TWAS elected 74 new Fellows today, the largest class of fellows in the history of TWAS. Among them are 50 men and 24 women (32.4% women), and 62 are from the global South.
Six new fellows hail from science- and technology-lagging countries (STLCs) identified by TWAS, three from Bangladesh, and one each from Madagascar, Nepal, and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The remaining 68 Fellows are from the Algeria (1), Brazil (10), Canada (1), China (10), Cuba (2), Egypt (2), Germany (2), Guyana (1), India (9), the Islamic Republic of Iran (1), Jordan (1), Malaysia (7), Morocco (3), Nigeria (1), Pakistan (3), the Philippines (1), Qatar (1), Saudi Arabia (1), South Africa (4), United Arab Emirates (1), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1), the United States of America (2), Uzbekistan (1), and Viet Nam (2).
Algeria, Bolivia, Guyana, Jordan, Madagascar, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are all countries that have been under-represented in TWAS membership.
The election of the new Fellows will be effective starting on 1 January 2025, bringing the total TWAS membership to 1,444.
The new Fellows in the various scientific subject divisions are:
- 01. Agriculture, Nutrition & Food Systems Sciences
- 02. Biological Sciences
- 03. Medical & Health Sciences
- 04. Chemical Sciences
- 05. Engineering Sciences
- 06. Quantum Information & Computational Sciences
- 07. Earth, Climate and Environmental Sciences
- 08. Mathematical Sciences
- 09. Physics, Astronomy & Space Sciences
- 10. Social & Economic Sciences
01. Agriculture, Nutrition & Food Systems Sciences
BANSAL, Kailash Chander (India), Male. Secretary, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India. The nominee identified, cloned, and functionally validated novel abiotic stress-related genes and promoters for the development of transgenic rice, chickpea, mustard, groundnut, tomato, cotton and sugarcane. He discovered the first ABA receptor gene OsPYL3 conferring drought and cold tolerance from monocot species, a rice landrace. He characterised entire Indian Genebank collections of wheat, chickpea, and identified novel stress resistant gene donors. Member of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and of the National Academy of Sciences, India, he has received the Rafi Ahmad Kidwai award of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the Recognition award and the Ramaiah award of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Haryana Vigyan Ratna—Highest State Science award—of the Government of Haryana.
DELLAGOSTIN, Odir Antonio (Brazil), Male. Full Professor, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil. The nominee is a renowned scientist with expertise in genetically engineered vaccine development, with a record of more than 240 scientific publications. He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Surrey, England. He currently holds the position of president of FAPERGS, the Foundation for Support of Research in Rio Grande do Sul, and is also the president of CONFAP, the National Council of State Foundations for Research Support. In addition, he holds council member positions at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation; Finep; and the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service, where he has played a significant leadership role in advocating for policies that promote scientific research, technological development, and innovation in Brazil. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he has received Honorable Mention - Moselio Schaechter Distinguished Service Award, and the Award for outstanding research achievement of FAPERGS.
HE, Zuhua (China), Male. Principal Investigatorand Goup Leader, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. High yield and disease resistance have been major targets of crop breeding. The nominee has long worked on novel knowledge, genes and molecular tools for developing crops with broad-spectrum disease resistance, and understanding the defense-growth trade-offs for integrating high yield. He has achieved great successes in establishing a cutting-edge research system focusing on a comprehensive disease resistance network in rice, and exploring the interplay between immunity and agronomic traits to balance disease resistance and yield. He has made substantial contributions to the field, with series of articles published in prestigious journals including Cell, Nature and Science. More importantly, the rice blast resistance gene Pigm by his group, has been widely used in breeding of new blast-resistant varieties that have been commercially cultivated for over 2,600,000 hectares, providing a paradigm of dissection and breeding application of disease resistance in crops. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the Second Prize of National Natural Science Award, China; the Second Prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress of China; and the National Outstanding Scientific and Technological Worker of China, among others.
JOSHI, Bal Krishna (Nepal), Male. Senior Scientist, National Gene Bank, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Nepal. The nominee has significantly contributed to conservation of agrobiodiversity of Nepal Himalaya through establishment of DNA bank, molecular lab, community and field genebank, crop specific diversity park; and developing agrobiodiversity policy. He has for the first time in Nepal successfully produced F1 seeds tartary buckwheat, and used leaf number method for estimating flowering days in rice. He has been serving as adjunct professor from August 2007 till date in Purbanchl University, Nepal. He has been awarded with other prestigious awards, such as: (i) Distinguished Scientist Award by Biotechnology Society of Nepal; (ii) Special Contributing Scientist Award by NARC; (iii) Technology Award by Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, among others.
SAMBANTHHAMURTHI, Ravigadevi (Malaysia), Female. Chair, Biological, Agricultural and Environmental Discipline, Academy of Sciences Malaysia, Malaysia. The nominee is the chairperson of the Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Discipline of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. She led the first team in the world to map and publish the oil palm genome sequence. This laid the foundation for the discovery of genes of economic and environmental importance. These include uncovering the SHELL gene, the most important determinant of oil yield in oil palm, the epigenetic factor KARMA responsible for clonal abnormality, and the VIRESCENS gene regulating fruit colour, an important indicator of ripeness and thus oil yield. These landmark discoveries resulted in three publications in Nature. Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Inventions and Innovations in Oil Palm at the Oils and Fats International Congress, Outstanding Malaysian Woman Scientist, in conjunction with International Women’s Day, and Rotary Gold Award for Excellence in Scientific Research, among others.
02. Biological Sciences
AHMAD, Mushtaq (Pakistan), Male. Chairman, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Pakistan. The nominee, a distinguished plant scientist, who earned his PhD in Plant Sciences from QAU in 2008. Currently serving as professor and chairman of the Department of Plant Sciences at QAU, he also directs the QAU Botanical Garden and Herbarium. Recognized globally, he holds an honorary position in China (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Uzbekistan. Awarded the highest civil award of Pakistan in 2023, he boasts 844 publications, 40 supervised PhDs, and numerous national and international accolades. With an h-index of 63, he has left an indelible mark on the scientific community, contributing significantly to plant systematics and biodiversity. Member of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, he has received several awards in Pakistan and abroad: Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Government of Pakistan; Honorary Adjunct Professorship at Neijiang Normal University, and Best Research Paper Award, Andijan State University, Uzbekistan.
AZIZ, Ramy Karam (Egypt), Male. Professor of Microbiology and immunology; Head, Microbiology and Immunology Research Program, Cairo University, Egypt. The nominee’s seminal work has addressed challenges of big data in biomedical research and microbiology, with emphasis on the role of the human microbiome in human health and pharmacology. He coined the terms “pharmacomicrobiomics” (2010) and “toxicomicrobiomics” (2018) to denote the systematic study of the impact of human microbiome variations on drugs and toxicants, respectively, and he continues to work on these areas through representative in vitro and in vivo studies. With then-undergraduate students, he established http://www.pharmaomicrobiomics.org, a pioneer database for drug-microbiome interactions, which he still maintains. As a member of the team, he and his colleagues established the RAST server, a pioneering platform for analyzing and de novo annotating sequenced microbial genomes. This tool revolutionized microbial genome annotation, leading to numerous discoveries and accumulating thousands of citations since 2007. He has received the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Arab Researchers Award in Medical and Health Sciences, Makram Mehanny Award for Scientific Innovation in Life Sciences, and the COMSTECH Award in Biology, TWAS Young Affiliate, TWAS Regional (Arab region) Award for Development of Scientific Educational Material, and Young Arab Scientist Prize in Biodiversity, Conservation and Informatics from the TWAS Arab Regional Partner, among others.
