Raghavendra obtained his PhD in 1975 (Sri Venkateswara University). He has held a number of research, teaching and administrative positions at institutions including the Central Plantation Crops Research Inst., Sri Venkateswara Univ., and the Rubber Research Inst. of India. He is professor of plant sciences and JCBose National Fellow at the School of Life Sciences at the Univ. of Hyderabad. He has been awarded: Indian National Science Academy Young Scientist Medal; AP Academy of Sciences Young Scientist Award; UGC Career Award; National Academy of Agricultural Sciences Recognition Award; AP Scientist of the Year; and Indian National Science Academy Professor TS Sadasivan Lecture. His membership includes the Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences India, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and AP Akademi of Sciences.

Rangappa has developed more than 7,000 synthetic small molecules and implemented some of them against therapeutically important proteins. He served as a postdoctoral fellow, research associate, and visiting professor in more than 10 countries. He is a Fellow of: Royal Society of Chemistry, London; National Academy of Sciences, India; Biotech Research Society of India; and Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, India. He has published over 600 research papers in peer reviewed journals, and holds 13 patents for small-molecule inhibitors of therapeutic targets. Three of his patented compounds namely DMBO, NPB, and AMPC have been sold commercially as pharmacological inhibitors of growth factors, BAD protein, TFF3, NF-κB, CXCR4, c-MET, human methionyl-tRNA synthetases, Wnt/β – catenin, EGFR, TGFβ, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, heparanase and many more therapeutically relavant proteins which are constitutively expressed in various human cancers respectively. His publications received over 15000 scientific citations, with an h-index of 62. He has guided 61 candidates for PhD degree, and presently 3 students are working on their doctoral research under his supervision.

Rao served as the Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology(CCMB) in Hyderabad, India. He is CSIR-Distinguished Scientist and Sir JC Bose National Fellow. President of Society of Biological Chemists (India); President of the Telangana Academy of Science. He obtained BSc from Osmania University; MSc in physical chemistry from Kakatiya University; PhD in Chemistry from University of Hyderabad. Later, he joined CCMB and initiated intact lens spectroscopic investigation. He has developed Red Edge Excitation Shift (REES) for intact biological material. His main research interest is small heat shock proteins, specially αB-crystallin, in health and disease. His research interests include molecular diagnostics, microfluids, nano biology, cell cycle, differentiation and apoptosis. He had visiting positions in USA, Japan and Australia. He is Fellow of all 3 national science academies of India, and has won the Bhatnagar, Ranbaxy and Sreenivasayya Awards of India, and the Rohto Award. Distinguished Alumni of the University Of Hyderabad,

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.

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).

Ron (PhD, 2007, University of Texas) professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito. Founding member and current secretary of the Ecuadorian Academy of Sciences. Young Affiliate of TWAS (2008–2013) and member of the Global Young Academy (2010–2013). He is curator of amphibians at the Museum of Zoology, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. His research focuses on two main venues: evolution and conservation. In his work on evolution he has contributed to the field of systematics and taxonomy of Neotropical amphibians. In the field of conservation, he has studied to global phenomenon of amphibian population declines. He is Director of the ARCA initiative, a large-scale study to inventory and characterize genetically the Ecuadorian biodiversity. He is editor in chief of FaunaWebEcuador, a web portal that publishes general information of Ecuadorian fauna.

Rosswall is former Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU). He has been Rector of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and is professor emeritus of water in environment and society at SLU. His research has focused on microbial regulation of nitrogen and carbon cycling from the micro- to the global scale. He has played an important role in the development of global change research as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).He was the inaugural Director of START, the capacity building component of the global change research programmes. His memberships include: Academia Europaea; Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry; and The World Academy of Arts and Science. He is, among many appointments, past Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and past member of the Steering Committee of the High-level Expert Panel (HLPE) of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS)..

