Roederer (DSc, 1952, U. of Buenos Aires) is prof. emeritus of physics, Geophysical Inst., Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks, and affiliate prof. University of Colorado. He was prof. of physics at the univ. of Buenos Aires, Denver and Alaska (1959-1993), and distinguished visiting prof., Rhodes University, South Africa (1997). He was dir., Argentine Natl. Ctr. of Cosmic Radiation, and Geophysical Inst. of the U. of Alaska; chrmn., US Arctic Rsrch. Commiss.; and sr. advisor, ICTP, Trieste. He has held chairmanships of ICSU associations and commissions and was former Intl. Sec. of the American Geophysical Union. Awards include: Soviet Acad. Medal, 100 Years of Geophysics; 4 NASA awards for contributions to the Galileo Mission to Jupiter; AGU Flinn Award for unstinting service to the scientific community. He is corr. member, Academies of Sciences of Argentina and Austria, and fell. of IUGG, AAAS, the AGU, the Argentine Physical Assoc. and Argentine Geodesic and Geophysical Association. Roederer is also organist.

Zare is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science, Stanford University. His research is in the area of laser chemistry, resulting in a greater understanding of chemical reactions at the molecular level and contributing very significantly to solving a variety of problems in chemical analysis. His development of laser induced fluorescence has been widely adopted in other laboratories. Awards include the US National Medal of Science (1983), the Welch Award in Chemistry (1999), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2005), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences (2010), and the King Faisal International Prize in Science (2011). His memberships include the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Osumi graduated Tokyo Medical and Dental University, was given PhD thesis from the same university, and now is a professor of Tohoku University School of Medicine since 1998. She was one of the 25 Distinguished Professors in Tohoku University from 2008 to 2011, and has become Vice President of Tohoku University as well as Director of Tohoku University Libraries from 2018. Her research background is developmental biology, and she has interest in brain development, evolution, and disease. More recently, she has much interest in gendered research focusing on sex differences in the brain. She was a representative of CREST project (2005-2010) supported by JST, and Global COE project (2007-2012) as well as Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (16H06524) “Integrative Research toward Elucidation of Generation of Brain Systems for Individuality”. Currently, As the Director of Gender Equality Center at Tohoku University, Dr. Osumi is promoting the policy of diversity in academia, providing various information through the website and social media, and organizing various events networking female researchers.

Lal is dist. univ. prof. of soil science and dir., Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, Ohio State U., Columbus. After obtaining his PhD at Ohio State and completing postdoctoral work at The U. of Sydney, Australia, in 1969, he joined the Intl. Inst. of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria. He returned to Ohio State in 1987 where he has taught two classes: environmental soil physics, and soils and climate change, and conducted research on soil carbon sequestration, soil restoration and food security. Honours include: three h.c. doctorates; Hugh Hammond Bennett Award (1998); Borlaug Award (2005); IPCC Nobel Peace Prize certificate; Zayed Prize diploma, Liebig Award (2006). He is a fellow of five societies, incl. the American Assn. for Adv. of Science (1996) and The Rothamsted (2013). He has authored 15 and edited 56 books, and has about 1700 scientific articles to his credit.

Kim is professor of Graduate Studies in the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley. He has held a variety of academic and research positions including: Fulbright Fellow (1962); Guggenheim fellow (1985-86); and visiting professorships at Beijing University (1982), University of Paris (1986), and Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (2011- ), and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (2016- ). He has also received many awards including: Earnest O. Lawrence Award, USA (1987); Princess Takamatsu Cancer Foundation Award, Japan (1989); Ho-Am Prize in Science, Samsung foundation, Korea (1994); Korean Academy of Science and Technology Prize (2000); and Legacy Laureate Award, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (2005). He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Korean National Academy of Sciences; and fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.

N’Guerekata (Ph. D. Montreal Canada 1980) is a University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean, School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Former Vice Rector of the University of Bangui, Deputy Minister for Scientific and Technical Research and Senior Advisor to the Head of State, N'Guerekata is a Fulbrighter, and an African Academy of Science Fellow, The World Academy of Sciences Fellow, American Mathematical Society Fellow. He received numerous honors and awards in the US, France, India, and Central African Republic. Founder and Chief Editor of the International Journal of Evolution Equations and the Journal of Nonlinear Evolution Equations and Applications, he is also a member of editorial boards of over 18 other international mathematical journals. Dr. N'Guerekata is (co) author of over 286 mathematics publications including 12 books.

Chen is Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore. He was Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor (2006-12), Distinguished Professor (2013-15), and served as Director, Institute for Mathematical Sciences (2000-12). He was President, Bernoulli Soc. for Mathematical Statistics and Probability (1997-99), President, Inst. of Mathematical Statistics (2004-05), and Vice-President, International Statistical Institute (2009-11). He has done fundamental work on Poisson approximation, now known as the Chen-Stein (or Stein-Chen) method. His research in discrete probability has broad applications ranging from molecular biology to probabilistic number theory. He is an elected fellow, Singapore Natl. Acad. of Science, and Inst. of Mathematical Statistics; elected member, International Statistical Institute. He has served as Associate Editor of the journals Bernoulli and Statistica Sinica.

van Ginkel is a social scientist with special interest in the application of geographical knowledge in society. He was rector, UNU, Tokyo, Japan and Under Secretary-General of the UN 1997-2007; longest serving Dutch univ. rector, Utrecht Univ., 1986-97; and member, Social Sciences Council, KNAW, 1990-98. His interests include urban and regional planning, public housing, housing markets and public administration. He has prepared and led thematic debates on higher education and sustainable human development. He is a member of Academia Europea; KNAG and hon. fellow, Intl. Training Ctr. for Geo-Info. Sciences and Remote Sensing, ITC, Enschede. He received a Knighthood, Order of the Netherlands Lion, 1994; Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon, Japan, 2007; and 5 hon. doctorates (Cluj, Rumania; Sacramento-Cal., USA; Accra, Ghana; Zvolen, Slovakia; Mc.Master, Canada). He is board chair, Inst. of Social Sciences, ISS, The Hague, and board chair, German Ctr. for Dev. Research, ZEF, Bonn.

Rosswall is former Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU). He has been Rector of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and is professor emeritus of water in environment and society at SLU. His research has focused on microbial regulation of nitrogen and carbon cycling from the micro- to the global scale. He has played an important role in the development of global change research as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).He was the inaugural Director of START, the capacity building component of the global change research programmes. His memberships include: Academia Europaea; Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry; and The World Academy of Arts and Science. He is, among many appointments, past Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and past member of the Steering Committee of the High-level Expert Panel (HLPE) of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS)..