Dr. Abbas Kiwae is a medical doctor, researcher, and project coordinator on the implementing EECC in Tanzania  programme at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science. His work focuses on strengthening health systems and generating evidence to inform healthcare policy and practice in low-resource settings.

Dr Abeer Ahmed Qaed Ahmed is a biologist investigating several different microbiology- and nanotechnology-based solutions to problems such as carbon emissions, drug-resistant pathogens, and fossil fuel dependence. She has studied the use of microbial inoculants in agricultural land to increase the carbon sequestration effect and improve soil quality for agriculture, as well as the use of microbes to convert lignocellulosic biomass into pharmaceuticals and other chemical products, as a more sustainable alternative to fossil-based products. Dr. Ahmed also works on understanding the effects of differing environmental and nutritional conditions on microbial biological processes. This can lead to novel methods to treat, attenuate, and diagnose multi-drug resistant microorganisms.

Dr. Ahmed has held research fellowships at North-West University, South Africa (2015) and the University of South Africa (2016-2017). She was selected for the BioVision.Nxt fellowship programme in Lyon France in 2013, and for TWAS/BioVisionAlexandria.NXT in Alexandria, Egypt in 2014. She is an active member of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA), and an executive member of the Yemen Women Association for Science & Technology (YWAST). In addition, she is a full member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD).

Alejandra Paniagua-Avila is a Guatemalan medical doctor and early career scientist dedicated to advancing access to recovery-oriented mental health services for all. She has a particular interest in addressing the health and social needs of people living with serious mental conditions associated with psychosis, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Her research is done in partnership with Maya Indigenous populations and other populations that experience health disparities due to historical discrimination and social exclusion. Her work draws from participatory qualitative approaches, epidemiology, and implementation research to design, implement and evaluate mental health interventions in rural Guatemala and other under-resourced settings. Dr. Paniagua-Avila has published more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and presented research findings at multiple scientific conferences. Her work has been published in high-impact journals, including The Lancet – Regional Health Americas. She is a steering committee member of RedeAmericas, a network of mental health researchers and practitioners across Latin America. She is also a co-founder of Asociación para la Salud Mental, a recently established nonprofit that promotes the recovery of people living with serious mental illnesses in Guatemala through research, capacity strengthening, and program development. She is committed to strengthening research capacity for mental health in Guatemala and has mentored more than 10 students and trainees, many of whom have pursued public health and research careers.

Alma Damasy is a project coordinator for the implementing EECC in Tanzania programme at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania. She has experience in health systems innovations, implementation science, and qualitative research.

Altantuya Ochirkhuyag is a distinguished Environmental Chemist whose academic journey has been marked by notable achievements and contributions to the field. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Environmental Chemistry from the esteemed National University of Mongolia in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Driven by a passion for environmental science, she furthered her education by pursuing a PhD in Environmental Science at the University of Szeged in Hungary, culminating in her successful completion of the program in 2021.

Amelia Fiske is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. She is trained as a cultural anthropologist and has been working in interdisciplinary bioethics settings since 2017. Her work is situated at the intersection of cultural anthropology, science and technology studies, graphic art, and bioethics.

Dr. Shaheen is working on improving the health care system response to gender based violence (GBV) in Palestine. She investigates the readiness of the health care system to identify and refer women victims of violence. Her primary goal is to improve identification and referral of victims by health care providers, in order to improve women’s health overall.

Dr. Shaheen’s research interests are related to population health, and particularly to women’s health, child health, injuries, violence, environmental health, and mental health. Her research has appeared in many leading international journals including the Lancet, the International Journal of Public Health, European Journal of Pubic Health, JAMA Paediatric, PLoS One, and Archives of Suicide Research. She has successfully supervised several master students, including many women. She also helps to facilitate the development and advancement of young women in public health research careers as a mentor of young research assistants. She is a member of her university’s research ethics committee, and is also an active member of several scientific communities including Child Healthcare Information For All and the International Epidemiological Association.

Most recently, Dr. Shaheen together with collaborators from Brazil, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom, was awarded a grant from the British National Institutes of Health Research to enhance identification and referral of GBV cases in reproductive health settings within marginalized Palestinian populations.

Dr. Shaheen was born in East Jerusalem, Palestine. She received her PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2009. Since returning to Palestine in 2011, Dr. Shaheen has carried out her research as an Assistant Professor at An-Najah National University, where she also teaches graduate students in the Masters of Public Health degree, as well as undergraduate students in health sciences.

Dr Anab Issa is a medical doctor and global health researcher with a background in health systems strengthening and Essential Emergency and Critical Care  implementation in Tanzania. She holds an MPhil in Population Health Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Anam Shahil-Feroz is an Assistant Professor at Western University. Her research program leverages digital health technologies to improve maternal health outcomes among underserved pregnant individuals globally. Working primarily in the Global South, she collaborates with patients, caregivers, researchers, clinicians, and communities to co-design equitable solutions. She has over 75 publications, secured $190K as PI and $2.4M as co-investigator, and received numerous awards for her contributions to maternal health research and innovation.

