Murenzi (PhD Louvain, Belgium) has been professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute since 2024. He was Executive Director of TWAS from 2011-2023, with a year interruption across 2016-2017 when he served as Director of the Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building in UNESCO's Natural Sciences Sector (July 2016). He previously was Minister of Science, Technology and Scientific Research in Rwanda and Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Sustainability at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC; he was also visiting Professor at the University of Maryland. He was Chair and Professor in the Department of Physics at Clark Atlanta University, USA. He was also designer of the two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform. In 2012 he was elected as a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). He chairs the UN Secretary General's High-level Panel of Technology Bank and Science, Technology and Innovation Supporting Mechanism dedicated to the Least Developed Countries; he is a Member of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development and of the Carnegie Mellon University President’s Global Advisory Council.

N’Guerekata (Ph. D. Montreal Canada 1980) is a University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean, School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Former Vice Rector of the University of Bangui, Deputy Minister for Scientific and Technical Research and Senior Advisor to the Head of State, N'Guerekata is a Fulbrighter, and an African Academy of Science Fellow, The World Academy of Sciences Fellow, American Mathematical Society Fellow. He received numerous honors and awards in the US, France, India, and Central African Republic. Founder and Chief Editor of the International Journal of Evolution Equations and the Journal of Nonlinear Evolution Equations and Applications, he is also a member of editorial boards of over 18 other international mathematical journals. Dr. N'Guerekata is (co) author of over 286 mathematics publications including 12 books.

Prof. Sultana N. Nahar ot The Ohio State University (OSU), USA, a co-founder of atomic astrophysics field, studies the four dominant atomic radiative and collisional processes, such as, radiative transitions, photoionization, electron-ion recombination, electron impact excitation, in astrophysical plasma, X-ray spectroscopy for Bio-medical applications, spectroscopy of kilonovae emission, diagnostics for bio-signature elements in exo-planetary atmosphere, with high accuracy methodology. She has made fundamental contributions to these processes in characterizing resonant features, developed algorithm for theoretical spectroscopy, developed precise unified theory for electron-ion recombination process with A. K. Pradhan at OSU. Findings of their studies are accumulated in the textbook “Atomic Astrophysics and Spectroscopy” (Cambridge U press). Her results from large scale computations are archived in her database, NORAD-Atomic-Data, at OSU. She is active in STEM education and research globally through research training, lectures, introducing and sponsoring programs. She is the founder of the International Society of Muslim Women in Science with members from 33 countries.

Narayan is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard Univ., U.S.A. He obtained his PhD in 1979 at Bangalore Univ., India. He has made numerous contributions in many areas of astrophysics, notably in the field of black holes. His work spans theory, observations, and numerical simulations. His membership includes: Royal Society (London); National Academy of Sciences (USA); American Association for the Advancement of Science; and Honorary Fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Ovbiagele, MD, MSc, MAS, MBA, MLS, is professor of neurology and associate dean at the University of California, San Francisco. His primary research involves translation of evidence-based interventions into clinical practice and community settings, to improve stroke outcomes for underserved and vulnerable populations around the world. He currently leads several studies of stroke in the US and sub-Saharan Africa. Ovbiagele has published over 600 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 89) in the areas of stroke prevention, risk factors and outcomes. His work has been recognized with the Pessin and Wartenberg Awards of the American Academy of Neurology; Penn Award of the American Neurological Association; Mridha Humanitarian Award of the American Brain Foundation; Feinberg and Stroke Council Awards of the American Stroke Association; Haddock International and Distinguished Scientist Awards of the American Heart Association, and Meritorious Achievement Award of the National Medical Association. He chaired the International Stroke Conference (2016-2018) and is current editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Heart Association. He serves on the board of the World Stroke Organization.