Saad (PhD, 1987, University of Zürich, Switzerland) is Professor of cell biology and immunology at the Arab American University in Jenin, Palestine (AAUP), and past President of the Al-Qasemi Academic College, Baga Algharbiya, Israel. He was: Scientific Director of the Research and Development Regional Centre - The Galilee Society, Israel; Dean of Scientific Research at AAUP, Dean of Scientific Research Center at Al-Qasemi Academic College, Israel; Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Research Centre at Al-Qasemi Academic College, Head of the Higher Education Council of Al-Qasemi Academic College, and member of the Palestinian Council for Higher Education. His prizes include the Best Research Award of the Swiss Surgical Society for the development of versatile biodegradable biomaterials, the Best Research Award of The Israeli Society for Complementary Medicine, and the Hijawi Awards of AAUP for best undergraduate research projects, and Best Researcher at AAUP. He is a member of the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC).

Sadunishvili graduated from Tbilisi State University in 1975 with a diploma in biology/biochemistry at the Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Georgian Academy of Sciences. She obtained her degree of Candidate of Science (1980) and Doctor of Science (1995) in biology with studies on the structure, kinetics and regulation of nitrogen metabolism enzymes. Since then, working as Head of Laboratory at Durmishidze Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (DIBB), her research topics have expanded by studying structure-function changes in plant cells under contamination stress, microbial diversity, development of bio and phytoremediation technologies based on selected plants and microbial consortia, phytopathogenic bacteria and their specific bacteriophages. In 2013, she was appointed as Full Professor and Head of Department of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Georgia. In 2009, Sadunishvili was selected as Corresponding Member, and in 2015 Full Member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. She is an author of five monographs, and above 150 scientific publications, including reviews and book chapters.

Salama was educated at Ain Shams and Cairo (Faculty of Sciences) Universities. He obtained his MSc (1959), PhD (1962) and DSc (1987). He is emeritus research professor (entomology), Natl. Res. Ctr. (NRC), Cairo. His previous positions include: Head, Dept. of Pests and Plant Protection, NRC, 1976-87; chairman, Agricultural Res. Div., NRC, 1978-80, 1988; vice-president, NRC, 1986-87; and president, NRC, 1988-92. His awards include: State Prize for Biological Sciences, Egypt; Order of Sciences and Arts, First Rank; State Prize for Agricultural Sciences, Egypt; Order of Sciences and Arts, First Rank; and African Academy of Sciences/Ciba Geigy Prize, Agricultural Biosciences; Recognition State Prize in Basic Sciences, 1992; Nile (Mubarak) Prize in Advanced Technological Sciences, 2006 and Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation 2017. His membership includes the Islamic, African,TWAS and Egyptian Academies of Sciences, and Executive Committee, IUBS, Paris.

Sekaran, head of research and development at UCSI Hospital, is a Fellow of the Academy of Science Malaysia (since 2017) and of the Royal Society of Pathologists, London (since 2019). Her main expertise is in infectious diseases, with more than 270 published papers, over 6,000 WoS citations, and a h-index of 42. To date, 24 Masters and 23 PhDs have graduated under her supervision. The main areas of investigation are on Dengue and other infectious organisms. She has received multiple awards for kits developed, owns more than 20 patents, and was awarded Woman Bioinnovator of the year (2008) and “Anugerah Innovasi Negara 2009 for Molecular Diagnostics of Dengue Infections". She investigates the effects of diabetes and obesity on severe dengue, setting up serological assays to differentiate flaviviruses and vaccine development. Recently, she ventured into stem cells for regenerative medicine. She directed the WHO collaborating centre (2003–2007), a member of the faculty committee for postgraduate degrees, counsellor and coordinator for various degree programmes. Sekaran was also the head of the virology diagnostic laboratory at the University Malaya Medical Centre (2001–2007).

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.

Dr. Chandrima Shaha is a biologist, currently, JC Bose Chair Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata. She is the immediate past President of the Indian National Science Academy and Former Director of the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. Her research interests center around the elucidation of the processes that influence cell death programs under varying physiological conditions in diverse organisms. She is an elected fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology. She served as Vice-President of International Affairs of the Indian National Science Academy and as a member of the Councils of all three National Academies. Notable awards include the Ranbaxy Science Foundation Award for basic sciences; the J.C. Bose National Fellowship; the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal of INSA, Shakuntala Amir Chand Award of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Prof. Archana Sharma Memorial Award of the National Academy of Sciences, Life Time Achievement Award of Biopharma Honors and the Chandrakala Hora Memorial Medal and others.

