Chen (PhD 1992, Joh.-Gutenberg-U., Mainz, Germany) is currently Chair Professor at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is an internationally renowned climate researcher with important contributions to the understanding of regional climate changes and their impacts in Sweden and China. His research includes Earth System Science, global environmental change, climate dynamics and modeling, and atmospheric circulation. He works on recent and future regional climate changes and their impacts on water, ecosystem, environment, and agriculture. He currently focuses on climate and environmental changes over the Third Pole (Tibetan Plateau) region. He has served as Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU), Director of the Gothenburg Atmospheric Science Centre, and Science Director of the Beijing Climate Center. He is an elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, as well as TWAS Fellow. He has served on numerous international and national committees and boards, advising various governmental, intergovernmental and international non-governmental organizations as well as research funding agencies.

Medina (Dr. Ack., U. of Hohenheim, 1964) has worked as senior researcher and head of the Lab. for Plant Physiological Ecology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Caracas. He also served as: Dir., Intl. Ctr. for Tropical Ecol., IVIC-UNESCO; member, Intl. Scientific Adv. Board, Max-Planck-Inst. f. Limnologie; member, Adv. Comm., Scientific Comm. on Problems of the Environ. (ICSU); FAO adviser, Environ. and Develop.; and member, Coord. Comm. for Research, Int. Union of Biol. Sciences. His honours include: Carnegie fellow; Andres Bello Order; Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Prize; Guggenheim fellow; hon. member, Ecol. Soc. of America; for. assoc., Natl. Acad. of Sciences, USA; for. member, Am. Acad. of Sciences; Bacardi chair, Univ. of Florida; for. assoc., Natl. Acad. of Sciences, USA; for. fellow, Am. Acad. of Arts and Sciences; and for. member, Am. Acad. of Sciences. Adjunct Scientist at IITF-USDA Forest Service

Iaccarino obtained his MD at the Univ. of Naples (1962) and H. C. in Biology (1999) at the Univ. of Viterbo. Post Doc at Stanford Univ., visiting Prof. at Sussex Univ. Director of the International Institute of Genetics and Biophysics, Naples (1985-1993) and Director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics, Alghero (1994). Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO (1996-2000), where he organised several intergovernmental conferences, including the World Conference on Science (Hungary, 1999). Member of the Italian Evaluation committees for Research in Biology, Medicine and Biotechnology and of the evaluation boards of several international organisations (European Commission, EMBO, Human Frontier Science Program, and the British Council). Member of the EMBO Council and of the Council of ICSU, the International Council for Science.

Garruto is prof. of biomedical anthropology and neurosciences and Dir. of the Biospecimen Archive Facility, State Univ. of New York, Binghamton. He received his PhD from Penn State Univ. and joined the Natl. Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1973 as a research scientist. He has done fieldwork in Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Latin America. His honours include: Commendation Guam Legislature, 1987; Alumni Fellow, Penn State Univ., 1987; NIH Directors Award, 1993; Gorjanovic-Krambergeri Medal, Croatian Anthropological Society, 2000; Burroughs-Welcome Foundation Visiting Professorship, Basic Medical Sciences, 2001; Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award, Human Biology Assoc., 2005; National Honor Plaque of Panama, National Secretariat for Science,Technology and Innovation, 2011. He is a member of the US Natl. Acad. of Sciences and a fellow of AAAS.

Lê was emeritus professor, University of Aix-Marseille, France. He was educated at Lycée Voltaire and Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris and Paris University. His subsequent positions included: Assistant, Faculty of Sciences, Paris University; attaché de recherches; chargé de recherches, and maître de recherches, CNRS; vice chairman and chairman, Mathematics Department, University of Paris 7; maître de conférences, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France; professor, University of Paris 7; directeur de recherches, CNRS, Marseille, France; and professor, University de Provence, Marseille. He was also head of the mathematics group at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. He was editor of the International Journal of Mathematics, Journal of Singularities and Acta Mathematica Vietnamica. He was awarded the Prix d’Aumale by the French Academy in 1990.