CARLINI, Celia Regina (Brazil), Female. Full Professor, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) Brazil. The nominee has pioneered the studies on the non-enzymatic properties of ureases, such as neurotoxicity and pro-inflammatory action, which are relevant to their roles as virulence factor of pathogenic microorganisms and as defense proteins in plants. Member of Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Society of Microbiology, International Society on Toxinology, Brazilian Academy of Sciences (elected 2008). Since 2005, she has been a Research Productivity Fellow 1A (top level) of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Member of the Advisory Committee, Biological Sciences section, Foundation for Support of Research in Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS) (2006–2008); Technical Committee of Macroprograms 2 from Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) (2007–2009). Elected for the Advisory Committee in Biochemistry, Biophysics, Pharmacology, Physiology and Neurosciences, CNPq (2007–2009; 2022–2024).
CHAKRAVORTTY, Dipshikha (India), Female. Professor, Indian Institute of Science, India. The nominee joined the Institute in February 2004 and initiated very challenging work on understanding the host-pathogen mechanisms. The strains developed by her have been used by both national and international researchers. Her timely study gave rise to a potent vaccine candidate against both Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella typhi. Applications for Indian and USA patents have been submitted for this potent vaccine with long-term memory against Salmonella typhi and typhimurium. Further, the nominee developed a novel one-tube PCR assay for specific detection of Salmonella typhi. This technique is excellent as within an hour, the patient will get the information on whether the infection is with S. typhi or paratyphi (Nagarajan et al., Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2009). Her innovative thinking led their group to think about how vacuolar bacteria reside in the cell. She along with her group demonstrated for the first time that Salmonella resides in a single vacuole. Member of the three Indian science academies, she has received the Prof P. A. Kurup Endowment, Yogmaya Devi Award, TATA Innovation fellowship, and the Prof. S.K. Chatterjee Award, among others.
DAJANI, Rana Basem (Jordan), Female. Professor, The Hashemite University, Jordan. The nominee is professor of molecular biology, a social entrepreneur and a global thought leader. She is the world expert on Circassians and Chechans, two genetically isolated populations, discovering a new genetic risk factor for diabetes that contributed to the understanding of human evolution, disease and migration, enriching the human genome databases. She is also the leader in studying impact of trauma on biology and epigenetics among Syrian refugees across generations. Dajani has changed how research partnerships are formed to do better science that is based on trust, equity and respect across multiple stakeholders. Dajani was awarded the Women in Science Hall of Fame by the US embassy in Jordan, the Achievement and Service award by Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and Star of Science by His majesty King Abdullah II. She is president of the Society for Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World, president of the Jordan chapter for Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, and a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
GOODMAN, Steven Michael (Madagascar), Male. MacArthur Field Biologist, Field Museum, Chicago, the United States of America; Scientific Advisor, Association Vahatra, Antananarivo, Madagascar. The nominee has widely published in scientific journals, books, chapters in books, and edited a considerable number of books and monographs. As of May 2024, he has published 760 works, with numerous others in press and submitted. According to Research Gate his Research Interest Score is 12,074, citations 17,126, and h-index is 61. He maintains an active research program focussed on a range of topics, including mammal and bird ecology, biogeography, different aspects of their natural history, and zoonotic diseases. In most cases this work is conducted in collaboration with Malagasy colleagues and students. He is also active securing funds for students and colleagues in Madagascar, including Association Vahatra—of which he is also founding member—and for different research and conservation projects. He is among the most renowned and respected biologists researchers in Madagascar. Recipient of numerous grants coming to about 5.5 million USD. In 2019, both Goodman and Ratsimbazafy received the 2019 Lifetime Award from the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. He is the recipient of different international awards: Biodiversity Leadership Award from Bay and Paul Foundation, Conservation Leadership Award from WWF, MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Humboldt Foundation Fellowship, among others. Professor Honoris Causa, University of Antananarivo, where he is professor in the Faculty of Science and served on the committees of about 125 post-graduate students.
HOSSAIN, M. Anwar (Bangladesh), Male. Vice-Chancellor, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. The nominee’s research areas are notably on foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) and vaccine development. He has established a genomic sequence and seed bank of all circulating FMDVs in Bangladesh. He has developed inactivated and chimeric peptide vaccines for FMDV; he has worked on antibiotic resistant mechanisms; poultry diseases and route of transmission of pathogens; arsenic microbiomes and bioremediations; and mastitis microbiome including experimental cow-to-mouse model for mastitis. He has contributed in COVID-19 diagnoses and genomic characterization of circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus in Bangladesh. Member of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, he has received Ekushey Podok National Award, University Grants Commission Best Researcher Gold Medal, and Gold Medal 2018 by Bangladesh Academy of Science, among others.
NATHAN, Sheila (Malaysia), Female. Professor, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. The nominee initially trained in transcription-coupled DNA repair but switched to bacterial pathogenesis in 1995. Her research focuses on the tropical pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei and host defence mechanism against the infection. Major research collaborations with Stanford University, University of Sheffield and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have contributed to significant new knowledge on the bacterium’s virulence and failure of the host immune response. The research findings have led to more than 100 research papers, review articles, and book chapters, as well as review grant applications for funders from Malaysia, UK, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. She has successfully trained over 50 graduate students, many of whom are now leading their own research in local and international universities and industries. She is an editor for BMC Genomics and a regular reviewer for international journals in the field. She has been invited to national and international conferences to talk about her research on B. pseudomallei. Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, she has received the British Chevening Award and Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology President's Award, among others.
RAHMAN, Raja Noor Zaliha (Malaysia), Female. Professor, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. The nominee is an expert in microbial enzyme discovery with 27 patents granted worldwide and two licensed. Recognized for contributions to microbiology, a bacterium named after her: Geobacillus zalihae sp. nov. She's a notable figure in space research, having contributed immensely to the Malaysian Space Programme projects and collaborated with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in sending 24 protein samples to Kibō, the Japanese Experiment Module on the International Space Station. She's a member of the Malaysian Qualification Agency's programme evaluation panel and of the Asia Pacific Protein Association's council. She has received numerous academic awards, including the Malaysian Top Research Scientist (TRSM), Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, and Conferment of Knight Degree from the International Federation Invention Association (IFIA). She's listed among the world's top 2% scientists (career-long world top 2% scientist) and has a Scopus h-index of 46 with 6,785 citations.
SUN, Hang (China), Male. Principal Investigator, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. The nominee led the completion of five national major grants, answering some important theoretical issues on the origin, evolution and adaptation of flora in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). He persisted in field investigation, collected over 50,000 numbers and 200,000 specimens, had made outstanding contributions to the accumulation of botanical data. He led the collection and preservation of 5,381 species of wild germplasm on the QTP, organized the compilation of a series of biodiversity lists and other works, and made important fundamental contributions to biodiversity conservation. His publications total 452, of which 272 papers as first or corresponding authors (including equal contribution or co-corresponding and chief editor works), including Nature Communications, National Science Review and Current Biology etc. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received twice the first prize of Yunnan Province Natural Science awards, the second prize of the Natural Science Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the first prize as a young scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, among others.