Padrón work started at Cambridge´s MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Padrón founded I.V.I.C.´s Center of Structural Biology, where he was an International Research Scholar of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His group found by cryo-electron microscopy that in thick filaments of tarantula muscle the two heads form the myosin interacting-heads motif (IHM), where both ATPases were inhibited explaining relaxation (Nature 436: 1195, 2005). Their showing that IHM is conserved since before the origin of animals revealed IHM importance as a relaxation ATPase inhibition and ATP energy-saving mechanism. They proposed a cooperative phosphorylation activation mechanism that explains potentiation and post-tetanic potentiation on tarantula contracting muscles. They found that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations cluster on IHM intramolecular interactions accounting for hypercontractility, reduced relaxation, and increased energy consumption of this pathogenesis. Honors: 1991 Polar Prize, 2008 Science and Technology National Prize of Venezuela. Elected Member of the Latin-American Academy of Sciences in 2002 and International Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. in 2018.

Patel (PhD, Electr. Engg., Stanford, 1961) is Em. prof. of physics and astronomy, electrical engineering and chemistry, UC Los Angeles. University Distinguished Professor, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL; He is also President and CEO of the Board, Pranalytica, Inc. In 1961, he joined Bell Laboratories where he managed all research in physics and materials science and engineering. In 1993 he joined UC Los Angeles as vice chancellor for research and assumed his present positions in 2000. He has received many scientific society prizes including the highest prizes of the IEEE (Medal of Honor) and the Optical Society of America (Ives Medal) and the Natl. Medal of Science awarded by the US President (1996). He was elected to the Natl. Acad. of Sciences, the American Acad. of Arts and Sciences and the Natl. Acad. of Engineering. In 2013, he was inducted into the Natl. Inventors Hall of Fame. He was pres., American Physical Society (1995) and Sigma Xi (1993-95).

Paulraj is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, USA. He obtained his PhD in 1973 at IIT (Delhi). He served in the Indian Navy from 1965 to 1991 where he led the development of military sonar systems. He also founded three national level research labs in India. He joined Stanford in 1992 where he pioneered MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) wireless technology that has revolutionized wireless performance and is incorporated into all Wi-Fi and mobile 4G./ 5G systems His recognition includes the 2024 RAE Prince Phillip Medal, the 2023 IET Faraday Medal, the 2011 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the 2014 Marconi Prize, the 2010 Padma Bhushan (Indian national award), the 2017 induction into the US Patent Office National Inventors Hall of Fame and the 2018 China Friendship Award. He is a member of nine academies, including the US National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering and several Indian S&T Academies . He is a fellow of IEEE and AAAS.

Poor (PhD, 1977, Princeton) is the Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, where he served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2006 to 2016. His research contributions are in the areas of communications and signal processing, particularly in wireless networking, smart grid, and related fields. His awards include: the IEEE Education Medal, the IET Fleming Medal, the URSI Booker Gold Medal, the IEEE Eric Sumner Award, the EURASIP Athanasios Papoulis Award, the AAES John Fritz Medal, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, and honorary doctorates from five universities. His memberships include: U.S. National Academy of Engineering, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Inventors, Royal Society, U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering, Academia Europaea, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Rodríguez-Iturbe is Distinuguished University Professor at Texas A&M University and James S. McDonnell Dist. Univ. Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He is author of over 300 papers in international journals and 3 books. His memberships include: US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering, Pontifical Vatican Academy of Sciences, Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, Mexican Academy of Engineering, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. His awards include: Stockholm Water Prize, Prince Sultan Abdulaziz Water Prize, Bowie Medal, Horton and Macelwane Medals, American Geophysical Union; Langbein Lecture, AGU; Huber Prize and VT Chow Award, American Society of Civil Engineers; Horton Lecture Award, American Meteorological Society; Premio Mexico of Science and Technology; National Science Prize of Venezuela; and Honorary Degrees from the universities of Genova, Cantabria and Zulia.

