Prof. Chaibi (PhD Agriculture Engineering and Climate Technologies, Swedish U. of Agriculture Sciences) is Research Dir., Natl. Research Inst. for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia. His major accomplishments include the development of autonomous and integrated complex systems for supporting sustainable livelihood in areas poor in fresh water, thus providing communities with basic needs such as water food and energy. He was appointed in 2015 as GIZ senior advisor for the academic affairs and International affairs, and from 2008 to 2015 to serve the African Union in developing and coordinating processes in science, technology and innovations policy in Africa. He was elected Member, Governing Council, African Acad. of Sciences (AAS) representative of North Africa Region (2010), Fellow, AAS (2006), Fellow; IAS (2017). He served in various capacities as associate member of the Environmental Security panel under the NATO Science for Peace and Security and the EC Frameworks Programs.

Chandrajith is working as a professor at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and has more than 30 years of teaching and research experience. He is mainly involved in research in the field of environmental geochemistry, with a particular interest in bridging chemical, biological and geological sciences to address diverse environmental problems, including hydrogeochemistry and medical geology. His current projects include freshwater geochemistry, the application of isotopes in low-temperature geochemical processes, the study of environmental relationships with human and animal health, and the reconstruction of Holocene climate changes using geochemical proxies. Chandrajith has published over 160 research papers in reputed international journals and written three books and 11 book chapters with a Google H-index of 39. He co-authored the book “Introduction to Medical Geology” published by Springer, Germany. He received the prestigious Georg Forster Research Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in 2022 and is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka.

Chen is member of CAS, professor and director of Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is the president and fellow of China Geography Society. He obtained his PhD in 1990 at Lanzhou University. He is vice-presidents of IGU Environment Evolution Commission, China Society on Tibetan Plateau, Chinese Quaternary Science Associate. His prizes include China National Excellent Scientist in 2005; National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2003; China Youth Science and Technology Award in 1996; Second award of National Natural Science in 2007 and 2018; five awards of Natural Science by Ministry of Education of China. He has published more than 690 papers in peer-reviewed journals of both English and Chinese with more than 420 papers published in SCI journals such as Nature, Science, NCC, NC, PNAS, QSR, which are cited more than 19900 times by papers of SCI journals with H index of 69.

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.

Cordani is emeritus professor, Institute of Geosciences, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. He was trained in geochronology at UC Berkeley (1963) under the guidance of John Reynolds, and obtained his DSc (USP) in 1968. In the 60’s he established a geochronological laboratory that gained international recognition. At the USP he was director of the Institute of Geosciences (1987-1991) and Institute of Advanced Studies (1994-1997). He was president of the International Union of Geological Sciences (1988-1992) and the 31st International Geological Congress (Rio de Janeiro, 2000). He has published ca. 280 scientific articles, and received many awards, among which the Great Cross of Scientific Merit (Brazil), the José Bonifacio Gold Medal (Brazilian Geological Society), and the TWAS medal lecture. He is member of the academies of science of Brazil, Argentina, France and Portugal.

Diab is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal, the former Executive Officer of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and currently serves as Special Advisor to GenderInSITE. She obtained her PhD from the University of Virginia, USA, in 1983. She is a fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the South African Geographical Society, the African Academy of Sciences and TWAS, and a member of ASSAf. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar and has served on numerous international committees such as the International Ozone Commission. She currently chairs the Gender Advisory Committee of TWAS. She serves on the African Union High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies and was recently Co-Chair of an OECD Expert Group on Reducing the Precarity of Young Researchers’ Careers.

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.

Fu (PhD, 1989, in physical geography, Peking University) is professor at the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China. He worked at RCEES as an assistant professor (1989-1990) and associate professor (1991-92) before his post-doctoral research training at the Institute for Land and Water Management, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1992-94).He became full professor of RCEES in 1994, and deputy director in 1996. Fu was the director general of Bureau of Natural Resources and Environment, CAS 2001-2008. Since 2009 he is a Professor and Chair of Steering Committee in RCEES. He is an elected member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011, elected International Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society Edinburgh UK in 2015. He is Vice President of International Geographical Union in 2018-2026 and Member of Science Advisory Committee of IIASA in 2017-2022. He is recipient of the National Natural Science Prize of China in 2005 and 2020, and The Alexander von Humboldt Medal of European Geoscience Union in 2020.

