Zhang is a professor at University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB, China). He obtained his PhD degree on metal physics in 1993 from USTB. He was awarded the National Outstanding Young Scientist Fund in 2003, and elected as academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019. He currently serves as the director of State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, director of Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Materials and Technologies, and dean of the Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Technology at USTB. Zhang has been nominated as chair scientist of major national scientific research programmes, member of the general expert group of the National Key Research and Development Programme on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, member of the Materials Science and Engineering Group of the disciplinary appraisal panels in the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, deputy director of Materials Department of Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Education of China, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, chairman of the Chinese Society of Stereology, as well as executive council member of the Chinese Society of Metals.

Ye (PhD in mathematics, Moscow State University, 1991) is a full professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Science and Technology of China. He had a postdoctoral affiliation at International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy (1991–1993). He has been engaged in the research of topological dynamic systems, ergodic theory and its applications to combinatorial number theory for nearly 40 years. With his collaborators, he has carried out in-depth research on the structure and saturation theorems of dynamical systems, convergence of multiple ergodic averages, entropy theory, complexity of dynamical systems and its applications; and obtained a series of profound results. Ye received the 14th Shiing-Shen Chern Prize issued by the Chinese Mathematical Society in 2013, the Second Prize of National Natural Sciences in 2018, and the He Liang He Li Award for Progress in Science and Technology in 2020. He was elected as a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019.

Yang is professor and current director of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGDB-CAS). He obtained his PhD in 1994 from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. From 1994–2000, he did postdoctoral research in Wageningen University; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA; and the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology, Singapore. In 2000, he joined the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory in Singapore as senior scientist. Since 2003, Yang has been a principal investigator at IGDB-CAS. His researches focus on molecular mechanisms governing plant development and molecular mechanisms of nitrogen-fixing rhizobium symbioses. He has obtained a series of outstanding achievements in the field of plant development. He has published nearly 100 papers in top international journals, including Nature, and Science. He is an academic leader in the field of plant developmental biology in China, and has important international academic influence. Yang received many academic awards and honors.

Yang obtained her PhD degree from the Institute of Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China, in 1999. She is the vice-president and professor at the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS, China; director of the Key Laboratory of Management, Decision and Information Systems affiliated to the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of CAS; and vice-director of the Centre of Forecasting Science affiliated to the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of CAS. She served as the vice-president of the International Input-Output Association (2013–2018; 2023–2024) and as the executive vice-president of the Chinese Input-Output Association (2016–present). Her awards include the TWAS Siwei Cheng Award in Economic Sciences, the National Award for Youth in Science and Technology (China), the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (China), and the Sun Yefang Economic Award, the most reputational award in economics in China, among many others.

Qiao is academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, vice-president of the China Association for Science and Technology, executive vice-president of Peking University, director of Peking University Health Science Center, academician of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (International Honorary Member), and Honorary Fellow of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. She has a high reputation in the field of reproductive medicine in China and worldwide. For more than 30 years, she has endeavored to unravel the profound mystery of human reproduction and achieved a number of theoretical and technical breakthroughs in the systematic study of gametogenesis and embryo development, infertility causes and clinical treatments, the protection and preservation of female fertility as well as developing a series of new pre-implantation diagnosis (PGT) methods, which greatly reduces the cost and improves the efficiency in identifying inherited diseases. She also continuously pays attention to the construction of the maternal and child public health system, and the health of women and children throughout their entire life cycle.

Primavera (PhD in marine science, University of the Philippines Diliman; MA in zoology, Indiana University, USA) taught at Mindanao State University, but a rebellion made her growing family flee to relative peace in Iloilo, central Philippines, where she worked at Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, Aquaculture Department. Since her studies in the 1980s, she rang early warning bells on the perils of unplanned aquaculture. Her research shifted to the mangrove-penaeid shrimp connection and mangrove-friendly aquaculture for which she was conferred a PhD honoris causa by Stockholm University (2004). The citation read: … she has shown that mangroves are key areas for recruitment of fish and shrimp and that development of conventional shrimp farming may have far reaching negative economic and social implications… [To] create sustainable alternatives she is now doing research on … integrated farming of shrimp, fish, crabs and mangrove. She has published ~170 scientific papers, reviews, manuals, books and other publications, including the Handbook of Mangroves in the Philippines – Panay (2005 Outstanding Book Award by National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines).

Piao (PhD, 2004, Peking University, China) is Boya Distinguished Professor, director of Institute of Carbon Neutrality, deputy director of Department of Science, Peking University. He is a Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Member of Standing Committee for the fourteenth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He served on the Scientific Steering Committee for Global Carbon Project and acted as lead author for the fifth and sixth assessment reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His researches have focused on the relationships between terrestrial ecosystems and climate change, and he has made systematic scientific achievements in assessing the carbon sink of China's terrestrial ecosystems, and the response and feedback of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change. He has published over 100 papers as first or corresponding author in peer-reviewed international journals, including four articles in Nature, many in Nature-branded journals and PNAS. His researches were elected as one of the Top 10 News of Chinese Fundamental Research in 2009 and Top 10 Scientific and Technological Advances in Chinese Higher Education Institutions in 2013.