Hutz graduated in biology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 1973 and obtained her PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology from UFRGS in 1981. She was postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Pediatric Genetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (1982-1983); professor at the Department of Genetics at UFRGS. She was vice-president and president of the Brazilian Society of Genetics. Hutz has more than 270 published articles and an ISI h-index of 40. Her research field and experience is in genetics, with emphasis on human and medical genetics. In 2010, she received the SCOPUS-Brazil award and her PhD students obtained the CAPES Thesis Award by the Brazilian Ministry of Education, and Honorable Mention of same award in 2011 in the area of biological sciences. She was appointed as a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2011. Hutz was honored at the 60th Brazilian Congress of Genetics for her relevant contribution to the field. Her research aims to the diversity of the human genome and its effects on susceptibility to multifactorial diseases, and pharmacogenomics mainly of psychiatric disorders and infectious diseases.

BSc from University College Dublin (1987), MSc from University of Edinburgh (1988), and PhD from University of Oxford (1991), received a post-doctorate scholarship at the University of Sydney (2002). She is a full professor of Universidade de Brasilia and a CNPq scholarship holder (1A). She has experience in animal genetics and breeding, in conservation of animal genetic resources and landscape genetics. McManus has published more than 500 articles in peer-reviewed journals with the editorial board, 24 book chapters, more than 550 abstracts in conferences, and supervised more than 200 students. She participates in joint projects at the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa, among others. She is a reviewer for 38 national and international journals, and 11 development agencies, as well as associate editor for Tropical Animal Health and Production. She was the director of international affairs for CAPES/Ministry of Education, Brazil. McManus is a Brazilian Academy of Science member and commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit. Currently, is responsible for research collaboration in FAPESP/São Paulo/Brazil.

Paz got his PhD from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina, and held a postdoctoral position both at the Universtity of Maryland and at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), United States, where he was also a staff member. He is a leader in quantum information. He made major contribution to the theory of quantum open systems and to the study of the process of decoherence. He contributed to the theory of quantum error correction and to design new quantum algorithms for physics simulations. He played a key role to establish a strong experimental basis for quantum technologies in Argentina. As a director of the Physics Department of UBA he played a key role to position it as a leading institution in the region. He is plenary full professor at UBA, superior investigator at CONICET and since December 2019 has been the vice-minister of Science in Argentina. Paz received the 2015 Argentinian Presidential Prize in Science, the TWAS Prize in Physics, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the W. Bessel Prize; and the Bunge and Born, and Konex prizes in Argentina.

Poveda (PhD, 1998, Water Resources) is full Professor, Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Medellín, Colombia. Member of: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Academies of Sciences of Colombia and Spain. Scientific steering committees: Global Energy and Water Cycles Research Program of the Global Climate Research Program, Scientific Panel for the Amazon, Global Change and Human Health Program. He was part of the 2019 International Mission of Experts convened by the Colombian government to develop the road map for science, education and technology in Colombia for the XXI century. He has been elected as visiting fellow at: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA (2001-2002), Centre for Hydrology and Ecology, Wallingford, UK (2005), National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado (2010 and 2019), and Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany (2019). He is the author and co-author of 9 books, and more than 200 peer-reviewed papers published on hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, hydroclimatology, climate change, human health and water resources engineering.

Stashenko is the director of the National Research Center for the Agroindustrialization of Tropical Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, CENIVAM. She has directed the research work of more than 300 new professionals in Chemistry, at undergraduate and graduate levels, which have been the basis for her publication of over 250 scientific articles. She has coauthored 11 patents. Research topics include the application of chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques to the study of secondary metabolites from aromatic plants, to the determination of pesticide residues in various materials, and to petrochemistry and organic geochemistry. Stashenko founded the National School on Chromatography where she has taught over 150 specialized courses on separation sciences to practicing professionals from research labs and industry.

Armienta is a senior researcher at the Geophysics Institute of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Her investigations have unraveled groundwater contamination sources and determined the geochemical processes involved in the environmental mobility of arsenic and heavy metals. She developed methods to remediate contaminated water with native rocks. Results of her studies were applied by authorities to solve pollution problems. She identified chemical species in water related to the activity of hazardous volcanoes, to be used for volcanic risk assessment. Armienta is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Popocatépetl volcano. She has authored more than 180 scientific publications in international journals and books. She was the Mexican coordinator of the Iberoarsen network aimed to solving arsenic problems in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. She is a National Research Level III (highest) by Mexican National Science Council; she was awarded Juana Ramírez de Asbaje merit by UNAM, Academic and Research Trajectory recognition by the Mexican Association of Geohydrology, and Earth Sciences Teacher of the Year award by the Mexican Geophysical Union.