Bouskela is Full Professor and Director of the Clinical Research Unit at the State University of Rio de Janeiro; Director of Technology and Innovation at the Rio de Janeiro State Foundation for Research Support; Member of the Managing Committee for Health at the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication; Full Member of the National Academy of Medicine; Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences; Full Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; Associate Member of the Académie Nationale de Médicine of France and recipient of the Tiradentes Medal given by the Government of Rio de Janeiro state. She obtained her PhD in 1978 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro after spending 3 years at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) and at University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and her Docent degree in 1992 at the University of Lund, Sweden.

Tenenblat obtained her MSc (1969) at the Univ. of Michigan and PhD (1972) at the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, Rio de Janeiro. She has served in various capacities at the Univ. de Brasilia, Brazilian Mathematical Society, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology (Brazil) and other organizations and committees. She is professor emeritus of mathematics at the Univ. de Brasilia. An expert in differential geometry, she has advanced understanding of the interaction between differential geometry and partial differential equations. With S.S. Chern and other collaborators, she helped develop the classification of systems of differential equations that describe pseudo-spherical surfaces. Her membership includes: Brazilian Mathematical Society; American Mathematical Society; Brazilian Academy of Science; and Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science. She received the Comendador de Ordem Nacional do Merito Cientifico from the President of Brazil in 1996.

Colli, a biochemistry professor at the U. of São Paulo (USP), received his PhD under the supervision of Isaias Raw and did postdoc work at PHRI, NYC, USA with M. E. Pullman (1966-1968) and M. Oishi (1968-1969). Returning to Brazil in 1970, he established a group, at the Ins. of Chem. (IQUSP), to work with Molecular Parasitology, particularly with Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease. He was dean of IQUSP twice, and of the Butantan Inst. (the Snake Farm). He was pres. (2006-2009) of the Brazilian Technical Committee on Biosafety (CTNBio). He received the title of Doctor (h.c.) from the U. of Buenos Aires, the Great Cross Medal of the Natl. Order of Scientific Merit from the Brazilian govt. and is a member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. In 2014 he was awarded the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Prize for Science and Techn., the most prestigious scientific prize in Brazil. Since 2003 he is an Associate to the Science Director of FAPESP for the areas of Health and Biology.

Simis is emeritus full prof., Federal U. of Pernambuco, Brazil, and presently a FAPESP Vis. Sen. Researcher at ICMC-USP. He is First Class research grant recipient from the Brazilian Research Council. He earned his PhD from Queen's U., Canada. In Brazil, he was prof. at IMPA in Rio de Janeiro until 1980. He was president of the Brazilian Mathematical Society and has been member on several occasions of international commissions of the IMU and TWAS. He has been director of 3 workshops in his field at the ICTP. He is a recipient of the Natl. Medal Grã-Cruz for Scientific Merit, Min. of Science and Technology, and was a JS Guggenheim Fellow. He has been awarded other fellowships from the Max-Planck-Institut, Japan Soc. for Promotion of Science and the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica. He is a member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences and serves on several committees in Brazil. His mathematical work concerns the interlaciing of commutative algebra and algebraic geometry.

Linden is Full Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenesis, and former Director (2004-2007) of the Institute of Biophysics Carlos Chagas Filho, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His research work is directed at mechanisms of development of the central nervous system and neurodegeneration. His achievements in cellular neurobiology have led him to become a senior investigator of the Brazilian National Research Council and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 2002. He received the Grand-Cross of the Brazilian National Order of Scientific Merit in 2007. He is also a senior member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (1998) and member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences (1999).