Prof Falade is Director of the Institute for Advanced Medical Research & Training at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (UI) in Nigeria. She was appointed Lecturer 1 in Pharmacology & Therapeutics, UI in 1994 and rose through the ranks to the grade of Professor in 2008.

Prof Falade graduated MBBS with distinction in Paediatrics from University of Ibadan wining the

Glaxo-Welcome and Departmental Prizes in Paediatrics. She holds the Fellowships of both the National and West African Postgraduate Medical Colleges and MSc in Pharmacology. She is a Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist to the University College Hospital, Ibadan and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science.

Today, Catherine Falade is one of Nigeria’s leading experts in malaria research. Her research efforts have focused on malaria in the most vulnerable sub-segments of the population - children and pregnant women. She has successfully adopted interdisciplinary framework to foster partnership with other researchers locally and internationally to explore malaria control strategies across family, community and healthcare context. Professor Falade is competent in the laboratory and field sites in the pursuit of malaria diagnosis and therapy as a laboratory scientist and clinician.

Professor Daar was born in Tanzania. He is Professor of Clinical Public Health; Global Health; and Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is also a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s Scientific Board and UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee. He was the founding Chair of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases and the founding chair of the Advisory Board of the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health.  

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, The World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (TWAS), the African Academy of Sciences, the Islamic World Academy of Sciences and the New York Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. 

Abdallah works with three funding agencies: he is a member of the Board of Directors of Genome Canada, a member of the Board of the World Diabetes Foundation, and he chairs the International Scientific Advisory Board of Grand Challenges Canada. 

After medical schools in Uganda and London he went to the University of Oxford where he undertook postgraduate clinical training in surgery and also in internal medicine, obtained a DPhil (PhD) in immunology, and did a fellowship in organ transplantation. He was a clinical lecturer in the Nuffield Dept. of Surgery at Oxford University for several years before going to the Middle East to help start two medical schools. He was the foundation chair of surgery at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman for a decade before moving to the University of Toronto in 2001.

Professor Daar's academic career has spanned biomedical sciences, organ transplantation, surgery, bioethics and global health. He has worked in various advisory or consulting capacities with the UN, the World Health Organization and UNESCO, and was a member of the African Union High Level Panel on Modern Biotechnology. He chaired the 4th External Review of the WHO/WORLD BANK/UNDP/UNICEF Special Programme on Tropical Diseases and Training (TDR).

His international awards include the Patey Prize of the Surgical Society of Great Britain, the Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics of Science and the Anthony Miller Prize for Research Excellence at the University of Toronto. He holds the official world record for performing the youngest cadaveric-donor kidney transplant. 

His major research focus is on the use of life sciences to ameliorate global health inequities, with a particular focus on building scientific capacity and increasing innovation in developing countries, in addition to studying how life sciences technologies can be rapidly taken from “lab to village”. He has published over 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals and as chapters in various books. He has also published six books including the latest one co-authored with Peter Singer, The Grandest Challenge: Taking Life-Saving Science from Lab to Village. He is currently working on his seventh book titled Garment of Destiny.

He has recently been appointed chair of the International Strategic and Scientific Advisory Board (ISSAB) of the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA).

As Chairperson of the Department of History of Addis Ababa University, Prof Zewde fostered a vibrant tradition of annual departmental seminars and co-organised two Eastern African History Conferences as well as starting a collaborative research project on Ethiopian land tenure with the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. As Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Prof Zewde directed a SSRC-funded project for the compilation of a Catalogue of Clandestine Literature in Ethiopia, initiated the South Omo Research Center, and convened the Adwa Centenary International Conference in February-March 1996.

As Executive Director of the Forum for Social Studies, he led a number of policy research projects, raised its culture of policy dialogue to the highest level as well as organizing the first international conference on civil society. 

He participated in a number of CODESRIA research networks and has been editing its journal, Africa Review of Books, since 2004. Prof Zewde has supervised scores of theses and dissertations and mentored a number of young historians and authored four books, edited or co-edited eight others and published dozens of articles.

