Qadri (PhD 1980, Liverpool) is Senior Scientist, Intl. Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Res., Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). Her work on infectious diseases and vaccines is carried out in collaboration with intl. and natl. organizations. She began her career (1981) as Asst. Prof., Dept. of Biochem., U. of Dhaka. She joined ICDDR,B in 1986 as a Post-doctoral Fellow and has remained there. She is overseeing a large feasibility study for introducing cholera vaccine in high risk people in the country. She has published +334 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her honours include: Gold medal from the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences for outstanding research in Biological Sciences for 2006. Prof. C.N.R. Rao Prize for Sci. Res., TWAS; Hon. Intl. Fellow, ASTMH; Ambassador, Am. Soc. for Microbiology (ASM) for Bangladesh; Christophe and Rodolphe Mérieux Found. Grand Prize, French Acad. of Sci.; Fellow, Bangladesh Acad. of Sci.; Member of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Tech. Bank for the LDCs.

Ramasesha is a professor in the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He obtained his PhD in 1977 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He was post-doctoral research associate at the Universities of Oxford and Princeton. He has been awarded the BM Birla science prize and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize in chemistry. He is a J.C. Bose National fellow and fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. His area of research is modeling electronic and magnetic and nonlinear optic phenomena in molecular materials and low dimensional extended systems. He has developed exact diagonalization methods to study molecular magnets, extended the density matrix renormalization group methods to study static and dynamic properties of electron states in conjugated polymers and spin chains.

Tuteja (PhD 1982, DSc 2008, U. of Lucknow, India) is Prof. and dir., Amity Inst. of Microbial Tech., Amity U. (India). He has made significant contributions in crop improvement under adverse conditions using genetical and microbial approach, developing marker-free transgenic crops with stress tolerance. He was group leader and sen. scientist, Intl. Centre for Genetic Engg. and Biotech. (ICGEB), New Delhi, India; postdoc fellow, UCLA and NIH, USA. He is a fellow of FNASc., FNA, FASc., FNESA and FNAAS. His honours include: Genomic Pioneer Award; Best Scientist Award, Natl. Envl. Science Acad.; Vigyan Gaurav Samman Award, Council of Science and Tech. UP; and the Goyal Prize Award, Kurukshetra U.. He is editorial board member of Arch. Biochem. Biophys, Plant Physiol. Biochem., Plant Signaling and Behavior and The Open Plant Science J.. He has published +300 papers and edited 9 books.

Wang (PhD 1986, Inst. of Systems Sci., CAS) is a Changjiang Chair prof., Acad. of Math. and Systems Sci., Chinese Acad. of Sci. (CAS) in Beijing, chief economist and founding director of the Center for Forecasting Sci., CAS, and Dean of School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is/was president of Intl. Soc. of Knowledge and Systems Sci., and pres. of China Soc. of Systems Eng., a vice pres. of the Chinese Acad. of Mgt. and an advisor of several ministries of China. His honours include research fellow, Dutch Royal Acad. of Sciences, 1987-88; Croucher Foundation fellow, Hong Kong, 1993; China Sci and Tech Prize for Young Scientists, 1994; Japan Sci. Promotion Soc. fellow, 1994; foreign prof. of Tsukuba U. Japan, 2000-01, 2003-04; Fudan Prize of Mgt., 2008; Chairmanship Award of Intl. Soc. of Multiple Criteria Decision Making, 2009; Academician, Intl. Acad. of Systems and Cybernetics Sci., Wien, 2010 and Scott Award, Moskow,2014.

Zanotto holds a PhD in Glass Technology from Sheffield University, UK (1982). He is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering and director of the Center for Research, Technology and Education in Glass at UFSCar. He is interested in fundamental studies of glass crystallization and development of glass-ceramics with improved functionalities. He has published about 400 original and review papers, 30 book chapters, 2 books and deposited 29 patents. He is an editor of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, and board member of nine other scientific journals. He is a member of the World Academy of Ceramics, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the SGT (UK), American Ceramic Society, Brazilian Ceramic Society, and TWAS. He has received over 50 awards, including the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, Grã-Cruz, A^3 Prize, TWAS Engineering Prize, and six important glass research awards: Zachariasen Award 1990, Gottardi Prize 1993, George W. Morey Award 2012, A. Cooper Lecture, Turner Lecture and S. Schooles Lecture. Zanotto is in the Council of seven research institutions.

Zheng is professor of geochemistry, U. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, and director, Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He graduated in 1982 from Nanjing U., China, obtained Dr. rer. nat. in 1991 from U. of Göttingen, Germany, and did postdoctoral research during 1991-1993 in U. of Tübingen, Germany. He is specialized in isotope geochemistry and geochronology, with focus on chemical geodynamics and fluid regime of subduction zones. He won the National Natural Science Award of China in 2004, and was elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America in 2005, Member of CAS in 2009, and Fellow of the Geochemical Society in 2017. He is Chief Editor of 'Science China: Earth Sciences', Associate Editor for 'Geochemical Journal', and editorial board member for 'Chemical Geology' and 'Lithos'.

