Ramamurty is a Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. He obtained B.E. (Andhra, Metallurgy, 1989), M.E. (IISc, Metallurgy, 1991), and Ph.D. (Brown, Engineering, 1994) degrees and gained post-doctoral research experience at UCSB and MIT. Before joining IISc's faculty in October 2000, he worked as an Assistant Professor for three years at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is a recipient of the Scopus Young Scientist Award, Swarnajayanthi and JC Bose National Fellowships of the Govt. of India, National Metallurgist Day, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, and TWAS Prizes. He is an elected fellow of national academies of engineering and sciences of India. He is an Editor for Acta Materialia and Scripta Materialia journals.

Khanduja obtained her BA, MA and Ph.D. degree from Panjab University, Chandigarh and thereafter taught in that university for more than 35 years. In April 2011, she joined Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali and at present is INSA senior scientist in this institute. She is fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences Allahabad and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) New Delhi. In 2015, she was awarded Professor V.V. Narlikar memorial lecture award of INSA. As a teacher in Panjab University and IISER Mohali, she took part in various programs promoting the cause of mathematics and she was coordinator of NBHM (National Board for Higher Mathematics) Ph.D. and M.Sc. scholarship tests from 2003 to 2010.

Vinod Singh is a Professor of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur. His research work falls in the area of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, more specifically, asymmetric synthesis. He has developed several new chiral ligands/catalysts for enantioselective reactions. Singh’s work has been recognized with several awards and honors such as Padma Shri (2014), Distinguished Alumnus Award by BHU (2012), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize (2004), and Swarnajayanti Fellowship Award (1998), among others. He is Fellow of all the science academies of the country. He is an Editor of an Elsevier journal - Tetrahedron Lett. He is a Member, Editorial Advisory Board of Org. Lett. and J. Org. Chem. As a Founding Director of IISER Bhopal for more than 10 years (2008-2018), Professor Singh set up the whole campus in 200 acres land from scratch. He has served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of SPA Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal. He also held the additional charge of Directorship of MANIT Bhopal and the Mentor Director of IIIT Bhopal. He had been a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC to PM) during 2009-2014.

Prof. Rajeev Varshney is an agricultural research scientist specializing in genomics and molecular breeding with 20+ years of service in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. He is serving Murdoch University as a Director, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation; Director, State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre: and International Chair in Agriculture & Food Security with the Food Futures Institute. Prior to joining Murdoch University, Prof Varshney served International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for about 16 years in various science and leadership roles and Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics & Crops Plant Research, Germany for 5 years as a Research Scientist. Prof. Varshney is a globally recognized leader for his work on genome sequencing, cataloguing and utilizing genetic diversity, genomics-assisted breeding and capacity building in developing countries. He has made centrally important contributions towards improving food and nutrition security in India and several countries in Africa & Asia by assembling genomes, developing genomic resources and integrating genomic technologies in crop improvement programs in many tropical crops.

Rentala (PhD 1984, University of Hyderabad, India) is a professor at the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. In JNU, she was Former Director, Human Resource Development Centre, Director Advanced Instrumentations Research facility and Dean School of Life Sciences. Member of all three Indian science academies, she has received the Hari Om Trust JC Bose award, the young scientist award from IUB, the Career Research Initiative Award from Wellcome Trust UK. She received Biotechnology Career Fellowship from Rockefeller foundation, USA. She received American Society of Microbiology, International Professorship. She has been an invited speaker in many national and international meetings, and has received the President of India, Visitor Group Award 2016, and the 2016 senior women Bioscientist Award, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (DBT).