Prof Balasubramanian’s earlier work on the photochemistry of the eye lens revealed the mechanisms of formation of various tryptophan-photoproducts accumulating in the human lens with time, and the roles that each of them plays in situ on the structural features of the constituent lens proteins and the properties of the ageing lens. Recently, he has been looking at the functional role of the Greek key motifs in the βγ-crystallins in central nuclear transparency of the human lens and in congenital cataracts. 

In collaboration with cell biologists and corneal clinicians at the LVPEI, he has been coordinating adult stem cell biological studies in the eye, and translating them into therapy. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed research papers, contributed to two books in biotechnology, and has published 6 books in popular science. As a science popularize, he regularly writes a biweekly column: ’Speaking of Science” in a national newspaper of India, and also appears on TV.

He has won all the major science awards of India, the TWAS Prize for basic medical sciences, the Khwarizmi Award for Medical Sciences of Iran, and the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for popularization of Science. He is an elected Fellow of all Indian Science Academies (FNA, FASc, FNASc), of TWAS, of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the African Academy of Sciences and the Mauritian Acad. Sci & Tech. Mauritius. He has been President of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2007-2009) and Secretary General of TWAS (2003-2009).

Fish is a Professor in the Department of Immunology & Associate Chair, International Initiatives & Collaborations, at the University of Toronto. She is a Senior Scientist in the Toronto General Research Institute, University Health Network and Adjunct Scientist in the Women's College Research Institute, Toronto.

Fish is the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Women’s Health & Immunobiology, a McLaughlin Scholar and was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Microbiologists. Professor Fish is the recipient of the 2015 Canadian Society of Immunology Cinader Award for outstanding research contributions and the depth and breadth of contributions to the community through training, leadership, collaboration and international activities. In 2010 Professor Fish was awarded the prestigious Vivian & Seymour Milstein Award, recognizing her exceptional contributions to interferon and cytokine research that have led to advancements in human health. In 2012 Professor Fish received the Canadian Society for Immunology Investigator Award.

She received her undergraduate B.Sc. degree in Biological Chemistry from the University of Manchester, England, and her Master of Philosophy in Virology from King’s College, University of London, England. She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, Canada.  

Professor Fish is on the editorial boards for the Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research, Viruses, and Arthritis & Rheumatology. Her work has been published in >150 scientific journals and she is internationally recognized for her scholarly research. A focus of her research is the investigation of host-pathogen interactions at the cellular and molecular level, specifically in the context of viruses and interferons. During the 2003 outbreak of SARS, she initiated studies to investigate the therapeutic potential of interferon in SARS patients. Encouraging results have directed her group’s efforts toward examining interferon activity against a number of emerging infectious diseases, such as avian H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses. Recently, her studies have focused on investigating the therapeutic effectiveness of interferon treatment for Ebola virus disease, with a clinical trial in Guinea. Another focus of her work relates to understanding the immune mechanisms that drive autoimmunity, related to rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Most recently, Dr. Fish has initiated research studies in breast cancer, within the context of understanding how alterations to metabolism influence the growth and metastasis of breast tumors. 

Prof Marsh established with colleagues a biomedical research programme in Kenya which over 25 years grew from a small project to an internationally recognised centre with 800 staff working in many African countries. His personal research group has made major contributions to our understanding of how humans become immune to malaria. He has a particular interest in building research leadership in African science and since 2014 has worked with colleagues in The African Academy of Sciences to establish a new pan African platform,  the Alliance for Accelerating  Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA). Prof Marsh contributes to a number of international advisory committees and is chair of the WHO Malaria Policy  Advisory Committee (MPAC).

Prof Zhang’s primary research interest is HIV pathogenesis, focusing on virologic and immunologic interaction during the course of disease and treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), and development of HIV/AIDS vaccine. He is the recipient of National Outstanding Young Scientist Award, privileged Changjiang Professorship. In addition, Dr Zhang has been the member of national expert and advisory board to the Chinese government and several other international organizations on HIV/AIDS-related issues. Dr Zhang is eager to expand collaborations and work with passionate, dedicated groups or individuals who believe that through combined efforts, we can make a broader and more profound impact on the control of major infectious diseases throughout the world.

Prof Joachim von Braun is considered internationally a leading agricultural and development economist. von Braun initiated research on food security, for which he became particularly recognized, in Egypt, and in various African countries, incl. Ethiopia, and West- and East Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. 

As Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) he successfully expanded the research agenda and decentralized the Institute, which more than doubled during his tenure 2002‐2009. He organized and chaired the IFPRI conference on “Food and Nutrition Security for all in Africa” in Kampala with about 500 participants.