Agrawal is Professor in Computer Science department at IIT Kanpur. He obtained his PhD in 1991 from the same department, spent a few years in Chennai Mathematical Institute before joining IIT Kanpur in 1996. His awards include Clay Prize, Godel Prize, Fulkerson Prize, Bhatnagar Prize, TWAS Prize, ICTP Prize, Infosys Prize, and Humboldt Award. He is a member of all three science academies and engineering academy in India as well as Foreign Associate of US National Academy of Sciences.

Banerjee is Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. He obtained his BE in 1981 from the Bengal Engineering College (Calcutta University), the M.Tech. in 1983 from the IIT Delhi, and PhD in 1988 from the IIT Delhi. He was in the faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur from 1986 to 2009. His recognition includes the SS Bhatnagar Prize, the Citation Laureate award of Thomson Reuters, and Fellowships of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Sciences India, and the IEEE.

Bhattacharya is professor, Dept. of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. He received his PhD at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, in bioorganic chemistry, focusing on kinetic differentiation of bilayer surfaces in synthetic functional vesicles. He then worked as NIH postdoctoral fellow at MIT, in the laboratory of Nobel laureate H. Gobind Khorana, focusing on the biology and chemistry of signal transduction involving membrane proteins. He subsequently moved to IISc Bangalore where he ultimately became full professor. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Sciences (INSA) and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He has won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemical Sciences from the Prime Minister of India, the TWAS Prize in Chemical Sciences in 2010, AV Rama Rao Endowment Lecture 2010, a J C Bose fellowship and the GD Birla Award.

Borkar is Institute Chair Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (IIT, Bombay). He obtained a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley (1980). He has held positions at TIFR Centre, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences of India, Indian National Academy of Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the American Mathematical Society. He has received the S.S. Bhatnagar Award, Homi Bhabha and J. C. Bose Fellowships, P.C. Mahalanobis Medal and TWAS Award in Engineering, and has been an invited speaker to the International Congress of Mathematicians, Madrid, 2006.

B.Sc., Mech.& Nuclear Eng., Federal Univ. of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Brazil, 1981, PhD, Mech.&Aerospace Eng., North Carolina State Univ., USA, 1985. Assoc. Professor, UFRJ, 1987, Professor, 1994. Author, 570 papers, 10 books, Supervisor, 49 MSc, 38 PhD, 17 PosDoc. 15 Editorial Boards incl. Int. J. Heat & Mass Transfer. Editor, Annals Braz. Academy of Sciences. President, Braz. Assoc. Mechanical Sciences, ABCM, 2000-2001, Scientific Council, Int. Centre for Heat & Mass Transfer, ICHMT, from 1993, Exec. Comm., from 2006, EC Chairman 2017-2018. Congress Comm., Int. Union of Theor. & Applied Mech., IUTAM, 2012-2018. Exec. Comm., Braz. Academy of Sciences, 2012-2015. ICHMT Hartnett-Irvine Award, 2009 & 2015. ICHMT Fellowship Award, 2019. Nat. Order of Scientific Merit, 2009 & 2018 (Grã-Cruz), Nat. Order of Naval Merit, 2018. Member, Braz. Acad. of Sciences, 2009, Nat. Eng. Acad., 2011, The World Acad. of Sciences, TWAS, 2012. Doctor Honoris Causa, Univ. de Reims, France, 2018. President, Nat. Comm. of Nuclear Energy, CNEN, 2015-2017. Leverhulme Visiting Prof,Univ. College London, UK. Senior Tech. Counselor, DGDNTM, Braz. Navy, from 2017. Member National Council of Energy Policy, 2020-2022

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.

GUO Huadong is a Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, an Academician of CAS, a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, and a Fellow of TWAS. He presently serves as President of the International Society for Digital Earth, Director of the International Center on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage under the Auspices of UNESCO, Chairman of the International Committee on Remote Sensing of Environment, and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Digital Earth and Big Earth Data. He served as President of ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology. He has over 30 years of experience in Earth observation, specializing in radar remote sensing and Digital Earth science. He has been Principle Investigator for over 30 major national projects in China, and Principle Investigator for 7 international radar remote sensing projects. Prof. Guo has published more than 600 papers and sixteen books, and is the principal awardee of sixteen domestic and international prizes.

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.

Jiang is prof., Technical Inst. of Phys. and Chem., Chinese Acad. of Sciences, Beijing, China. He received his PhD from Jilin U. of China in 1994. He worked as postdoct. fellow at Tokyo U. in Akira Fujishima's group. In 1996, he became researcher, Kanagawa Acad. of Sci. and Techn., on Hashimoto's project. In 1999, he joined ICCAS under the auspices of the 'Hundred Talents Programme'. In 2009 he was elected Academician, Chin. Acad. of Sciences. He has won the Excellent Youth Prize twice, the 2011 Zhuliyuehua Award for Outstanding Teacher, the 2011 TWAS Prize in Chemistry, and the 2014 MRS Mid-Career Researcher Award. He has published two books, three book chapters and +400 SCI journal articles, have been racked up more than 32000 citations. His H factor is 83. He is member of the edit. boards of Advanced Functional Materials, Small, NPG Asia Materials, Biomicrofluidics, and Nano Research.

