Iqbal Parker is founding director of the ICGEB, Cape Town Component; member, exec. committee, IUBMB; founder sec. gen. of FASBMB; vice President of Acad. Science of SA. He obtained his PhD from UCT in 1979. He and his team have identified a novel transcription factor responsible for transcriptional modulation of collagen gene expression and identified several genetic polymorphisms that are important in gene-environment interaction in the aetiology of oesophageal cancer. His awards include: DST/NRF research chair in cancer biology, an MRC funded Oesophageal Cancer Research Group; Outstanding Scientist Award by the Natl. Science and Technology Forum; Gold Medal from the South African Soc. for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Oettle Memorial Medal from the Cancer Association of SA. He is founding member of ASSAf and member of Islamic World Academy of Sciences.

Ghirmai Negash is a professor of English & Postcolonial Literatures and the Director of the African Studies Program at Ohio University. He is also the current President of the African Literature Association.

He is the founding-editor of the Modern African Writing Series, Ohio University Press; former founding-chair of the Department of Eritrean Languages and Literature, Asmara University; former President of PEN-Eritrea in exile; and past convener of the African Literature Association (ALA 2011). He was also a member of the ALA Executive Council; member of the Faculty Senate, and Vice-chair and Undergraduate Director of the Department of English, Ohio University.

Negash received his PhD from the University of Leiden in 1999. His research and teaching interests include postcolonial African and world literatures, critical theory, orature, and translation. His main writings focus on the literatures and cultures of the Horn of Africa and South Africa. A multilingual writer speaking several African and European languages, he publishes in English and his native language, Tigrinya.

He is the recipient of several awards including,  STIAS and NEH,  and the author and translator of several books of criticism, fiction, and poetry, including: A History of Tigrinya Literature in Eritrea: the Oral and the Written 1890-1991 (CNWS-University of Leiden, 1999); The Freedom of the Writer (Africa World Press, 2016); Who Needs a Story? (co-editor and translator with C. Cantalupo; Hidri and Africa Books Collective, 2016); At the Crossroads: Readings of the Postcolonial and the Global in African Literature and Visual Art, Lead Ed., (Africa World Press, 2014), and a translation of Gebreyesus Hailu’s novel The Conscript from Tigrinya into English (Ohio University Press, 2012). Originally written in 1927 and published in 1950, this stunning novel provides readers with an African literary response to Italian colonialism in Eritrea and Libya. Negash’s translation of the novel has been critically acclaimed for its elegance and for opening new theoretical space for the study of African-language literatures and their significance in and contribution to world literature.

He presently advises a number of incoming and graduate students and serves on many M.A. theses and PhD dissertation committees in the African Studies Program, the Department of English, and the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts.

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He a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He has an extensive experience in teaching of Organic Chemistry and conducting research in the field of Natural Products Chemistry. For the last thirty years, he has been involved in the investigation of Eastern African plants for bioactive natural products. This has resulted in the publication of 90 articles in peer reviewed journals (h-index of 32, Citations 2692 in Google Scholar, as of July 03, 2020). He has also co-authored three books on medicinal plants of East Africa; served as reviewer to several international journals and examined some 30 PhD and MSc theses in Africa. In 2015, He is serving as a subject editor of the journal Phytochemistry Letters, which is the official organ of the Phytochemical society of Europe. He is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Natural Products and Journal of Ethnopharmacology as of January 2018. In terms of mentorship, he has-supervised sixteen PhD and thirty-five MSc students. He has served as the Program Officer (2006-2009), and later as the Assistant Secretary (2009-2013) of a regional organization called, the Natural Product Research Network for Eastern and Central Africa (NAPRECA). As one of the leaders of this network, he has been involved in organizing a number of symposia and workshops, and also coordinated postgraduate scholarships, which has promoted collaborative research in the region. In recognition of this he was elected as a Fellow of the African Academy of Science as of February 2017.

