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 dean of the College of Materials Science and Engineering and 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, for the Chinese Association of Women Scientific Workers since 2019, and for the China Textile Engineering Society since 2020. 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 450 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).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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