Ngo Viet Trung is professor of the Institute of Mathematics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. He earned a PhD degree from Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany in 1978. He was a research fellow of the International Matsumae Foundation of Japan and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. In 2007-2013 he was director of the Institute of Mathematics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. In 2013-2018 he served first as a member and then as chair of TWAS Membership Advisory Committee in Mathematical Sciences. In 2016-2018 he was a member of TWAS Election Committee. He has published several papers in leading mathematical journals such as Inventiones Mathematicae, Advances in Mathematics, Mathematische Annalen and is well-known for his contributions to the interactions between algebra, combinatorics and geometry. In 2017 he was awarded Ho Chi Minh Prize, the highest prize of Vietnam for his achievements and contributions to the development of science. He is the current president of Vietnam Mathematical Society and chair of the Scientific Committee of the National Foundation for Science and Technology.

Nussenzveig Lopes (PhD, 1991, UC Berkeley, USA) is full professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; prior to this she was a professor at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Her research area is fluid dynamics and partial differential equations. She served as editor-in-chief for the Brazilian Math Society publishing company and on several mathematics journal editorial boards; she is managing editor for Orbita Mathematicae, the new journal of the Unión Matemática de América Latina y el Caribe. She was second vice-president of the Sociedade Brasileira de Matemática Aplicada e Computacional. She served on the scientific council of the Centre International des Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées - CIMPA. She is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. She is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. She was inducted to the Order of Scientific Merit, Comendador class, and she was an invited speaker at the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians. She received the TWAS Award in Mathematics in 2022.

Olago is Professor of Geology, Chairman of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, and Research Director, Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Nairobi. He has BSc and MSc degrees in Geology from the University of Nairobi and a DPhil degree in Physical Geography from the University of Oxford (Kenya Rhodes Scholar for 1990). His research interests are broadly in Quaternary and environmental geoscience, water resources and climate change. Olago has been involved in multi-disciplinary research, training and capacity building activities on global environmental change in sub-Saharan Africa for over 25 years. He has also contributed, as lead author, to the fourth and sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports. He is a fellow of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences, the Geological Society of Kenya, and the African Academy of Sciences.

Okereke is a professor of global climate governance and public policy at the School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK. He is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and a senior academic visitor at the University of Oxford. He was previously the director of the Center for Climate Change in Alex Ekuweme Federal University, Nigeria, co-director of the Center for Climate and Justice, and co-director of the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme, both at the University of Reading. He also served as the director of the Center for Climate Change and Development at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, at the University of Oxford. A globally recognized leading scholar on global climate governance and international development, Okereke was the coordinating lead author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, Working Group 3.

Okoh holds a PhD in microbiology from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, with over 30 years of experience in the university system. He was the head of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Fort Hare, South Africa for seven years, leader of the Water Research Niche Area, deputy dean, and acting dean, as well as director of a research centre of excellence of the South African Medical Research Council, University of Fort Hare, South Africa. His research interests regard applied and environmental microbiology. He has published over 500 journal articles and graduated 59 PhD and 70 Master’s students. He is a recipient of the Gold Scientific Achievement Award of the South African Medical Research Council, amongst others. He also served as the president of the South Africa Society for Microbiology (2011–2013) and is a member of the board of trustees of the Biotechnology Society of Nigeria and a Fellow of seven national and international societies and academies. In the recent World Scientist and University ranking 2024, in the discipline microbiology, Okoh was ranked #1 in the University of Fort Hare, #3 in South Africa and Africa, and #130 globally.

Oliva is a prof. at the Inst. of Physics of São Carlos, U. of São Paulo. He obtained his PhD in Protein Crystallography and Structural Bio. at the U. of London in 1988. He was the key leader in the establishment of Protein Crystallography res. in Brazil, including the development of the first protein crystallography beamline at the Braz. Natl. Synchrotron Lab., and has served as pres. of the Braz. Natl. Council for Scientific and Techn. Development - CNPq (2011-2015). He is member of the Braz. Acad. of Sci., the Natl. Order of Scientific Merit of Brazil, Intl. Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Inst. (1997-2001), Fellow of Birkbeck College (2014-) and was profiled by the American magazine Time and CNN (1999) as one of the 50 Latin-American Leaders for the New Millennium. His main res. interests are in structural bio., drug discovery and development against tropical infectious diseases.