TURDIKULOVA, Shahlo (Uzbekistan), Female. Director, Center for Advanced Technologies, Uzbekistan.The nominee is one of the first scientists to have mapped the genomes of the Uzbek population on the world map of the human genome and is well-known for her fight against COVID-19. As the leader of Uzbekistan's first PCR test-system development and production, she ensured the subsequent widespread implementation of testing (80% of total tests), significantly bolstering the country's pandemic control efforts. Her leadership in developing and launching the ZF-UzVac-2001 vaccine, alongside successful clinical trials involving 7,000 volunteers, marked a milestone in Uzbekistan's vaccination program (April 2021), covering up to 70% of the population. Additionally, her team's pioneering genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 strains has enhanced understanding of COVID-19 transmission dynamics in Uzbekistan. Member of the Academy of Science of the Republic of Uzbekistan, she received the TWAS prize for Young Scientists in Developing Countries awarded by the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, and holds 10 memberships in national and international scientific committees, awarded with the President’s Order for outstanding contribution to science and collaboration (Dustlik).
03. Medical & Health Sciences
AGRAWAL, Anurag (India), Male. Dean, Ashoka University, India. The nominee is a respiratory physician and scientist who has made seminal contributions during and before the COVID-19 pandemic. His notable work includes describing the Delta variant and chairing the risk-assessment advisory group at World Health Organization during emergence and further evolution of Omicron. As an experimental respiratory biologist, he elucidated the important role of mitochondrial dysfunction in asthma, developed novel mitochondria-targeted therapies, and discovered Miro-1 regulated mitochondrial donation by stem cells. As a physician, he showed that lower lung function in Indians is pathological in origin and promoted digital health systems to increase equity in health access. Member of the three Indian science academies and of the National Academy of Medicine Sciences, India, he has received the Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award (Medical Science), the National Bioscience Award, and the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize (Medical Sciences), among others.
ALI, Liaquat (Bangladesh), Male. Honorary Chief Scientist and Advisor, Pothikrit Institute of Health Studies, Bangladesh. The nominee has contributed to: (i) Exploration of Na transport mechanisms in rat pancreatic islets and B-cells (with major implications on human diabetes); (ii) Advancement of animal model-based experimental techniques to test efficacy and mechanism of action of antidiabetic natural products; (iii) Generation of a substantial volume of evidence on pathophysiology and risk factors of type 2 diabetes (insulin secretory defect vs. insulin resistance) and its complications among Bangalee population; (iv) Contribution to discovering the role of SPINK1 gene mutation in fibrocalculus diabetes (FCPD); (v) Generation of fairly large volume of Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) data on Bangladeshi carbohydrate-rich food items (having implications on health-friendly dietary advice); and (vi) Exploration of predictive markers of cardiovascular diseases and risk factors of cardiometabolic disorders. Member of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) and Islamic World Academy of Sciences, he has received the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine–Zandu International Award, for Excellence in Research Contribution to Ayurvedic and /or Natural Products, BAS Gold Medal (Senior Scientist group) in Biological, and the Gold Medal by the Indian Public Health Association, among others.
MORSHED, Muhammad Golam (Canada), Male. Clinical Instructor to Clinical Professor, University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. In his early career, he nominee worked in Teknaf, a remote area of southern Bangladesh where he ran a microbiology laboratory without electricity in challenging conditions, working with a kerosene operated egg hatching machine as an incubator and a pressure cooker as an autoclave. He isolated thousands of Shigella dysenteriae type 1 isolates and later found the first nalidixic resistant strains. He also developed a media for selective isolation of Shigella from mixed culture and named it Teknaf Enteric Agar (TEA). He is an internationally recognized scientist on spirochetal diseases. He did study Lyme disease and syphilis extensively in the field of clinical diagnosis, epidemiology and molecular characterization of pathogens. He first reported that ticks transmit Lyme disease causing spirochete via passerine birds from one place to other. Morshed served as an expert member nationally and internationally on Lyme disease and syphilis diagnostic guidelines. He obtained a total of over 10 Million dollars competitive as well as non-competitive grants from Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), Michael Smith Foundation, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control Foundation, Climate Change Action Fund, Genome BC etc. as principal investigator or Co-Investigator. He also published over 130 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals. Member of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, he has received the Distinguished Microbiologist Award by the Canadian College of Microbiologists and Excellence in Clinical Services award by the Department of Pathology and Laboratory of Medicine UBC, among others.
NAHEED, Aliya (Bangladesh), Female. Scientist, icddr,b, Bangladesh.The nominee’s fundamental contributions are pragmatic innovations for strengthening primary health care for communicable and non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. Earlier in career, she has played a pivotal role in developing large research infrastructures for conducting many epidemiological investigations for infectious diseases, along with testing of innovative solutions for common enteric and respiratory infections, food and water borne diseases, including diarrhea and other enteric diseases prevalent in young children in Bangladesh and other low- and middle-income countries. Her current research adopts innovative strategies for strengthening health care through transformative research involving digital health and data science to reduce morbidity and premature mortality in economically vulnerable communities from hypertension, diabetes, mental health, malnutrition and environmental risks across life course. Member of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS), she has received the BAS Sultan Ahmed Choudhury Science and Technology Gold Medal, the BMJ Award South Asia, and the Grand Challenge Canada's Stars in Global Health, among others.
NGUYEN, The Hoang (Viet Nam), Male. Vice-Director, Military Central Hospital, Hanoi, Viet Nam. The nominee is internationally well known for his outstanding research on the prefabrication of micro-vascular flaps for reconstructive surgery. For his earlier work on this topic he received the Johann Nepomuk von Nussbaum Award of the German Association for Plastic Surgery in 1999. He played a crucial role in the world’s first both arm transplantation in 2008. For this work he was awarded the Karl Max von Bauernfeind Medal of the Technical University of Munich in 2008 and the German APKO Prize of the German Plastic and Reconstructive Association in 2009. In 2012 he received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in research. In 2020 he carried out the first hand transplantation from a living donor by using a hand remnant from an unsalvageable arm amputation. A similar case is not reported in the world literature until now.
NTUSI, Ntobeko Ayanda Bubele (South Africa), Male. Chair and Head, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa. The nominee’s research contributions have advanced the understanding of the clinical features, outcomes and genetics of cardiomyopathy in Africa. He also provided key descriptions of the cardiovascular phenotype and pathophysiology of autoimmune forms of inflammatory heart disease, HIV-associated cardiovascular disease, and improved understanding of the mechanisms of myocardial fibrosis, infiltration and inflammation in different global clinical contexts. More recently, he led pioneering studies on biology and immunology of COVID-19 in South Africa and beyond. Member of the South African Academy of Sciences, he has received the South African Medical Research Council Gold Medal, the Walter Siegenthaler Medal and Memorial Lecture by the University of Zurich and University Hospital Zurich, and the University of Oxford Oppenheimer Fund Academic Exchange, among others.
OWOLABI, Mayowa Ojo (Nigeria), Male. Professor, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The nominee pioneered the discovery of genetic and environmental risk factors for stroke in Africa. He chaired the World Stroke Organization (WSO)-Lancet Commission on Stroke and developed pragmatic solutions for reducing the global burden of stroke. Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Science and African Academy of Science, he has received the Interacademy Medical Panel Award for Young Physician Leaders, AU-TWAS (African Union and The World Academy of Sciences) Young Scientist National Award, American Academy of Neurology Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Award, member/rapporteur World Health Organization Technical Action Group on non-communicable diseases (NCD), among others.
QIN, Chuan (China), Female. Professor and Chief Scientist, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), China. The nominee has engaged in laboratory animal science and comparative medicine research for nearly 40 years. She has developed new strains that possess stable genetic backgrounds, diversity, humanization, and comorbidity, which proposes solution to the clinical problems of human genetic diversity and disease complexity, established the first international repository with multiple species and strains—National Repository of Animal Models of Human Diseases of China—made animal models of five major outbreaks from SARS to COVID-19, initially evaluating the emergency therapeutics and vaccines, created a comprehensive standard system for experimental animal technology. All her efforts have provided and will be to provide strategic resources and technical support for addressing major diseases like COVID-19. Member of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, she has received the Second Prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award twice and the National Award for Excellence in Innovation.