The International research community of agricultural economists (IAAE) elected von Braun as President, and facilitated the tri-annual IAAE conference of about 1,000 Members in Durban, South Africa 2003. von Braun serves on the Expert Working Group on Food Security, and Agriculture of the High Level Panel of European Union and African Union.

Recognitions: membership in national and other academies, prizes, awards, etc
Honorary Doctoral Degree of University of Stuttgart Hohenheim [2005]
Justus von Liebig Prize for World Nutrition [2011]
The Bertebos Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry [Stockholm, 2009]
“Lifetime Fellow” of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) [elected 2009];
“Lifetime Fellow” of African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE) [elected 2010]
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancements of Science (AAAS) [elected 2006]
Member of German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) [elected 2011]
Member of Pontifical Academy of Science, the Vatican [elected 2012

Peter Neuenschwander is emeritus scientist of IITA and assists with biological control and nature conservation projects in the IITA-Benin station. For almost 10 years before his retirement in 2003 he was Director of the Plant Health Management Division of IITA in Cotonou. He is an entomologist who specializes in biological control and integrated pest management (IPM). He lead and still assists in projects on classical biological control against cassava mealybug, mango mealybug, water hyacinth, and others in 25 African countries. These projects led to permanent solutions of these pest problems. Through these projects he supervised numerous PhD students of African and European universities in collaboration with NARES, international institutions (FAO, CABI, Inter-African Phytosanitary Council), and donor agencies. He is a founding member of BioNET INTERNATIONAL, has a Recognition Award from the African Association of Insect Scientists, and is honorary member of the International Organization for Biological Control; he is well integrated and recognized by his peers. Neuenschwander obtained his PhD in zoology from the University of Bern, Switzerland in 1972. He then proceeded to do a post-doc at the University of California, Berkeley, US. For six years he worked as an FAO employee in an IPM project in Chania, Crete, Greece. In 1982 he led a small biological control project by FAO at the Centre pour le Développement de l’Horticulture in Cambérène, Dakar, Senegal. In 1983 he joined IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria, and moved to Benin in 1988, when the Biological Control Center for Africa was opened. He now lives in Drabo Gbo, a small village 30 km northeast of Cotonou, where he rehabilitates 14 hectares of forest, some of it old rain forest patches, and looks after a troupe of wild-living red-bellied monkeys, an endemic species and flagship for nature conservation in Benin. He is active in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (Benin) and, in 2011, edited the book ‘Nature Conservation in West Africa: Red List for Benin. Since his retirement he lives part of the year in Belp, Switzerland with his family.

Prof Gerhard Bringmann, Professor at the University of Würzburg in Germany, is a leading scientist in the field of natural products chemistry. He has addressed highly challenging, multi-disciplinary topics of natural products chemistry in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary way, with analytical, synthetic, computational, and medicinal facets – from the plant (or sponge or other biological source) and its cultivation to the discovery of novel-type compounds right from the peak in the chromatogram by hyphenated methods, the isolation and structural elucidation even in the case of challenging stereochemical features, the investigation of their biosynthesis, including the discovery of novel biosynthetic pathways, the exploration of their bioactivities (with an emphasis on tropical infectious diseases), and their optimisation by structural modification, and, together with scientists from other disciplines, the elucidation of their modes of action. 

The high degree of interdisciplinarity within his group is facilitated by his broad horizon in chemistry and biology, and further enhanced by numerous interdisciplinary collaborations, i.a. inefficient networks, one of them the SFB 630 network ("Recognition, Preparation and Functional Analysis of Agents against Infectious Diseases"), which he initiated and coordinates, with scientists from four faculties (Chemistry and Pharmacy, Biology, Medicine, and Physics) and from the Division of Tropical Medicine of the Missionary Clinic in Würzburg.
Bringmann is by far the leading scientist in the field of naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids from tropical lianas. He has discovered new biosynthetic pathways (the first acetogenic isoquinoline alkaloids, convergence in polyketide biosynthesis), has explored highly promising classes of compounds, in particular with axial chirality, to which he has delivered great contributions analytically, synthetically, and pharmacologically.

He managed to further enhance the impact of natural products chemistry at many levels by initiating and founding organizations, events, and networks, bringing people together and giving young scientists a chance to further develop, particularly in Africa. He has published ca. 670 papers from plant natural product chemistry.

Prof. Zeyaur R. Khan, is a distinguished agricultural scientist and a professional entomologist working for the last 20 years as a Principal Scientist and Leader of Habitat Management Programme with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya.

Prof. Khan has dedicated his 32 year career as an international agricultural scientist to advancing the science and practice of agriculture by studying and applying chemical ecology, behavior, plant-plant and insect-plant interactions to improve farm productivity to combat poverty and food insecurity in Africa.