Desta Mebratu is an Extraordinary Professor at Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST), Stellenbosch University and teaches at Addis Abeba University Institute of Technology as a Visiting Professor. He is a chemical engineer by background and has a PhD of engineering in Industrial Environmental Economics from Lund University and an MBA in International Business from American University of London. He has more than 31 years of experience working for industries, universities and international organizations. He worked for United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for more than 13 years holding various positions. This includes serving as Head of UNEP Business and Industry Program and Deputy Regional Director for Africa. His main areas of expertise are: resource efficient and cleaner production, sustainable energy systems, sustainable industrial development policies, Green Economy and sustainability science. Professor Mebratu has widely published in peer-reviewed journals and co-edited the ‘Handbook on Sustainable Development Policy and Administration’ and the book on ‘Transformative Infrastructure for development of a Wellbeing Economy in Africa’. Professor Mebratu is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS) since 2016 and other Institutes of Advanced Studies.

Nigel C Bennett is a professor of zoology at the University of Pretoria (UP) and also occupies the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation (NRF) Research Chair in the field of Mammalian Behavioural Ecology and Physiology and the UP Austin Roberts Chair of African Mammalogy. Bennett’s research focus is ecology, animal physiology and behaviour using the African mole-rat as his model animal.  He and his co-workers have investigated the ecological and physiological factors that affect the control of reproduction and the evolution of sociality. Unlike other researchers investigating cooperative breeding in mammals, he has done so from a variety of perspectives. The strength of this multi-faceted approach is that it has led to an integrated understanding of reproductive suppression in mole-rats of a type that has not been achieved for any other taxa. His research has set the benchmark for our understanding of phylogenetic and ecological constraints regulating reproductive success and social evolution in mammalian species. His research record ranks him among the best researchers studying social regulation of reproduction in any group of mammals in the world. Bennett obtained his BSc Hons. in 1983 from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom (UK). After completing his PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1988 he was employed as a junior lecturer and senior researcher in zoology at the institution until 1995 when he was appointed as a senior lecturer in the department of zoology and entomology at the UP. He was promoted to full professor in 2001.  Bennett holds an A rating by the National Research Foundation. Bennett has published 399 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, co-authored a specialist book published by Cambridge University Press and has penned fourteen chapters in books. Bennett is the world leader in African mole-rat biology and in particular reproductive physiology.

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Ogobara Doumbo (1 January 1956 – 9 June 2018) was a Malian medical researcher at the University of Mali. He was recognised as a global leader in malaria research. He was the recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mali, Legion d'honneur and research award on Malaria in Africa.

Doumbo grew up in a Dogon village. His father and grandfather were traditional African healers. He first rode in a car as a teenager, travelling 1,000 km to sit his secondary-school certification exams in Bandiagara. He achieved good enough grades at school to win a scholarship for Bamako's National School of Medicine and Pharmacy, and completed an MD in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Mali.After graduating, he worked as a bush doctor in Sélingué, specialising in surgery. Several locals rejected Western medicine, and alongside performing caesarean section deliveries Doumbo had to prove that Western methods could save lives. He went on to earn master's degrees in parasitology and immunology in the University of Montpellier.He was mentored by Philippe Ranque and Bernard Duflo, who helped him return to Mali during study breaks.He graduated with a Masters in medical anthropology at Aix-Marseille University and a qualification in biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University.

In 1992 Doumbo created the Bamako Malaria Research and Training Center with his colleague Yeya Toure. The centre was supported by the government of Mali, the National Institutes of Health, the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Health Organization. Working with Abdoulaye Djimde Doumbo mapped malaria and chloroquine resistance across Mali and ensured government control initiatives were based on evidence. He was visited by Harold E. Varmus in 1996 and travelled with him to remote villages. He supported Djimde in his scientific career, supporting him to getting a PhD at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Djimde went on to lead the centre's drug resistance program and was the first West African person to receive a Howard Hughes grant. The centre works with the health system in villages, installing research units and training local nurses and midwives. It has several research groups lead by Malian researchers, over 200 permanent researchers and 60 postgraduate students. He established a grant-administration program, which has attracted significant funding and supported several generations of African researchers. Their efforts demonstrated the need for malarial control tools to be deployed on the ground, which influenced World Health Organization recommendations. Between 1996 and 2001 he directed the Tropical Medical Research Center Program, which was a collaboration between the University of Mali and Tulane University. Doumbo served as Professor in the Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases at the University of Mali.