Shakoori is professor emeritus, dist. natl. prof. and director, School of Biological Sciences, U. of the Punjab, Lahore and prof. of cell biology at the U. of Massachusetts Medical Centre, Worcester. He obtained his Dr.rer.nat. from the U. of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, 1972. He has been co-dir., Centre of Advanced Mol. Biology, and chair. of the dpts. of zoology and microbiology and molecular genetics at the U. of the Punjab. He was awarded Pakistan's Highest Academic Award, Aizaz-i-Kamal; Dist. Scientist of the Year Award 2011 in Zoology, Pakistan Acad. of Sciences; the Civil Award Tamgha-i-Imtiaz and Scientist of the Year Award by the Min. of Ed., Pakistan. He has been a senior Fulbright fellow, senior DAAD fellow and obtained a fellowship from the Royal Soc. (1999). He is fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and life fellow and pres. of the Zoological Society of Pakistan (2002-2006).He received Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Excellence Award in Science & Technology in 2012

Shinwari (PhD, Kyoto University) was postdoctoral fellow, Japan International Research Centre of Agricultural Sciences, and reported two new family of genes (DREB) that respond to drought, cold and salt stresses. He is distinguish national professor and emeritus, and was vice-chancellor, secretary general of Pakistan Academy of Sciences; vice-president of Islamic World Academy of Sciences; CEO of herbal products company Qarshi. He published several books, policy documents, and 470 publications in journals of international repute with 18,000+ citations; h-Index 68 and i10-index 287. Shinwari organized and participated in ~450 international conferences and workshops. He received UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science; civil awards Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, and Best University Teacher from the President of Pakistan. He was member and vice-chair, UNESCO-World Commission for Ethics in S&T; treasurer, Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia. For his expertise he was appointed member InterAcademy Partnership (IAP)-Biosecurity Working Group; Open Science Working Group; IAP Elections Committee; special advisor, Alliance of International Science Organizations.

Silva is prof. of biochemistry at the Federal Univ. of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), dir. of the Jiri Jonas Natl. Center of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and scientific dir. of the Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. His research interest revolves around the understanding of biological recognition processes, especially how proteins correctly fold, misfold into species involved in neurodegenerative diseases, and form supramolecular complexes, such as virus particles. His work has opened new vistas for the use of pressure perturbations in the field of protein folding, structure and dynamics. He was nominated fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. His honours include: Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit (Great-Cross), TWAS Prize in Biology and the FCW Prize in General Science from Fundação Conrado Wessel.

Singh is professor emeritus, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and INSA senior scientist at Banaras Hindu University. After obtaining his PhD at Banaras Hindu University in 1967 and completing postdoctoral work at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, he has worked in various capacities at Kurukshetra University, Kumaun University, Colorado State University and Banaras Hindu University. His honours include: SS Bhatnagar award; Swami Pranavanand Saraswati award; Pitamber Pant Fellowship; Dr. Birbal Sahni Gold Medal; and Professor SB Saksena Memorial Medal. He is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India, and the International Society for Tropical Ecology. He is a member of the Council, International Association for Vegetation Science, Sweden.

Singh (PhD, 1975, Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore) is SERB-Distinguished Fellow, Dept. of Biophysics, All India Inst. of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. His honours include: Prof. DM Bose Memorial Lecture Award, Bose Inst. (2013); Bhramara’s YT Thathachari Award in Life Sciences (2012); Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award, INSA (2011); Goyal Prize in Life Sciences (2007); Prof. GN Ramachandran CSIR Gold Medal for Excellence in Biol. Sciences and Technology (2006); Prof. GN Ramachandran 60th Birthday Commemoration INSA Medal (2006); Sir JC Bose Memorial Award, Indian Science Congress (2006); KK Foundation Award for Sci. and Tech. (2001). He is a fellow of: Indian Natl. Science Acad. (INSA); Indian Acad. of Sciences; Natl. Acad. of Sciences, India; Biotec Research Soc. of India. He was Vice-President, INSA (2007-2009) and Editor-in-Chief, Proceedings of INSA (2011-13).