Aster Gebrekirstos (PhD, Gottingen University, Germany, 2005) is senior scientist and head of the dendrochronology lab, World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya, and affiliated with Erlangen University, Germany. Her research is in the area of forest ecology, dendroclimatology, climate change, applications of stable isotopes, land restoration. She led and participated in research projects across Africa and Asia. She set up dendrochronology labs in Ethiopia (2009) and in Nairobi (2013). She taught at Alemaya and Wondo Genet University, Ethiopia; as visiting professor at WASCAL, and Dresden University in Germany. She trained 20+ PhD students, published 80+ journal articles and book chapters. Her awards include: African Climate Award for excellence in climate change research (2014), Special Award for Groundbreaking Science (2009). Fellow of African Academy of Science (AAS), International Academy of Wood Science, conferred Eleonore Trefftz Visiting Professorship Dresden University. She is a vice-president of International Union of Agroforestry, chair of Environment Committee at AAS, member of science leadership at Past Global Changes (PAGES) and Mountain Research Institute (MRI).

Goswami is SERB Distinguished Fellow of Government of India at Cotton University in Guwahati. He obtained his PhD from PRL, Ahmedabad, and did postdoctoral research at MIT, Cambridge, USA, and at NASA/GSFC, USA. Returning to India, he worked at CAS/IIT, Delhi and CAOS, IISc, Bangalore between 1985 and 2006. He was Director of IITM, Pune between 2006 and 2014. He was visiting professor at the University of Maryland and Princeton University. He has received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award; Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Award; Kamal Kumari National Award for Science and Technology;National Award in Atmospheric Science and Technology by MoES and the Kalpathi Ramakrishna Ramanathan Medal by INSA. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and Indian Meteorological Society, and member of several national and international commissions and committees.

Gupta is a Professor of Geology at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1987 at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and joined Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur as Lecturer in same year. He was Head of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, IIT Kharagpur (2006-09) and Head, Center for Oceans, Rivers, Atmospheric and Land Sciences (2018-2021). Gupta was Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun (2010-17). He has been a Research Associate at LSU, Baton Rouge, USA; Senior JSPS Fellow at Shimane University, Japan; and NRC, USA Senior Research Fellow to NOAA, Boulder. He was Vice President of the Indian Geophysical Union. His honors include ISCA 1990 Young Scientist Award, National Mineral Award 2000, India; Prof. T.M. Harris Medal – 2004; Dr. J. Coggin Brown Memorial (Gold) Medal; TWAS Prize 2010; Prof. S.N. Bhalla Gold Medal for 2016 of the Palaeontological Society of India. He is J.C. Bose Fellow since 2012. Gupta is fellow of all Science Academies of India and Life Fellow of Indian Geophysical Union. He was Review Editor for Chapter 5 of AR5 of IPCC.

Heilbron earned a Bachelor of Science (1980) and a Master of Science in geology (1984) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and a PhD in geosciences from São Paulo University (1993). She carried out postdoctoral studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal, working with Uranium–lead dating geochronology (2000–2001), and at Salzburg University, Austria (2018–2019), where she carried out Argon-Argon geochronology and tectonics. She completed her senior internships at Mainz University, Alberta University at Edmonton, ANU in Australia and Portsmouth University, UK. Presently, she is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Science and TWAS. In 1983, she joined the Geology Institute of Rio de Janeiro State University as a full professor. Besides teaching, she coordinated the postgraduate programme, and directed the Geology Institute (2003–2006). She served as the provost of postgraduate studies and research (2000–2015), and was appointed director of the International Office of UERJ in 2024. She is head of the GeoAtlantic Institute (CNPq) and of the Tektos Research Group developing research and applied projects.

Huang is a distinguished professor and founder of the College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, and director at the Collaborative Innovation Center for Western Ecological Safety, Lanzhou University. He is also a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Meteorological Society, and China National Committee for the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences. His research focuses on semi-arid climate change by combining observations, numerical modelling, and theoretical studies. He established the theoretical framework of a semi-arid climate change mechanism that emphasizes the effects of aerosol-cloud-precipitation, land-atmosphere, and ocean-atmosphere interactions on climate change in semi-arid regions. In recent years, Huang has pioneered a series of studies on the oxygen cycle and land cancer. Additionally, Huang is among the most highly cited researchers for three consecutive years in 2021, 2022, and 2023 according to Clarivate, with an H-Index of 73. He has received several awards for his research achievements, including the Second Prize of National Natural Science Award in 2013 and the First National Innovation Award in 2017.

