Zanotto holds a PhD in Glass Technology from Sheffield University, UK (1982). He is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering and director of the Center for Research, Technology and Education in Glass at UFSCar. He is interested in fundamental studies of glass crystallization and development of glass-ceramics with improved functionalities. He has published about 450 original and review papers, 30 book chapters, 2 books and has filed 29 patents. He has served as an editor of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids and as a board member of nine other scientific journals. He is a member of the World Academy of Ceramics, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the SGT (UK), the American Ceramic Society, the Brazilian Ceramic Society, and TWAS. He has received over 65 awards, including the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, Grã-Cruz, A^3 Prize, TWAS Engineering Prize, and six important glass research awards: Zachariasen Award 1990, Gottardi Prize 1993, George W. Morey Award 2012, ICG President's Award, Cooper Lecture, Turner Lecture and S. Schooles Lecture. Zanotto is a Council of 5 institutes.

Hilário Alencar obtained his PhD in 1988 from IMPA – the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro. He is currently a Full Professor at UFAL – the Federal University of Alagoas in Maceió, State of Alagoas. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and serves as the coordinator of the Center for Research in Computational Mathematics at UFAL. He has held several prominent positions, including President of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, member of the Scientific Council of the Research Foundation of the State of Alagoas, member of the Council for Basic Education at CAPES (Brazil’s Graduate Studies Agency), member of the Scientific Council of IMPA, and Vice-Rector for Research and Graduate Studies at UFAL. In 2010, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit by the President of Brazil.

Ohara Augusto is a Full Professor at the Biochemistry Department, Chemistry Institute, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Augusto´s research interests always focused on the understanding of the multiple roles of radicals and oxidants in physiology and pathophysiology. She received several prizes for her contributions to the redox area and supervised many students. Presently, she is the Director of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Redox Processes in Biomedicine (Redoxoma) (http://redoxoma.iq.usp.br/) in São Paulo, Brazil.