Doumbo was the senior investigator for the drug trials of several antimalarial was on the health advisory board of Malaria No More and the Board of Directors of Muso Health. He was a member of the SESSTIM Unit at IRD/ Aix Marseille University.

Biography courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogobara_Doumbo

Kankwenda Mbaya Justin was born on June 20, 1945. He worked for the United Nations as Deputy to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (2003-2005). Prior to that, his positions included UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in several African countries including Burundi, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. He was also Division Chief and Chief Economist for UNDP Africa in New York. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his home country, he was professor at the University of Kinshasa and at the School of journalism (1980-1988), CEO of the Institute for Scientific Research (1980-1981), Special Adviser to the Minister of Planning (1984-1985), and Vice-Minister for national economy and industry (1985-1986). He has extensively published on DRC and African development issues, including agriculture and food security, industrialization, poverty eradication, conflict and peace building, development governance and cooperation. He is currently the CEO of the Congolese Institute for Development Research and Strategic Studies (ICREDES/CIDRESS), and International consultant with UN Agencies (UNDP, UNFPA, UNWOMEN, WFP…), AU and African institutions/organisations, African Governments, and other international organisations as well.

Kankwenda received his PhD in development economics (National University of Zaire), a Master’s Degree (African Institute for Economic Development and Planning in Dakar), and a Bachelor’s Degree (Lovanium University in Kinshasa). He is a recipient of several decorations and honors from the DRC, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. 

Bereket Habte Selassie is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of African Studies, and Professor of Law at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prof. Selassie was an activist for reform in Eritrea and a supporter of pan-Africanism.

Professor Selassie studied Italian language and literature in Perugia but did not receive a degree. He studied for his LL.B. at the University of Hull and received a Ph.D from the University of London. Dr. Selassie subsequently held numerous high-profile positions within Ethiopia, serving as Attorney General, Associate Justice of Ethiopia’s Supreme Court, Vice Minister of Interior, and Mayor of Harar.

However, Prof. Selassie resigned from the government in 1964 out of dissatisfaction with Imperial policies. Several years later he left Ethiopia, narrowly escaping capture by the military, to join armed guerrillas fighting for Eritrean independence. After spending time on the battlefield, Dr. Selassie left the war zone to serve as the representative of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front to the United Nations in New York City.

After Eritrea gained independence, Selassie served as the constitutional commission chair and was the principal author of Eritrea's constitution. He has also served as senior advisor on constitutional reform in Kenya, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Iraq, among others.

Prof. Selassie taught at Howard University and Georgetown University, before joining the faculty of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work in Eritrea has been well-chronicled through a number of books he has authored, including "The Making of the Eritrean Constitution: The Dialectic of Process and Substance" (2003), "The Crown and The Pen: The Memoirs of a Lawyer Turned Rebel" (2007), and "Wounded Nation: How a Once Promising Eritrea Was Betrayed and Its Future Compromised" (2010).

Among several Eritrean opposition groups, Prof. Selassie is viewed as a force for progressive change, free speech, and an alternative to the government of Isaias Afewerki in Eritrea. 

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Prof Shephard has served as consultant and advisor for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF). He has served on the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and was vice-chair of the 56th meeting.

He serves on the editorial board of a number of journals, including Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Mycotoxin Research and Food Additives and Contaminants and is a section editor of the World Mycotoxin Journal. He is General Referee for Mycotoxins at AOAC International and member of the African Experts Committee for Codex Committee on Contaminants. He is vice-president of the International Society for Mycotoxicology (ISM). He has served on various scientific committees for international conferences. Prof Shephard has published widely and is the author or co-author of 211 scientific publications, of which over 160 are on mycotoxin related issues.
Recognitions: membership in national and other academies, prizes, awards, etc.