His prizes and awards include: the British Council Scholarship, 1972-1976; British Academy Fellowship, June-September 1983; French Government research grant, July-September 1986; Japan Foundation Fellow, January-March 1991; USIA and NEH Visiting Scholar, Boston University, July-September, 1991; Visiting Fellow, St. Cross College and St. Antony's College, Oxford University, Michaelmas Term 1992; Golden Jubilee Award for "diligence, exemplary conduct and outstanding contribution", Addis Ababa University, 11 December 2000; Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study), Berlin, October 2010-July 2011; Founding Fellow and Vice President of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences since 2010.

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.

Prof Viljoen leads an African Consortium dealing with Foc TR4, a plant pathogenic fungus threatening food security on the African continent), and coordinates the African Mycotoxin Network . He led the Global Promusa Fusarium Wilt Working Group from 2003 to 2007, and is currently helping the FAO to establish a Global program on Foc TR4. He organised the International ISHS/ProMusa Symposium on Banana Crop Protection for Sustainable Production and Improved Livelihoods in 2007, served as member of numerous scientific committees and working groups, and acted as keynote speaker at many international conferences worldwide.

He serves as consultant on banana Fusarium wilt internationally and was selected a Chinese National Foreigner Expert in 2014. Viljoen is partner of a CGIAR-funded project on maize breeding in Africa, and a BMGF project on banana breeding in Africa. He is also organizer of the first African Mycotoxin Symposium that will be hosted in 2015.

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

• South African Society of Plant Pathology
• American Phytopathological Society
• British Society of Plant Pathology
• International Society of Horticultural Sciences.

Over the course of her career, Prof Sang has secured funding of about US $ 10M (WHO/TDR, GEIS, USDA, CNHR, Google.org, SIDA, IDRC, Biovision, NIH) and published important findings on Arbovirus ecology, epidemiology, surveillance, discovery and Outbreak Investigations. 2002 – 2014. 

She is and has been a member of the World Health Organization expert committees covering the International Health Regulation (IHR) Roster of experts, in Rift Valley Fever 2013-2016; Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, 2002 - 2014; WHO scientific working group to review dengue knowledge, set priorities for future research, 2006; Advisory group of independent experts (AGIES) Review smallpox Research  & make recommendations to WHA 2010-2013.

She has also supervised 15  masters and 13 PhD, students and four postdoctoral fellows.

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

• Exemplary contribution in Rift Valley Fever outbreak investigations in Kenya 2006/07, Centre
• For Disease Control (CDC), 2008.
• Contribution to Chikungunya outbreak investigations, East Africa 2005, United States Army
• Medical Research Unit.
• Contribution to significant improvement in Identification, prevention and control of emerging
• Infectious diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference, March 2012, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Prof Dakora obtained his BSc (Hons) degree in Agriculture from the University of Ghana in 1977, an MSc degree from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 1981, and a PhD in Botany from the University of Western Australia, Perth, 1989.

He currently holds a South African Research Chair in Agrochemurgy and Plant Symbioses at the Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa; and is Fellow and President of the African Academy of Sciences. In 2012, he won the UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences, and the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Science Excellence Continental Award in 2016. He is a Member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, and TWAS Fellow. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor to the University of Western Australia for the period June 2012 to May 2021.

Prof Dakora’s research has contributed to our current understanding of the signalling and protectant roles of legume molecules such as flavonoids, alkaloids, amino acids, terpenoids and isoflavonoid phytoalexins, as well as of rhizobial metabolites such as lumichrome, riboflavin and indole acetic acid, especially in plant functioning and the expression of bacterial nodulation genes. His research has i) identified legume species and their associated microsymbionts that can serve as biofertilizers for cropping systems in Africa, ii) selected legume varieties and super-smart soil microbes that are tolerant of drought, low pH, high salinity and high temperatures for use in a climate change scenario, and iii) isolated native soil rhizobia that promote increased trace element uptake and accumulation in food legumes for overcoming micronutrient deficiency in Africa.

Prof Dakora has published 427 papers (which comprise 119 peer-reviewed journal articles, 16 Book Chapters and 292 peer-reviewed Conference papers/abstracts) and a Book entitled: “Biological Nitrogen Fixation: Towards Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Agriculture” published by Springer. 

He is the current President of The African Academy of Sciences

Prof Fahal is a high volume researcher in mycetoma. He has published and presented extensively in this area. Has is involved in collaborative research work in mycetoma with many national and international institutes. He is the founding Director of the Mycetoma Research Centre, University of Khartoum, one of its kind worldwide (www.mycetoma.edu.sd).  