Roederer (DSc, 1952, U. of Buenos Aires) is prof. emeritus of physics, Geophysical Inst., Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks, and affiliate prof. University of Colorado. He was prof. of physics at the univ. of Buenos Aires, Denver and Alaska (1959-1993), and distinguished visiting prof., Rhodes University, South Africa (1997). He was dir., Argentine Natl. Ctr. of Cosmic Radiation, and Geophysical Inst. of the U. of Alaska; chrmn., US Arctic Rsrch. Commiss.; and sr. advisor, ICTP, Trieste. He has held chairmanships of ICSU associations and commissions and was former Intl. Sec. of the American Geophysical Union. Awards include: Soviet Acad. Medal, 100 Years of Geophysics; 4 NASA awards for contributions to the Galileo Mission to Jupiter; AGU Flinn Award for unstinting service to the scientific community. He is corr. member, Academies of Sciences of Argentina and Austria, and fell. of IUGG, AAAS, the AGU, the Argentine Physical Assoc. and Argentine Geodesic and Geophysical Association. Roederer is also organist.

Shukla is Univ. Prof. and founding Dir. of Climate Dynamics, PhD., found chair AOES dept., George Mason Univ. Obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD from BHU, India, and DSc from MIT. Previously, he was: res. assoc., Princeton; vis. assoc. prof., MIT; sr. scientist, GSFC, NASA; prof., Univ. of Maryland; chairman, TOGA Panel, NAS, USA; chairman, Int. Advisory Panel for Weather and Climate, India; Founding dir., Ctr. for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies. Honors and awards include: Honorary member, AMS; Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change, Padma Shri (India, 2012), IMO Prize, AGU Fellow, Rossby Medal, AMS; Walker Gold Medal, IMS; Exceptional Sci. Achiev. Medal, NASA. His membership includes: VA Governor's Commission on Climate; Joint Scientific Comm. and Chair of Modeling Panel, Climate Variability, WCRP; Fellow of IMS and AMS. Contributions include "Predictability in the Midst of Chaos." He is Founder of Gandhi College for the education of rural women in the village of his birth in India.

Soboyejo is a materials scientist whose research focuses on the mechanical properties of materials. His work has explored the structure and properties of metals/alloys, intermetallics, ceramics, composites, porous materials, cancer cells/tissues, biomaterials, and materials for energy and the environment. He received his BSc in mechanical engineering from King’s College London in 1985, and a PhD in materials science from Cambridge University in 1988. He worked as a Research Scientist at the McDonnell Douglas Research Labs, USA (1988–1992). Since then, he has been a faculty member at The Ohio State University, MIT, Princeton, African University of Technology (AUST) and Worcester Polytechnic (WPI). Soboyejo served as President and Provost of AUST (2012–14). He then returned to Princeton (2014–16), before moving to WPI as the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering (2016–18). He was Senior Vice President and Provost at WPI from September 2018 to May 2022, when he was appointed as Interim President of WPI. He is the recipient of National Young Investigator Awards by National Science Foundation/Office of Naval Research. He is a Fellow of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Sorooshian is dist. prof. and dir., Departments of Civil and Env. Eng. and Earth System Science, U. of California Irvine, USA. He is renowned for contributions to hydrometeorology and development/application of remote sensing for operational hydrology and water resources management. He is a member of the US Natl. Acad. of Eng. (NAE) and Intl. Acad. of Astronautics (IAA) and fellow of the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); American Geophysical Union (AGU); American Meteorological Soc. (AMS); and Int. Water Resources Assoc. (IWRA). He serves on advisory committees, including NASA, NOAA, WMO and UNESCO. Recent honours include: Ven Te Chow Award, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2017); Robert E Horton Medalist, American Geophysical Union (AGU) (2013); American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Life Member Award (2013); Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Intl. Prize for Water Resources Management and Protection (2010); Honorary professorship, Beijing Normal University (2010); Walter Orr Roberts Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Sciences Award (AMS) (2009); UNESCO Great Manmade River Water Prize (2007); and NASA Dist. Public Service Medal (2005).

Sreenivasan is professor of physics, mathematical sciences and engineering at New York U. and pres. and dean of its Polytechnic School. He taught at Yale for 22 years where he was the Harold W. Cheel prof.; dist. u. prof. and dir., Inst. of Physical Science and Tech., U. Maryland; and Abdus Salam professor and dir. of the Intl. Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste. He is a member of the US Natl. Acad. of Sci.; US Natl. Acad. of Eng.; Accademia dei Lincei; American Acad. of Arts and Sci.; Indian Acad. of Sciences; Indian Natl. Science Acad.; Indian National Acad. of Eng.; and African Acad. of Sciences. His honours include the Guggenheim Fellowship; Otto Laporte Award and Dwight, American Physical Society; Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Inst. of Science; Intl. Panetti-Ferrari Prize and Gold Medal, Torino Acad. of Sciences; and Natl. Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil.