• ISI certificate as among the top 15 researchers in the field of Agriculture based on citations from papers published and cited 1991 to 2001. (April 2002)

• First award presented by the World Mycotoxin Forum for services to the Forum in the role of speaker, chair, rapporteur and organizer. (November 2013)

Prior to joining the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in 2014, Zeblon Zenzele Vilakazi, was appointed Group Executive for Research and Development at the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (NECSA) in 2011, while also serving as the director of iThemba LABS – a position he held since January 2007. He also holds an honorary professorship in the Department of Physics at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Prof Vilakazi served as a chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Standing Advisory Committee on Nuclear Applications from 2009 to 2011 and is a member of the Programme Advisory Committee for Nuclear Physics at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia and Council of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf). Prof Vilakazi’s research interests include heavy- ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies and computational physics. He has more than150 refereed articles in Nuclear and High Energy Physics. His scientific achievements include Group Leader of the UCT team that contributed to the development of the High-level Trigger (HLT) tracker for the ALICE experiment at CERN’s (European Centre for Nuclear Research) Large Hadron Collider.

Prof Jonnalagadda has a distinguished teaching and research career of over 36 years at various academic institutions in Africa. He has undertaken pioneering research in the field of self- oscillatory reactions, popularly known as Belousov-Zhabotinsky systems. He was the first to report oscillatory phenomena with an aromatic compound, gallic acid, and has contributed extensively to the elucidation of the mechanisms of nonlinear reactions involving bromate and in evaluating the mechanisms governing glycolytic oscillations in cell-free extracts of yeast.  He also initiated research on the quality status of air and precipitation in Zimbabwe. He has established a heterogeneous catalysis research group and steered advanced research in developing new catalyst materials, including a wide range of mixed oxides, nanocomposites and a variety of functionalised graphene oxides, modified zeolites and mesoporous materials. Prof Jonnalagadda is also very active in the treatment of toxic and non- biodegradable material in water systems and microbial disinfection by using advanced oxidation processes. In the field of one- pot value-added conversions using novel catalysts with an environmentally benign approach and green chemistry principles, he has made noteworthy contributions. He has over 240 published research articles in reputed peer-reviewed journals and one book chapter.

Ebenezer Olatunde Farombi is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Toxicology, Fellow Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) UK, Fellow Nigerian Academy of Science (FAS), Fellow Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS) USA and Fellow African Academy of Sciences (FAAS). He holds Ph.D Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Liverpool, UK and visiting scientist at the Institute of Food Safety and Toxicology, Copenhagen, as well as Institute of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, University of Aarhus, Denmark. He is a former Dean, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Ibadan and currently the Public Affairs Secretary of the Nigeria Academy of Science.

Professor Farombi’s research areas over the past 25 years have been on Molecular Toxicology, Cellular Oxidative Stress Mechanisms, Reproductive and Environmental Toxicology, Antioxidant Redox Biochemistry, Nutraceuticals as Prophylactic agents and Nutrigenomics as well as natural product Biotechnology. His recent scientific reports have opened up new therapeutic window in influenza virus disease and progressive neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. He was cited and listed among top 10 productive researchers in University of Ibadan who contributed research articles within a 10 year frame (1995-June 2005)- (SESRTCIC, http://sesrtcic.org/statisticstate) and ten years later, following the inaugural February 2015 Webometric Ranking of Nigerian scientists, he was Top-rated (Ranked Number 1 Nigerian Scientist) according to google scholar citations now with H-index of 49, i10-index of 172 and 9,900 citations.