Lacerda (PhD, Biophysics, 1983) is Titular Professor, Federal U. of Ceará in Fortaleza, Ceará and Fluminense Federal U. in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is a CNPq-National Research Council of Brazil Senior Researcher (1A) and a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He is a Member of the FEC-Academy (Future Coasts Academy) and of ISME (International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems); under these institutions and UNESCO-UNEP he has coordinated global research programmes on mangrove conservation and coastal zone management in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. He received the Excellence Award in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, U. of Florida (1995); the BUNKA-SUMITOMO Prize of Scientist of the Year (1999); and the Bunge Prize 2011 in Oceanography. In 2018 received the National Order of Scienctific Merit from the Federal government. Lacerda has authored over 290 journal papers, 80 book chapters and 21 books and majored over 100 PhD, MSc and Postdoc researchers.

Lu is a Chair Professor of Xiamen Uni., former Co-Director, Res. Center for Eco-Environmental Scs., Chinese Acad. of Scs.. He is a foreign member of Academia Europaea, and Russian Academy of Sciences; Fellow of Int. Sci Coucil; 10-Member Group of UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism for SDGs; Pres., Pacific Science Association; Past Pres., Scientific Committee on Problems of the Env. (SCOPE); Sc. Advisor, IUCN; UNEP Intl. Resource Panel member; and was a member of ICSU Committee on Scientific Planning and Review. He has authored +360 papers in envl. ecology and envl. management related peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Science Advances, PNAS and authored 17 books. He is a highly cited international scientist. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, Assoc. Ed. of Sc. Advances, founder and Assoc. Ed. of Envl. Dev., and an editorial board member of several peer-reviewed journals. He has served on several expert consultation groups on Sc. and Tech., and envl. decision-making at various levels. Lu has obtained numerous awards and honours including the 2nd Natl. Prize for Advancement of Sc. and Tech., and SCOPE Dist. Achievement Award.

Mu (Phd 1985, Fudan U.) is an academician and researcher, working in the Key Laboratory of Ocean Circulation and Waves (KLOCW) – Inst. of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS). He worked as a postdoctorate researcher at Inst. of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). His main contributions are on predictability of weather and climate and stability of geophysical fluid motions. He proposed and applied a new method called CNOP to study predictability, ensemble forecast and adaptive observations of ENSO, thermolhaline circulation of oceans, tropical cyclone, blockings, Kuroshio etc. He established a series of nonlinear stability criteria of atmospheric and oceanic motions. He is a member of CAS (2007); First Class Prize of Nature Scientific Award, CAS (2001); Natl.-wide Excellent Post Doc, Ministry of Personnel (2005); and Ho Leung Ho Lee Sc. and Tech. Prize (2010).

Nagendra is the director of the School of Climate Change and Sustainability, Azim Premji University, in Bangalore, India. Her research covers forest conservation and urban sustainability. Her interdisciplinary work on forests combines remote sensing, biodiversity and institutional analysis, to elucidate the pattern-process link in human-dominated tropics. Her urban research spotlights city commons and ecosystems, to determine the resilience and wellbeing of the poor in the global South. Her awards include an honorary doctorate from Utrecht University in 2025, the 2009 US National Academy of Sciences Cozzarelli Prize, 2013 Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar award, and 2017 Clarivate Web of Science award. She is a well-known public speaker and writer, whose books include Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future; Cities and Canopies: Trees of Indian Cities; Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India’s Cities, and Bangalore Detectives Club series. She was a lead author of IPCC AR5, and is on the scientific committee of the Future Earth Program for Ecosystem Change and Society, and the Advisory Board of WRI Ross Cities, Future Earth Urban KAN, and EIT Climate KIC.

Olago is Professor of Geology, Chairman of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, and Research Director, Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Nairobi. He has BSc and MSc degrees in Geology from the University of Nairobi and a DPhil degree in Physical Geography from the University of Oxford (Kenya Rhodes Scholar for 1990). His research interests are broadly in Quaternary and environmental geoscience, water resources and climate change. Olago has been involved in multi-disciplinary research, training and capacity building activities on global environmental change in sub-Saharan Africa for over 25 years. He has also contributed, as lead author, to the fourth and sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports. He is a fellow of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences, the Geological Society of Kenya, and the African Academy of Sciences.

S. Omar (PhD, 1990, California, Berkeley) is Principal Research Scientist at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and Director General (2016-2021). She is Research Fellow for Agriculture in TWAS and former Treasurer. She was Executive Board Member and Vice President of the Arab States of OWSD, Regional Councilor for West Asia Region, IUCN, and former Member of Board of Director Asia Region of the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER), USA. She has fifty years of Research and Development, managerial, strategic planning, technical experience and project leadership for 27 contractual research projects. She is advisor and consultant to many local, regional and international organizations. She has been awarded by TWAS and many international organizations. She holds a PhD in Wild Land Resource Science, MS in Range Management and BSc in Botany and Chemistry.

