Chen is member of CAS, professor and director of Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is the president and fellow of China Geography Society. He obtained his PhD in 1990 at Lanzhou University. He is vice-presidents of IGU Environment Evolution Commission, China Society on Tibetan Plateau, Chinese Quaternary Science Associate. His prizes include China National Excellent Scientist in 2005; National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2003; China Youth Science and Technology Award in 1996; Second award of National Natural Science in 2007 and 2018; five awards of Natural Science by Ministry of Education of China. He has published more than 690 papers in peer-reviewed journals of both English and Chinese with more than 420 papers published in SCI journals such as Nature, Science, NCC, NC, PNAS, QSR, which are cited more than 19900 times by papers of SCI journals with H index of 69.

De los Reyes is Founding Director of MODEMAT - Research Center in Mathematical Modeling and Optimization and Full Professor of Mathematics at Escuela Politécnica Nacional de Ecuador. He obtained his PhD in 2003 at the University of Graz, Austria, and worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Berlin (2005-2006). In 2009 he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers to carry out research in Germany, and in 2010 he was awarded a J.T. Oden Faculty Fellowship at The University of Texas at Austin. He has held Visiting Professor positions at the Humboldt University of Berlin (2010), the University of Hamburg (2013) and the Weierstrass Institute of Berlin (2021). He is former Director of Research of Escuela Politécnica Nacional de Ecuador (2019-2021), former President of the Ecuadorian Mathematical Society (2012-2014), Fellow of the Ecuadorian Academy of Sciences (since 2015), and Fellow of TWAS (since 2016). Dr. De los Reyes has served as member of organizing committees of various academic events worldwide, and has promoted the creation and strengthening of scientific networks in Latin-America.

From Oct 2015 till Sept 2020, Grötschel was President of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He obtained his PhD in 1977 at U Bonn, was full professor of mathematics at U Augsburg (1982-1991), at TU Berlin (1991-2015) and Vice President (1991-2012)/President (2012-2015) of the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). He was President of the German Mathematical Society (1993-1994), Secretary of the International Mathematical Union (2007-2014), chaired the DFG Research Center MATHEON “Mathematics for Key Technologies” (2002-2008), and held many other administrative positions in the service of the sciences. His scientific awards include the Leibniz, the Beckurts, Dantzig, Fulkerson, and John von Neumann Theory Prize. He is a member of five scientific academies, including NAE (USA) and CAS (China) and holds four honorary doctoral degrees.

Khanduja obtained her BA, MA and Ph.D. degree from Panjab University, Chandigarh and thereafter taught in that university for more than 35 years. In April 2011, she joined Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali and at present is INSA senior scientist in this institute. She is fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences Allahabad and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) New Delhi. In 2015, she was awarded Professor V.V. Narlikar memorial lecture award of INSA. As a teacher in Panjab University and IISER Mohali, she took part in various programs promoting the cause of mathematics and she was coordinator of NBHM (National Board for Higher Mathematics) Ph.D. and M.Sc. scholarship tests from 2003 to 2010.

Li is E. B. Eddy Chair Professor and Canada Research Chair at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He obtained his PhD at McGill University (1992) and was a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University (1992-94). He was an Assistant (1994), Associate (1998) and Full Professor (2000) at Tulane University (US). Since 2003, he has been at McGill University. He serves as the Director of NSERC CREATE for Green Chemistry and the Co-Director of the FQRNT Center for Green Chemistry and Catalysis. Li received a number of prestigious awards/honors worldwide. These include the US NSF’s CAREER Award, a US Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award, and the R. U. Lemieux and Alfred Bader Awards of the Canadian Chemical Society, Alexander Humboldt Research Award, and the CIC Medal of Canada. His memberships include the Fellows of the RSC (Canada), RSC (UK), the AAAS, the CIC, and the ACS.