A very effective, productive and innovative researcher, supervisor, mentor and a University teacher of 30 years, he has supervised over 100 BSc, 150 MSc and 27 PhD students in Biochemistry and Toxicology. He is the supervisor of the adjudged best PhD Thesis in the discipline of Basic Medical Sciences withing the Nigeria University system during 2009 assessment by NUC. More recently, he has supervised the best PhD Thesis in the University of Ibadan (2018). He has published 260 scientific articles in reputable international journals, 18 chapters in books, and given over 100 invited lectures in countries spanning 4 continents of the world.

Glenda Gray, MBBCH, FCPaed (SA), DSc (honoris causa) and an NRF A rated scientist is President of the Medical Research Council. She is a Professor of Paediatrics in the Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is also a Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute. She was the Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit before joining the MRC to lead their Office of AIDS Research. She is the Co-PI of the NIH funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network and the Director of HVTN International Programs. In 2002, she was awarded the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award for pioneering work done in the field of Mother-to- Child Transmission of HIV-1. She is a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa, and chairs their standing committee on health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, of the
National Academies and serves on their Global Health Board.

Gray has also been awarded the IAPAC “Hero of Medicine” award for work done in the field of HIV treatment in children and adults. In 2009, James McIntyre and Gray received the N’Galy-Mann lectureship in recognition of their HIV research contribution in South Africa. In June 2012 she received a DSc honoris causa from the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

Prof Quakyi ’s research and teaching over the past three decades focused on malaria immunity, immunoepidemiology, immunopathology, immunodiagnosis, autoimmunity, molecular immunology and vaccine development. Research on malaria and concomitant infections with measles and HIV/AID has had equal attention.  She has substantial international research capability and capacity, having worked in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Australia, England and the Netherlands, and has garnered interpersonal skills and academic scholarship necessary for leadership to build needed capacity for public health.

As Principal and Co-principal Investigator on several research projects and North-South research partnerships, including Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health Programs, and Centre for Biologics and Evaluation and Research, US Food and drug Administration. She has contributed significantly to faculty development, research, curriculum development and knowledge translation and transfer. She has the experience, expertise and leadership skills in the fields of basic, operational and social sciences.

Recognitions: membership in national and other academies, prizes, awards, etc

• Fellow Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Member Ghana Health Service council
• Member PATH/MVI Vaccine Science Portfolio Advisory COUNCIL
• Nominated a National Voice for Malaria Free Future Advocacy Program,
• Elected Commonwealth Travel Fellow, 1982 by Trustees of the Trust Fund for Medical Research for West African States within the Commonwealth.

Prof Aklillu has a PhD degree in molecular genetics from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, where she became Associate Professor of Pharmacology in 2009 and full Professor of pharmacogenomics in 2016. She has a Bachelor of pharmacy (1987) and MSc degree in biochemistry (1996) from Addis Ababa University. She is currently serving at Karolinska Institutet as Senior Research Scientist and leader of her own research group.
She has a well-documented scientific track record for initiation, planning, execution and leading several clinical research projects in the field of Pharmacology as principal investigator.
Over the past 15 years Professor Aklillu has contributed to knowledge of the pharmacokinetics and
pharmacogenetics of anti-malarial, anti-tuberculosis and antiretroviral drug-interactions in sub-Saharan Africa. She has supervised 12 completed PhDs.
 

Prof Hanekom is the Deputy Director, Tuberculosis at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is responsible for supporting the discovery and development of new TB vaccines. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2013, Prof Hanekom directed the South Africa Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative at the University of Cape Town. His expertise in clinical trials and in protective host responses to TB has led to more than 120 publications. He is past president of the Federation of African Immunological Societies, and has served on multiple international advisory committees in TB vaccine development and translational immunology. Prof Hanekom trained in medicine and paediatrics in South Africa and in paediatric infectious disease and immunology in the US.

Prof Ozoemena was educated at the Abia State University (Nigeria) where he obtained his BSc (Hons) in 1992, and the University of Lagos (Nigeria) where he obtained double MSc degrees in 1997 and 1998. He left for South Africa in 2000 and obtained PhD in 2003 at Rhodes University.

