Khanduja obtained her BA, MA and Ph.D. degree from Panjab University, Chandigarh and thereafter taught in that university for more than 35 years. In April 2011, she joined Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali and at present is INSA senior scientist in this institute. She is fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences Allahabad and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) New Delhi. In 2015, she was awarded Professor V.V. Narlikar memorial lecture award of INSA. As a teacher in Panjab University and IISER Mohali, she took part in various programs promoting the cause of mathematics and she was coordinator of NBHM (National Board for Higher Mathematics) Ph.D. and M.Sc. scholarship tests from 2003 to 2010.

Vinod Singh is a Professor of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur. His research work falls in the area of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, more specifically, asymmetric synthesis. He has developed several new chiral ligands/catalysts for enantioselective reactions. Singh’s work has been recognized with several awards and honors such as Padma Shri (2014), Distinguished Alumnus Award by BHU (2012), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize (2004), and Swarnajayanti Fellowship Award (1998), among others. He is Fellow of all the science academies of the country. He is an Editor of an Elsevier journal - Tetrahedron Lett. He is a Member, Editorial Advisory Board of Org. Lett. and J. Org. Chem. As a Founding Director of IISER Bhopal for more than 10 years (2008-2018), Professor Singh set up the whole campus in 200 acres land from scratch. He has served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of SPA Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal. He also held the additional charge of Directorship of MANIT Bhopal and the Mentor Director of IIIT Bhopal. He had been a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC to PM) during 2009-2014.

Rentala (PhD 1984, University of Hyderabad, India) is a professor at the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. In JNU, she was Former Director, Human Resource Development Centre, Director Advanced Instrumentations Research facility and Dean School of Life Sciences. Member of all three Indian science academies, she has received the Hari Om Trust JC Bose award, the young scientist award from IUB, the Career Research Initiative Award from Wellcome Trust UK. She received Biotechnology Career Fellowship from Rockefeller foundation, USA. She received American Society of Microbiology, International Professorship. She has been an invited speaker in many national and international meetings, and has received the President of India, Visitor Group Award 2016, and the 2016 senior women Bioscientist Award, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (DBT).

C.Siva Ram Murthy earned his B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from REC (now NIT) Warangal in 1982, M.Tech. degree in Computer Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur in 1984 and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from IISc, Bangalore in 1988. From September 1988 to June 2025 he served on the faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Madras. He has held the INAE Chair Professorship (2012-'14), Prof. Richard M. Karp Institute Chair Professorship (2016-'25) and also short-term visiting appointments at several European and North American universities. He is currently with IIT Hyderabad as an Honorary Professor of Computer Science. He has authored many textbooks, and published research papers over 200 in peer-reviewed international journals and over 190 in refereed international conference proceedings. He is a recipient of Best Ph.D. Thesis Award from IISc, INSA Medal for Young Scientists, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, IBM (USA) Real-Time Innovation Award, Erasmus Mundus Faculty Research Fellowship, Sir JC Bose Fellowship (2016-'26) and several Best Paper Awards. He is an elected Fellow of IEEE, USA; TWAS, Italy; INSA, India; NASI, India and INAE, India.

Rao is Linus Pauling research professor and Hon. president, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. After obtaining his PhD at Purdue U. and completing postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, he returned to India in 1959 and has since worked in various capacities at the Ind. Inst. of Science and other institutions. His honours include: 77 honorary causa doctorates; Hughes and Royal Medals of the Royal Society, London; Einstein Gold Medal, UNESCO; India Science Prize; Dan David Prize; Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize; dist. research professor, U. of Cambridge; laureate, Khwarizmi Intl. Award, Iran; Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, by Emperor of Japan, Order of Friendship of Russia, Chevalier De La Legion D'Honneur of France. He was conferred the highest award for materials research, the von Hippel award by the Materials Society in 2017. He is a member of 27 science academies including the Royal Society, US National Academy of Sciences, and Pontifical, Australian, Canadian, Russian, Brazilian, French and Japan academies. He is the recipient of the highest civilian honour of India, Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India).