Hassan holds BSC (1977) & MSC (1983) in Agric Econ from Univ of Khartoum, Sudan & MSC (1988) and PhD (1989) in Economics from Iowa State Univ. He is the ex-director of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa (CEEPA), at the University of Pretoria and previously held positions with CSIR in South Africa, and CIMMYT International. He has served as member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (CDP); Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Science Committee; CGIAR Science Council (ISPC); Human Sciences Research Council of SA; CGIAR Climate Change Challenge Program (CCCP) Board; Academic Advisory Panel for The World Development Report on Climate Change; Board of Stockholm Resilience Centre; GEF Science and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP IV); Science Panel of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. His honours include, member, Academy of Sciences of South Africa (since 2005); University of Pretoria Chancellor Medal for Research (2011); Four times Univ. of Pretoria “Achiever: Academic Excellence” (2005 to 2014). He is founding chief editor of the African Journal of Agric. and Resource Economics and has published more than 140 refereed publications including 12 books.

Coutsoudis is a public health scientist and a Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She obtained her PhD in 1993 from the same university, and made important contributions on child nutrition, breastfeeding and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Her awards include: the 2004 Nutrition Society of South Africa Award for her contribution to nutrition research in South Africa; the 2005 Amnesty International South Africa for protecting human rights in South Africa; the 2006 Convocation of University of KwaZulu-Natal for her outstanding contribution to medical science and society; and the 2009 Science for Society Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, of which she is a Fellow. She is also a Fellow of of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2000, she established the first community-based breastmilk bank in South Africa to provide donor breastmilk to AIDS orphans, and was one of the founding members of the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa, which she chairs. She is involved in putting in place low-cost technology for human milk banks.