BouJaoude joined the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1993 where he is now professor of science education. At AUB he served as chairman of the Department of Education, director of the Science and Math Education Center, and is now director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. He has published in local, regional, and international education journals, written chapters in books in English and Arabic, and co-edited a book on science education in the Arab States. He serves on the editorial boards of regional and international science education journals and has been a presenter at local, regional and international science education conferences. He has also served as international coordinator, National Association for Research in Science Teaching, and is a member of the executive board, Supreme Education Council, State of Qatar.

Cerda is prof. at the College of Business Administration, U. de Talca, Talca, Chile. He obtained his PhD (1991), MSc (1989), and MBA (1991) at Oregon State U., USA. At the U. de Talca, he is Director of The Graduate School (University of Talca) and former dean of Faculty of Economic and Business Administration and served as dir. of the Entrepreneurial Development Center. He was also head of the Department of Economics and director of the Center of Resource Economics and Master Degree Program on Environmental and Resource Economics at the Univ. de Concepción, Chile. He is the leading environmental and resource economist in Latin America. His work on the theory and practice of valuation of environmental and econometrics is world class. He has also been instrumental in building capacity in environmental economics in Latin America and was president of the Latin American and the Caribbean Assoc. of Environmental and Natural Resources Economics (2007-09).

Chakraborti (PhD, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Jadavpur University, India, 2003; and Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France, 2013) is professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. He was: registrar, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); dean, School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, JNU; dean of research and development, BML Munjal University, India; professor, chair of quantitative finance, Ecole Centrale Paris, France (now CentraleSupélec); lecturer in theoretical physics, Banaras Hindu University, India. He had postdoctoral tenures at Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, and Helsinki University of Technology, Finland (now Aalto University). He is Founding Member, Center for Complexity Economics, Applied Spirituality and Public Policy, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, OP Jindal Global University, India; International Member, Centro Internacional de Ciencias A.C., Cuernavaca, Mexico; council member of Centre for Quantum Social and Cognitive Science, Memorial University, Canada. He was awarded the Young Scientist Medal of the Indian National Science Academy (2009) for work in econophysics.

Cheung (PhD, University of Minnesota 1975; BA, UC Berkeley 1970) is currently Emeritus Professor and formerly Choh-ming Li Professor of Psychology and Vice-President (Research), Chinese University of Hong Kong; Founder, Gender Research Centre at CUHK; Past-President and Fellow of International Test Commission, Board of Directors of International Association of Applied Psychology; Fellow of American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and Hong Kong Psychological Society. Academic awards include IAAP Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology, Distinguished International Psychologist Award of APA Division 52, and Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals from the University of Minnesota. She served as Founding Chairperson of Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission. Community honours include Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Silver Bauhinia Star Award from the HKSAR Government.

Chopra (PhD, Delhi School of Economics,1969). She was formerly director, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University, where she was professor (1980-2009). She has been on the editorial and policy boards of several international journals including Environment and Development Economics, and Ecological Economics, and was Senior Associate of the Ecological and Environmental Economics Programme hosted by the ICTP, Trieste, Italy (2002-2006). She was member, Assessment Panel of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2001-2005) and co-chair of its Working Group on Response Options. She is a fellow of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm and of the South Asia Network of Development and Environmental Economics. She was President of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (2010-2012 and 1998-2000) and President of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (2004). Currently, she co-edits " Ecology, Economy and Society: the Journal of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics

Anthony Clayton is the Professor of Caribbean Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies, Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey and Affiliated Scholar at Florida International University. He was formerly a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology (Jamaica), and an International Associate at the University of St Andrews. He is a Fellow of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences and Distinguished Fellow of the Caribbean Association of Eastern European Trained Professionals. He has over thirty years of international experience in policy development in national security and policing, energy security, environment and resources, and planning and development. He is the Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica. In 2015 he was awarded Jamaica's Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander.