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

S. Omar (PhD, 1990, California, Berkeley) is Principal Research Scientist at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and Director General (2016-2021). She is Research Fellow for Agriculture in TWAS and former Treasurer. She was Executive Board Member and Vice President of the Arab States of OWSD, Regional Councilor for West Asia Region, IUCN, and former Member of Board of Director Asia Region of the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER), USA. She has fifty years of Research and Development, managerial, strategic planning, technical experience and project leadership for 27 contractual research projects. She is advisor and consultant to many local, regional and international organizations. She has been awarded by TWAS and many international organizations. She holds a PhD in Wild Land Resource Science, MS in Range Management and BSc in Botany and Chemistry.

Omirov graduated in mathematics and applied mathematics from Novosibirsk State University (1993). From 1993 to 1996 he taught in Namangan State University as a Lecturer. Then he studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan (1996–1999). PhD and Doctor of Sciences theses were successfully defended at the Institute of Mathematics (Tashkent) in 2000 and 2006, respectively. From 2005 till 2016 Omirov worked at the Institute of Mathematics as Leading Scientific Fellow. Since 2016 he has been the Head of Department of Algebra and Functional Analysis at the National University of Uzbekistan. Omirov won the Postdoctoral Fellowship of the International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the independent states of the former Soviet Union (INTAS), Belgium (2005–2006). He was awarded the Diploma of Professor of Algebra (2013) by the Supreme Attestation Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He was a Visiting Scholar at University of California, San Diego, USA, for 10 month in 2019–2020, thanks to a Fulbright Scholar grant.

Osier's expertise is in malaria, where she believes we can "Make Malaria History" through vaccination. She previously led two core teams of over 25 scientists in Kenya and Germany, that focused on creating highly effective malaria vaccines through vaccine candidate discovery, identifying immune correlates of protection and unravelling important mechanisms underlying antibody-dependent protection. They designed an innovative protein microarray KILchip©, a first of its kind in Africa. Through the SMART partnership, they assembled 10,000 samples from across Africa to probe their chip, the largest study of this nature. They created a paradigm shift in the understanding of the mechanisms that underpin protective immunity to malaria. Osier is past president of the International Union of Immunological Societies (> 60,000 members globally)—the first African and only second woman in this role. She has won prestigious prizes including: Royal Society Pfizer; Sofja Kovalevskaja; and UK Medical Research Council - UK Department for International Development African Research Leader. She was honored with the prestigious British Society of Immunology Honorary Lifetime Membership Award (2022).

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.

Ou-Yang has worked at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing since 1989 and has served as director from 1998-2007. He is also adjunct professor at the Center for Advanced Study at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He made distinguished contributions to soft matter physics and biophysics., e.g. the Ouyang-Helfrich shape equation for vesicles of spontaneous curvature, the theory of vesicle-to-tube shape transition of bipeptide aggregates, and the new theory of icosahedron shape of virus capsid and nano-aggregates, the elastic model of double-strand DNA which has been acknowledged as one of the most important early theoretical works on DNA. His honours include: Asia Achievement Prize(1993), Overseas Chinese Physical Society; First Award in Natural Science(1995), CAS, Beijing; Second Award, Chinese National Prize for Natural Sciences(1999); Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (HLHL) Prize for Progress in Science and Technology (2004); The National Outstanding Scientific and Technological Workers, by China Association for Science and Technology (2010). He has became an academician of CAS since1997.

Ouhabaz studied at the University of Marrakesh in Morocco and got his PhD in France in 1992. Early in his career, he was Researcher at the Technische Universität Berlin, and a member of the Max-Planck group at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Back to France, he was Associate Professor at the University of Marne-la-Vallée, next to Paris. He is currently Professor at the Institut de mathématiques de Bordeaux, University of Bordeaux. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Institut national des sciences mathématiques et de leurs interactions (INSMI), Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). He was a scientific delegate at the Haut Conseil de l'Evaluation de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement Supérieur (HCERES) and corresponding member of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology, Morocco. He was the Head of the CNRS research group Functional Analysis, Harmonic Analysis and Applications, and Deputy Director of the Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux. He is the author of a book published by Princeton University Press and has written more than 68 research articles.

Ouknine is a full professor of mathematics at Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco. His work focuses on probability theory and stochastic calculus. He has published more than 167 scientific articles in reputed international peer-reviewed journals such as Annals of Probability, Annals of Applied Probability, Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Electronic Journal of Probability, Electronic Communications in Probability, and Journal of Theoretical Probability. He has been a referee and co-editor of several scientific journals ranking high at the international level. He is also one of the initiators of international meetings in stochastic analysis and probability theory as well as several training schools in stochastic process theory in Morocco. He has been a resident member of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology, in Morocco, since 2006.