He has served as the Director of Educational Development Centre for Medical & Health Professionals, University of Khartoum, was the Founding Director of the Self Evaluation and Quality Enhancement Administration, University of Khartoum.  He was the Academic Secretary OF University of Khartoum. Currently he is in charge of the University of Khartoum Library.  He sits on various curricula, research ethics, accreditations and administrative committees at national and regional levels. In medical education, he in actively involved in teaching and organizing workshops, training courses and conferences for medical and health professionals in the Sudan and the region.

Awards

• The State of the Sudan Golden Medal for Excellence & the Promotion of Scientific Innovation in Medicine - Sudan, 2000.
• The Ziber Award for Excellence in Medicine - Sudan, 2000.
• Premio Cabeza Maya - International Research Group on Pathogenic Actinomycetes (GIIAP), Mexico, 2007.
• The University of Khartoum Award for Excellence in Scientific Research, Sudan, 2010.
• FRCSI- Dublin-Ireland; FRCP - London, UK; FRCS -London, UK

Membership

• Local Secretary, The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1997 -Present.
• Fellow, The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1992 -Present.
• Member, Executive Council the Sudan National Academy of Science, 2007-Present.
• Member, Sudanese Society of Physiology, 1994 -Present.
• Founding member, Association of Medical Education for Africa, 2007-Present.
• Member, Pan African Association of Surgeons, 1996 -Present.
• Ambassador for North Africa, and member of the Association for Medical Education in Europe, 2002-present.
• Founding Secretary General, Sudanese Association of Medical Education, 2004--Present.
• Founding member, Global Academy of Tropical Surgery, 2004-Present.

A significant legacy of Prof Geyer's work is the establishment of the National Institute for Theoretical Physics in South Africa, inaugurated in 2008 with the participation of Physics Nobel laureates David Gross and George Smoot, and physics celebrity Stephen Hawking.  Geyer played the leading role in preparing the NITHeP proposal accepted by government and acted as interim NITHeP director from 2006-2008.

Initiated the African Theoretical Physics Postdoctoral Programme at STIAS (externally funded by Stanford University and the Flora Family Foundation); funding level R1,7 million
Organizer of the 4th International Workshop on Pseudo-Hermitian, Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics, Stellenbosch, South Africa, Nov
2005 (see http://www.sun.ac.za/workshop/); member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for other meetings in this international series.

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

• Academy of Science of South Africa (since 2009)
• Royal Society of South Africa (FRSSAf) (since 2004)
• American Physical Society (since 1998)
• South African Institute of Physics (since 1980)
• Organization of Theoretical Physicists (SA) (since 1978; as chairperson 1998 -- 2005)

Accomplishments

• 2013 Organised and chaired the 15th NAPRECA Symposium in Khartoum, Sudan  
• 2009-to date Scientific Adviser, International Foundation for Science (IFS), Stockholm, Sweden.
• 2007 Chairman of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Committee of Herbal Medicine, China
• 2005-2009 Temporary Advisor, Genomic and Drug Discovery Group, TDR/WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
• 1996-1997, Visiting professor, Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 1989-1991 Band Aid International research award, London, United Kingdom.
• 1989 Research fellow (5 months), Walter Reed Research Institute, Washington, D.C., USA.
• 1987-1988 Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Department of Structural Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany.
• 1986 Research grant, (USAID) Agency for International Development, USA.

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

• Africa Coordinator, Research Network Natural Products against Neglected Diseases, since February 2014.
• Executive Secretary, Natural Products Research Network for Eastern & Central Africa since December 2013.
• Member of Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods (RITAM), Oxford, UK, since 2000.
• Membership in American Chemical Society (USA) and Society of Medicinal Plants (Germany).

Prof Lall has been placed in the Essential Science Indicators list of the top 1% of publication outputs (citations) in the pharmacology and taxicology disciplines.  She is internationally recognised as a knowledgeable person with regard to investigating the potential of South African medicinal plants.

Her accomplishments include:

• Promotion to Associate Professor (1993)
• Promotion to Full Professor (2001). 
• Appointment as Senior Research Fellow, University of Pretoria. 
• Senior Research Associate, Human Sciences Research Council.
• Founding Member of Amoud University Somalia.

