Dr. Jikun Huang is Professor at School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and Honorary Director of China Center for Agricultural Policy (CCAP) and Director of New Rural Development Institute in Peking University, Fellow TWAS, Honorary Life Member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), and Fellow of Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA). He is vice-president of Chinese Association of Agro-technology Economics. He received his BS degree from Nanjing Agricultural University in 1984 and PhD in agricultural economics from University of the Philippines at Los Banos in 1990. His research covers a wide range of issues on China's agricultural economics, policies and rural development. He received Award for China’s Outstanding Youth Scientists in 2002, Outstanding Achievement Award for Overseas Returning Chinese in 2003, Fudan Prize for Eminent Contributor to Management Science in 2008, and IRRI’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 2010. He has published more than 600 journal papers, including the papers published in Science, Nature and many leading journals in development economics. He is co-author of 20 books.

Jagadish is a distinguished professor and the head of the Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology Group at the Australian National University. In 2021, he has been appointed president of the Australian Academy of Science, the latest of a long list of prestigious leadership activities. He has covered important editorial position in over 10 scientific journals. He published more than 650 journal papers, holds five US patents, and contributed, as co-author or co-editor, to over 15 books. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science; a distinguished Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; a visiting professor at Oxford University, UK; a distinguished chair professor for research at the National Taiwan University, among many other positions. Among his awards are: the Lloyd Rees Memorial Lecture by the Australian Academy of Science (2020); the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal by the Australian Academy of Science (2019); and UNESCO Medal for contributions to the development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2018). In 2025, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK).

Kellner (PhD 1996, Columbia U., New York, American Museum of Natural History) is prof. and researcher at the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro since 1997, investigating paleobiodiversity and development of ancient ecosystems. Described +60 species, published +200 original studies (publications total +800). Advised +50 master, PhD students and postdocs. Organized field activities to remote areas of Brazil, Iran, China, Chile and Antarctica. Headed several scientific meetings and is involved in communicating science, through publications, documentaries and exhibitions such as During the Time of the Dinosaurs (1999-landmark in Brazil), exhibitions in Japan and New York. Among awards and honors: TWAS Prize 2010 and Ordem Nacional do Mérito Centífico (Brazil, 2010). Elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and TWAS and honorary member of other organizations.

Khan (PhD 1980, Indian Agric. Res. Inst.) is principal scientist and leader of the widely-reputed push-pull programme at the Intl. Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Kenya. He is Thomas Odhiambo Dist. Res. Fellow of icipe. He is a fellow of the African Acad. of Sciences, the Entomological Soc. of America and the Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Soc., UK. He is an adjunct prof. of entomology at Cornell U., USA, and extraordinary prof. at the North-West U. in South Africa. Khan is a council member of the Intl. Congress of Entomology. In 2010 he received the Nan-Yao Su Award for Innovation and Creativity in Entomology and the ESA Distinguished Scientist Award, and in 2011, the TWAS Prize in Agricultural Sciences and in 2015 Louis Malassis International Prize for Outstanding Career in Agriculture for his contribution in the field of agriculture and food

Kumar has a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, and a PhD from Cornell University, both in Electrical Engineering. He was with Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, N.J., USA, for over 6 years. Since 1988 he has been with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where he is a Professor, and also the Chair of the Electrical Sciences Division. From 1988 to 2003 he was the Coordinator at IISc of the Education and Research Network Project (ERNET), India's first wide-area packet switching network. He has been elected Fellow of the IEEE (the Insitution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He received the IISc Alumni Award for Excellence in Engineering Research for 2008.

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.

Dr. Sang Yup Lee is Distinguished Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Eng., KAIST. He served as the Senior Vice President for Research at KAIST. He has published more than 810 journal papers, and holds more than 860 patents. He is currently elected member or fellow of Korean Academy of Science and Technology, National Academy of Engineering Korea, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Microbiology, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, National Academy of Inventors USA, and European Academy of Microbiology. He is also an International Member of both National Academy of Sciences USA and National Academy of Engineering USA, and a Foreign Member of Royal Society UK and Chinese Academy of Engineering. He received Doctor Technices honoris causa from Technical University of Denmark. He received numerous awards including Order of Science and Technology Merit-Changjo Medal, National Science Medal, Ho Am Prize, POSCO TJ Park Prize, Korea Best Scientist Award, James Bailey Award, Marvin Johnson Award, George Washington Carver Award, Eni Award from Italian President, and Samson Israel Prime Minister’s Award.

