Ovbiagele, MD, MSc, MAS, MBA, MLS, is professor of neurology and associate dean at the University of California, San Francisco. His primary research involves translation of evidence-based interventions into clinical practice and community settings, to improve stroke outcomes for underserved and vulnerable populations around the world. He currently leads several studies of stroke in the US and sub-Saharan Africa. Ovbiagele has published over 600 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 89) in the areas of stroke prevention, risk factors and outcomes. His work has been recognized with the Pessin and Wartenberg Awards of the American Academy of Neurology; Penn Award of the American Neurological Association; Mridha Humanitarian Award of the American Brain Foundation; Feinberg and Stroke Council Awards of the American Stroke Association; Haddock International and Distinguished Scientist Awards of the American Heart Association, and Meritorious Achievement Award of the National Medical Association. He chaired the International Stroke Conference (2016-2018) and is current editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Heart Association. He serves on the board of the World Stroke Organization.

Osier's expertise is in malaria, where she believes we can "Make Malaria History" through vaccination. She previously led two core teams of over 25 scientists in Kenya and Germany, that focused on creating highly effective malaria vaccines through vaccine candidate discovery, identifying immune correlates of protection and unravelling important mechanisms underlying antibody-dependent protection. They designed an innovative protein microarray KILchip©, a first of its kind in Africa. Through the SMART partnership, they assembled 10,000 samples from across Africa to probe their chip, the largest study of this nature. They created a paradigm shift in the understanding of the mechanisms that underpin protective immunity to malaria. Osier is past president of the International Union of Immunological Societies (> 60,000 members globally)—the first African and only second woman in this role. She has won prestigious prizes including: Royal Society Pfizer; Sofja Kovalevskaja; and UK Medical Research Council - UK Department for International Development African Research Leader. She was honored with the prestigious British Society of Immunology Honorary Lifetime Membership Award (2022).

Prof. Sultana N. Nahar ot The Ohio State University (OSU), USA, a co-founder of atomic astrophysics field, studies the four dominant atomic radiative and collisional processes, such as, radiative transitions, photoionization, electron-ion recombination, electron impact excitation, in astrophysical plasma, X-ray spectroscopy for Bio-medical applications, spectroscopy of kilonovae emission, diagnostics for bio-signature elements in exo-planetary atmosphere, with high accuracy methodology. She has made fundamental contributions to these processes in characterizing resonant features, developed algorithm for theoretical spectroscopy, developed precise unified theory for electron-ion recombination process with A. K. Pradhan at OSU. Findings of their studies are accumulated in the textbook “Atomic Astrophysics and Spectroscopy” (Cambridge U press). Her results from large scale computations are archived in her database, NORAD-Atomic-Data, at OSU. She is active in STEM education and research globally through research training, lectures, introducing and sponsoring programs. She is the founder of the International Society of Muslim Women in Science with members from 33 countries.

Eltahir is H. M. King Bhumibol Professor of hydrology and climate, and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Eltahir made significant contributions defining the role of land surface processes in climate system. He has been actively engaged in projecting future impacts of global climate change at local and regional scales, with the objective of informing and hence enabling proactive adaptation by local communities. Examples for topics of his projections include: water in Nile basin, malaria in Africa, droughts over Mediterranean, and extreme heatwaves in Asia. Eltahir is the director of the UM6P-MIT Research Program at MIT with a focus on sustainable development in Africa. He is also the lead principal investigator in a large Climate Grand Challenges Project at MIT with the goal of reinventing adaptation to climate change. He was recently elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering. Eltahir is a recipient of the Kuwait Prize in Applied Science in 2000, an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2008, and a recipient of the Hydrologic Sciences Award in 2017, from AGU.