Dr. Thomas Edison dela Cruz is a professor of microbiology and group lead of the Fungal Biodiversity, Ecogenomics and Systematics (FBeS) group at the University of Santo Tomas. His research focuses on the biodiscovery of fungi and slime molds (or myxomycetes) in tropical ecosystems and the understanding of their biodiversity, ecological patterns and interactions. He conducts research on fungal natural products for agriculture, health, and environemtal applications and on ethnomycology and microbiology education. He completed his Doctor of Natural Sciences (Dr. Rer. Nat.) at the Technical University Braunschweig in Germany and his BSc Microbiology and MSc Biological Sciences degrees at the University of Santo Tomas. He holds a Diploma in Science Teaching at UP Open University. He serves as Philippine Representative to the Asian Mycology Committee from 2007 to present and a fellow of the Philippine Academy of Microbiology. He currently serves a member of the Executive Committee of TWAS - TYAN.

Xiao Feng is an associate professor at research center for eco-environmental sciences, Chinese Academy Sciences, Beijing. He earned his BSc and MSc degrees from Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, China. In 2009, he obtained his PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. After graduation, he joined RCEES as an assistant professor (2010-2013). From 2014, he has been appointed as an associate professor in this research institute. His scientific area is mainly focused on water and environmental issues. His scientific interests include particle transport in natural waters; coagulation and flocculation in water and wastewater treatment; membrane application and advanced oxidation processes (AOP) in water and wastewater treatment.Xiao has published more than 40 SCI papers in peer-reviewed journals and hasfive Chinese patents related to water and wastewater treatment. As a principle investigator, his research funding is over six million CNY both from government and companies. He also is selected as a member of IWA Young Water Professionals (IWA-YWP) in China.