Prof. Chaibi (PhD Agriculture Engineering and Climate Technologies, Swedish U. of Agriculture Sciences) is Research Dir., Natl. Research Inst. for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia. His major accomplishments include the development of autonomous and integrated complex systems for supporting sustainable livelihood in areas poor in fresh water, thus providing communities with basic needs such as water food and energy. He was appointed in 2015 as GIZ senior advisor for the academic affairs and International affairs, and from 2008 to 2015 to serve the African Union in developing and coordinating processes in science, technology and innovations policy in Africa. He was elected Member, Governing Council, African Acad. of Sciences (AAS) representative of North Africa Region (2010), Fellow, AAS (2006), Fellow; IAS (2017). He served in various capacities as associate member of the Environmental Security panel under the NATO Science for Peace and Security and the EC Frameworks Programs.

Akissa Bahri is currently Professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia. She was the Coordinator of the African Water Facility ‘2010-2015), the Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute, based in Accra, Ghana (2005-2010), and prior to that, Director of Research at the National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia. She has academic and professional experience in water resources management and the agricultural use of marginal waters, biosolids and their environmental impacts. She has received international honors from the Guinness Foundation (1984), the International Foundation for Science (1993), the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (1996), the 2009 "Prof. C.N.R. Rao Prize for Scientific Research", and the 2018 IWA Women in Water Award. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California at Davis in 2005. She holds an Agricultural Engineer degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie de Toulouse, France, a Doctor-Engineer degree from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, and a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from Lund University.