He worked as Andrew W Mellon Lecturer at Rhodes University, Senior Lecturer as well as Extra-ordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria, Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Principal Researcher, and Chief Research Scientist at the South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Presently he is Professor of Materials for Energy & Electrochemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research interests are on the development of advanced materials for the next-generation clean energy systems (including lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, electrochemical capacitors, and fuel cells) and Smart Electrochemical Sensors (e.g., for diseases of poverty and drugs of abuse). He is a Certified Renewable Energy Professional (CREP) of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE, USA).

He is member of several professional societies and Scientific Institutions and has received different recognitions. Professor Ozoemena has published over 160 peer-reviewed scientific articles, registered patents (including a USA patent), authored and edited several books and book chapters. Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Board of several scientific journals including Scientific Reports (Nature), Electrochemistry Communications (Elsevier) and Current Opinion in Electrochemistry (Elsevier).

Born in Ethiopia (present citizenship Austrian)

Received a B.Sc. from the Haile Sellassie I University,Ethiopia in 1973, M.SC. University of Minnesota, USA (1976), PhD University of Innsbruck (1984), Doctor of Science (Habiliation), University of Graz (1995).

He has served as lecturer, researcher and administrator at the Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), University of Innsbruck, Mining University of Leoben and University of Graz (Austria) since 1976 to present. He is the 2011 recipient of the Nigerian Mining and Geoscience Society Award in Gold and a Plaque in honor of Prof. O. Oyawoye of Nigeria as a hard rock African Geologist, and the Luis Federico Leloir Prize to International Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation from the Argentinian Minister of Science in 2012.

He has served as elected, President of the Geological Society of Africa (2008-2016), and Vice President and later President of the Austrian Mineralogical Society (2011-2014). He is a Fellow of the African Science Institute (ASI), the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG), the Geological Society of America (GSA) and Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS). He has published over 260 research papers in reviewed journals and conference proceedings in the different fields of Earth Sciences and taught several courses in Petrology, Mineralogy and Geochemistry.

Presently, apart from his academic duties and other engagements he is serving as Vice President of the Advisory Board of the PanAfGeo Mapping Project (EGS-OAGS) and in the UNCE Expert Group on Mineral resources classification to develop an African Mineral Resources Classification (AMREC) and reporting code (PARC).

University of Ouagadougou and Rector of Saint Thomas Aquinas University. He is also Director of the Research Centre of Biomolecular CERBA / LABIOGENE He has published more than 150 scientific publications with an impact factor total above 250  in international journals that include Nature, Nature Genetics and Science. He holds two international patents and deposited over 250 DNA sequences in GeneBank.

He Contributed to exploring the mechanism of protection against Plasmodium falciparum in individuals with Hemoglobin S and C (Modiano et al.,2001,  Cyrklaff et al.,2011); to implement the programme for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission and to determine HIV anti-retroviral resistance (Simpore et al.,2007); to study CCR5D32, HLAB*57, DC-Sign that confer genetic resistance against HIV infection (Kagone et al.,2014); to characterize human papillomavirus that induce cervical cancer (Ouedraogo et al.,2015); to Discover for the first time in Africa Chryseobacterium indologenes (ZEBA  et al.,2009); to Identify the chemical composition, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative activities of essential oils of plants from BF (Bagora et al.,2014).

Prof. Simpore is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Burkina (ANSAL-BF) and member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), Vatican. Decorated Officer of the National Order, BF; distinguished Officer of the Order of Academic Palms, BF; Distinguished“Knight of the International Order of Academic Palms”, CAMES.

Prof Ibe is an Associate Dean of Engineering for Undergraduate Studies at the University of Massachusetts in the US.