Menchaca-Rocha is a Mexican nuclear physicist with an Oxford D.Phil. and postdoctoral training at LBNL. His interests include heavy-ion reaction mechanisms and their hydrodynamic simulation; the production of light nuclei and antinuclei, with applications to cosmology. He is member of important international collaborations such as ALICE and AMS2. Locally, he pioneered muon-imaging, carrying highly visible applications to the Teotihuacan Pyramid of the Sun and to the Popocatepetl Volcano. He has published 237 papers, cited over 20,000 times (H=75). Directed (2003-07) the UNAM Physics Institute of Physics; presided over the Mexican Academy of Sciences (2010-12); and is (2016-19) General Coordinator of the Science Advisory Council to the Mexican Presidency. Among other distinctions, in 2004 he received the National Science Prize, the highest academic honor in Mexico. Emeritus, National Researchers System since 2017

Ramamurty is a Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. He obtained B.E. (Andhra, Metallurgy, 1989), M.E. (IISc, Metallurgy, 1991), and Ph.D. (Brown, Engineering, 1994) degrees and gained post-doctoral research experience at UCSB and MIT. Before joining IISc's faculty in October 2000, he worked as an Assistant Professor for three years at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is a recipient of the Scopus Young Scientist Award, Swarnajayanthi and JC Bose National Fellowships of the Govt. of India, National Metallurgist Day, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, and TWAS Prizes. He is an elected fellow of national academies of engineering and sciences of India. He is an Editor for Acta Materialia and Scripta Materialia journals.

Rentala (PhD 1984, University of Hyderabad, India) is a professor at the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. In JNU, she was Former Director, Human Resource Development Centre, Director Advanced Instrumentations Research facility and Dean School of Life Sciences. Member of all three Indian science academies, she has received the Hari Om Trust JC Bose award, the young scientist award from IUB, the Career Research Initiative Award from Wellcome Trust UK. She received Biotechnology Career Fellowship from Rockefeller foundation, USA. She received American Society of Microbiology, International Professorship. She has been an invited speaker in many national and international meetings, and has received the President of India, Visitor Group Award 2016, and the 2016 senior women Bioscientist Award, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (DBT).

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.

Prof. Rajeev Varshney is an agricultural research scientist specializing in genomics and molecular breeding with 20+ years of service in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. He is serving Murdoch University as a Director, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation; Director, State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre: and International Chair in Agriculture & Food Security with the Food Futures Institute. Prior to joining Murdoch University, Prof Varshney served International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for about 16 years in various science and leadership roles and Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics & Crops Plant Research, Germany for 5 years as a Research Scientist. Prof. Varshney is a globally recognized leader for his work on genome sequencing, cataloguing and utilizing genetic diversity, genomics-assisted breeding and capacity building in developing countries. He has made centrally important contributions towards improving food and nutrition security in India and several countries in Africa & Asia by assembling genomes, developing genomic resources and integrating genomic technologies in crop improvement programs in many tropical crops.

Wang is a professor and the director of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. He obtained his BSc in nuclear physics in 1984 from Nanjing University, China, and his PhD in high energy physics in 1991 from the University of Florence, Italy. He is a member of ACFA and ICFA, the author of more than 500 scientific papers, the chief editor of two books. He received prizes including: the Zhou Guangzhou Basic Science award, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Award for Scientific and Technological Progress, the National Natural science award 1st grade and the Future Science Prize from China, the NIKKEI Asia Prize for Science, Technology and Environment from Japan, the W. K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, from the US. He is a member of CAS, and RAS, and in 2025 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK).

Abdool Karim, is a leading South African infectious diseases epidemiologist whose seminal contributions have shaped the global HIV prevention landscape, notably in prevention technologies for women. She demonstrated that ARVs prevent sexually transmitted HIV, which laid the foundation for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); and has provided insights in Africa and globally on the impact of Covid-19 on HIV and in the evaluation of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (US), a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, the Academy of Science of South Africa, and the African Academy of Science. Her research contributions have been recognized nationally and internationally with over 30 honours, including the 2014 TWAS-Lenovo Prize, the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, the 2020 Christophe Mérieux Prize, and the 4th Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research. She is the associate scientific Director of CAPRISA; professor in clinical epidemiology, Columbia University, and pro-vice chancellor for African Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In 2025, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK).

Wasim Ahmad is a Tenured Professor at Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan. He obtained his PhD from Cambridge University UK in 1990. He did Post-doctorate from London University UK and Columbia University New York USA. He has made important Contribution in Human Genetics by identify several genes involved in hereditary disorders of skin, hair, skeletal, neurological and hearing impairment. His awards include COMSTECH award in Biology, Sitara-e-Imtiaz by Govt. of Pakistan, Distinguished Scientist and Gold Medal by Pakistan Academy of Science (PAS), National Distinguished Professor by Higher Education Commission (HEC). His membership includes fellow Pakistan Academy of Science and Third World Academy of Science (TWAS).