Liu has been a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, China since 1999. He is the founding Director of the Center. Liu has made fundamental contributions in atmospheric chemistry, air pollution and climate change. He has published more than 160 papers which have received more than 6500 citations. He is one of the first few Chinese geoscientists in the prestigious ISI Highly Cited Researchers list. He was elected as an Academician of Academia Sinica in 2012. He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1994. He is also a Fellow of the Chinese Meteorological Society. In addition, Liu served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR) from 1988 to 1991.

Lopes is full professor at the Mathematics Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. After obtaining his PhD in 1977 from the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Maryland, College Park. He was appointed Comendador of the National Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil, in 2005, and elected to Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2007.

Mathur was formerly Distinguished Professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, JC Bose National Fellow, and Dean, Natural Sciences Faculty; he was the founding Director of UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in Basic Science, Mumbai University. He obtained his PhD in Physics in 1976 at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He has been an Advisory Editor of the Journal of Physics B and of EPL (Europhysics Letters). Among his prizes are the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in the Physical Sciences, the J C Bose National Fellowship, the European Union’s Erasmus-Mundus Scholarship in Optical Science and Technology, the Royal Society Guest Research Fellowship at Oxford University, and the Fulton Fellowship of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, London. He has been a visiting professor at universities at Aarhus, Tohoku, Swansea, Oxford and Imperial College London. He was the Scientific Committee Expert for the 2019 edition of the International Junior Science Olympiad held in Doha, Qatar and was the Scientific Convenor at the 2013 edition held in Pune, India.

Narinder Mehra is Vice President (international affairs) of the Indian National Science Academy, Hon Emeritus Scientist of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Former Dean and Founder Head Dept. of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Vastly experienced in Science policy, he is founder Secretary General of Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia Oceania; councillor, International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and of International Histocompatibility association. Major honors include India’s highest S.S. Bhatnagar award, Ranbaxy Science foundation award, Chevalier of the National Order of Merit (France), Iran's highest Khwarizmi international award, B.R. Ambedkar award for excellence in Research (ICMR), Member Honoris Causa of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hon Foreign Associate, Academy of Science in South Africa (ASSAf), Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS), Fellow International Science Council (FISC), Indian Academy of Sciences (FNASc), Indian National Science Academy (FNA) and National Academy of Medical Sciences (FAMS). He holds Hon Fellowship of Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of UK.

Mohan is Chairman of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and President of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, India. He obtained PhD in 1987 and DSc in 1997. He has over 1530 publications including 986 original research articles in peer reviewed journals, 367 review articles and 186 chapters in text books. His work has a h-index of 145 and has over 174,000 citations. He has received Fellowships from all the four Royal College of Physicians of UK and Ireland, American College of Endocrinology and the American College of Physicians. He has received 200 awards including the prestigious Dr. B.C. Roy Award by the Medical Council of India and the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centenary Award from the Indian Council of Medical Research. In 2012 he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards given by the Govt. of India. He was conferred Hon. Doctorate from Deakin University of Melbourne in 2017. He has been conferred with the prestigious Harold Rifkin Distinguished International Service in the Cause of Diabetes Award by the American Diabetes Association in 2018 for his pioneering work in the field of diabetes and he is the first Indian to receive this award. He

Professor and Head of the Institute of Pharmacology and Molecular Biology at the Federal University of São Paulo. Obtained her PhD at Unifesp and post-doctoral training as a Fogarty fellow at the Univ. of Southern California. Since 1985, she is a 1A research fellow of the National Research Council for the Scientific and Technological Development. Her research field is molecular and cell biology of glycoconjugates. At Unifesp, she was the first woman to become Pro-Rector of Undergraduate and Pro-Rector of Research and Graduate programmes. She is a member of several national science and education councils and has received several national and international awards and honours. She is president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS), co-chair of the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences and Governing Board member of the International Science Council. She is member of the BAS, The World Academy of Sciences, and the Latin America Academy of Sciencies. Former president of the Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2007-2008), honorary president, vice-president (2007-2011) and president (2011-2017) of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Sciences