Dasgupta is Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Univ. of Cambridge and fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. Memberships include: fellow, British Academy and the Royal Society; member, Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; hon. fellow, London School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge, for. hon. member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; for. assoc., US National Academy of Sciences; and for. member, American Philosophical Society and Royal Swedish Academy of Science. His honours include: Volvo Environment Prize (2002), John Kenneth Galbraith Prize of the American Agricultural Economics Association (2007), Zayed International Prize for the Environment (2011), Blue Planet Prize (2015), and Tyler Prize (2016). He was made Knight Bachelor in 2002, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by, among other universities, University of Bologna in 2012 and Harvard University in 2013.

Ghosh is Distinguished James McGill Prof. and Macdonald Prof. of Education, McGill University, Montréal, Canada. Dean of Education (1998-­‐2003), she is Fellow, Royal Society of Canada (chaired the Standing Committee: Advancement for Women in Scholarship for two terms); Member, Order of Canada (2000); Officer, Order of Quebec (2005); and Full Member, European Acad. of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Paris (1999). A recipient of several national and international awards she is past pres., American Comparative and International Education Society (2011-­‐12) and former pres., Shastri Indo-­‐Canadian Institute (1988-­‐90). Her research spans Asia, Africa, Latin America and Canada. Author of several books including Education and the Politics of Difference (2004, 2013), Redefining Multicultural Education (1996, 2004, 2014), on editorial boards of several international journals, and was featured in Time Magazine, Canadian Ed., (13.10.2003) in an article on 'Canada's Best in Education'. Her current research on the role of education in countering violent extremism (religious and right-wing) has resulted in several important publications, grants, conference presentations and keynote speeches.

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.

Hamid is a distinguished social scientist and a pioneering figure in gerontology, renowned for her contribution to gerontology education, research, and policy development in Malaysia and the surrounding region. She established a multi- and trans-disciplinary research institute at Universiti Putra Malaysia, in 2002, and was appointed as its founding director. The Institute was awarded the national status of Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing, in 2015, and Hamid remained as its first director until 2020. The institute spearheaded research programmes and established postgraduate programmes in social gerontology, medical gerontology, and gerontechnology, which attracted local and international students. As a professional in the field of gerontology, Hamid sits in several national and international committees related to population aging. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Science Malaysia and is actively involved in civil society organisations related to older persons and social welfare development in Malaysia. She was an independent director of the Private Pension Administration Malaysia (2020–2024), and was appointed as chairperson from 25 June 2024 until 2026.

Dr. Jikun Huang is Professor at School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and Honorary Director of China Center for Agricultural Policy (CCAP) and Director of New Rural Development Institute in Peking University, Fellow TWAS, Honorary Life Member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), and Fellow of Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA). He is vice-president of Chinese Association of Agro-technology Economics. He received his BS degree from Nanjing Agricultural University in 1984 and PhD in agricultural economics from University of the Philippines at Los Banos in 1990. His research covers a wide range of issues on China's agricultural economics, policies and rural development. He received Award for China’s Outstanding Youth Scientists in 2002, Outstanding Achievement Award for Overseas Returning Chinese in 2003, Fudan Prize for Eminent Contributor to Management Science in 2008, and IRRI’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 2010. He has published more than 600 journal papers, including the papers published in Science, Nature and many leading journals in development economics. He is co-author of 20 books.

Ibrahim is a senior professor and former dean of the Faculty of Design and Architecture, at Universiti Putra Malaysia. A Stanford University alumna, she is a design scientist and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. She leads the Built Environment and Life (BE-Life) informatics research group, which focuses on innovating products and processes that preserve and enhance the human cultural behavior. Her research expands her doctoral work on discontinuity in organizations beyond property development, applying it to broader societal and environmental challenges. A strong advocate for integrating local traditional knowledge into modern technology and product development, she emphasizes the value of cultural context in innovation. Her transdisciplinary and translational research approaches have led to numerous award-winning inventions that serve vulnerable communities. Notably, the United Nations recognized her work on the ISTP wastewater treatment system as an SDG Good Practice project. Ibrahim is currently a distinguished professor at the Purple Pottery College (formerly the Faculty of Arts), Honghe University, Yunnan Province, China.

