h-index of 123. He has published 35 papers in journals in the Science and Nature groups. He is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Amazon Studies (CEAS) at the University of São Paulo.

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

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.

Aretxaga is a class-C researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), Mexico, a member of the Mexican National Researcher System (equivalent to Full Professor), and a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences (AMC). Since her arrival in Mexico in 1998, she has built her research group on galaxy formation and evolution and contributed to the development of the astronomy community. In 2011–2016 she was Head of Department of Astrophysics at INAOE. In 2006–2013, she coordinated the astronomy section of AMC. Since 2016, she has directed the International Schools for Young Astronomers of the International Astronomical Union, that bring education, development and networking opportunities to graduate students in isolated areas. The main focus of her research is to unravel the importance of massive star formation around supermassive black holes and their role in galaxy formation and evolution. She has coauthored over 140 research papers in Q1 journals, and has been invited more than 100 times to international conferences and other research institutes as a speaker. She also has an active outreach programme of talks, articles and pieces in social media.