Poor (PhD, 1977, Princeton) is the Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, where he served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2006 to 2016. His research contributions are in the areas of communications and signal processing, particularly in wireless networking, smart grid, and related fields. His awards include: the IEEE Education Medal, the IET Fleming Medal, the URSI Booker Gold Medal, the IEEE Eric Sumner Award, the EURASIP Athanasios Papoulis Award, the AAES John Fritz Medal, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, and honorary doctorates from five universities. His memberships include: U.S. National Academy of Engineering, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Inventors, Royal Society, U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering, Academia Europaea, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Kailath was educated in India (BE, 1956) and MIT (SM, 1959; ScD, June 1961). He then worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab., before joining Stanford University in January1963, where he is currently Hitachi America Prof. of Elec. Eng., Emeritus. His major awards include: US National Medal of Science, presented by President Barack Obama; IEEE Medal of Honor; IEEE Educ. Medal; IEEE Kilby Signal Proc. Medal; IEEE Claude Shannon Award; Silicon Valley Eng. Hall of Fame; BBVA Foundation Prize in ICT; Padma Bhushan Award from the President of India; Guggenheim,Churchill and Humboldt Fellowships; Hon. D.Sc. from universities in France, Greece,India, Israel, Scotland, Spain and Sweden. Member US Natl. Acad. of Eng., US Natl. Acad. of Sciences, Amer. Acad.of Arts and Sciences;For. Mem., Royal Society of London, Royal Spanish Acad. of Eng., TWAS, Indian Nat’l Acad. of Eng., Indian Natl. Science Academy, Indian Acad. of Sciences, Natl. Acad. of Sciences,India; Fellow,IEEE, AMS,SIAM,Inst Math Statistics

Panza former Professor of seismology (University of Trieste) and the Head of Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth (SAND) group (International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. His scientific activity deals with integrated analysis of the structure and dynamics of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system; the integrated approach to modelling of seismic waves; and the earthquake-prone lineaments and premonitory seismicity patterns. He received Gutenberg Medal in 2000, doctorate h.c. in physics from University of Bucharest, Romania, in 2002; medal of honour by the Earth Sciences Committee of the Central European Initiative, in 2004; commemorative medal from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in 2009; honour of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2015, International AGU award 2018 among others. Panza is an honorary professor at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and at the Institute of Geophysics of the China Earthquake Administration; and elected member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and of the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL, both in Italy, and of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Thulstrup is professor of chemistry at Roskilde University, Denmark. He graduated from Aarhus University in 1967 with an MSc. in Chemistry and Physics and has held senior positions at 3 Danish universities and visiting positions at 6 foreign universities, interrupted by 5 years in Washington DC where he headed the World Bank Program for Science and Technology. He was President of the Danish UNESCO National Commission and leader of several major evaluations of research capacity building in developing and industrialized countries. He is author of numerous papers and leading monographs within Polarization Spectroscopy of ordered systems. He received the Knighthood of the Dannebrog by the Danish Queen, was a Fulbright Fellow, and received gold medals from Aarhus University, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Science Society of Panama. He is fellow of the African, Norwegian and Mongolian Academies of Science.

Chu and colleagues were the first to achieve superconductivity above liquid nitrogen temperatures with YBaCuO (90 K). Such and related work has established him as a leader in the field of high temperature superconducting oxides. He is Founding Director and Chief Scientist, Texas Center for Superconductivity; Professor of Physics and T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, University of Houston; President Emeritus and University Professor Emeritus, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Honorary Chancellor, Taiwan Comprehensive University System. He has received the U.S. National Medal of Science and numerous international awards, as well as 10 honorary doctorates and 7 honorary professorships. He is a fellow/member of the American Physical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Sinica, National Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other organizations.