 Recognitions: membership in national and other academies, prizes, awards, etc
Honoured with the Order of Mapungubwe by the President of South Africa, Honourable President J.G Zuma in April 2014 . She is also a winner of the Distinguished Women in Science AWARD for 2011 at the national level. Prof Lall has also received a “UNESCO-L‟OREAL Award for Women in Science” in 2002.  Prof Lall has also received a prestigious United Kingdom Royal Society/National Research Foundation, South Africa and been Awarded a “National Research Foundation/ Center National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) postdoctoral fellowship” during 2004-05. In 2003, she was picked as 0ne of University’s “Young Exceptional Performers.”

Bakibinga, PhD (University of London, 1981); MA (Business Law (CNAA), London Metropolitan University, 1978); Dip. Legal Practice, (Law Development Centre, Uganda, 1976); Bachelor Laws ( Makerere University, 1975); Professor of Commercial Law, Makerere University, has taught law courses related to Legal System, Contract, Companies, Equity & Trusts, Commercial Law, Insurance and partnership, Legal Aspects of Business, Revenue & Taxation, Intellectual Property, International Trade.

He has also supervised over 30 graduate students in the areas, inter alia, of corporate governance, corporate rescue, corporate taxation, local government taxation and rates, acquisition and mergers, patents, double taxation, regional integration and harmonization of tax laws, value added tax, electronic transactions law, money laundering, microfinance, patenting of GMOs. He is the author of 15 books including those on Company, Contract, Revenue, Equity and Trusts, Partnership, Property and Trust; Transport, Intellectual Property Law and 49 scholarly articles. He is former Deputy Vice Chancellor Makerere University (2004-2009) and currently Secretary General of Uganda National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Bakibinga is Fellow, respectively of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences (UNAS), since 2005 and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), since 2016.

Prof Van der Walt is a leading international scholar, particularly in Constitutional Property Law. His book Constitutional Property Law (3rd ed 2011) is prescribed for a final year course at Harvard Law School as from September 2006. He was invited in 2012 as the only South African to join 16 scholars from around the world to teach and supervise an international doctoral programme, presented by the universities of Kiel, Glasgow, Antwerp and Tilburg, on Globalisation and Legal Theory.

In 2013 he was the only South African academic (in addition to two former and one then current Chief Justice of South Africa) to be invited by the Dean of Harvard Law School to attend and to speak in honour of Prof Frank I Michelman, one of the three most cited lawyers in the US.

In 2014 he was the first and still only non-US scholar to receive the merit award of the international Association for Law, Property and Society (ALPS).

His work has been cited in South African literature and court decisions since 1984. Significant citations in court decisions include central decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal. Significant citations in international sources include books and journal articles in the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Australia.

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

• Member, Academy of Sciences of South Africa
• Fellow, Royal Society of South Africa.

Prof Lategan is the Founding Director of STIAS (the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study), a high-level, interdisciplinary think tank and the only institution of its kind in Africa. The objective is to provide "a creative space for the mind" where Africa's leading researchers can work in close co-operation with their counterparts from all over the globe on issues that are of special relevance for the continent.

Lategan' basic training in classical languages led to an interest in interpretation and the conditions for human communication and understanding. He applied basic hermeneutical principles from linguistics, philosophy and theology to other fields like the interpretation of law, the writing of history, value studies and the facilitation of social change. This led inter alia to the design of an inclusive process for the development of common values in situations of diversity and conflict and the establishment of effective workplace forums. The process was subsequently implemented successfully in a variety of companies and organizations.   He was an executive member of the World Values Survey and participated in international comparative value studies and processes of democratization with colleagues from Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia."

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

• Member of the South African Academy of Sciences
• Member of the Board, South African Academy of Religion
• Member, International Advisory Committee on Human Scale Development
• Member of the Council of the Africa Institute
• Member of the Society of Biblical Literature
• Chair, FRD Committee for Religion, Classical Languages and related fields
• Assistant Secretary for International Initiatives, SNTS, 2009 -2013 Visiting Professor/Research Fellow at various universities in South African, Europe and North America.
• General Secretary of the New Testament Society of South Africa Editor and publisher of Scriptura, Tydskrif vir Bybelkunde/Journal of Biblical Studies
• Member of the Editorial Board, Biblical Interpretation (Brill, Leiden) Member of the Editorial Board, Neotestamentica.

