Ackmez Mudhoo holds a First Class B.Eng. (Hons.) degree in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, an M.Phil. degree by research Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. Environmental Engineering, all from the University of Mauritius. His research interests span (i) bioremediation of organic residues and pollutants, (ii) green chemistry approaches for enhanced biomass pretreatment, (iii) adsorption, and (iv) mathematical analysis and modeling of related processes. He is a Senior Lecturer in the department and has > 13 years experience in lecturing and research. He also reckons two years’ full-time experience (2006-2008) as ‘Chemical Process Engineer’ in the design, operation and maintenance of a sewage treatment plant. He was the Chairperson of the Local Organising Committee for MAURITIUS 2011 – 1st International Conference on Waste Management in Developing Countries and Transient Economies, 5–8 September 2011, CODWAP Conference under CODWAP Project Framework. He has also been a TWAS Affiliate for the 2013-2017 Tenure, and served as Associate Editor for 'Environmental Chemistry Letters' (Springer). His ORCID ID is http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5712-6673.

Professor Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo is, an agronomist and forester and hold a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences (Ghent University, Belgium). He is a Full Professor at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Republic of Benin. He doubles as a visiting Professor at Université Félix Houphouët Boigny in Côte d’Ivoire, University of Costa Rica in Costa Rica, University of Florianopolis in Brazil and Chuo University in Japan. He has been awarded more than 21 research grants and 11 at regional or international levels. He is a talented and well-established scientist, consistently motivated by the need to produce innovative research and technologies for positive change in the society. He is belonging more than 10 international scientific groups and is currently the Permanent Secretary of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, and also the Coordinator of the Doctoral Training in Natural Resources at the University. To date, he has (co)authored at total of 215 scientific articles in peer review journals, 26 books and/or book chapters; 11 proceedings and 9 technical reports. He won 11 international prizes.. Three words that describe him are rigor- perseverance-hard work.

Professor Yahya Choonara is internationally recognised as an outstanding global pharmaceutical scientist working for 18 years at the forefront of the pharmaceutical sciences to produce advanced life-saving medicines that have an impact on global health (i.e. the best science for infectious, hereditary and lifestyle diseases). A Pharmacist by profession, in 2007 he co-founded the University of Witwatersrand’s Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) Research Unit, Africa’s largest Research Unit in its domain. Based in a Lower/Middle-Income Country (LMIC) he has contributed enormously to basic and translational pharmaceutical research focusing on intellectual property in the design of novel drug delivery systems, nanomedicines, functional biomaterials and regenerative medicine to produce 21st Century patient-centric medicines for disease prevention/treatment and has over 400 ISI-accredited publications to his name. Professor Choonara is a Personal Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the University of Witwatersrand’s Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology and the Director of the WADDP Research Unit, one of the flagship research units of Wits University.

Asfawossen Asrat Kassaye is Professor of Geology at the School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University (AAU). Asfawossen does research in Igneous Petrology, Geochemistry, Paleoclimatology, Geoarchaeology, Geoheritage, Applied Geology. Current projects include 'Speleothem Palaeoclimatology', 'Historical Climatology', 'Cave Geoarchaeology', 'Paleo-Lakes and Hominin Sites', 'Geoheritage, Geodiversity and Geoconservation'. He served as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, as Academic Programs Officer and as Research Officer at AAU; as Vice President of the Geological Society of Africa (GSAf); and President of the East African Quaternary Research Association (EAQUA). He is Associate Editor of the Journal Quaternary International. He is recipient of several scientific grants and has extensively published. He is a fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences EAS), and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). He serves as a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Past Global Changes (PAGES), the UNESCO Global Geoparks Council, and the Governing Board of the African Network of Earth Sciences Institutions (ANESI).

Romain Lucas Glele Kakaï is a Full Professor in Biometry and Forest modeling at the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin. He obtained his bachelor's in Agronomy and engineer degree in Forestry in the same University. He completed his MSc and PhD in Biostatistics at the Gembloux Agricultural University in Belgium. His interests are (i) Biological modeling, (ii) Artificial Intelligence based problem-solving in agricultural, (iii) Forest estimations. So far in 2020, his research works yields more than 200 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals, the “Biometrie88” Prize of the best Young French Biometrician in Belgium by the National Association of French Belgian Biometricians in Belgium (2002), the “Heinz and Johannes” Prize in 2007 of the best research Paper in Ecology by the Support Africa International (Germany, 2007), the “Jan Tinbergen Prize” of the best Young Statistician from Emerging and Developing Countries by the International Statistical Institute (ISI, 2007). He has also been Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) for outstanding achievements in research.