Phan is professor at the International University, Vietnam National University of Hochiminh City (HCMIU) and vice president of the Vietnam Mathematical Society. He obtained his PhD in 1978 and DSc in 1988 at the Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences. He was the founder-president of HCMIU. He is also professor-head of Department of Optimization and System Theory at the University of Science of Hochiminh City, adjunct professor at the University of Ballarat, Australia, vice president of the Mathematical Council of the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development, member of the Scientific Council of the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM) and the National Council for Mathematics Professorship. He is an associate editor of a number of international mathematical journals.

Phu is professor at the Institute of Mathematics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. He obtained his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1983 and Habilitation (Dr. sc. nat.) in 1987 at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He was awarded as Werner Romberg Distinguished Guest Professor of the Heidelberg Graduate School of Mathematical and Computational Methods for the Sciences, University of Heidelberg, Germany in 2008. He is Corresponding Member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 2004 and Corresponding Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 2010.

Ruffolo is a professor at Mahidol U. He obtained his PhD in 1991 at U Chicago, USA. He developed a classic transport equation for solar energetic particles and precision modeling of their observed distribution in space. He created new theories of turbulent transport of cosmic rays, including an explanation of solar particle dropouts in terms of solar wind turbulence and topological trapping, and explanations of switchbacks and in situ turbulence generation in the solar wind. He led the establishment of a neutron monitor in Thailand, which detects galactic cosmic rays at the world's highest geomagnetic cutoff energy. He has twice served as a rapporteur of the International Cosmic Ray Conference. He was awarded the Golden Eagle Award from the American Academy of Achievement; 2017 Outstanding Scientist Award of Thailand; 2022 Outstanding Researcher Award of Thailand; and in 2025, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

Sukumar (PhD, 1985) is professor of ecology, Indian Institute of Science. His work originally focused on the behaviour and conservation biology of elephants, expanding later to tropical forest ecology and climate change. Sukumar is Fellow of: Indian Acad. of Sciences; Indian Natl. Science Academy; Natl. Acad. Sci. India. He has held visiting positions at Princeton Univ., Columbia Univ. and Kyoto Univ. He has contributed extensively to Indian government policy on nature conservation, and has been a member of the Indian Board for Wildlife and the Project Elephant Steering Committee. He was Chair, IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group (1997-2004). He is the author of four books and over 200 scientific papers, and the recipient of several awards, including: Presidential Award, Chicago Zoological Soc. (1992); Order of the Golden Ark (1997); Whitley Gold Award for Internatl. Nature Conservation (2003); Internatl. Cosmos Prize (2006); JC Bose Natl. Fellowship (2011). He contributed to the work of the Intergov. Panel on Climate Change that shared the Nobel Peace Prize (2007).

Tian is prof. at East China U. of Science and Tech., Shanghai. In 1999, he was appointed Cheung Kong Dist. Prof. by the Education Ministry of China. His current research interests include the syntheses of novel functional organic dyes for solar cells and chemosensors as well as development of interdisciplinary materials science that determines the electronic and optical properties of materials. Tian has already published over 500 papers in international journals and applied 90 Chinese patents. ISI Web of Science shows that his publications have been cited over 50,000 times (data by Nov. 28, 2022) and his h-index = 118 (data by Nov. 28, 2022). Now Tian is associate Editor of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces and Science China Chemistry as well as Intl. Advisory Board Member for Chemical Science, Advanced Optical Materials and Chem. Asia J. etc. He was selected as a member of the Chinese Acad. of Science (2011) and a Fellow of TWAS (2013). Prof. Tian serves as Vice-President of Chinese Chemical Society since 2019.