Sur is Newton Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT. He studies the cerebral cortex of the brain, and has discovered fundamental principles by which cortical circuits are wired during development and change during learning. He received his BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and his PhD from Vanderbilt University, Nashville. His awards include: Charles Judson Herrick Award, American Association of Anatomists; A.P. Sloan Fellowship; McKnight Neuroscience Development Award; Sigma Xi Distinguished Lectureship; Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT, Kanpur; Distinguished Alumnus Award, Vanderbilt University. He has been elected to the Royal Society, UK; National Academy of Medicine, USA; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; National Academy of Sciences, India; Indian National Science Academy; Neurosciences Research Program, USA; and Rodin Academy, Sweden.

Terrones (Phd Birkbeck College, U. of London) is Rayleigh Endowed Chair Prof. in Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. in USA. After holding a postdoc position in the dept. of chem., U. of Cambridge (UK), he returned to Mexico to the Inst. of Physics, UNAM, where he spent 8 years as a researcher. He moved to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to start a new institute with the main idea of working in multidisciplinary research and to decentralize science outside of Mexico City. Main awards include: Mexican Acad. of Sciences Prize in Exact Sciences (2000), UNAM Prize for Young Scientists in Exact Sciences (2000), El Potosi Prize from IPICyT (2004). He is a member of the Mexican Acad. of Sciences. He has been invited prof. in UCL (Belgium), UFC (Brazil), Penn State (USA), Shinshu (Japan) and ORNL (USA). He has contributed to the theory and experiment of 2-D materials, such as graphene and TMDs.

Tschinkel received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. From 1992–95 he was a junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows, and from 1995–96 a Leibniz Fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Prior to joining the Simons Foundation in 2012, Tschinkel was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a visiting associate professor at Princeton University, the Gauss chair of mathematics at the University of Goettingen, and professor and chair of the mathematics department at the Courant Institute, New York University. Tschinkel’s research lies at the interface of algebraic geometry and number theory. He is the author of 165 papers and editor of 20 books. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of Academia Europaea, and a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Verma obtained his MSc in 1966 from Lucknow University, India and his PhD in biochemistry at The Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. He is professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at The Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; adjunct professor in the department of biology at UC San Diego; Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). His honours include: Medal of Outstanding Scientist, North American Scientists of Indian Origin; NIH Merit Award; NIH Outstanding Investigator Award; and the American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology. His membership includes: National Academies of Sciences, USA; Institute of Medicine; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Indian National Science Academy; and the American Philosophical Society.

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.

Wonkam is a professor of genetic medicine, and director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute and Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, US. He is also director of GeneMAP (Genetic Medicine of African Populations), and immediate past-deputy dean of research at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa. After an MD training with the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon, he has completed a doctorate in medical sciences (cell biology) at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and a PhD in human genetics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Wonkam also trained as a medical geneticist in genetic medicine at the University of Geneva. His scientific results are reflected in more than 230 peer-reviewed publications. His research focuses on genetic and genomic variations in the African population with a focus on 1) Genomics modifiers of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD); 2) Genetics of hearing Impairment, and 3) Ethical, Equity, and Educational Issues in Genetic Medicine Research. Wonkam is president of the African Society of Human Genetics.

Zare is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science, Stanford University. His research is in the area of laser chemistry, resulting in a greater understanding of chemical reactions at the molecular level and contributing very significantly to solving a variety of problems in chemical analysis. His development of laser induced fluorescence has been widely adopted in other laboratories. Awards include the US National Medal of Science (1983), the Welch Award in Chemistry (1999), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2005), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences (2010), and the King Faisal International Prize in Science (2011). His memberships include the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Indian Academy of Sciences.

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.