Ovbiagele, MD, MSc, MAS, MBA, MLS, is professor of neurology and associate dean at the University of California, San Francisco. His primary research involves translation of evidence-based interventions into clinical practice and community settings, to improve stroke outcomes for underserved and vulnerable populations around the world. He currently leads several studies of stroke in the US and sub-Saharan Africa. Ovbiagele has published over 600 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 89) in the areas of stroke prevention, risk factors and outcomes. His work has been recognized with the Pessin and Wartenberg Awards of the American Academy of Neurology; Penn Award of the American Neurological Association; Mridha Humanitarian Award of the American Brain Foundation; Feinberg and Stroke Council Awards of the American Stroke Association; Haddock International and Distinguished Scientist Awards of the American Heart Association, and Meritorious Achievement Award of the National Medical Association. He chaired the International Stroke Conference (2016-2018) and is current editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Heart Association. He serves on the board of the World Stroke Organization.

Prof. Mehmet Öztürk completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Gazi University (Turkey) and his PhD at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Paris XI University (France). He become Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (USA), Research Director at INSERM (France) and Professor at Bilkent University (Turkey). His seminal research work is on genetic causes of human cancer, including inherited and carcinogen-induced genetic mutations causing childhood cancers and liver cancer, respectively. His high impact research, including over 100 articles, referenced more than 9100 times (H-factor: 44), and nearly 10 patents, have made him a world known scientist. Prof. Öztürk was presented with the ‘Cecile Cerveux Cancer Award’ in France. He also received ‘Golden Mortar Award’ and ‘TÜBİTAK-TWAS Science Award’ in Turkey. The Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics that he created at Bilkent University received ‘Vehbi Koç Award’. Prof. Öztürk is an elected member to several science academies including EMBO, TWAS and Turkish Academy of Sciences.

Padmanabhan, Distinguished Professor at IUCAA, Pune, has authored about 270 research papers and eleven books including eight graduate-level textbooks published by Cambridge University Press. His research, providing an alternative perspective of gravity, in which gravity arises as an emergent phenomenon has far reaching implications for quantum gravity and has won prizes six times from the Gravity Research Foundation, USA including the First Award in 2008. He is an elected Fellow of all the three Academies of Science in India. He was the President of the Cosmology Commission of the International Astronomical Union (2009-2012), Chairman of the Astrophysics Commission of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (2011-2014) and a Sackler Distinguished Astronomer of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. The national and international awards received by him include, the Presidential medal of honor, Padma Shri (2007), Inaugural Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences (2009), TWAS Prize in Physics (2011), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1996), INSA Vainu-Bappu Medal (2007), Millennium Medal (2000), J.C.Bose Fellowship (2008-), Miegunah Award of Melbourne University (2004).

Padrón work started at Cambridge´s MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Padrón founded I.V.I.C.´s Center of Structural Biology, where he was an International Research Scholar of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His group found by cryo-electron microscopy that in thick filaments of tarantula muscle the two heads form the myosin interacting-heads motif (IHM), where both ATPases were inhibited explaining relaxation (Nature 436: 1195, 2005). Their showing that IHM is conserved since before the origin of animals revealed IHM importance as a relaxation ATPase inhibition and ATP energy-saving mechanism. They proposed a cooperative phosphorylation activation mechanism that explains potentiation and post-tetanic potentiation on tarantula contracting muscles. They found that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations cluster on IHM intramolecular interactions accounting for hypercontractility, reduced relaxation, and increased energy consumption of this pathogenesis. Honors: 1991 Polar Prize, 2008 Science and Technology National Prize of Venezuela. Elected Member of the Latin-American Academy of Sciences in 2002 and International Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. in 2018.

Pal is a distinguished scientist and former Director of Indian Statistical Institute. He founded its Machine Intelligence Unit & the Natl. Center for Soft Computing in Calcutta. Currently, he is a SERB-National Science Chair; ISI-President and Emeritus Professor; and AICTE-Distinguished Chair Professor. Obtained PhD (Sc) from Calcutta U. and PhD (Engg) & DIC from Imperial College, London. Worked at UC Berkeley; UMD, College Park; NASA JSC, Houston; and US Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC. His awards include: SS Bhatnagar; Padma Shri; GD Birla; OP Bhasin; J Nehru Fellowship; FICCI; Vikram Sarabhai; IETE-Wadhwa Gold Medal; INSA-Zaheer Medal; ISC-PC Mahalanobis Gold Medal; INAE Chair Professor; INSA Distinguished Professor; INAE-SN Mitra; INSA-JNBC Lecture; JC Bose Natl. Fellow; DAE Raja Ramanna Fellow; Al-Khwarizmi Intl. 1st Prize; NASA Space Act Tech Brief; NASA Patent Appl.; IEEE Distinguished Speaker; IEEE NN Soc. Outstanding Paper; NRC (USA) Senior Associate; and IEEE Editor. He is Fellow of all 4 Indian sci. and engg. academies, IEEE, IAPR, IFSA, IRSS & AAIA; and Member of European Acad of Sci & Arts. He has visited 45 countries as keynote/invited speaker and academic visitor.