Ibrokhim Y. Abdurakhmonov received his BS in Biotechnology from the National University, Uzbekistan (1997), an MS in Plant Breeding from Texas A&M University (2001), a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics (2002), a DSc (2009), and a full professor (2011) from the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. He founded the Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics of Uzbekistan in 2012. He was elected as a fellow (2014) of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and a member (2017) of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. He served as Uzbekistan's Minister of Innovative Development and Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Innovations from 2017 to 2023. In 2023, he was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He received the 2010 TWAS Prize and 2013 ICAC Cotton Researcher of the Year award. He was honored as the 2022 Ambassador of Silk Road Friendship. He received the 2023 UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize in the Life Sciences. He received the 8th VCANBIO Award for Biosciences and Medicine in 2023. He was elected as a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2025. In 2026, he was named the World Food Prize Foundation's Top Agri-food-Pioneer.

Al-Sulaiman (PhD, 1999, UK) is professor, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), College of Engineering, Oman. She is a chemical Engineer experienced in environmental engineering, with an emphasis on environmental protection. She has received several awards and recognitions, the latest of which were Khalifa Award for Higher Education (2013), the WSO Education Award (2011), First Prize of the Saudi Arabia Environmental Management Award (2008), Distinguished Teaching Excellence Award from SQU (2007), Environmental Advocacy Award from the Arab Towns Organization (2007), Distinguished Researcher Award from SQU (2005). She has published many books/chapters in books, and more than 120 referred international journal articles. She has served as the Editor of many Special Issues. Also, she has been invited to be a member of editorial boards of many international environmental and engineering journals.

C.Siva Ram Murthy earned his B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from REC (now NIT) Warangal in 1982, M.Tech. degree in Computer Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur in 1984 and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from IISc, Bangalore in 1988. From September 1988 to June 2025 he served on the faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Madras. He has held the INAE Chair Professorship (2012-'14), Prof. Richard M. Karp Institute Chair Professorship (2016-'25) and also short-term visiting appointments at several European and North American universities. He is currently with IIT Hyderabad as an Honorary Professor of Computer Science. He has authored many textbooks, and published research papers over 200 in peer-reviewed international journals and over 190 in refereed international conference proceedings. He is a recipient of Best Ph.D. Thesis Award from IISc, INSA Medal for Young Scientists, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, IBM (USA) Real-Time Innovation Award, Erasmus Mundus Faculty Research Fellowship, Sir JC Bose Fellowship (2016-'26) and several Best Paper Awards. He is an elected Fellow of IEEE, USA; TWAS, Italy; INSA, India; NASI, India and INAE, India.

Cheng (PhD, 1992, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR CAS)) is professor and director of Advanced Carbon Division, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science,IMR CAS; Chair professor and honorary dean of Faculty of Materials Science and Energy Eng., Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, CAS. His prizes include the 2nd Class National Prize for Natural Science, China; Charles E. Pettinos Award, American Carbon Society; the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation; Felcht Award, SGL Group, Germany; ACS Nano Lecture Award, American Chemical Society. His research activities focus on carbon nanotubes, graphene, 2D materials, energy storage materials, photocatalytic materials, and bulk carbon materials. He is recognized as one of the Highly Cited Researchers in both materials science and chemistry fields. He is a member of CAS and honorary professor of several universities. He is now the founding Editor-in-Chief of Energy Storage Materials and an Associate Editor of Science China Materials, and was Editor of Carbon and Editor-in-Chief of New Carbon Materials.

Grossi de Sa (PhD, 1987, U. Paris VII) is the head of the Plant-Pest Molecular Interaction Group, EMBRAPA Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (1989-) and professor, Catholic U. of Brasília (2004-). She was president, Brazilian Soc. of Biotechnology; coordinator, Area of Biotechnology (2008-13) and member, CTC-ES, CAPES, Brazil (2008-14). Currently, she is member, Internatl. Advisory Committee, CAPES, and full member, Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. She is a recipient of the Scopus Award 2010 (Elsevier/Capes). Her research emphasizes on plant biotechnology, acting on themes, which include plant defense proteins (proteinase inhibitors, alpha-amylase inhibitors, lectins, defensins, osmotins), insecticidal proteins, plant-pests molecular interaction, development of GM plants for tolerance/resistance to biotic stress and abiotic stress and development of biopharmaceuticals.