SALDIVA, Paulo (Brazil), Male. Professor of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Brazil. The nominee contributed to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in various capacities: a) Improvement of weather forecasts and their translation into effects on human health between 1996 and 1999; b) as a member of the WMO task force to study the relationships between COVID-19, climate and pollution. For the World Health Organization he was: a) member of the panel that produced the two versions (2015 and 2021) of the global air pollution standards; b) member of Verbal Autopsy Reference Group (from 2022); c) member of the expert panel focusing the carcinogenic potential of air pollution of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (2014). For the InterAcademy Partnership he served as: a) member of the expert group that summarized the evidence and public policies to reduce pollution (UN in 2019); International Science Council: Scientific Committee of the Urban Health and Wellbeing programme (2019 to date). For the Brazilian Ministry of Health he was in charge of the minimally invasive autopsy training in different Brazilian regions (2022 up to present) ; and for the São Paulo’s State Research Foundation (FAPESP) he was the coordinator of the Public Policy Programme. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Science and National Academy of Medicine.
SOARES, Milena B. P. (Brazil), Female. Senior researcher, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil. The nominee was pioneer in development of innovative therapies, including new drugs and cell and gene therapeutic products, with applications in neglected and chronic diseases. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and Academy of Sciences of Bahia, she was president of the Brazilian Association for Cell and Gene Therapy and is vice-president elect for Central and South America of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy. She holds 1A Researcher Fellowship of the Brazilian National Research Council. She has received the Anisio Teixeira Award for young investigator, Bahia State Research Support Foundation (FAPESB) grant, and the Zerbini Award in Cardiology – first place.
ZÜHLKE, Liesl Johanna (South Africa), Female. Vice-President, South African Medical Research Council; Director, Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa. The nominee is the Director of the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit which focuses on African childhood-onset heart diseases. She is regarded as a research leader in Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD), internationally. She holds high-ranking positions in cardiology including president of the Pediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa, president of the South Africa Heart Association, and chair of Pediatric and RHD Taskforces in the Pan-African Society of Cardiology. Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, she has received international awards, including the prestigious African Research Leader grant by the UK Medical Research Council and Department for International Development, and the Metrodora Award.
04. Chemical Sciences
ABDUL RAHMAN, Mohd Basyaruddin (Malaysia), Male. Senior Professor and Dean, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia. The nominee is actively involved in the development of nanobiomaterials and nanoformulation for delivery systems of molecules and macromolecules for pharmaceuticals and agricultural applications by synergising experimental results with theoretical insights. Elected as a foundation member of the elite Global Young Academy (GYA), he also initiated the establishment of the Young Scientists Network to serve the needs of young talents. As the founding chairman, he propelled all his efforts in establishing and recognising Malaysia’s young talents in science policy and science communication. Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, he has received the Top Research Scientist and National Intellectual Property Award, among others.
BESADA PÉREZ, Vladimir Armando (Cuba), Male. Head of Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Department of Proteomics, System Biology Division, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), Havana, Cuba. The nominee has been a well recognized scientist in the Cuban Biotechnological industry since 1985. His major field is protein mass spectrometry where the most relevant outcomes are in characterization of recombinant proteins, the development of methods for protein and proteomes characterization. The sanitary registries of many CIGB products like Heberferon, Heberprot, Hepatitis B vaccine, Abdala vaccine against COVID-19 and others contain the protein primary structure characterization generated by his group. His laboratory is also specialized in studying the effects of different candidate drugs for cancer. He has collaborations with laboratories in Japan, Spain, Mexico, Denmark, China and Germany. The collaboration with other Cuba institutions is also relevant for several projects as the characterization like the Neisseria meningitidis and Soberana vaccines against COVID-19, Erythropoyetin, Biomodulin-T. He is professor of several MSc courses for biochemistry, proteomics and autor of 7 patents. Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, he has received various Cuban national awards: Orden Juan Tomás Roig, Orden Carlos J. Finlay, Orden Lázaro Peña de primer grado, 15 Cuban Academy of Science National Annual Awards, and the Health Ministry National Award.
BOLDRIN ZANONI, Maria Valnice (Brazil), Female. Full Professor, Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Brazil. The nominee has a recognized scientific carrier contributing to the advancement on assessment of occurrence, (eco)toxicity and removal of emerging contaminants, conversion of CO2 and hydrogen production as sustainable energy. She is member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Brazilian Academy of the State of São Paulo, the International Society of Electrochemistry, the Brazilian Chemical Society, and Brazilian Society of Electrochemistry and Electroanalysis (SBEE). In 2014, she received the CAPES- Elsevier Award highlighting the 10 Brazilian researchers with highest impact research work on the scientific community; she was honored by SBEE for consolidation of electroanalysis in Brazil, honored by the Analytical Chemistry Society (2022) and honored by the Chemistry Institute, UNESP for her work.
CHEN, Chunying (China), Female. Professor, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China (NCNST), China. The nominee has pioneering contributions to nano-bio interface and nanomedicine by establishing novel analytical techniques, which directly led to better understanding their transformation and fate in biota. Her work provides fundamental insights for promoting new concept and research of precision nanomedicine. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, she has received the TWAS Award in Chemistry; the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering award, the Environment Prize by the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK; the Bioconjugate Chemistry Lectureship Award by the American Chemical Society, the Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award of China twice, CAS Outstanding Female Awards, Chinese Young Female Scientists Award, among many others.
FAN, Chunhai (China), Male. Professor and Dean, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. The nominee’s groundbreaking work using experimental and theoretical approaches has defined “DNA self-assembly-directed biosensing and drug delivery”. He first proposed the concept of framework nucleic acids and developed foundational tools and techniques that have defined ways to tune biological interfaces, leading to new approaches for cellular delivery, biosensing, bioimaging and theranostics. His research has profound impacts in the field. He has active collaborations with many researchers in industry, national laboratories, and academic institutions around the world. Member of the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Medical Science (2023), he has received The National Natural Science Prize of China, The Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Innovation, among others.
JAGESSAR, Raymond Compton (Guyana), Male. Professor in Chemistry, University of Guyana, Guyana. The nominee has published work on (i) herbal extracts; (ii) surface water at selected areas of Coastal Guyana; and (iii) the use of synthesized compounds as antimicrobial agents. He has also been involved in the development of herbal medicines and achieved the Guyana Innovation Prize. His PhD work at the University of Oxford, UK, was on anion recognition and was the first of its kind. Anion recognition and complexation is a relatively difficult area of coordination chemistry. Jagessar was involved in the synthesis of the first novel based porphyrin anion sensors in cobalticinium amido atropisomeric porphyrin receptors. He held three postdoctoral research fellowships and was involved in research in natural products chemistry. He synthesized (i) the first series of neutral porphyrin based anion receptors in urea functionalized porphyrin receptors, and (ii) novel porphyrin based molecular wires. He is a member of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences.
KULKARNI, Giridhar (India), Male. President, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India. The nominee has made pioneering contributions to several areas of materials chemistry, ranging from synthesis of metal nanocrystals having unusual structures and functions to the development of 2D as well as 3D nanopatterns. Undoubtedly, his research bridges the perennial gap between fundamental research and technology development which is evident from the large number of articles he has published in journals of international repute, the patents he holds, and technologies he developed. Clearly, he has made substantial contribution to the scientific ecosystem in the developing world in the form of value added products in nanotechnology, from physiotherapeutic strain sensors to nanowire coatings in optoelectronic applications. He sets a fine example of taking laboratory-based inventions to high-end nanotechnology products. Member of the three Indian science academies, Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Chemistry, he has received the Sir C. V. Raman Young Scientist award, B.M. Birla Science prize in Chemistry, Bangalore Nano National Award and C.N.R. Rao National Prize for Chemical Research by Chemical Research Society of India, among others.