He is responsible for the discovery wide scale-scale implementation of the Push-Pull technology (www.push-pull.net), and its subsequent adaptation to climate change for enhancing food security and environmental sustainability for small-holder cereal-livestock African farmers.

Prof. Khan’s work is a wonderful example demonstrating that creativity and innovation in science can provide practical solutions for the real problems of thousands of small-holder poor farmers and promote their food security and sustainable livelihoods. More than 500,000 people in about 57,000 households are now food secure thrthe ough adoption of push-pull Technology. Prof. Khan’s goal is to end hunger and poverty for 10 million people by extending the Push-Pull technology to 1 million households in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.

Prof. Khan obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 1980. Before joining icipe, he worked with International Rice Research Institute (1983-1991), University of Wisconsin, Madison (1985-1986) and Kansas State University, Manhattan (1991-1993). Since 2009, Prof. Khan also holds a position of Visiting Professor of entomology at Cornell University. Prof. Khan is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, London. In 2012 icipe has awarded Prof. Khan its highest honour by designating him as the first Thomas Risley Odhiambo Distinguished Research Fellow in recognition of his outstanding achievements in agricultural sciences.

In 2011, the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) named Prof. Khan as a co-winner of 2012 TWAS Prize in Agriculture for his discovery and wide scale implementation of the push-pull technology. In 2010, Prof. Khan was named  Distinguished Scientist by the Entomological Society of America. In the same, year he won the Nan-Yao Su Award for Innovation and Creativity in Entomology.

In 2010, Prof. Khan was elected as a council member of the International Congress of Entomology. In 2009 Prof. Khan was awarded the International IPM excellence award. In 2008, Prof. Khan was invited to present a plenary talk entitled “Push-Pull - a chemical ecology-based IPM strategy for small-holder farmers in Africa” during the XXIII International Congress of Entomology held in Durban, South Africa. In 2012 he was an invited speaker at UK’s Royal Society Scientific Discussion meeting on Food Security and was also a 2012 Sawicki Lecture Honoured Speaker, at Rothamsted Research, UK

Prof Borgemeister was educated in Germany where he obtained a Diploma of Engineering in Agriculture at the Georg-August-University Gottingen in 1985 and a PhD in Horticulture in 1991 at the Leibniz University of Hannover (LUH).

He is the former Director General of icipe in Kenya. His previous positions include: Assistant in the institutes of Plant Protection in the LUH, Postdoc, Associate Scientist, Senior Scientist at IITA Benin, Associate Professor and full Professor in 2003 at LUH. Since 2013 he is a full Professor at the University of Bonn (UoB) in Germany, and since 2014 the Managing Director of UoB’s Centre for Development Research (ZEF).

He was Visiting Professor at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany, Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Tropical Insect Science, and Editorial Board Member of the Bulletin of Entomological Research, and reviewer for various science journals.

His research interests contain: Entomology, biological control, vector control and IPM in temperature and tropical environments, biodiversity, and international co-operation. He has published >130 papers in peer-reviewed journals, author of 10 chapters for scientific books and co-author of a book.

He is a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of the UK, the Entomological Society of America and a member of various scientific organizations. Prof Borgemeister has active collaborations in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe.

Prof Thulstrup obtained his M.Sc. in 1967 and PhD in 1970, as well as a later Dr. of Science title from Aarhus University. He has been Associate Professor at Aarhus University (1972-81) and was Chairman of the Chemistry Department.

Later he was Professor at Danish Pedagogical University (1981-89) and Roskilde University (1993). Between 1989 and 1993 he was Senior S&T Specialist in the World Bank and headed the Bank’s S&T workgroup.

His research interests focus on polarisation spectroscopy of ordered samples; as well as science policy and economic development. He has developed a method for aligning molecular samples and performing optical spectroscopy with polarized light on them.

He has been Visiting Professor at numerous universities in Europe and the US. He has been a member of the EU Task Force on research evaluation and has headed many evaluations of research capacity building projects, primarily in developing countries, most recently in Tanzania. He has provided science policy advice to several developing countries. In the 1990s he was President of the Danish National Commission for UNESCO.

He is a member of TWAS, Norwegian Academy of Sciences, Mongolian Academy of Sciences and of The African Academy of Sciences. He has about 250 publications, including some widely used monographs on spectroscopy.

Prof Adams obtained his M.Sc. in chemical oceanography at the University of Washington (1966) in the USA and PhD in oceanography at Dalhousie University Canada (1973).

He is Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences serving at Moi University in Kenya and at the Center for Earth and Environmental Science at State University of New York – USA.

He has ongoing research in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  He has research programs involving studies of East African Rift valley lakes. His research interests include: Climate change, green house gases, oceanography, limnology, gas geochemistry, petroleum exploration, water resource and pollution, atmospheric chemistry. His awards include: The Chancellor’s award of Scholarship and creative activities (State University of New York).