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.

Piao (PhD, 2004, Peking University, China) is Boya Distinguished Professor, director of Institute of Carbon Neutrality, deputy director of Department of Science, Peking University. He is a Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Member of Standing Committee for the fourteenth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He served on the Scientific Steering Committee for Global Carbon Project and acted as lead author for the fifth and sixth assessment reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His researches have focused on the relationships between terrestrial ecosystems and climate change, and he has made systematic scientific achievements in assessing the carbon sink of China's terrestrial ecosystems, and the response and feedback of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change. He has published over 100 papers as first or corresponding author in peer-reviewed international journals, including four articles in Nature, many in Nature-branded journals and PNAS. His researches were elected as one of the Top 10 News of Chinese Fundamental Research in 2009 and Top 10 Scientific and Technological Advances in Chinese Higher Education Institutions in 2013.

Poveda (PhD, 1998, Water Resources) is full Professor, Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Medellín, Colombia. Member of: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Academies of Sciences of Colombia and Spain. Scientific steering committees: Global Energy and Water Cycles Research Program of the Global Climate Research Program, Scientific Panel for the Amazon, Global Change and Human Health Program. He was part of the 2019 International Mission of Experts convened by the Colombian government to develop the road map for science, education and technology in Colombia for the XXI century. He has been elected as visiting fellow at: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA (2001-2002), Centre for Hydrology and Ecology, Wallingford, UK (2005), National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado (2010 and 2019), and Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany (2019). He is the author and co-author of 9 books, and more than 200 peer-reviewed papers published on hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, hydroclimatology, climate change, human health and water resources engineering.

Ramos is recognized for his studies on tectonic evolution of the South American basement and the Andes, in particular for his research in structural geology and tectonics. He is Emeritus Professor at the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), and a researcher of the Instituto de Estudios Andinos of UBA-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). He is an honorary member of the Geological Society of America and of the Asociación Geologica Argentina, and a member of the national academies of sciences of Argentina, Chile, Brazil and the USA. He is also a member of many editorial boards of international journals and has received several natational and international scientific awards. His research includes topics like flat-slab subduction, collision of aseismic and seismic ridges in the Andes, as well as continental growth of South America. His major publications are related to the Andes.

Shukla is Univ. Prof. and founding Dir. of Climate Dynamics, PhD., found chair AOES dept., George Mason Univ. Obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD from BHU, India, and DSc from MIT. Previously, he was: res. assoc., Princeton; vis. assoc. prof., MIT; sr. scientist, GSFC, NASA; prof., Univ. of Maryland; chairman, TOGA Panel, NAS, USA; chairman, Int. Advisory Panel for Weather and Climate, India; Founding dir., Ctr. for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies. Honors and awards include: Honorary member, AMS; Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change, Padma Shri (India, 2012), IMO Prize, AGU Fellow, Rossby Medal, AMS; Walker Gold Medal, IMS; Exceptional Sci. Achiev. Medal, NASA. His membership includes: VA Governor's Commission on Climate; Joint Scientific Comm. and Chair of Modeling Panel, Climate Variability, WCRP; Fellow of IMS and AMS. Contributions include "Predictability in the Midst of Chaos." He is Founder of Gandhi College for the education of rural women in the village of his birth in India.

Sial is full professor (retired, 2012; Emeritus Professor, 2016) in the Department of Geology, Federal U. of Pernambuco, Brazil (UFPE). He obtained his PhD from UC Davis (1974) and did postdoctoral work at the U. of Texas at Austin (1977-78), U. of Georgia at Athens (entire 1983, entire 1988) and U. of Wisconsin (2001). He also trained in Portugal, Canada, Japan and Scotland. He founded a Laboratory for Stable Isotope Studies at UFPE, only one in South America with facilities to analyze O isotopes from silicates, and pioneered the use of isotope stratigraphy in S. America. He has received several honours including: Silver Hammer and José Bonifacio Golden Medals (Brazilian Geological Society); Centennial Medal, Engineering School, UFPE; National Order of Scientific Merit commendator and Grao Cruz classes (by President of Brazil decree); special foreign member, Society of Resource Geology, Japan; and foreign member, Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Lisbon Academy of Sciences, Portugal.