He has made a significant contribution to the architecture, stochastic modeling, performance analysis and management of emerging communication network technologies; and significant accomplishment in engineering leadership and engineering education:

• 16 years of direct industry experience, rising up to the position of the Director of Network Architecture in major high tech companies and Chief Technology Officer in two start-ups
• As a network architect and director of network architecture in the telecommunications industry, he contributed significantly to the research and development of communication network products and services
• Won 3 teaching excellence awards in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UMass Lowell within a period of 12 years
• Sole author of 10 books on communication networks and applied probability, and a contributor to 5 other books
• Listed on 9 patents in different computer systems and telecommunications technologies
• Current citation of more than 1450, h-index of 18 and i10-index of 31 in Google Scholar
• As a faculty advisor of the National Society of Black Engineering UML chapter,  he contributed to the success of many at-risk black students who would otherwise have dropped out of their engineering programmes

Prof Ramjugernath has over a relatively short time as an academic and researcher supervised 65 MSc and MScEng and 24 PhD graduates, the majority in the field of chemical engineering.  In his capacity as Director of the Thermodynamics Research Unit at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and as South African Research Chair in Fluorine Process Engineering and Separation Technology, he built what is arguably the largest and best research group in chemical thermodynamics and separation technology in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the top 3 groups globally.

Prof. Ramjugernath has to date published in excess of 240 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 300 national and international conference papers. He has also authored numerous consulting and technical reports. In addition, he has published 5 chapters in books and has 5 patents which have been either granted or filed.

Recognitions: membership in national and other academies, prizes:

• Member:  Academy of Sciences of South Africa
• Fellow: South African Academy of Engineering
• National Research Foundation (NRF) (South Africa) President’s Award
• National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) (South Africa) Award: Exceptional Young Black Researcher over the last 2 to 5 years
• National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Award: Researcher for Research Capacity Development over the last 5 to 10 years
• University of KwaZulu-Natal Vice-Chancellor's Research Award

Nelson K. Sewankambo MB ChB, MSc, M.MED, FRCP, Professor of Medicine, trained in general medicine and internal medicine at Makerere University, Uganda and later in clinical epidemiology at McMaster University, Canada.  From 1997, for 11 years, he served as the Medical School Dean at Makerere University, and since then has been Principal (Head) of College of Health Sciences. 

He is a board member for FAIMER, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and an External Affiliate member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM).  He serves on the IOM Global Forum on Innovations in Health Professional Education.  He is the Principal Investigator on a multi-country research capacity building consortium involving seven African institutions and two universities in the UK, (Cambridge University and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).  He is the Chair of an Africa-wide initiative for Strengthening Research Capacity in Africa (ISHReCA), the Director of the Medical Education for Equitable Services for All Ugandans (MESAU) – MEPI Consortium, and Chair of the African Medical Schools Association (AMSA).

Building on his ground-breaking early HIV/AIDS research (1980s) in rural Rakai district of Uganda, he has had a 30 year effort of epidemiological and intervention research in HIV/AIDS research with nearly 200 peer reviewed publications. In 2012 him and his team demonstrated the high efficacy of medical male circumcision in the prevention of HIV transmission to male partners of HIV positive females. Prof Sewankambo has added a new focus on understanding the epidemic in fishing communities around the East African Lake Victoria, areas of persistent high HIV incidence possibly contributing to sustaining the epidemic. For 10 years now he has led efforts to develop the internationally renowned Makerere Infectious Diseases Institute known for its high quality HIV/AIDS research. He has also been at forefront of research in knowledge translation leading to the demonstration that a rapid response mechanism is feasible in a low resource environment to address policy makers and practitioners’ needs.

His awards include: Honorary Fellowship London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Honorary Doctoral Degree Johns Hopkins University, Doctor of Laws, HC, McMaster University, Grand Silver Award Karolinska Institute, FCRP London, External Associate Institute of Medicine, USA,  Fellow TWAS, Fellow/President Uganda National Academy of Sciences, Leadership Award AED SatelLife Center for Health IT.

Peter Vale is Professor of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa, as well as Director of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS). JIAS launched in May 2015 and is a joint initiative of UJ and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. JIAS aims to reach beyond the regular teaching and research routines of contemporary higher education by encouraging collaborative and focused scholarly initiatives in both the Humanities and Physical Sciences.

