Lee received a PhD degree from Caltech in 1975. He specializes in space and plasma physics. Before 1995, he performed research at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, U. of Maryland and U. of Alaska. Upon returning to Taiwan in 1995, Lee served as the Dean of the College of Science, National Cheng Kung U., Director of National Space Program Office, founding President of the Natl. Applied Research Laboratories, President of Natl. Central University, and Minister of National Science Council. He is a distinguished research fellow of the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica. Lee's honours include the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, the Presidential Science Prize in Taiwan, Academician of Academia Sinica, Elected Member of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and International Academy of Engineering, Russian Academy of Engineering (IAE).

Chang is Emeritus Scholar Chair of Natl. Synchrotron Radiation Res. Center (NSRRC) and honorary chair professor, Natl. Tsing Hua U. (NTHU) in Hsinchu, Taiwan. He obtained his PhD in 1975 at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He was former director of NSRRC and former vice president (NTHU); president, Physical Society of R.O.C., director general (Natural Sciences), National Science Council; commission members IUPAP and IUCr. His honours include NSC Outstanding Research Award, Sun Yet San Academic Award, MOE Academic Award; Tung Yuan Award for Sci. and Tech.; B. E. Warren Diffraction Physics Award (Amer. Crystallogr. Assoc.); Ho Chin-Duei Outstanding Honorary Award. Member/Fellow: Academia Sinica; Asian Pacific Academy of Materials Science; American Physical Society; Physical Society of R.O.C.; national chair professor; chair, Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship.

Zhang is known for his research in rice genomics and biotechnology. He holds a PhD (genetics, 1985) from UC Davis. He is prof. and dir., Natl. Key Lab. of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural Univ. (HAU), Wuhan, China, since 1999; and dir., Natl. Ctr. of Plant Gene Research, Wuhan. His honors include King Baudouin Prize, Intl. Found. for Science, Sweden, 1993; Award for Significant Contributions to Agric. Science in China, Chinese Found. for Agric. Science and Education, 1997; Young Scientists of China, Central Govt. of China, 1998; Award for Advancement in Science and Technology, Ho Leung Ho Lee Found., Hong Kong, 2003; and Cal Aggie Alumni Assoc. Emil M. Intl. Award, UC Davis, 2005. In 1999 he was named Cheung Kong professor by the Ministry of Education, China. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and for. assoc., US Natl. Academy of Sciences.

Zakri is presently the Chairman of Atri Advisory, a consultancy company advising governments, regional bodies and international organisations on science and technology for sustainable development, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Other current positions include being pro-chancellor, Multimedia University (MMU);pro-chancellor, Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris (UPSI); Vice-Chair, Governing Council of the UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries (Turkey); member of the Scientific Advisory Board to the President of the Islamic Development Bank (Jeddah) (IsDB), and member, Governing Board, Science and Technology for Society Forum (Kyoto). He was also recently appointed the Ambassador and Science Adviser to the Campaign for Nature led by Wyss Foundation and National Geographic Society. Previously, he was the science advisor to the Prime Minister for Malaysia (2010-2018). Recipient of numerous awards include recently; Zayed International Prize for the Environment (2014); the Academy of Science of South Africa Distinguish Visiting Scholar Award (2015); Merdeka Award for the environment category (2015); Midori Price for Biodiversity Award (2018).

Wang is academic advisor, Academic Committee, State Key Lab., professor of chemistry, Changchun Ins. of Applied Chem. (CIAC), Chinese Acad. of Sciences (CAS); Hon. Editor-in-chief, Analytical Chem. (Chinese). He was previously: deputy director and director, CIAC, CAS; visiting professor: U. of Houston (USA), Dijon U. (France), Kyoto and Yamanashi U. (Japan), and the Hong Kong U. of Science and Tech.. His awards include: Natl. Science Congress Award; 5 CAS Awards; 5 Awards and 1 Special Out. Award in Jilin Province; 3 Natl. Natural Science Award; first winner of the 10th Kharazmi Intl. Festival, Tehran, Iran; and the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, 1997. He is a member of CAS (1991). Hon. Member, Japanese Analytical Chem. Society (2006). Published 830 SCI papers citated over 25000 times with H index 78. Selected in the global Highly Cited Researcher 2014 (2002-2012)

Ruffolo is a professor at Mahidol U. He obtained his PhD in 1991 at U Chicago. He developed a classic transport equation for solar energetic particles and precision modeling of their observed distribution in space. He created new theories of turbulent transport of cosmic rays, including an explanation of solar particle dropouts in terms of solar wind turbulence and topological trapping. He led the establishment of a neutron monitor in Thailand, which detects galactic cosmic rays at the world's highest geomagnetic cutoff energy. He has twice served as a rapporteur of the International Cosmic Ray Conference. He was awarded the Golden Eagle Award from the American Academy of Achievement and the 2017 Outstanding Scientist Award of Thailand. His memberships include the Thailand Academy of Science and Technology and the American Geophysical Union.

Jiang is prof., Technical Inst. of Phys. and Chem., Chinese Acad. of Sciences, Beijing, China. He received his PhD from Jilin U. of China in 1994. He worked as postdoct. fellow at Tokyo U. in Akira Fujishima's group. In 1996, he became researcher, Kanagawa Acad. of Sci. and Techn., on Hashimoto's project. In 1999, he joined ICCAS under the auspices of the 'Hundred Talents Programme'. In 2009 he was elected Academician, Chin. Acad. of Sciences. He has won the Excellent Youth Prize twice, the 2011 Zhuliyuehua Award for Outstanding Teacher, the 2011 TWAS Prize in Chemistry, and the 2014 MRS Mid-Career Researcher Award. He has published two books, three book chapters and +400 SCI journal articles, have been racked up more than 32000 citations. His H factor is 83. He is member of the edit. boards of Advanced Functional Materials, Small, NPG Asia Materials, Biomicrofluidics, and Nano Research.