A researcher with a considerable international reputation, Professor Diab has served on a large number of international bodies and played an active role in steering scientific research. In 2010, she was elected to serve as Co-Chair of the Inter Academy Council (IAC) review panel tasked to undertake a review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

She has been recognized for her achievements through election to membership of many Academies. She has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Maryland, USA and had a residency at the Rockefeller Centre in Bellagio.
In her capacity as Executive Officer of ASSAf , she has also taken a lead role In promoting many studies in her field such as “Towards a Low Carbon City”, "Technological Innovations for a Low Carbon Society" and the "State of Green Technologies in South Africa".

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

• 2002 Fulbright Senior Researcher
• 2002 Fellow of South African Society of Geographers
• 2003 Fellow of the University of Natal
• 2006 Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa
• 2011 Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS)
• International Association for Impact Assessment National Association of Clean Air –Committee member 1993-1998, Council member 2009-2011 South African Institute of Ecologists and Environmental Scientists –Board member 1999-2002 South African Society for Atmospheric Sciences –Council member 1987-2000 Society of South African Geographers.

Prof Gary Stevens is the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARCHI) Research Chair in Experimental Petrology (Tier 1) at Stellenbosch University and is also the Director of the Central Analytical Facility at Stellenbosch University. Stevens has an H-index of 23. His current mandate as a (SARCHI) grant holder is to produce significant numbers of high-quality MSc and PhD graduates and he has graduated 5 PhD students and 8 MSc students in the last four years.

All of the PhD graduates have published in good quality journals.  In his role as CAF Director, he has helped shape the only comprehensive, open-access, financially self-sustaining provider of analytical services in South Africa. As a result, he is frequently consulted by research-intensive South African universities on creating sustainable centralized analytical services.

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

• 1996 FRD President’s Award.
• 1997 The Wits Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award.
• 1998 The Geological Society of South Africa Jubilee Medal
• 2000 The Royal Society of South Africa’s Meiring Naude Medal
• 2007 NRF/DST SARChI Tier 2 Research Chair
• 2012 NRF/DST SARChI Tier 1 Research Chair
• Geological Society of South Africa, Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

Ahmed Faheem Zobaa received his B.Sc.(Hons), M.Sc., and PhD degrees in Electrical Power & Machines from Cairo University, Egypt, in 1992, 1997, and 2002, respectively. Also, he received his Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Exeter, UK in 2010. Also, he received the Doctoral of Science from Brunel University London, UK in 2017. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer in electrical and power engineering, an MSc Course Director and a Full Member of the Institute of Energy Futures at Brunel University London, UK.

His main areas of expertise include power quality, (marine) renewable energy, smart grids, energy efficiency, and lighting applications. Dr. Zobaa has made significant contributions to the advancement of power engineering with his participation in solving power system problems around the world. He has been a pioneer researcher in the study of power quality focusing on the design and analysis of the passive filters of their use in distribution systems and, particularly, for nonlinear loads.

Dr Zobaa is an Executive Editor for the International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology. Also, he is an Editor-in-Chief for Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy, and International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education. He is also an Editorial Board member, Editor, Associate Editor, and Editorial Advisory Board member for many international journals. He is a registered Chartered Engineer, Chartered Energy Engineer, European Engineer, and International Professional Engineer. He is also a registered member of the Engineering Council U.K., Egypt Syndicate of Engineers, and the Egyptian Society of Engineers. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy of U.K. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Energy Institute of U.K., the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Royal Society of Arts, the African Academy of Science, and the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Also, He is a member of the International Solar Energy Society, the European Power Electronics and Drives Association, and the IEEE Standards Association.

Dr. Segenet Kelemu, is the Director General & CEO of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) Nairobi, Kenya. She is the fourth Chief Executive Officer, and the first woman to lead icipe.  After more than 25 years in the United States of America and Latin America applying cutting-edge science that saw her garner numerous professional and state honours for an exceptional career as a scientist, Dr Kelemu, returned from the diaspora in 2007 to contribute to Africa’s development. Dr. Kelemu is a 2014 L’Oréal-UNESCO Laureate for Women in Science Awards, and one of the top 100 most influential African women featured in the May 2014 Edition of Forbes Africa. Dr. Kelemu was listed among the 10 most influential African women in agriculture by the Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security.