Born in Duiwelskloof (now Modjadjiskloof), he matriculated from Capricorn High School in 1965 and went on to do a BA Hons degree at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, in International Relations graduating in 1973. He then completed his MA in Politics at Leicester University, United Kingdom (UK), in 1977, as a full-time student, and PhD in 1980 at the same institution, part-time.

Vale started his career as a Financial Journalist in 1971 and moved into academia as the Assistant Director of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in 1973. He went on to work as a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the UK (1978-1979) and, later, as a Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Wits. In 1981 Vale returned to SAIIA as the Director of Research. Successively, thereafter he was Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University (1983-1988) and of the Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) (1989-1998). Professor Vale also served as the Acting Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Deputy Vice Chancellor at UWC between 1999 and 2001. From 2001-2003 he was a Senior Professor in the School of Government at UWC, before returning to Rhodes University as the Nelson Mandela Chair of Politics. In 2010 Vale moved to UJ.

Currently, Vale Chairs the Academy Advisory Board of STIAS (The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study), and the ASSAf Standing Committee on the Humanities. Between 2008 and 2011, he co-chaired (with Jonathan Jansen) the first inquiry into the state of the Humanities in South Africa for the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

Among visiting appointments, he has been UNESCO Professor of African Studies at Utrecht University, The Netherlands (1996-97); Fellow at the International Centre for Advanced Studies, New York University (2002); and Professor of Politics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (2008). He has also been is also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway (2012).

Professor Vale has been honoured with the International Medal of the University of Utrecht and Rhodes University’s Distinguished Senior Research Award. His 2003 book, Security and Politics in South Africa: The Regional Dimension, received the Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award at Rhodes University. He is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (MASSAf), a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa (FRSSAf), Lid van Die Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (LAkadSA), and Fellow of the World Academy for Arts and Science (FWAAS). In 2013, Vale delivered the E.H. Carr Memorial Lecture at Aberystwyth University, Wales, the most prestigious lecture in the field of International Relations.Vale has been a prolific contributor to public debate in South Africa and elsewhere, and continues to write on Higher Education for the Johannesburg-based national weekly Mail & Guardian.

Professor Vale’s research interests included social thought, intellectual traditions in South Africa, the future and politics of higher education and the origins of International Relations in South Africa. He has published extensively (both at home and abroad) in all these fields. His most recent co-edited books were on South African Intellectual Traditions (with Lawrence Hamilton and Estelle H Prinsloo),Critical Perspectives on South Africa after 20 years of democracy (with Estelle H. Prinsloo), and Political Studies in South Africa (with Pieter Fourie).

Prof Masresha Fetene spearheaded the establishment of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, which he now leads as Executive Director. Prof Masresha served as Vice President for Research of Addis Ababa University (AAU) (2009 -2013). During this period he established the office of the Vice President for Research with three directorates, i.e., Research, University-Industry Linkage and Community Service and established three new research institutes: the Institute of Biotechnology, the Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources and the Institute of Development and Policy Research.

He formulated research strategies and appropriate policies and procedures for successful implementation of the research vision of Addis Ababa University. He also initiated and oversaw the growth and expansion of graduate studies at AAU in the introduction of new programs (over 35 new masters and over 25 new PhD programs) and curriculum revision, in the growth of graduate student admission (e.g., PhD student enrolment from 360 to 1540) as well as in quality improvement programs such as visiting scholarship schemes and formation of consortia.

Recognitions: membership in national and other academies, prizes, awards, etc.

• Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences
• Founding member of the Biological Society of Ethiopia
• Research Fellowship, University of Bayreuth, German Research Foundation (1991-1992)
• UNESCO-ICRO - Short term Research Fellowship Award (Summer 1994)
• DAAD Short term Research Visit Award (Summer 1995 and 2003)
• Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (July 2000- September 2001)