Sopory is currently Senior Emeritus Scientist at ICGEB.. Former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Until 2011, he was the group leader of plant molecular biology and Director ( Interim) at ICGEB, New Delhi. He discovered the involvement of the glyoxalase system in plant cell stress response, by demonstrating that genetic engineering of the glyoxalase pathway leads to enhanced salinity tolerance; and that methylglyoxal levels in plants under stress are dependent on the enzyme glyoxalase I and glutathione. He also showed that methylglyoxal can act as stress signal in plants. He is a fellow of all science academies of India, and the winner of the Bhatnagar, Maheshwari and Saligram Sinha Awards of India. He was given the Padamshri, one of the highest civilian awards, by the President of India.

Sukumar (PhD, 1985) is professor of ecology, Indian Institute of Science. His work originally focused on the behaviour and conservation biology of elephants, expanding later to tropical forest ecology and climate change. Sukumar is Fellow of: Indian Acad. of Sciences; Indian Natl. Science Academy; Natl. Acad. Sci. India. He has held visiting positions at Princeton Univ., Columbia Univ. and Kyoto Univ. He has contributed extensively to Indian government policy on nature conservation, and has been a member of the Indian Board for Wildlife and the Project Elephant Steering Committee. He was Chair, IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group (1997-2004). He is the author of four books and over 200 scientific papers, and the recipient of several awards, including: Presidential Award, Chicago Zoological Soc. (1992); Order of the Golden Ark (1997); Whitley Gold Award for Internatl. Nature Conservation (2003); Internatl. Cosmos Prize (2006); JC Bose Natl. Fellowship (2011). He contributed to the work of the Intergov. Panel on Climate Change that shared the Nobel Peace Prize (2007).

Azim Surani, born in Kenya received a PhD in 1975 at Cambridge University under Professor Sir Robert Edwards FRS (Nobel Laureate, 2010). Surani joined the Babraham Institute in 1979, and discovered ‘Genomic Imprinting’ in 1984, and subsequently, novel imprinted genes and their functions, with contributions to its mechanism through establishment and erasure of DNA methylation. In 1992, he was elected the Marshall-Walton Professor, and subsequently Director of Research at Cambridge University. His recent work established the genetic basis for germ cell specification and epigenetic programming towards resetting of the epigenome. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001, awarded a Royal Medal in 2010, and in 2014, the ISSCR McEwen Award for Innovation.

Svasti (PhD 1972,U. of Cambridge) is em. prof. of biochemistry, Mahidol U., and head, Lab. of Biochemistry, Chulabhorn Research Inst., Bangkok. He is former president of: Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists (1990-1992), Science Soc. of Thailand (2008-2011). He is currently pres., Protein Soc. of Thailand and chairman, Marsi Foundation. He received the Outst. Scientist of Thailand Award (2002), Natl. Res. Council of Thailand Outst. Researcher Award (2003), A-IMBN Dist. Lecture Award (2012). He was a founding member of the Thailand Acad. of Science and Techn.. He is also council member, Asia-Pacific Intl. Molecular Biology Network, Asian-Oceanian Human Proteome Organization, and Asian-Pacific Protein Assoc.. He was awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand; Knight Grand Cross of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant; and Dushdi Mala Medal.

Teixeira graduated in biological sciences, and obtained a MS degree in molecular biology at University of Brasília (1986). She received her PhD in Biochemistry in 1990 from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and did postdoctoral training on molecular parasitology at the University of Iowa, in the US. In 1997, she became an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where she became a Full Professor in 2013. In 2005, she was awarded an international grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She acted as Vice-Head and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology at UFMG and President of the Brazilian Society of Protozoology (SBPz). She also acted as Head of the Centre for Vaccine Technology at UFMG (CTVacinas) where she is currently Vice-Director. For more than 30 years, she has studied genome, gene expression and host-parasites interactions involving Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania species with the aim of developing new treatments and methods to control Chagas disease and leishmaniasis.