Dr. Kifah Gharzeddin is a crop breeder and geneticist. The plurality of his researcher identity includes crop genetic improvement and the role it plays in benefitting human health and food security. Gharzeddin’s expertise has contributed to the development of various crop breeding programs in Canada and Syria. Gharzeddin’s faba bean breeding program resulted in the release in 2014 of two registered varieties in Syria originated from ICARDA. In Canada, Gharzeddin developed his molecular research of crop breeding after he joined Carleton University in Ottawa. Gharzeddin collaboratively developed the first chickpea breeding program in Ontario starting in July 2020. Through this program, Gharzeddin identified several adapted accessions to different environments. In January 2024, Dr. Gharzeddin joined the University of Windsor (South-West Ontario), working at one of the top agricultural regions in the world, and with the aim to develop high yield and resistant crop cultivars grown in the Windsor-Essex region (e.g tomato). Dr. Gharzeddin expertise spans crop variety development, plant molecular biology and physiology, Plant-Environment Interactions, Biometrics, and Science Communication.

Since January 2019, Rim CHERIF is a visiting researcher at University of Ottawa, Canada. She is Associate Professor of Telecommunication engineering at Iset’Com, Tunisia. She received her PhD degree in ICT from the University of Carthage (Tunis, Tunisia), Sup'Com in 2009. She has published more than 90 papers in the areas of optical characterization of photonic crystal fibers and photonic nanowires, supercontinuum generation, ultra-fast and nonlinear optics, optical sensors for all optical new generation networks (h-index 9). She received the Elsevier Foundation New-Scholar Grant in 2012 and 2014 for Career Building Workshops for STEM Women Scientists. In 2015, she has been awarded the 2015 ICO/ICTP Gallieno Denardo Award for her « achievements in the field of nonlinear optics and in particular for her contributions to the design of highly nonlinear fibers for supercontinuum generation, as well as for her active commitment aimed at the diffusion of research in optics and photonics in Tunisia ». She has been nominated 2017 OSA ambassador.