Professor Mihajlo (Michael) Jakovljevic MD, PhD, MAE is a Top-Notch expert in the Economics of Global Health and Sustainable Development of the Global South. This is witnessed with 20 years long track record of service on behalf of various UN bodies and leading multilateral agencies such as UNESCO, WHO, GBD Project, European Commission, Swiss Japanese Spanish and Irish science funding agencies etc. After a decade of service, due to his pivotal role in collective achievements, Senior Leadership of University of Washington, decided to offer him GBD Principal Collaborator appointment which is the Top Tier position in entire Hierarchy of Global Burden of Disease Project worldwide; Holds Professorship at Hosei University Tokyo, Japan, funded by JSPS; held Forte-funded Senior Visiting position at Lund University, Sweden, 2018-2020. He published almost 400 papers in refereed journals (160,000+ citations, Hirsch factor 100). In 2015, he was the first ever nominated candidate based in Eastern Europe for the Board of Directors elections of the International Health Economics Association IHEA. He remains the only representative of Serbia ever elected in UNESCO-TWAS Academy Membership.

Yansui Liu is the TWAS Fellow, GSC Fellow, specialist of human and economic geography and land science, Top 1% Scientist, the Global Highly Cited Researchers since 2018; TWAS Prize award(2018), IGU Distinguished Practice Award（2022），the Second Award of the Scientific and Technological Progress of the State(2019); Associate Editor of Land Use Policy, Economic Geography. Academic Vice President of Henan University, Director of the Faculty of Geographical Science and Engineering, Henan University；Professor of Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the University of CAS; Chair, International Geographical Union’s Commission on Agricultural Geography and Land Engineering(IGU-AGLE); Chair, ANSO-Alliance of Poverty Reduction and Development (ANSO-APRD); Director, Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, CAS; the Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor. Honorary advisory board member of the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network. He is also the Head of Specialist Group for Third-party Assessment on the Effectiveness of Targeted Poverty Alleviation in China (2016-2021).

Michel López’s distinguished career reflects a profound commitment to academic research, teaching, and cultural heritage preservation. He founded Bolivia’s first salvage archaeology company, Empresa Consultora de Arqueología ECOAR and possesses extensive knowledge of Bolivia’s protected areas. From 2005 to 2011, as the director of the Institute of Anthropological and Archaeological Research at San Andrés University in La Paz, he spearheaded groundbreaking research and mentored future generations of scholars. His dedication to education has enriched academic discourse, ensuring the transmission of knowledge. From 2011 to 2015, as director-general of the Cultural Heritage at Bolivia’s Ministry of Cultures and Tourism, he led initiatives that secured UNESCO’s World Heritage status for the Ichapekene Piesta of San Ignacio de Moxos (2012), the Qhapaq Ñan (Andean Road System) and the intangible heritage of the Pujllay Ayarichi (2014). He also championed Bolivia’s Cultural Heritage Law (530), enacted in 2014. His academic contributions span diverse topics, including the pre-Columbian settlement of Tarija, ancient hydraulic systems in Beni, and the Inca conquest of Bolivia.

Mulugetta is a professor of energy and development policy at University College London (UCL), and a member of the management team of the Climate Compatible Growth programme. Prior to joining UCL, he held an academic position at the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey, UK. He is also a founding member of the African Climate Policy Centre at the Ethiopia-based UN Economic Commission for Africa, where he served as senior climate and energy specialist (2010–2013). He has over 25 years of research, teaching and advisory experience specialising on the links between energy infrastructure provision and human welfare. His research focuses on three interconnected areas: energy systems and development; energy systems and climate change; and political economy of low carbon development. He served as a coordinating lead author of the energy systems chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (Working Group III on mitigation), lead author in the IPCC Special Report on global warming, and lead author in the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. He is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.