Jin is Chair Professor and Director of Key Laboratory for Information Science of Electromagnetic Waves (MoE),Fudan University, Shanghai,China. He graduated from Peking University in 1970, and received the M.S., E.E., and Ph.D. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1982, 1983 and 1985, respectively. All degrees were from Electrical Engineering. He was the Principle Scientist of China State Major Basic Research Projects. Dr. Jin is Academisian of Chinese Academy of Sciences, IAA Fellow, IEEE Life Fellow, EMA Fellow, and Member of IEEE GRSS Major Awards Committee. He was the Chair of IEEE Fellow Evaluation (GRSS), member of IEEE GRSS AdCom, and IEEE GRSS Distinguished Speaker. He received IEEE GRSS Distinguished Achievement Award (2015), IEEE GRSS Education Award (2010), China Science Prizes (2011,1993), the 1-st grade Science Prizes of MOE (1992, 1996, 2009), the 1st grade Guang-Hua Prize (1993) among many others.

Kahwa is a Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, where he served as Professor of Suporamolecular Chemistry, Deputy Principal, Dean (Faculty of Science and Technical Technology) and UWI-wide Dean for Science and Technology. He was also Head of the Department of Chemistry. Education: BSc (Chemistry, Mathematics and Education), 1976 and MSc (Inorganic Chemistry), 1980 - University of Dar es Dar Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania; PhD (Inorganic Chemistry), 1986, Louisiana State University, USA as Fulbright Scholar. Positions held at UDSM: Lecturer and Senior Lecturer. Membership: Fellow Caribbean Academy of Sciences, American Chemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry. Awards: CARICOM (Science), Gleaner (Science and Technology), and UWI Vice Chancellor (Excellence in Research and Public Service) and Order of Distinction (Commander Class) - CD (Government of Jamaica). He is the Co-author of the five-yearly UNESCO Science Report (CARICOM Chapter) since 2005 and has played key roles in development of Jamaica's Science, Technology and Innovation Policy.

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.

Magdy Madkour (PhD University of Wales 1977, UK) is Prof of biotechnology, Arid Lands Agricultural Research Inst., Ain Shams University, Egypt, and Editor in Chief, Journal of Agriculture and Food Security, BioMed Central. He was the Chairman, Executive Committee, Agriculture Research for Development Fund (ARDF), Min. of Agric and Land Reclamation, Egypt; Senior Advisor, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Deputy Director General,ICARDA. Madkour was Prof of Plant pathology, Alexandria University. He served on the Technical Advisory Committee of CGIAR, the Board of Trustees of ICARDA and IPGRI (Bioversity). In 1990 he established the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI-Egypt). In 2007 he received Egypt’s Presidential Gold Medal for Science & Technology, three AOAD awards for scientific excellence; FAO World Food Day recognition; TWAS Arab Regional Prize. He holds three patents, authored 140 peer reviewed publications and contributed with chapters in 9 international books.

Chitra (PhD 1978, Indian Inst. of Sci., Bangalore) is Sir J.C. Bose National Fellow. She is an elected fellow of The Indian Natl. Science Acad. (New Delhi), Indian Acad. of Sciences (Bangalore), The Natl. Acad. of Sciences (Allhabad), Natl. Acad. of Medical Sciences and West Bengal Acad. of Science and Technology. Her autobiography was published in the book 'Lilavati’s Daughters: Women Scientists of India' by the Indian Acad. of Sciences. Her awards include: Natl. Woman Bioscientist; Prof. S.S.Katiyar Endowment Lecture; Dr. Yellapragada SubbaRow Memorial; Senior Scientist Oration; BioTech Product and Process Development and Commercialization; Kshanika Oration; Smt Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Industrial Research; and The PB Rama Rao Memorial.

Prof. Osumi graduated Tokyo Medical and Dental University, was given PhD thesis from the same university, and now is a professor of Tohoku University School of Medicine since 1998. She was one of the 25 Distinguished Professors in Tohoku University from 2008 to 2011, and has become Vice President of Tohoku University as well as Director of Tohoku University Libraries from 2018. Her research background is developmental biology, and she has interest in brain development, evolution, and disease. More recently, she has much interest in gendered research focusing on sex differences in the brain. She was a representative of CREST project (2005-2010) supported by JST, and Global COE project (2007-2012) as well as Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (16H06524) “Integrative Research toward Elucidation of Generation of Brain Systems for Individuality”. Currently, As the Director of Gender Equality Center at Tohoku University, Dr. Osumi is promoting the policy of diversity in academia, providing various information through the website and social media, and organizing various events networking female researchers.