Panda (PhD, 1994, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India) is Director, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali Punjab, India; and Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. He was a Chair Professor of Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and also served as Head of Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay. He is a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India; Indian Academy of Sciences; and Indian National Science Academy. He received several awards and honours including G.N. Ramachandran Gold Medal, J.C. Bose National Fellowship; Tata Innovation Fellowship; Swarnajayanti Fellowship; Outstanding Research Investigator award by Department of Atomic Energy-Science Research Council; National Biosciences Award; Sun Pharma Research Award; Central Drug Research Institute Award for Excellence in Drug Research; S.C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Pure Science of IIT Bombay; P. S. Sharma Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists; and Fogarty International Research Award of the National Institute of Health, USA. He is an Associate Editor of BMC Molecular and Cell Biology.

Pandey is distinguished scientist at the Centre for Innovation and Translational Research, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India; and executive director (honorary) at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, India. His major research and technological development interests are in industrial and environmental biotechnology and energy biosciences. Pandey has been Highly Cited Researcher (top 1%) according to Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science since 2018 (h-index 126; citations ~69,000) and has been ranking first in India in biotechnology and eighth in the world in the Stanford University, USA, Citation Report (since 2020). He is fellow of many societies such as World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies; Indian Chemical Society; International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability; National Academy of Sciences, India; Association of Microbiologists of India; International Organization of Biotechnology and Bioengineering; Biotech Research Society, India; and is academician of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Austria. Pandey has been visiting professor in 15 countries.

Pant obtained her MSc in botany from Tribhuvan University, and a PhD in biotechnology from Hiroshima University, Japan. Her major fields of research are application of plant tissue culture in threatened, endangered and economically important plant species in Nepal. She is currently a professor in Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, and also leads Annapurna Research Centre, a non-governmental, and non-profit organization, as a research director. Since over two decades, her active leadership has contributed significantly in developing and promoting tissue culture technology for economic benefit for the people of Nepal through her groundbreaking research. Pant is one of the very few Nepali scientists who have passionately and consistently worked in this important field of research. She has made significant contributions to academics as well as in human resource development in her country by supervising PhD and master’s students. She has contributed to the establishment and development of biotechnology education and research in Nepal by her involvement in various activities.

Pant earned his PhD from Jeonbuk National University, South Korea, in 2011. He is a pioneering chemist of Nepal and made a significant contribution towards fabricating advanced polymer and ceramic nanomaterials that have potential applications in the biomedical field and environmental remediation. His research on nanotechnology for the fabrication of hierarchical nanomembrane and nanoparticles using top-down and bottom-up approaches has greatly enhanced global knowledge in the field of advanced nanomaterials. He has been teaching and doing research for three decades, becoming a leader in the materials science and engineering discipline. Pant has published 88 SCI/SCIE-ranked journal articles and has 5,400 citations with h-index=43. He has more than 100 conference proceedings and non-ranked journal publications and is the author of 14 books and book chapters in chemistry and materials science. He is the editor of four SCI/SCIE journals and the reviewer of about 60 ranked journals. Currently, Pant is working as vice-chancellor of Far Western University, Nepal.

Panza former Professor of seismology (University of Trieste) and the Head of Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth (SAND) group (International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. His scientific activity deals with integrated analysis of the structure and dynamics of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system; the integrated approach to modelling of seismic waves; and the earthquake-prone lineaments and premonitory seismicity patterns. He received Gutenberg Medal in 2000, doctorate h.c. in physics from University of Bucharest, Romania, in 2002; medal of honour by the Earth Sciences Committee of the Central European Initiative, in 2004; commemorative medal from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in 2009; honour of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2015, International AGU award 2018 among others. Panza is an honorary professor at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and at the Institute of Geophysics of the China Earthquake Administration; and elected member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and of the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL, both in Italy, and of the Russian Academy of Sciences.