Munasinghe is founder chairman, Munasinghe Inst. for Development; Chairman, Presidential Expert Committee on Sustainable Sri Lanka 2030 Vision; distinguished guest prof., Peking Univ; and hon. senior adviser, Sri Lanka Govt. He has degrees in physics, engg. and economics from Cambridge U., UK; MIT, USA, and McGill and Concordia U., Canada. He was sr. energy adviser to the Pres. of Sri Lanka; advisor, US President's Council on Envir. Quality; sr. adviser/director, World Bank; vice chair, Intergov. Panel on Climate Change; chairman, Computer and Inf. Tech. Council, Sri Lanka; and chancellor, Int. Water Acad., Oslo. He shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and won many major research awards, incl. 2021 Blue Planet Prize Laureate; Eminence in Engineering; award, Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 2014; Lifetime outstanding achievement in energy award from President of Sri Lanka, 2016; Officer of French Legion of Honour decoration from French President, 2018; and highest national award "Deshmanya" from Sri Lanka President, 2019. He has authored over 120 scientific books and 350 papers. He is fellow of 10 science academies, and editorial board member of 21 journals.

Okereke is a professor of global climate governance and public policy at the School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK. He is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and a senior academic visitor at the University of Oxford. He was previously the director of the Center for Climate Change in Alex Ekuweme Federal University, Nigeria, co-director of the Center for Climate and Justice, and co-director of the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme, both at the University of Reading. He also served as the director of the Center for Climate Change and Development at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, at the University of Oxford. A globally recognized leading scholar on global climate governance and international development, Okereke was the coordinating lead author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, Working Group 3.

Reis is Prof. of Political Sociology at the Federal U. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She obtained her BA (sociology) and MA (political science) in Brazil and her PhD (political science) from MIT. She has been visiting professor at several universities including UC San Diego, Columbia U., MIT, and the Ludwig Maximilian Universität, Munich. She chairs the Interdisciplinary Res. Network on Inequality (NIED) at UFRJ. She is former president of the Natl. Ass. for the Social Sciences. (ANPOCS); former secretary general of Brazilian Sociological Society; she has also served in the Executive Committee of both the International Political Science Association (1988-1994) and the International Sociological Association (2006-2010), and was vice-president of the International Science Council (2018-2021).

Rios-Neto is a visiting professor in the applied economics graduate programme at the Federal University of Ouro Preto. From April 2021 to December 2022, he served as the president of the Brazilian National Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), and from May 2019 to March 2021 he was the director of surveys at IBGE. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he was a distinguished Lemann Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2015–2016). In 2015, he retired as a full professor of demography at CEDEPLAR-UFMG, where he served from 1980. In 2010, he received the Brazilian Federal Government Medal of Scientific Merit, and in 2006 he was appointed as Tinker Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. From 2004–2011 he was president of the National Committee on Population and Development, and from 1999–2002 he was president of the Brazilian Population Association. From 1996–2000, he served as graduate training director in demography at CEDEPLAR. In 1996, he carried out postdoctoral research in demography at the University of Texas, Austin. He earned his PhD in demography from the University of California at Berkeley.

Nísia Trindade Lima was the first woman to hold the position of Brazil’s Minister of Health (2023–2025) and to preside over the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz, 2017–2022). She holds a PhD in Sociology and a Master’s in Political Science. She is a Public Health researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Fiocruz, a professor in the Graduate Program in the History of Science and Health, and a collaborating professor in the Graduate Program in Sociology at Institute of Social and Political Studies of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (IESP-UERJ). Her work focuses on Brazilian social thought, public health ideas, and state-building. As Fiocruz president, she led the COVID-19 response and joined international efforts such as Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the Lancet Commission on Global Health Threats, and the Global Council on Inequality, HIV and Pandemics. She launched the Fiocruz Strategy for the 2030 Agenda, aligning the UN SDGs with institutional planning. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, she was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honor by France. Since May 2025, she holds the Olavo Setúbal Chair at the University of São Paulo.

