Barma is Professor Emeritus with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at the TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Hyderabad and former Director of TIFR. After PhD from the State University of New York Stony Brook (1974), he did postdoctoral work at Michigan State University and joined TIFR in 1976. He has worked in the areas of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, phase transitions, and disordered systems. Between 2002-05, he served as chair of the IUPAP C3 Commission on Statistical Physics and is currently a vice president of IUPAP. Honours include: INSA Young Scientist Award; Bhatnagar Prize; Indian Science Congress SN Bose Centenary Medal; Goyal Prize. He is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (New Delhi), the Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore), and the National Academy of Sciences (Allahabad), and a recipient of the JC Bose Fellowship. He was conferred the Padma Shri by the Govt. of India.

Vijayan was NASI Platinum Jubilee Senior Scientist, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. PhD from IISc and postdoctoral work at Oxford. Since 1971, worked in different capacities at IISc. Honours include: SS Bhatnagar Prize; GN Ramachandran Medal, JL Nehru Centen. vis. fellow, KS Krishnan Memorial Lecture, all of Indian National Science Academy (INSA); Alumni Award Excell. Res., IISc; FICCI Award; Ranbaxy Res. Award; Om Prakash Bhasin Award; JL Nehru Birth Centen. Award, Indian Science Congress Assoc.; Padma Shri; Distinguished Biotechnologist, DBT; DAE Homi Bhabha Professor; INSA Albert Einstein Professor; Goyal Prize; first CSIR/Science Congress GN Ramachandran Medal; Distinguished Alumni Award, IISc.; Singhania IIM National Leadership Award; Sarvadhikari Medal, Calcutta Univ.; Champion of CSIR and Kerala Science Award. Fellow of 3 science academies of India; President, Asian Crystallographic Asso., 2004-2007; Co-editor, Acta Crystallographica, 1993-2002; President, INSA, 2008-10.

Gadagkar is Prof., Centre for Ecol. Scs., Ind. Inst. of Sc.(IISc); Chairman, Centre for Contemp. Studies (IISc); DST Year of Science Chair Professor; Hon. prof., Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Adv. Sci. Res., Bangalore; non-resid. perm. fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin; Member, Executive Board, International Council for Science (ICSU). His awards include: TWAS Award in Biology; Yg Associateship, Ind. Acad. of Scs (IAS); INSA Medal for Yg Scientists; SS Bhatnagar Prize; BM Birla Sci. Prize; Homi Bhabha Fell.; BP Pal Natl. Envrnmnt. Fell., JC Bose Natl. Fell.; 2014 AV Rama Rao Tech. Award, CSIR; Cross of the Order of Merit, Germany. He is a fellow of IAS; INSA; Natl. Acad. of Scs.; for. assoc., Natl. Acad. of Scs., USA; member, German Natl. Acad. of Scs. Leopoldina, 2012, Intl. Council for Sc. (ICSU).

After doctoral (Brookhaven Lab.) and postdoctl. work (Carnegie-Mellon), he joined the Materials Science Lab., IGCAR, Kalpakkam (1976-81), served as reader, U. of Hyderabad (1981-86); prof. and dean, Phys. Scs. JNU (1986-99); dir., SN Bose Ctr., Kolkata (1999-2005), Found. Dir., IISER, Kolkata (2006-11) and Vice-Chancellor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan (2011-16). Honours include: INSA Young Scientist Medal; Snr. assoc. ICTP; Humboldt fellowship; Ramanna prize; Raman award, Science Congress; Saha Medal, Natl. Acad., Allahabad; Raman Prize, INSA, JC Bose Fellowship. He is fellow of all Ind. natl. sci academies. Four notable research monographs are 'Relaxation Phenomena in Condensed Matter Physics' (1987), 'Dissipative Phenomena in Condensed Matter', with S. Puri (2004), 'A Paradigm Called Magnetism' (2008) and 'Diffusion - Formalism and Applications' (2013).

Swaminathan is a renowned agriculture scientist. Considered the scientific leader of the Green Revolution, his approach is at the heart of sustainable agriculture. His awards include: World Food Prize; A. Einstein World Science Award; Honda Award; Ramon Magsaysay Award; Tyler Prize; Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award; UNESCO Gandhi Prize; Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. He chaired the Intl. Comm. on Peace and Food; is UNESCO chair in ecotechnology; was pres., Pugwash Conf. on Science and World Affairs, chairman, Natl. Comm. on Farmers of India. He is currently Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha); chairman, MS Swaminathan Research Foundn., Chennai, India; and hon. chair for sustainable development, Indira Gandhi Natl. Open U., New Delhi. He is Fellow, Indian Natl. Science Acad.; Royal Soc. of London; US Natl. Acad. of Sciences; Russian Acad. of Sciences.

Chakravorty was educated in Kolkata at Mitra Inst., Scottish Church College, U. College of Sc. (PhD 1961), and at MIT and Harvard. He is emeritus prof. of IACS, Dept. of Inorganic Chem., Indian Ass. for the Cultivation of Sc., Kolkata, where he also served as prof. and head. He was also prof. and head, Dept. of Chem., Indian Inst. of Tech., Kanpur. His awards and honours include: SS Bhatnagar Prize; TWAS Award in Chem.; DSc (h.c.); TR Seshadri, Acharya JC Ghosh, RC Mehrotra, CRSI Gold and ICS Gold Medals; INSA Golden Jubilee Research Professorship; JNCASR Hidustan Lever Research Professorship, Tata Chemicals Platinum Jubilee Distinguished Emeritus Professorship; fellowships of Indian Acad. of Scs. and INSA. He has been on the editorial boards of major journals and publications including Inorg. Chem., Dalton Trans., Inorg. Chim. Acta and Comprehensive Coord Chem (2nd edition).

Bhattacharyya was a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) Bhopal. He obtained his PhD in 1984 at Calcutta University. After postdoctoral work at Columbia and Notre Dame, he joined the faculty of IACS in 1987. His main interest was in femtosecond dynamics in nano-confined systems which include biological assemblies. His most important discovery is the ultraslow nature of biological water. He was a fellow of all of the national science academies of India, and is a senior editor of The Journal of Physical Chemistry. He received the Bhatnagar Prize (CSIR, India) in 1997 and the TWAS Prize in 2007.