MAJI, Tapas Kumar (India), Male. Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India. The nominee has made original and significant contribution in the field of energy (in particular H2 storage and generation) and environment (in particular CO2 capture and conversion) by developing MOFs and organic porous and soft materials. His research has a direct impact in the chemical industry related to cost-effective adsorptive based separation of different chemical feedstocks. His innovative strategies towards developing metal free redox-active, semiconducting porous organic polymers as chemically robust metal-free electro- and photo-catalysts have opened a new direction in developing materials for fuel cells and conversion of solar/chemical energy to clean fuel. Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Chemistry and appointed TWAS Young Affiliate (2012-2017), he has received the Shanti Swarup prize in Chemical Sciences, among others.
NGUYEN, Thi Thanh Mai (Viet Nam), Female. Vice-president, The University of Science, Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh (VNU-HCM) City, Vietnam. The nominee’s 2004 paper, 'Xanthine Oxidase Inhibitory Activity of Vietnamese Medicinal Plants,' studied 288 extracts from 96 plants for treating gout, pioneering the integration of traditional Vietnamese medicine with modern science. This work bridged the gap between conventional healers in Asia and global scientists. They have developed advanced extraction tech and enhanced the potency of active ingredients in 300 herbs. They discovered numerous new compounds, leading to high-potency drug production to treat gout, diabetes, Alzheimer's, arthritis, gastric ulcers, and cancer. Spearheading 14 research projects, and publishing 90 international and 80 national papers, Nguyen was sourced in 2,449 citations, with an h-index of 29 and an i10-index of 55. Beyond academia, in their outstanding research group, part of VNU-HCM's Medicinal Chemistry Program, Nguyen has commercialized various health supplements and recieved the Ho Chi Minh City Creative Awards by the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City in 2019, and the Kovalevskaia Prize in 2021, among others.
PEREIRA NUNES, Suzana (Saudi Arabia), Female. Vice-Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. The nominee’s made outstanding achievements in chemistry, especially in the development of polymeric materials and membranes for sustainable separations in the chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industry, and for water purification, to enable the implementation of zero-discharge, low carbon footprint economy. She is also dedicated to higher education and to the training of a generation of scientists in Brazil, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. Member of the Science Academy of São Paulo State, Brazil, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, she has received the L’Oreal/UNESCO International Award for Women in Science 2023 and LEWAS Award by the Leadership Excellence for Women Awards & Symposium, among others.
SHAH, Muhammad Raza (Pakistan), Male. Professor and Head of Nanotechnology Center, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Pakistan. The nominee completed his doctoral research in 2003 under sandwich program at Max-Planck Research Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany and ICCBS, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and a second postdoctoral position at Max-Planck Research Institute for Polymer Research. He has over 460 research publications with impact factor above 1,620; more than 8,000 citations, and h-Index of 44; he authored six books, edited four books and 10 chapters published by Elsevier. He has two US patents. He received the civil award Tamgha-i-Imtiaz from the president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He is Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Fellow of IUPAC, Fellow of the Chemical Society of Pakistan, Fellow of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh). He is editor of the Journal of the Chemical Society of Pakistan. He was a TWAS Young Affiliate (2010-2014) and was declared top scientists for the year 2019 by government.
05. Engineering Sciences
AHMAD, Abdul Latif (Malaysia), Male. Professor, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. The nominee is an expert in membrane science and technology trained in the United Kingdom and among the pioneers in Malaysia. Ahmad is the groundbreaker to his region’s core efforts fostering membrane science fundamental for the sustainability of green technology via water reclamation, biomedical advancement and energy revolution. This includes biosensor, diagnostic, drug precursor, emission of greenhouse gases, environmental protection, fuel cells and lithium air batteries. His persevering endeavors are depicted in his extensive portfolio which portrays to all his excellence in scientific discoveries. This is reflected in his number of publications, high cumulative citations and outstanding h-index. Member of the Academy of Sciences of Malaysia, he has received the TWAS Award in Engineering Sciences, the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, the Al-Khwarizmi International Award, the Merdeka Award, among others.
BELOUCHRANI, Adel (Algeria), Male. Professor, Ecole Nationale Polytechnique, Algiers, Algeria. The nominee is among the pioneering researchers who contributed to the field of blind source separation where multiple signals are separated without any a prior knowledge of their characteristics. He introduced a breakthrough separation technique exploiting the time-coherence of the sources, by relying only on second-order statistics of the received signals. Belouchrani also led the work on non-stationary signals impinging on antenna arrays. These signals vary their frequencies with time and arise in active sensing modalities, including sonar and radar. Belouchrani was the first to introduce the concept of Spatial Time Frequency Distribution defining a novel tool for array processing of such signals that allows significant performance improvement and solving problems that could not otherwise be addressed under stationary assumptions. Founding member of the Algerian Academy of Science and Technology, he was among world's top 2% scientists according to Stanford University in 2020-2023, he is IEEE Fellow (2020), and he received the Algeria Scopus Award in the field of Computer and Electrical Engineering.
CHAUDHURI, Subhasis (India), Male. Director and Professor of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India. The nominee has made pioneering contributions to computer vision and haptics. (1) On depth recovery from defocused observations, he has provided solutions to achieve high accuracies besides simultaneous image superresolution, and perform space-varying deconvolution along with conditions for obtaining non-trivial solutions. (2) He has provided a novel method based on matched filtering to accurately detect vasculature patterns in the retina that has later set up a new research area in diabetic retinopathy. (3) He has given specific conditions under which one can perform telerobotic interactions on a shared communication network without perceptual degradation, apart from providing a solution to in-situ estimation of user specific ‘just noticeable difference’ and a method of computing the perceptual distance metric using machine learning. Member of the three Indian science academies, he has received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, and the Advanced Computing and Communications Society Research Award, among others.
FAN, Maohong (the United States of America), Male. Distinguished professor and chair, University of Wyoming, USA. The nominee is a US National Coal Council member appointed by three US Department of Energy secretaries. He has led projects valued at over $100 M. He is an international pioneer in developing technology for CO2 capture (especially catalytic CO2 capture). He is a global leader in the development of technologies for noncarbon fuels and non-petroleum-based products, functional materials, and extraction of critical materials, which are very important to economic security and development. His research results have been published in prestigious journals, e.g. Nature Communications and Journal of the American Chemical Society; and cited by many journals, e.g. Science, Nature Catalysis, and Advanced Materials. He has graduated and/or supervised more than 100 MSc and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and scientists from many countries. He has over 20 US patents and provisional patents. Member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, US National Academy of Inventors, and of a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in the US, he has received the award for Top 50 Nature Communications articles, Highly Cited Researcher, Web of Science’s Clarivate (2018-2023), among others.
GHOGHO, Mounir (Morocco), Male. Dean, College of Doctoral Studies, International University of Rabat, Morocco. The nominee has impactful contributions to the progression of research and education in the field of information and communication technologies and their applications. His current research interests are in machine learning, statistical signal processing, wireless communication, and their applications in robotics, cybersecurity, health, social media, transport, (renewable) energy systems, and the environment. He has published over 350 articles in international journals and conferences. He was selected among the top 2% of the world’s researchers in a study published by Stanford University in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. His h-index is 44 according to Google Scholar. He has supervised over 50 PhD students in the UK and Morocco. He has (co-)coordinated 20 research projects, funded by numerous funding agencies and companies including the US Army Research Lab (a research partner since 1998), EU Commission, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society, NATO, United States Agency for International Development, IBM, Google, PSA Group, Belgian Ministry of Cooperation, The Academy Hassan II for Science and Techniques, Institut de Recherche en Énergie Solaire et Énergies Nouvelles, and Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique, Morocco. He has received the IBM Faculty Award and the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship Award.
