Brandan is Professor of Physics at Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She holds a BSc from Universidad de Chile and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research interests have been experimental heavy-ion physics (some years ago) and medical physics (more recently). Her present research focuses on thermoluminescent dosimetry for highly-ionizing radiation and physics of radiological images. Organizer in 1997 of the UNAM MSc (Medical Physics) programme and responsible for its academic guidance until 2017. She has received the 2000 UNAM Catedrático recognition, the 2003 Mexican Physics Society Award for the Development of Physics in Mexico and the 2013 UNAM Universidad Nacional Award for Research in Exact Sciences. Memberships include Mexican Academy of Sciences, American Physical Society (1997 Fellow of the Nuclear Physics Division), Mexican Physics Society (past-President of the Nuclear and the Medical Physics Divisions) and American Association of Physicists in Medicine (2018 Fellow). María-Ester Brandan chaired the International Solid State Dosimetry Organization and presently is a commissioner of ICRU.

Pérez Rojas is senior researcher at the Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics and Physics, Ministry of Science and Technology, Cuba; emeritus member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; and member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences. His national awards include the Rafael Maria Mendive and Carlos J. Finlay Medals. He was awarded in 2011 the National Prize in Physics from the Cuban Physical Society. His interests include quantum field theory and its applications to finite temperature problems in high energy physics and condensed matter. Among these, he has devoted special attention to quantum electrodynamics in matter and in vacuum in the presence of external fields, phase transitions in electroweak theory, relativistic quantum Hall effect, Bose-Einstein condensation in magnetic fields, and applications of physics to social sciences.

Colli, a biochemistry professor at the U. of São Paulo (USP), received his PhD under the supervision of Isaias Raw and did postdoc work at PHRI, NYC, USA with M. E. Pullman (1966-1968) and M. Oishi (1968-1969). Returning to Brazil in 1970, he established a group, at the Ins. of Chem. (IQUSP), to work with Molecular Parasitology, particularly with Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease. He was dean of IQUSP twice, and of the Butantan Inst. (the Snake Farm). He was pres. (2006-2009) of the Brazilian Technical Committee on Biosafety (CTNBio). He received the title of Doctor (h.c.) from the U. of Buenos Aires, the Great Cross Medal of the Natl. Order of Scientific Merit from the Brazilian govt. and is a member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. In 2014 he was awarded the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Prize for Science and Techn., the most prestigious scientific prize in Brazil. Since 2003 he is an Associate to the Science Director of FAPESP for the areas of Health and Biology.

Gupta was Emeritus Research Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Panamanian Flora, College of Pharmacy, University of Panama, Panama, Executive Director of the Interciencia Association and served as Director of the Health Area Ibero-American Programme for Science, Technology and Development (CYTED). His prizes include Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, AAAS International Science Cooperation Award, Interciencia Award for Health Sciences, and National Research Excellence Award, Panama. Member of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Spain, Iberoamerican Academy of Pharmacy, Latin American Academy of Science, and distinguished scientist of the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation Panama. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from two universities. He has been the consultant to WHO, UNIDO, and ICS Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. He served on ICSU Regional Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean. Author of approx.300 peer-reviewed publications and 5 books.

Cetto Kramis is a Research Professor at the Institute of Physics, a lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences, and the Director of the Museum of Light, at the National University of Mexico (UNAM). Cetto Kramis has contributed to the development of stochastic quantum mechanics and stochastic electrodynamics. She served as Deputy Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 2003 to 2010 and is founding President of Latindex. Her awards include: Golden Award, International League of Humanists; Prize for the Development of Physics and Prize for Research in Physics, Mexican Physics Society; Award Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, UNAM; Mexico's Woman of the Year, 2003; Premio Juchiman de Plata, Mexico, and hon. doctorates from Tajik State National University and UNAPEC, Dominican Republic. She is a member of: Academia Mexicana de Ciencias; American Physical Society; Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre Mer; OWSD; and World Future Council.

Chuchani is most known for his important research in homogeneous, unimolecular gas phase pyrolysis or elimination of organic molecules and, in particular, about their mechanisms. Through this work, he has provided highly reliable data and a number of challenging problems to quantum chemistry, reaction kinetics, and organic reactivity. Conceptually, his research has broadened the area of mechanistic organic chemistry to the gas phase, where it can be connected to gas phase ion chemistry. He is emeritus professor in Chemistry, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC) in Caracas, Venezuela. He has received several international and national awards, including Venezuela's Premio Nacional de Ciencia, and is a member of many scientific academies and societies.

Castellanos Serra obtained her Doctorate in Chemistry in 1978 from U. of Paris XI (France), and in 2008 her 'Habilitation'. She is one of the founders of Cuban Biotechnology, first at the Center for Biological Research, and next at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, as group leader in Protein Chemistry and Proteomics, Div. of Phys. Chem. and Snr Prof., Fac. of Chem. Engg. and the Fac. of Chem. at the U. of Havana. Her main contributions are in the field of development of new methods in Protein Chemistry and Proteomics. She also trains and advises young scientists in the craft of scientific publishing. Her honours include: Cuban Natl Prize in Chemistry; Natl Award in Sciences Carlos J. Finlay; Natl Forum on Sci. and Techn. Award; and Sophia Kowalewskaya Award (USA). She has been incorporated into the Cuban Directory of Relevant Professors of XXth Century.

Simis is emeritus full prof., Federal U. of Pernambuco, Brazil, and presently a FAPESP Vis. Sen. Researcher at ICMC-USP. He is First Class research grant recipient from the Brazilian Research Council. He earned his PhD from Queen's U., Canada. In Brazil, he was prof. at IMPA in Rio de Janeiro until 1980. He was president of the Brazilian Mathematical Society and has been member on several occasions of international commissions of the IMU and TWAS. He has been director of 3 workshops in his field at the ICTP. He is a recipient of the Natl. Medal Grã-Cruz for Scientific Merit, Min. of Science and Technology, and was a JS Guggenheim Fellow. He has been awarded other fellowships from the Max-Planck-Institut, Japan Soc. for Promotion of Science and the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica. He is a member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences and serves on several committees in Brazil. His mathematical work concerns the interlaciing of commutative algebra and algebraic geometry.

Ramkissoon is Professor Emeritus, Univ. of the West Indies (UWI), and former Independent Senator in the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. He was educated at UWI, the Univ. of Toronto and the Univ. of Calgary, and has spent most of his teaching career at UWI. He has made notable contributions to understanding micropolar and micro-continuum fluids and Marangoni instabilities, and has played a pivotal role in the advancement of science in the Caribbean region. He was awarded the Chaconia Gold Medal, Trinidad and Tobago; the Academic Gold Medal from Simon Bolivar University, Venezuela; the First CARICOM Science Award; and an hon. D.Sc., University of Technology, Jamaica. He is a Fellow of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences and of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and a Corresponding Member of the Cuban and Venezuelan science academies.

Linden is Full Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenesis, and former Director (2004-2007) of the Institute of Biophysics Carlos Chagas Filho, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His research work is directed at mechanisms of development of the central nervous system and neurodegeneration. His achievements in cellular neurobiology have led him to become a senior investigator of the Brazilian National Research Council and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 2002. He received the Grand-Cross of the Brazilian National Order of Scientific Merit in 2007. He is also a senior member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (1998) and member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences (1999).