Ajayaghosh is the Director of the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, India and Professor of Academy of Scientific Innovative Research, CSIR, India. He obtained his Ph.D in Chemistry in 1989 at University of Calicut, India. He has made significant contributions in molecular assemblies, fluorescent materials, organogels, molecular probes and photoresponsive materials. His awards includes INSA medal for young scientists, S S Bhatnagar prize, Khwarizmi International Award, Infosys prize, TWAS prize, CRSI Silver Medal and J.C.Bose National Fellowship. His membership includes: Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the TWAS fellowship.

Guanrong Chen is the Shun Hing Education and Charity Fund Chair Professor in Engineering and the Founding Director of the Centre for Complexity and Complex Networks at the City University of Hong Kong. He was elected IEEE Fellow in 1997, received the State Natural Science Awards of China in 2008, 2012 and 2016 respectively, awarded the 2011 Euler Gold Medal from Russia, and conferred Honorary Doctor Degrees by the Saint Petersburg State University, Russia in 2011 and by the University of Normandy, France in 2014. He is a Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering in the past decade. In 2014, he was elected a Member of the Academia Europaea. In 2025, he was elected a Fellow of the Network Science Society.

Chen (PhD 1992, Joh.-Gutenberg-U., Mainz, Germany) is currently Chair Professor at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is an internationally renowned climate researcher with important contributions to the understanding of regional climate changes and their impacts in Sweden and China. His research includes Earth System Science, global environmental change, climate dynamics and modeling, and atmospheric circulation. He works on recent and future regional climate changes and their impacts on water, ecosystem, environment, and agriculture. He currently focuses on climate and environmental changes over the Third Pole (Tibetan Plateau) region. He has served as Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU), Director of the Gothenburg Atmospheric Science Centre, and Science Director of the Beijing Climate Center. He is an elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, as well as TWAS Fellow. He has served on numerous international and national committees and boards, advising various governmental, intergovernmental and international non-governmental organizations as well as research funding agencies.

Prof. Jian Ding is a renowned Chinese cancer pharmacologist and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and he’s made extraordinary contributions to research and development of new drugs. He is currently a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, and was Director of SIMM(2004-2013). Prof. Ding serves as the editor-in-chief of Acta Pharmacologica Sinica and editorial board member of several international academic journals such as Eur J Pharmacol and Mol Pharmacol. Focusing on biomarkers and drug resistance mechanisms of anti-tumor drugs, Prof. Ding is the co-inventor of more than ten innovative drug candidates, and all of which are currently at clinical trials with one of them has been conditionally approved in China and Japan and 4 of them running additional clinical tests in U.S, Japan & Australia. More than 340 papers have been published in journals including Cell、Cancer Cell etc. Over 150 patents have been authorized. Multiple awards have been bestowed to Prof. Ding to acknowledge his tremendous contribution to the area of cancer treatment, including but not limited to, 2 Second degree of National Natural Science Award.

Gingrich is full professor at the Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. Real member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and Director of the Institute for Social Anthropology of the ÖAW. Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Member of the Publishing House Committee of the ÖAW. He obtained his PhD in 1979 at the University of Vienna. He has served as a Delegate in the Assembly of the Austrian Science Fund. He was a founding member of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and he was a Panel Chair for the European Research Council, Advanced Grant SH2. His awards include the Wittgenstein Prize, City of Vienna Award in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Cultural and Legal Studies.

Gopakumar is Senior Prof. and Director of the Int. Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR) in Bengaluru, India. He was previously Prof. at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI), Allahabad, India. He did his undergraduate studies at IIT-Kanpur and obtained his Phd in 1997 under the supervision of David Gross at Princeton U., USA. After a research associateship at Harvard U. he returned to India to work at HRI. His work has aimed to understand the origin of gauge-string dualities. He is known for the Gopakumar-Vafa duality as well as the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants. His work with Gaberdiel on the duals to minimal model CFTs has also been very influential. He is the recipient of the ICTP Prize, S. S. Bhatnagar award, G. D. Birla Award, TWAS Prize in Physical Sciences, J. C. Bose Fellowship among other awards. He is a member of all three Indian science academies as well as a founding member-alumnus of the Global Young Academy.