HASNA, Mazen (Qatar), Male. Professor, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar. The nominee played a leadership role in research and education in the field of electrical engineering, and carried out pioneering work in the area of cooperative and relayed communications. Hasna has led many initiatives within Qatar that helped students in achieving their aspirations, and which opened new opportunities for post graduate education. Member of The Academy of Engineering and Technology of the Developing World, he has received IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technology Convergence service award, Mathew-Huber Award for excellence in transportation research and education, among others.
KHAKHAR, Devang (India), Male. Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India. The nominee’s foremost contributions are in the mechanics of granular materials related to fundamentals granular flow, mixing and segregation by experiments and computations. He is well recognised internationally for these contributions and has close interactions with several industries to translate the fundamental results to practice. In addition, Khakhar has made significant contributions to the field of polymers which includes an understanding of diffusion-limited polymerisation of rodlike polymers by theory and experiments and processing of polyvinylidene fluoride, a piezoelectric polymer. He was among the first researchers to work on the understanding of the chaotic mixing of fluids. All of Khakhar's work is characterised by a high level of scientific rigour. Member of the three Indian Science academies, he has received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, J. C. Bose Fellowship, Department of Science & Technology, India, and H. K. Firodia Award, among others.
LEWIS, Alison Emslie (South Africa), Female. Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Cape Town, South Africa. The nominee’s main achievement has been the initiation and development of a new research area at the intersection of hydrometallurgy and crystallization. This has led to candidates' group, the Crystallization and Precipitation Research Unit, to being globally recognized for expertise in unpacking and understanding complex, multi-variable industrial crystallization problems. Member of the National Academy of Engineering, USA (international member); South Africa Academy of Engineering; and Academy of Science of South Africa. She has received the Water Research Commission Legends Award, Africa Water Leadership Award, Distinguished Woman Scientist Award, among others.
LI, Hui (China), Female. Professor, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. The nominee is a pioneer in creating intelligent bridge engineering (machine learning paradigm for structural health monitoring and intelligent wind engineering). Her original cutting edge research works have been extensively applied in over 100 long-span bridges, and superior performance was achieved. Her number of citations and h-index in Google Scholar are 28,741 and 86, respectively. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she has received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Robert H. Scanlan Medal, ASCE George W. Housner Medal, Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation-Prize for Scientific and Technological Innovation, among others.
OBAYYA, Salah (Egypt), Male. Director-General of Research Institutes and Founding Director of the Center for Photonics and Smart Materials, Zewail City for Science and Technology, Egypt. The nominee has established a remarkable international reputation in nanophotonics through his groundbreaking contributions including fashioning intelligent computational modeling of modern nanophotonic devices for various applications in information and communication technology, solar energy acquisition, and environmental preservation. With 343 journal publications, three influential books, and numerous conference papers, Obayya's research has shaped the field. He has secured substantial external funding, supervised over 50 PhD students, and developed a comprehensive numerical package widely adopted in academia and industry. His outstanding accomplishments have earned him fellowships from prestigious organizations, including the international society for optics and photonics (SPIE), Optical Society of America, IEEE Photonics Society, American Physical Society, and numerous awards and recognition for his scientific excellence. Member of the Egyptian Academy for Scientific Research and Technology, he has received Doctor of Science from City, University of London for International Distinction in Photonics; African Union Kwame Nkrumah Continental Award for Scientific Excellence, Optica Diversity and Inclusion Advocacy Recognition, UNESCO Chair ‘Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Development in Africa’, among others.
TAN, Raymond R. (Philippines), Male. Distinguished Full Professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering of De La Salle University and an Academician of the Philippine National Academy of Science and Technology. The nominee specializes in process systems engineering with applications to carbon management and process integration. His work focuses on the development of models and computing techniques for planning sustainable industrial systems. In 2007, he co-developed the carbon emissions pinch analysis (CEPA) algorithm, a procedure for the carbon-constrained energy planning. He has also made other contributions by applying computing techniques such as process graphs, game theory, machine learning, input-output analysis, and life cycle assessment to current sustainability issues such as climate change and plastic pollution. Tan is ranked in the Reuters ‘Hot List’ of the world’s top 1000 climate researchers and in the Stanford List of the top 2% of the world’s scientists.
06. Quantum Information & Computational Sciences
BELLO PEREZ, Rafael (Cuba), Male. President of the Scientific Council, Universidad Central Marta Abreu de las Villas, Santa Clara, Cuba. The nominee's scientific interests are in soft computing, metaheuristics, knowledge discovery, explainable artificial intelligence, fields where he has excellent accomplishments. He has published more than 250 papers; 18 books, 6 of them with Springer. He has lead national and international projects, some of them supported by the European Union, the Flemish Universities Council. He is full professor at the Computer Science Department of his University. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in several universities in Latin America and Spain. Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, he has been recognized with: elected member of IAP COVID Expert Group, 2020; Distinguished Researcher of the International Institute for Research in Artificial Intelligence, Hebei International Studies University, China, among others.
DE CARVALHO, Francisco De Assis Tenório (Brazil), Male. Full Professor, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. The nominee’s scientific contributions are in machine learning, mostly on regression and unsupervised learning from symbolic data, described by variables whose values are of complex structure, such as a set of categories, an interval, or a probabilistic distribution. He is a pioneer in this field and proposed original methods of crisp and fuzzy clustering, co-clustering, regression and clusterwise regression, forecasting and self-organizing maps for symbolic data with applications in information filtering, recommender systems, bioinformatics and time series selection. Additionally, he proposed crisp and fuzzy clustering methods (with and without semi-supervision) and self-organizing maps for dissimilarity data. Finally, he introduced crisp and fuzzy kernel-based clustering and co-clustering methods with regularization for real-valued data. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he has received fellowship of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance, was recognised among 2% most influential scientists in artificial intelligence during all carrier and for the specific years 2019 to 2022 by Plos Biology/Elsevier/Stanford, and received the Scientific Merit Award from the Brazilian Computer Society (2021), among others.
KARIMIPOUR, Vahid (the Islamic Republic of Iran), Male. Professor of Physics, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. The nominee pioneered in bringing quantum information science into Iran and educated generations of young researchers in this field. Besides introducing novel models of one-dimensional exactly solvable models in statistical mechanics, he has also made noteworthy contributions to many problems in quantum information science, ranging from matrix product states, quantum state transfer and the Kiteav model which touches condensed matter physics to entanglement theory, the structure of quantum channels, quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing, which are purely within the field of quantum information and computation science. He has also co-organized and lectured in several prestigious schools at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) on the subject of his expertise. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences of Iran, and has been elected as an outstanding referee of the American Physical Society and serves on the editorial board of several international research journals. He was appointed Regular Associate of ICTP (1998-2003, 2006-2012) and Simons associate of ICTP (2015-2022).
