Marwala is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) and the rector of the UN University. He was previously vice-chancellor of the University of Johannesburg and deputy vice-chancellor for research, postgraduate studies and the library, and was previously dean of engineering and the built environment, University of Johannesburg. He was professor of electrical engineering, and Carl and Emily Fuchs Chair of systems and control engineering, University of the Witwatersrand. He has been chair of the Local Loop Unbundling Committee and non-executive director of SITA, EOH, Denel and City Power. He has received more than 40 awards including: Order of Mapungubwe, and President Award, National Research Foundation. He holds a PhD in engineering from University of Cambridge. He has supervised 47 masters and 37 PhD students and published 25 books, 300 refereed papers in journals, proceedings and book chapters and holds 3 international patents. He is a fellow of many organizations including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Azim Surani, born in Kenya received a PhD in 1975 at Cambridge University under Professor Sir Robert Edwards FRS (Nobel Laureate, 2010). Surani joined the Babraham Institute in 1979, and discovered ‘Genomic Imprinting’ in 1984, and subsequently, novel imprinted genes and their functions, with contributions to its mechanism through establishment and erasure of DNA methylation. In 1992, he was elected the Marshall-Walton Professor, and subsequently Director of Research at Cambridge University. His recent work established the genetic basis for germ cell specification and epigenetic programming towards resetting of the epigenome. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001, awarded a Royal Medal in 2010, and in 2014, the ISSCR McEwen Award for Innovation.

Brito Cruz is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil and the Senior Vice-President Research Networks at Elsevier, UK. He graduated in Electronics Engineering and has a doctorate in Physics. He was a visiting researcher at the Quantum Optics Laboratory at the Universitá di Roma, at the Femtosecond Research Lab. at the Universitè Pierre et Marie Curie, and a resident researcher at the AT&T's Bell Laboratories, in Holmdel, New Jersey. He was the Director of Unicamp's Physics Institute, Pro-rector for Research, and Rector of the university. He was the President of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and its Science Director from 2005-2020. He is a member of the Queen Elizabeth Engineering Prize Judging Panel and of the UN's 10-Member Committee for Technology for Technology Facilitation for the SDGs. Brito Cruz is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, received the Ordre des Palmes Academiques de France, the Order of the Scientific Merit from the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the Order of the British Empire, Honorary (OBE).

Molina was educated in Mexico, Germany and the USA and he obtained his PhD from UC Berkeley (physical chemstry, 1972). He is professor of atmospheric chemistry, dept. of chemistry and biochemistry, University of California, San Diego and president of the Mario Molina Center in Mexico City. His previous positions include: institute professor at MIT; associate professor at UC Irvine; and senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His awards include Tyler Ecology and Energy Award; American Chemical Society Esselen Award; NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement; Nobel Prize in Chemistry; National Medal of Freedom, USA, and the Walker Prize, Boston Museum of Science. His membership includes: National Academy of Sciences, USA; National Academy of Medicine, USA; Academia Mexicana de Ingenieria; Academia Mexicana de Ciencias; Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Sorooshian is dist. prof. and dir., Departments of Civil and Env. Eng. and Earth System Science, U. of California Irvine, USA. He is renowned for contributions to hydrometeorology and development/application of remote sensing for operational hydrology and water resources management. He is a member of the US Natl. Acad. of Eng. (NAE) and Intl. Acad. of Astronautics (IAA) and fellow of the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); American Geophysical Union (AGU); American Meteorological Soc. (AMS); and Int. Water Resources Assoc. (IWRA). He serves on advisory committees, including NASA, NOAA, WMO and UNESCO. Recent honours include: Ven Te Chow Award, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2017); Robert E Horton Medalist, American Geophysical Union (AGU) (2013); American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Life Member Award (2013); Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Intl. Prize for Water Resources Management and Protection (2010); Honorary professorship, Beijing Normal University (2010); Walter Orr Roberts Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Sciences Award (AMS) (2009); UNESCO Great Manmade River Water Prize (2007); and NASA Dist. Public Service Medal (2005).

Baralle (PhD 1969, U. of Buenos Aires -UBA) has been director general at Intl. Centre for Genetic Eng. and Biotech. (ICGEB) in Trieste, Italy (2004-14). He now leads the ICGEB RNA Biology Group and is vis. prof. in Buenos Aires. From 1968 to 1974 studied Medicine at UBA and completed his MD in 1984 at the U. of Naples. Previously, he worked at the Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas Fundación Campomar and at the MRC Lab. of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. From 1980 to 1990, he was university lecturer of pathology at Oxford and fellow of Magdalen College. In 1990 he joined ICGEB. He is an elected member of EMBO and of the Argentine Acad. of Sciences. In 1977 he published the first complete primary structure of an eukaryotic mRNA, βglobin mRNA. His current research focuses on RNA splicing and RNA-protein interactions in neurodegenerative diseases. He has published over 220 papers.

Terrones (Phd Birkbeck College, U. of London) is Rayleigh Endowed Chair Prof. in Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. in USA. After holding a postdoc position in the dept. of chem., U. of Cambridge (UK), he returned to Mexico to the Inst. of Physics, UNAM, where he spent 8 years as a researcher. He moved to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to start a new institute with the main idea of working in multidisciplinary research and to decentralize science outside of Mexico City. Main awards include: Mexican Acad. of Sciences Prize in Exact Sciences (2000), UNAM Prize for Young Scientists in Exact Sciences (2000), El Potosi Prize from IPICyT (2004). He is a member of the Mexican Acad. of Sciences. He has been invited prof. in UCL (Belgium), UFC (Brazil), Penn State (USA), Shinshu (Japan) and ORNL (USA). He has contributed to the theory and experiment of 2-D materials, such as graphene and TMDs.

Prance is a Trustee of the Eden Project in Cornwall, and vis. professor at Reading U. He obtained his BA in botany (Oxford, 1960) and DPhil (1963). He began his career with The New York Botanical Garden as a research assistant, becoming senior vice president for science in 1981. He also set up the Garden's Inst. of Economic Botany of which he was the first director from 1981-1988. From 1988 to 1999, he was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He was knighted in 1995, holds hon. doctorates from 15 universities and is a member of several science academies. Honours include: Ordem Nacional do Mérito Cientifico, Grã-Cruz, Brazil, 1995; Internatl. Cosmos Prize, 1995, Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil, 2000; Lifetime Discovery Award, Royal Geographical Society and the Discovery Channel, 1999; Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, 2000; Order of the Rising Sun, Japan, 2012.

Klein is Carnell Professor of Science and director of the Institute for Computational Molecular Science, at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. He was Hepburn professor of physical science and director, Lab. for Research on the Structure of Matter, Univ. of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Philadelphia. After his PhD (Univ. of Bristol) and postdoctoral work in Italy, England, and USA, he joined the National Research Council of Canada. In 1987, he joined UPenn where he established the Center for Molecular Modeling. He is member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, a fellow of: Royal Society of London; Royal Society of Canada; and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Awards include: American Physical Society Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics; American Chemical Society Debye Award in Physical Chemistry; and Bernie J. Alder CECAM Prize, European Physical Society.