He has over 90 peer-reviewed publications, abstracts and technical reports to his credit.

Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., PhD is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States.

Dr Laurencin is the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Professor of Materials Engineering at the University of Connecticut. In addition, Dr Laurencin is a University Professor at the University of Connecticut (the 7th in the institution’s history).

An internationally prominent orthopaedic surgeon, engineer, and administrator, Dr Laurencin is the Founder and Director of both the Institute for Regenerative Engineering and the Sackler Center for Biomedical, Biological, Physical and Engineering Sciences at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Dr Laurencin earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University and his medical degree magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School. During medical school, he also earned his Ph.D. in biochemical engineering/biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr Laurencin has been named to America’s Top Doctors and America’s Top Surgeons and is a Fellow of the American Surgical Association, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He is the recipient of the Nicolas Andry Award from the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons.

In research, Dr Laurencin is an International Fellow in Biomaterials Science and Engineering and a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society. His work on engineering tissues was honored by Scientific American Magazine as one of the 50 greatest achievements in science in 2007.

Dr Laurencin was named the 2009 winner of the Pierre Galletti Award, medical and biological engineering’s highest honor and was named one of the 100 Engineers of the Modern Era by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at its Centennial celebration. In 2012, his work was highlighted by National Geographic Magazine in its “100 Discoveries That Have Changed Our World” edition.

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Prof Sreenivasan was educated in India (PhD in 1985), Australia (post-doctoral at University of Sydney 1975 – 1977), and USA (post-doctoral at Johns Hopkins University).

He has a 22 year-teaching and research experience at Yale University (1978-1992 at the Department of Engineering and Applied Science) where he became Professor (1985).

His research interests include fluid mechanics and turbulence, complex fluids, nonlinear and nonequilibrium phenomena and cryogenic helium. He has been Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)of Italy and Director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology at the University of Maryland. He has served as a member of the Centre for Computational  Ecology at Yale University and member of School of Mathematics Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton; Chairman of Mechanical Engineering Department and Chairman of the Council of Engineering at Yale University.

He has also served as Editorial Board member of the American Scientist and of the Proceeding of the Indian Academy of Science series C (sadhana), member of the Advisory Board of Springer Book Series on Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics, Editor of the Journal of Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics.

He is a member of TWAS, American Academy of Arts and Science, Indian Academy of Science and several other professional societies. He has national, regional and international awards and recognitions and; has 200 publications (2005)

Rao is Linus Pauling research professor and Hon. president, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. After obtaining his PhD at Purdue U. and completing postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, he returned to India in 1959 and has since worked in various capacities at the Ind. Inst. of Science and other institutions. His honours include: 77 honorary causa doctorates; Hughes and Royal Medals of the Royal Society, London; Einstein Gold Medal, UNESCO; India Science Prize; Dan David Prize; Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize; dist. research professor, U. of Cambridge; laureate, Khwarizmi Intl. Award, Iran; Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, by Emperor of Japan, Order of Friendship of Russia, Chevalier De La Legion D'Honneur of France. He was conferred the highest award for materials research, the von Hippel award by the Materials Society in 2017. He is a member of 27 science academies including the Royal Society, US National Academy of Sciences, and Pontifical, Australian, Canadian, Russian, Brazilian, French and Japan academies. He is the recipient of the highest civilian honour of India, Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India).

Walter E. Massey, Ph.D., is President Emeritus of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and of Morehouse College, and Retired Chairman of Bank of America.

He has been provost and senior vice president for academic affairs of the University of California System. where he was responsible for  academic and research planning and policy, budget planning and allocations, and programmatic oversight of three Department of Energy   National laboratories: Los Alamos,  Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley

A prominent physicist, Massey has served as Director of the Argonne National Laboratory, Vice president for Research, and professor of physics at the University of Chicago. He also served as Director of the National Science Foundation from 1991 to 1993. Additional credentials in Massey's career in academics includes serving as Professor of Physics and Dean of the College at Brown University.In the corporate sector Massey has served as a director and Chairman of Bank of America, and a director of   the First National Bank of Chicago, Delta Airlines, McDonald’s, Amoco and British Petroleum, and Motorola, among others. Massey has notably been the recipient of more than 40 honorary degrees from institutions that include Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Northwestern, Amherst, and Ohio State. Much of his research has involved   theories of quantum liquids and solids, and he has written about university-industry partnerships and the issue of technology transfer. More specifically, he has addressed the distribution of skills among institutions, and the need to develop greater accessibility to new technology and materials. Throughout his academic career, Massey has been an advocate for issues surrounding minority students and education. He developed and directed the Inner-City Teachers of Science Program (ICTOS) while at Brown University, where college students studying education became tutors and mentors in urban classrooms.

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