In January 2018, she was recognised by Bill Gates, as one of five ‘Heroes in the Field’ who are using their talents to fight poverty, hunger and disease, and providing opportunities for the next generation. In April 2018, the Women Economic Forum awarded Dr. Kelemu their highest award “Woman of the Decade in Natural and Sustainable Ecosystems” for outstanding leadership.  In 2018, she has been featured in The CEO Magazine, Australia, as one of the six exceptional leaders from around the world, breaking ground and shattering the glass ceiling.

She has also received other awards and recognitions including the TWAS Prize for Agricultural Sciences (2011) and an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University for her professional contributions to society (2015).  She is also a recipient of the  College of Agriculture Alumni Fellow of Kansas State University, USA (2019;  the Science Honoree of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St Louis, Missouri, USA (2019);  International Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (2020);  the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, New York (2020). In 2020, she was recognized and featured by UN Women as one of seven women “Devoted to discovery: seven women scientists who have shaped our world”; and by The International Climate Change Development Initiative as one of “five African women scientists to celebrate.”

She serves in various Boards, advisory panels in major global initiatives and has served in international juries of key science awards. She is a Fellow of various Academies of Sciences. She has been featured in CNN African Voices, the Mind of the Universe, the BBC, the East African, Selamta Magazine (an inflight magazine), Le Monde among others.

Prof Torto is the Executive Director of The African Academy of Sciences.

Prior to joining The AAS, Prof Torto was the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI), a national research institution. At BITRI he promoted co-creation and ensured that empathy was the value that drove the organisation’s initiatives. His other appointments include Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry and Head of the Chemistry Department at Rhodes University; and Associate Professor at the University of Botswana where he undertook several responsibilities covering Coordinator of Analytical Chemistry, Founding Director of the Centre for Scientific Research Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation (CesriKi), which is credited with the establishment of the indigenous knowledge policy for Botswana.

He has had an illustrious research career, which has seen him publish over 130 papers, graduate 19 PhDs and several MSc students, being cited more than 2000 times since 2012, have an H-index of 25 and successfully apply for patents for his research in material chemistry where his group employed electrospun fibres for various applications.

Prof Torto is a recipient of several international awards, including the American Chemical Society’s Young Investigators in Separation Science Award, the Award for Collaboration in Analytical Chemistry from the Nigerian Chemical Society, Osuni Chapter and is an internationally recognised speaker. He has also served in various capacities in pan African and international networks and organisations including being the Founding Secretary General for the African Network of Analytical Chemists (SEANAC); the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s Division V; and South African institutions, such as iThemba Labs, the Materials Division Advisory for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Nanotechnology Forum for the Department of Science and Technology, the Analytical Division of the South African Chemical Institute (SACI). He was Analytical Editor of the South African Journal of Chemistry and a SASOL Professor of Analytical Chemistry.

Prof Torto is currently a panel member of the Research Council UK, an editorial board member for the international journal Chromatographia and has given master class sessions in evidence-driven policy for the European Union. He is a qualified and accredited Time to Think Coach as well as Time to Think Facilitator and is currently enrolled for the Certified Ontological Coaching Programme.

He is a Fellow of the following science academies: the Botswana Academy of Sciences, the African Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has a PhD in analytical chemistry from Lund University in Sweden, an MSc from the University of Botswana and a BSc (Hons) Chemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom.

Ermias Dagne is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and is now Director of ALNAP (African Laboratory for Natural Products) which is a network of five African laboratories in neighboring countries. He is fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Science (EAS), the African Academy of Science (AAS) and the Third World Academy of Science (TWAS).  He was also fellow several years ago of the  Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (AvH-Germany) and Fulbright Fellowship (USA).  He is recipient of two international awards: IFS/DANIDA (1997) and IOCD Pierre Crabbe (2003). He has published extensively and has developed the Natural Database for Africa (NDA), which can be accessed on CDROM or in the internet (www.alnapnetwork.com). His research was supported by grants including local Addis Ababa University and International Foundation for Science (IFS), ISP-IPICS and Sida-SAREC (Sweden). With his wife Tadelech and daughters Dina and Beza he manages a family natural products business known as ARITI HERBAL (www.aritiherbal.com) (www.aritidatabase.com ). Ariti is now known for bringing to local and international markets a wide array of value added products through distillation and extraction of unique resources of Africa such as frankincense and myrrh.