07. Earth, Climate and Environmental Sciences
ARIS, Ahmad Zaharin (Malaysia), Male. Senior Professor and Director of Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. The nominee is distinguished for his innovative environmental forensics and management work, creating pivotal chemical databases. His research directly informs national and international environmental strategies and has significantly impacted national and international environmental policies, demonstrating a strong translational element for community benefit and earning him recognition as a top research scientist in Malaysia and globally. His efforts in environmental education and policy advisory underscore his commitment to sustainability, highlighting his role in advancing environmental science and improving public health, and solidifying his status as a leading figure in environmental research and advocacy. Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, he has received the Cozzarelli Prize by the National Academy of Sciences, USA; Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Science Prize for Innovation, Research, and Education twice; World Top 2% Scientists 2022, 2021, 2020 by Stanford University; Top Research Scientist in Malaysia by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (2018), among others.
DINGWELL, Donald Bruce (Germany), Male. Full Professor, Chair of Mineralogy and Petrology and Director, Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany. The nominee is the world´s leading experimental volcanologist. His work has transformed the science, management and monitoring of volcanoes and volcanic crises worldwide. He has published over 500 research papers in international top flight journals which have been cited over 33,000 times. His work has been recognised with the receipt of 2 national orders, 4 honorary degrees, 4 scientific awards, 9 scientific medals and membership in 6 Academies. He has also served generously in scientific societies including as president of the European Union of Geosciences and the International Association of volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth´s Interior. He also served as secretary general of the European Research Council and currently serves as the vice-president of the Academia Europaea. Member of six academies: Leopoldina (Germany), German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), Academia Europaea, Royal Society of Canada (RCS), Royal Society of London (UK), Academia Mexicana de Ciencias, Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received several medals: Bunsen by European Geosciences Union (EGU), Day by Geological Society of America Foundation, Hess by American Geophysical Union (AGU), Holmes by EGU, Peacock by Mineralogical Association of Canada, Werner by the German Mineralogical Society (DMG), Steinmann by the German Geological Society, and Miller by RSC; he received Volcanology & Igneous Petrology Award by Geological Association of Canada, Goldschmidt Award by DMG, Bowen Award by AGU, Schott Award, and Mineralogical Society of America award, among many others.
KHAN, Sardar (Pakistan), Male. Professor and Vice-Chancellor, University of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The nominee developed biochar based an organic-fertilizer for remediation of contaminated-soils and patented it. Recovered high purity food grade calcium-carbonate from marble waste and a patent granted by Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan. Member of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, he received the Gold Medal Award 2019, Young-International-Scientist award (2011); Best-University-Teacher Award (2008), Chinese Visiting Scientist Fellowship, and eight times Research Productivity awards, among others.
TRINDADE, Ricardo Ivan Ferreira Da (Brazil), Male. Full Professor and Director, Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. The nominee contributed to a better understanding of the tectonic history of South America, defining ancient mountain belts and oceans (among them, the Clymene ocean) and refined the cycle of supercontinents, particularly improving the reconstructions of Nuna, Rodinia and Godwana with a remarkable record of new key poles for different cratons in South America and Africa. He also contributed to the discussion on the extreme climatic events of the Neoproterozoic and their biological consequences using magnetism and C-O-N-S and Sr isotopes from carbonate successions from South America, Africa and Asia. More recently, he has determined the evolution of the South Atlantic geomagnetic anomaly at the centennial to millennial scales using lake sediments, speleothems and archeological material and its origins related to the reverse flux patches at the core-mantle boundary. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he has received several national awards.
VENKATARAMAN, Chandra (India), Female. Shobha Dixit Chair Professor of the Interdisciplinary Programme in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India. The nominee’s research has linked high air pollution levels to worsening climate extremes, including heat waves and rainfall suppression, in India. Her seminal work altered scientific opinion, establishing residential biomass combustion, over diesel vehicle emissions, as the predominant origin of black carbon in South Asia. Her policy findings highlight residential clean energy access and modernization of agriculture and informal industry for sustainable development. She has championed multidisciplinary research teams and has built and facilitated South Asia's expertise in emissions inventories, climate model simulations, field and observational studies, and policy analyses. She is the India science coordinator of the COALESCE network, studying climate impacts of carbonaceous aerosols, and the founding convener of the Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies at IIT Bombay. Member of the three Indian science academies, she has received from IIT Bombay: Teaching Excellence Award, H.H. Mathur Research Excellence Award; among her other awards are the Vikram Sarabhai Award, Physical Research Laboratory Award, START Young Scientist Award, and International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Award.
ZHU, Tong (China), Male. Professor, Peking University, Beijing, China. The nominee is Boya Chair professor and former dean of College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Peking University. The nominee has made exceptional contributions to the fundamental research in atmospheric chemistry and science-based air pollution control in developing countries, by identifying sources, revealing physical and chemical mechanisms, and assessing health impacts of atmospheric pollution. His findings have greatly supported China’s Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, which drastically improved air quality over the past decade in China. His research on the health effects of air pollution and climate change has greatly promoted the interdisciplinary research and education of environmental health. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, he is a fellow of American Geophysical Union for “exceptional contributions to advancing fundamental atmospheric chemistry and assessing impacts of megacity air pollution on human health and climate”.
08. Mathematical Sciences
EZZINBI, Khalil (Morocco), Male. Professor, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco. The nominee received his PhD in mathematics from Cadi Ayyad University in 1997. His research interests are evolution equations, operator theory, dynamical systems and integrodifferential equations. Ezzinbi supervised 30 PhD students from Africa. These are outstanding achievements for a mathematician working and living in Africa. Generally speaking, Ezzinbi remains highly respected worldwide as a renowned mathematician. He has received the TWAS-Mohammad A. Hamdan Award 2022, COMSTECH (Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation) Award in Mathematics, African Mathematics Millennium Science Initiative (AMMSI) Phillip-Griffiths prize, among others.
RUAS, Maria Aparecida Soares (Brazil), Female. Professor Emeritus, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. The nominee has notable contributions to mathematics in Brazil and abroad, distinguishing herself by her impressive ability to organize the mathematical community, excite people and guide young students. Professor emeritus at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ruas works in different areas of singularity theory. Her work in this field has been a beacon of excellence and innovation. Her dedication to human resources training is inspiring, having guided innumerous students both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Equally remarkable is her fundamental role in the international projection of the Institute of Mathematical and Computing Sciences-USP singularities group, today a center attracting singularists from all over the world, with strong collaboration with Spain, France, Poland, Japan, United States, Portugal, Mexico, among others. Her notable trajectory includes election as a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, distinction with the National Order of Scientific Merit in the Class of Commander in Brazil.
TSCHINKEL, Yuri (the United States of America), Male. Executive Director, Mathematics and the Physical Sciences, Simons Foundation, USA. The candidate has obtained ground-breaking results concerning rationality of higher-dimensional algebraic varieties, as well as rational points and curves on these varieties. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, and the Academia Europaea. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the Frontier of Science Award of the International Congress of Basic Science in Beijing in 2023, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Miami in 2023.
WIENHARD, Anna (Germany), Female. Director, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. The nominee is one of the world's leading mathematicians in the field of differential geometry. A focus of her research is on the field of higher Teichmüller theory, which she co-founded. She also promotes the close connection between basic mathematical research and other sciences, where interactions with theoretical physics as well as applications of geometric and topological methods in data analysis and machine learning play an important role. Member of the Young Academy of Leopoldina, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, European Academy of Sciences and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, she received numerous honors and awards, including a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, Theodor Fontane Prize from the German National Academic Foundation, among others.
09. Physics, Astronomy & Space Sciences
DA SILVA, Antonio José Roque (Brazil), Male. Director General, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM); and Full Professor, Physics Institute of the University of São Paulo (IFUSP), Brazil. Since 1997, the nominee has been working at IFUSP in the field of electronic structure simulations of condensed matter systems, with an emphasis on nanostructured materials, investigating both static as well as dynamic processes, including charge transport calculations, with pioneering developments for large, disordered systems. Since 2009, he has been working at CNPEM, first as Director of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory and, since 2018, as Director General. His leadership has been instrumental in the development of Sirius, the state-of-the-art synchrotron light source in Brazil, positioning the country and Latin America, at the forefront of scientific research. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences, he has received in 2018 the medal Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico - Classe Comendador by the president.