Singhvi (PhD Physics, IIT, Kanpur). He served as vice-president, International. Quaternary Union (INQUA) and as Vice President, Indian National Science Academy. He holds DST-SERB- Year of Science Chair Professorship at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, India. He was Av. Humboldt Fellow at the MPI für Kernphysik and Heidelberg U., Germany; Leverhulme Prof., Sheffield U., UK; DAAD Prof., Freiberg, Germany; and Ford Foundation Fellow, Oxford, UK and St. Louis, USA. His honours include: Krishnan and Decennial Medals, Ind. Geophys. Union; Natl. Mineral Award, India; Farouk El-Baz Award for Desert Sci. (2004), Geol. Soc. of America; and K. Naha Medal, Ind. Nat. Sci. Acad; Goyal Prize, Kurukshetra U. and B. Sahni Centenary Medal, Indian Science Congress. A fellow of all Indian science academies and Hon. Lifetime Fellow of the Geol. Society London, he served on Sci. Prog. Comm. of UN's IYPE programme. He served as on the editorial boards of several international journals.

Sokona (PhD, 1981, Ecole nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris VI, France), with over 40 years of experience addressing energy, environment and sustainable development in Africa, has been at the heart of numerous national and continental initiatives. He is currently a Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) after serving as Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III, following being a Lead Author since 1990. He has a proven track record of organizational leadership and management, for example as Inaugural Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre and as Executive Secretary of the Sahara and the Sahel Observatory. He is affiliated with numerous boards and organizations, including, as Honorary Professor at the University College London, member of the African Academy of Sciences, and of the Science Advisory Committee of the International Institute for Applied System Analysis. In short, Sokona is a global figure, with deep technical knowledge, extensive policy experience and an unreserved personal commitment to African led development.

Su obtained his MS in mechanical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1961 and his PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley in 1967. He is professor at the State Key Lab of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, China; honorary director of the Second Institute of Oceanography. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1992 and foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences since 1999. He was Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Earth Sciences Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1992-1998 and 2002-2006; Chairman of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), 1999-2003; Principal Lead Author (1993-1996) and Convening Lead Author (1996-1997) of IPCC Second Assessment Report / Working Group II, Review Editor (1998-2000) of IPCC Third Assessment Report / Working Group II.

Taylor earned his PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA in 1999. He is a professor of climate science and dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Mona Campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI). He is a fellow of the Caribbean Academy of Science, and the co-director of the Climate Studies Group, Mona (CSGM), which is a center of regional thought and expertise in climate change science for small islands and the wider Caribbean. He has served on several national and regional (Caribbean) committees and advisory boards related to climate change science and its impacts on the Caribbean. Most recently, he was appointed to the climate change advisory board of the Government of Jamaica. He is a coordinating lead author for chapter 3 of the special report on 1.5 degrees of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has received the Silver Musgrave Medal for Science from the Institute of Jamaica and is the 2019 ANSA Caribbean Laureate for Excellence in Science.

Prof. Upreti is an Academician of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, former Head of Department of Geology and Dean of Institute of Science and Technology, Tribhuvan University. He is a Fellow and past Council Member (2016-2022) of TWAS and Foreign Fellow of the Zambia Academy of Sciences. He was a visiting professor in the universities and Institutes of China, France, Germany, India. Japan, Ethiopia and Zambia. He was a DAAD Fellow, Research Fellow at CRPG, France, and a JSPS Fellow. He was a professor (2015-2021) and Head, Department of Geology, School of Mines at the University of Zambia. Prof. Upreti has done extensive geological research in the Nepal Himalaya. Authored and edited many books and published about 100 research papers. Prof. Upreti was awarded with national honors such as Gorkha Dakshin Bahu and also the C.N.R. Rao International Prize for Scientific Research from TWAS. In addition, he is a Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of America and Nepal Geological Society as well. His h-index is 34 and has 7000 citations. Prof. Upreti’s research interests are in structural geology. tectonics, engineering geology, paleoseismology, and disaster management.

Zhao is a chair professor at University of Hong Kong (HKU), and a Changjiang chair professor at Northwest University, China. He earned BSc and MSc from Jilin University in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and a PhD from Curtin University in 2000. Zhao’s research fields are metamorphic petrology, Precambrian geology and supercontinents. He has published 460 papers, cited for 64,814 times (h-index 137). Zhao has received many awards and honors, including State Natural Science Award (Second Class, 2014), Highly Cited Researchers (2014-2022), 29th Khwarizmi International Award (First Class; 2016), Chair Professorship of Changjiang Scholars Program (2017), and TWAS Prize in Earth, Astronomy and Space Sciences (2018). He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America (2014), a Member (Academician) of the Chinese Academy of Science (2019), Fellow (Academician) of The World Academy of Science for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (2020), and HKU Distinguished Research Achievement Awards (2021). He was the Editor-in-Chief of Precambrian Research (2010-2021) In the 2023 Best Scientists Ranking (Research.com), he stands No.10 in the world and No.1 in China in earth sciences.