Chuchani was most known for his important research in homogeneous, unimolecular gas phase pyrolysis or elimination of organic molecules and, in particular, about their mechanisms. Through this work, he provided highly reliable data and a number of challenging problems to quantum chemistry, reaction kinetics, and organic reactivity. Conceptually, his research has broadened the area of mechanistic organic chemistry to the gas phase, where it can be connected to gas phase ion chemistry. He was emeritus professor in Chemistry, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC) in Caracas, Venezuela. He has received several international and national awards, including Venezuela's Premio Nacional de Ciencia, and is a member of many scientific academies and societies.

Rodríguez-Iturbe is Distinuguished University Professor at Texas A&M University and James S. McDonnell Dist. Univ. Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He is author of over 300 papers in international journals and 3 books. His memberships include: US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering, Pontifical Vatican Academy of Sciences, Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, Mexican Academy of Engineering, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. His awards include: Stockholm Water Prize, Prince Sultan Abdulaziz Water Prize, Bowie Medal, Horton and Macelwane Medals, American Geophysical Union; Langbein Lecture, AGU; Huber Prize and VT Chow Award, American Society of Civil Engineers; Horton Lecture Award, American Meteorological Society; Premio Mexico of Science and Technology; National Science Prize of Venezuela; and Honorary Degrees from the universities of Genova, Cantabria and Zulia.

Medina (Dr. Ack., U. of Hohenheim, 1964) has worked as senior researcher and head of the Lab. for Plant Physiological Ecology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Caracas. He also served as: Dir., Intl. Ctr. for Tropical Ecol., IVIC-UNESCO; member, Intl. Scientific Adv. Board, Max-Planck-Inst. f. Limnologie; member, Adv. Comm., Scientific Comm. on Problems of the Environ. (ICSU); FAO adviser, Environ. and Develop.; and member, Coord. Comm. for Research, Int. Union of Biol. Sciences. His honours include: Carnegie fellow; Andres Bello Order; Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Prize; Guggenheim fellow; hon. member, Ecol. Soc. of America; for. assoc., Natl. Acad. of Sciences, USA; for. member, Am. Acad. of Sciences; Bacardi chair, Univ. of Florida; for. assoc., Natl. Acad. of Sciences, USA; for. fellow, Am. Acad. of Arts and Sciences; and for. member, Am. Acad. of Sciences. Adjunct Scientist at IITF-USDA Forest Service

Julian Chela-Flores was born in Caracas in 1942. He studied in the University of London, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Quantum Mechanics (1969). He was Associate Researcher at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research from 1971 till 1978 and Dean of Research and Professor at Simon Bolivar University until his retirement in 1990. He is Fellow of The Latin American Academy of Sciences, The Academy of Sciences of the Developing World and Corresponding Member of the Venezuelan Academy of Physics, Mathematics and Natural Sciences. From 1996 till 2014 he was Staff Associate at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) where he continues his research as a Visiting Scientist. His area of expertise is astrobiology. He organized and co-directed seven related conferences at ICTP. He has collaborated with emerging nations from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Besides many research publications in specialized journals, he is the author of The New Science of Astrobiology; A Second Genesis: Stepping-stones Towards the Intelligibility of Nature; The Science of Astrobiology a Personal Point of View on Learning to Read the Book of Life, and Astrobiology and Humanities.