Wang (PhD 1986, Inst. of Systems Sci., CAS) is a Changjiang Chair prof., Acad. of Math. and Systems Sci., Chinese Acad. of Sci. (CAS) in Beijing, chief economist and founding director of the Center for Forecasting Sci., CAS, and Dean of School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is/was president of Intl. Soc. of Knowledge and Systems Sci., and pres. of China Soc. of Systems Eng., a vice pres. of the Chinese Acad. of Mgt. and an advisor of several ministries of China. His honours include research fellow, Dutch Royal Acad. of Sciences, 1987-88; Croucher Foundation fellow, Hong Kong, 1993; China Sci and Tech Prize for Young Scientists, 1994; Japan Sci. Promotion Soc. fellow, 1994; foreign prof. of Tsukuba U. Japan, 2000-01, 2003-04; Fudan Prize of Mgt., 2008; Chairmanship Award of Intl. Soc. of Multiple Criteria Decision Making, 2009; Academician, Intl. Acad. of Systems and Cybernetics Sci., Wien, 2010 and Scott Award, Moskow,2014.

Winkler is a professor in Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing, a research unit in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research explores the intersection of development, climate, social justice and economics, with future work focusing on equity and inequality between and within countries; just (energy) transitions and just adaptation; implications of the global stocktake; and low emission development strategies and nationally determined contributions. His over 100 academic publications can be accessed on Scopus. He has led transdisciplinary research on mitigation action plans and scenarios in several developing countries. Winkler is a member of both the South African Academy of Sciences and African Academy of Sciences, and serves on the South African delegation to the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He has recently served as joint editor-in-chief of the international journal Climate Policy, a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and as a co-facilitator of the technical dialogue of the global stocktake under the Paris Agreement.

Yang obtained her PhD degree from the Institute of Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China, in 1999. She is the vice-president and professor at the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS, China; director of the Key Laboratory of Management, Decision and Information Systems affiliated to the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of CAS; and vice-director of the Centre of Forecasting Science affiliated to the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of CAS. She served as the vice-president of the International Input-Output Association (2013–2018; 2023–2024) and as the executive vice-president of the Chinese Input-Output Association (2016–present). Her awards include the TWAS Siwei Cheng Award in Economic Sciences, the National Award for Youth in Science and Technology (China), the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (China), and the Sun Yefang Economic Award, the most reputational award in economics in China, among many others.

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.

Zeng (PhD, 1986, Brussels Free University; Post-doc 1986-1987, Princeton University) is tenured professor of National School of Development at Peking University, Honorary Director of Center for Healthy Aging and Development Study at Peking University. He is also tenured professor of Center for Study of Aging and Human Development and Geriatric Division, School of Medicine, and Director of Center for Chinese Population and Socioeconomic Studies, Duke University. He is a foreign member of Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Distinguished Research Scholar of Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany. Up to July 2021, he published 369 articles (196 in English,173 in Chinese) and 31 academic books (11 in English, 20 in Chinese); he submitted 51 policy reports to government agencies; his articles/books have been cited over 14,354 times in other scholars’ publications, his h-index is 54 and i10-index is 174; he was awarded 4 international academic prizes and 16 national academic prizes.

Zhang (PhD, 1995, U. of Reading) is a UNEP senior staff and Director, UNEP-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP), a joint center between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and UNEP. She is leading the implementation of a UNEP flagship programme focusing on the nexus of climate change, ecosystem services and sustainable development. She used to be a professor and Deputy Director at Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), Chinese Acad. of Sciences (CAS). Most of her previous research has concentrated on policy-relevant studies on rural development in China, particularly on poverty alleviation. In recent years, her team has also focused on action research in rural health, nutrition and education to assess effectiveness of policies and interventions. She has published more than 300 papers in natl. and intl. journals, and presented more than 30 policy suggestions to government. She received numerous awards, incl. Fudan Management Excellence Award (2014), TWAS Celso-Furtado Prize in Social Sciences (2013), "Ten Most Outstanding Women in Science" award, CAS (2012), "100 Talent" award, CAS (2007), "Outstanding Young Scientist" Award, NSFC (2003).