DRISSI, Lalla Btissam (Morocco), Female. Professor, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Faculty of Sciences, Morocco. The nominee has made significant achievements in quantum science to study critical phases of matter and quantum fields with particular focus on new classes of nanostructures for advanced applications in energy, environment, spintronics, sensing and health. Member of the Hassan II Academy of Science & Technologies, alumna of the Arab German Young Academy for Sciences & Humanities, she received the ICTP associateship award, the Georg Forster Research award, besides national prizes and recognitions.
ELEUCH, Hichem (the United Arab Emirates), Male. Professor, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The nominee has fundamental contributions to quantum theory, particularly on quantum statistics in low-dimensional systems and on quantum correlations in open quantum systems. Member of the Mohammed bin Rashid Academy of Scientists (United Arab Emirates) and of the the African Academy of Sciences, he was Regular Associate of the International Centre of Theoretical Physics, Italy, and he has received the Research Award and Research Fellow Award by Abu Dhabi University, among other recognitions.
JIA, Jinfeng (China), Male. Vice-Dean and Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. The nominee has made outstanding achievements in quantum materials and physics. Of particular significance is that he has greatly increased the ability of controllable growth and in-situ investigation of the important physical and chemical properties of novel quantum materials by innovatively developing MBE-STM-APRES technique. Especially, he realized the topological superconductor by making the topological insulator/superconductor hetero-structure and found the definitive evidences for Majorana zero mode. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has received the National Prize for Advancement in Natural Science of China, and Achievement in Asia Award (Robert T. Poe Prize) by the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers, among others.
JIN, Kuijuan (China), Female. Professor, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. The nominee is a distinguished scientist in the field of optics and condensed matter physics, whose remarkable contributions have significantly advanced scientific research, promoted women's participation in science, and facilitated international scientific collaboration. She proposed a new mechanism for ferroelectric diodes, overcoming the bottleneck of high-density integration in ferroelectric storage. Moreover, she discovered a novel superparaelectric state with a new record of energy storage density using optical second-order harmonic generation, which offers promising solutions for next-generation dielectric capacitors. Additionally, her research group successfully achieved multi-functional information integration of optical sensing, storage, and computing within a wafer device array. This innovative integrating mechanism advances the development of high-density low-energy consumption information devices. Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she received the First-Class Rao Yu Tai Basic Optics Prize in China, and the National Outstanding Scientific and Technological Researchers Medal of China, among others.
KNOBEL, Marcelo (Brazil), Male. Full Professor, Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics, University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil. The nominee pioneered the study of giant magnetoresistance in granular systems and giant magnetoimpedance in amorphous and nanocrystalline wires and ribbons, leading an internationally recognized research group in magnetism and nanostructured magnetic materials. He is also dedicated to science dissemination, being the founder of Unicamp’s Science Exploratory Museum and a researcher in public perception of science. Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he has received the Zeferino Vaz Academic Recognition Award, Center for Brain, Minds, & Machines (CBMM) Prize for Science and Technology, Young Scientist Prize from TWAS Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Partner, and awarded Commander of the Order of Scientific Merit, among others. He was a TWAS Young Affiliate (2007-2011), now Alumnus.
YUSUF, Seikh Mohammad (India), Male. Director, Physics Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and Senior Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, India. The nominee is the first person in India to establish the neutron depolarization technique by developing an innovative polarized neutron spectrometer. He has made seminal contributions to the fundamental understanding of quantum materials, including the experimental discovery of novel quasiparticles doublons and quartons that are stable up to ~250 K signifying its importance in quantum technology. He is a pioneer in establishing the magnetization reversal phenomenon, and revealing its utilization in magnetic memory and spin resolved devices. Significantly, he has built a magnetic-nanoparticle based actuation device for artificial heart pump support. He has been steering the utilization of National Facility for Neutron Beam Research Program in India, and playing a leadership role in promoting the neutron scattering research in condensed matter in the Asia-Oceania Region. Fellow of all three Science Academies of India, he received Homi Bhabha Science & Technology Award, among others.
10. Social & Economic Sciences
CHEN, Sylvia Xiaohua (China), Female. Chair Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China. The nominee is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Hong Kong Psychological Society, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE), UK. She is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and served as president of the Asian Association of Social Psychology from 2021 to 2023. Her research focuses on personality and social psychology, and cross-cultural psychology. Her work established the framework of immigration-based acculturation and globalization-based acculturation and developed the theoretical construct of Global Orientations, which have been empirically extended to 35 countries and societies, significantly contributing to the study of global unity and post-COVID cooperation. She has received various academic awards, including the Outstanding International Psychologist Award conferred by the American Psychological Association Division 52 (International Psychology) in 2022.
IBRAHIM, Rahinah (Malaysia), Female. Professor, Universiti Putra Malaysia. The nominee is a transdisciplinary entrepreneur-scientist who is enthused about creating human-centric technology interventions to spur community development. Her works bridge arts and humanities with applied science and technology. She is principal inventor of 22 intellectual properties registered in 50 countries. Her Independent Sewage Treatment Plant (ISTP) was the first Malaysian construction technology that won a Chartered Institute of Building (UK) award since its 184 years of establishment. ISTP tanks was incorporated in a Smart Sanitation for Water Settlements project by The United Nations Environment Programme, and was recognized as United Nations’ SDG Good Practice project. Her Excellence Accelerator for Grounded Learning Environment (EAGLE) System is currently helping PhD students from developing countries create high impact research projects. It was commercialized for worldwide use and has filed for patent in Malaysia, China and India. Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, she has received UN SDG Good Practice 2021; National Academic Award 2013, among others.
MICHEL LOPEZ, Marcos Rodolfo (the Plurinational State of Bolivia), Male. Doctorate and postdoctoral coordinator, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, La Paz, Bolivia. The nominee's work has been fundamentally the documentation and rescue of archaeological Bolivian patrimony. His orientation regarding the characteristics of different road systems and precolumbian cultural expressions and infrastructure were essential for making adequate and pertinent definitions. His most important findings have allowed him to interpret that the previous settlers in the Bolivian lowlands have made gigantic efforts to provide water and manage the Amazonian rivers, forests and savanas. Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Bolivia, he has received Special Recognition from the Center for Psychopedagogy and Research in Higher Education at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés.
MULUGETTA, Yacob (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Male. Professor of Energy and Development Policy, University College London, United Kingdom. The nominee is a leading scholar specialising on the links between energy infrastructure provision and human welfare. His research is focused on three interconnected areas: energy systems and development; energy systems and climate change; and political economy of low carbon development. He has published widely in these areas in some of the leading academic journals. He served as a coordinating lead author and lead author in the various Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports. Professor Mulugetta is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.
WINKLER, Harald (South Africa), Male. Professor, Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa. The nominee is internationally recognized for interdisciplinary research in development, climate change, and social justice. His high academic impact is evidenced by his h-index and publications in high-impact-factor journals. He is a leading engaged scholar providing high quality evidence to support policy in South Africa, Africa, and internationally. Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and of the African Academy of Sciences, he has received the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a collective; the nominee was one of hundreds of IPCC lead authors; in 2022, the IPCC community of practice was jointly awarded the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity; in 2020, he was ramked among the top 2% scientists by Stanford University. He has also received the National Science and Technology Forum Award (South Africa), the Sustainable Energy For All Award, among others.