Professor of Physics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) since 2002, Jorio de Vasconcelos earned his doctoral degree in physics from the same institution in 1999, working with phase transitions in incommensurate systems. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA (2000–2001), where he worked with the optical properties of nanomaterials, focusing on Raman spectroscopy and optical properties of carbon nanomaterials. Back to Brazil, he founded the Laboratory of NanoSpectroscopy (LabNS) at UFMG in 2006, where he works with research and development of scientific instrumentation in optics for the study of nanostructures with applications in new materials and biomedicine. He held the positions of Coordinator of Strategic Studies and Information at Inmetro (2008–2009) and Director of Technological Transfer and Innovation (2010–2012), head of the Physics Depart, and Dean of Research (2016–2018) at UFMG. He was a Visiting Professor at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich, Switzerland, 2013) and at the Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany (2016).

Dezotti (DSc, 1992, University of Campinas, Brazil) is Professor at COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She received more than 30 awards, among which the COPPE Giulio Massarani Award - Academic Merit by COPPE/UFRJ (2010), in recognition of her scientific production of the highest level. She was awarded four times as Scientist of Our State from the Amparo Research Foundation of State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Brazil. For the consolidation of the national research in Advanced Oxidation Processes (POAs), she received a tribute of the VIII Meeting on Oxidative Processes and II Iberoamerican Conference on POA (2015). She coordinated numerous projects with industries. She has published three books that are adopted as a reference in Brazilian universities. She has published in the best international journals, had outstanding performance in the training of MSc and DSc students and is one of the most cited researchers in Brazil, in the area of chemical engineering. Additionally, she is Founding Member of the COPPE Women Support Group. She was elected Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2020 in recognition of her scientific production and its impact in Brazil.

Goulart graduated as a pharmacist at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, where she then got her PhD in Science (1983). She did postdoctoral studies in London, Münster, and Paris. She was a Visiting Professor at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Chimie, Paris (2004–2005, 2007, 2008). She is now a Full Professor at the Federal University of Alagoas, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology (UFAL); a researcher 1B at Brazilian Research Council (CNPq); and full member of the Brazilian Academy of Science (ABC), since 2015. She has published 210 articles, nine patents, 12 book chapters. She received several awards: Young Scientist Award by CNPq (1985); Foreign Young Chemist Award (1997) at International Symposium-Electroorganic Synthesis ’97, Japan; National Award Marie Curie - Distinguished Women on Chemistry by the Brazilian Society of Chemistry (SBQ) (2011); Jabuti Award (2012); Award Roberto Alves de Lima, by UFAL (2018); Prêmio Inovadores by Inova, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (2020); and Brazilian Women in Science, Scientific Leadership by SBQ/American Chemical Society (2021). She supervised 31 MSc, 40 PhD students and 10 postdoctoral fellows.