Andrew is a Professor of Obstetrics and Head of Department of Women & Children’s Health at King’s College London. He specialises in clinical trials in antenatal and intrapartum care including interventions to predict and prevent preterm birth, pre-eclampsia, and reduce global maternal and perinatal mortality. He has an active clinical role in management of high-risk pregnancies, including a specialist award winning preterm birth surveillance clinic. He is the inventor of the CRADLE VSA device, a recipient of the international 2017 Newton Prize for excellence in research and innovation, and a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Dr. Aneth Kaliza is medical doctor, health systems researcher at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, and coordinator of EECC Global Tanzania, with over five years of experience in implementation research and capacity-building programs in global health.

Ângela Gonçalves originally trained in Computer Science at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, where she focused on the development of biologically inspired artificial intelligence algorithms. Following a research stay at the European Space Agency, she was awarded a fellowship to pursue a PhD in Computational Molecular Biology at the European Bioinformatics Institute, earning her doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2012. During her PhD, she investigated the evolution of gene expression regulation during mammalian speciation and developed some of the earliest computational methods for RNA sequencing analysis.

She went on to conduct postdoctoral research in population genomics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. In 2017, she received a pump-priming grant from the Cambridge Cancer Centre Early Detection Programme, initiating work on the use of menstrual fluid as a model system for tracking somatic mutations in normal tissues over time.

Since 2018, Ângela has led a joint wet- and dry-lab research group at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. Her research focuses on modeling healthy aging and the evolution of somatic mutant clones in normal and pre-malignant tissues, with the goal of developing methods for cancer prevention and early detection. Since 2022, she has also served as co-lead of the Digital Cancer Prevention group at the National Cancer Prevention Center. Since 2024 she is full Professor at Heidelberg University.

Dr Anna Chapman is a Senior Research Fellow and Implementation Scientist who specialises in the application of theories, models and frameworks to inform knowledge translation.  She has a clinical background in nutrition and dietetics. Dr Chapman is dedicated to implementation research that aims to improve the quality of care provided to individuals with chronic conditions, including appraisal of barriers and facilitators, implementation of interventions and application of implementation science methods.

Dr. Anna Hvarfner is a medical doctor and PhD student at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania. She has worked on in global Essential Emergency and Critical Care research and training for more than 10 years and is researching the bottlenecks to EECC provision

Professor Anna Ugalde (PhD) is the lead of the Equitable Cancer Outcomes across Rural and Remote Australia (ECORRA) research program and is based at Deakin University. She is a cancer researcher with a focus on addressing health inequities through health services research. Her work is characterised by partnership across the sector, deep engagement with communities, and investment in the next generation of researchers. She has an extensive research track record and collaborates across Australia and internationally to advance research methods and understand and implement the delivery of better healthcare.

Antonia Morita has worked in developing diagnosis and treatment for tuberculosis. Her passions are infectious disease and immunology. She serves as a National Delegate in the European Respiratory Society (ERS), co-lead of working groups in the Global Young Academy, vice coordinator in the Young Academy of Indonesia, editorial board member in the BMC Infectious Diseases, and is active in UNITE4TB and other international organizations. Among her achievements, she earned the Rising Star Award in Prague, s long-term Research Fellowship from ERS and the Faculty for the Future Award from the Schlumberger foundation.

Dr Ashani Savinda Ranathunga is focused on turning industrial and agricultural waste into anthropogenic (man-made) soil for geotechnical engineering-related applications. She is a proponent of the “waste to wealth” concept, which is to produce green and value-added products from waste for sustainable and greener applications. Her research findings enable the effective utilization of locally available waste as secondary raw materials for economical and ecofriendly construction and development projects.

Specifically, she is using industrial waste products like fly ash and calcium carbide residues, and agricultural waste products like paddy husk ash and corn cob ash, to stabilize soft soil that is otherwise too weak for construction, contributing to greater longevity of infrastructure. She is also using the same waste products to rehabilitate degraded land and soil in abandoned mines, reducing environmental pollution and adverse social impacts. In addition, she looks at the effective utilization of shallow geothermal resources for energy production in rural areas of Sri Lanka.

Dr Ranathunga completed her undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Ruhuna in 2013, graduating at the top of her class. She received her PhD from Monash University, Australia, in 2017, where she won the best PhD thesis award and the postgraduate publication award for her work on enhancing extraction of coal bed methane from deep underground coal seams by injecting CO2. Her findings demonstrated the opportunities of using low-rank coal for CO2-Enhanced Coal Bed Methane (CO2-ECBM).After completing her PhD, she joined the University of Moratuwa as a Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering.

Assia Aboubakar Mahamat is a prominent post-doctoral researcher at the École Nationale Supérieure des Travaux Publics (ENSTP) of N’Djamena, Chad. She is a civil engineer and materials scientist specializing in sustainable construction applied Artificial Intelligence (AI). She was honoured with the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science prize and the Schlumberger foundation faculty for the future. Currently, a lecturer at ENSTP (Chad) and African University of Science and Technology (Nigeria), she develops eco-friendly materials from plastic and agro-waste, integrating AI for forecasting. With over 30 published articles and membership in societies like RILEM, OWSD and ASTM, she is a dedicated mentor and a passionate advocate for women in STEM. She has founded initiatives to carry out outreaches programme for inspiring girls/women to build Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based career.

Dr Augustina Clara Alexander is a civil and water resources engineer from Tanzania. Her research focuses on the areas of water supply and treatment, hydrological modeling, climate change and land-use impact assessment, and water resources evaluation and management. Augustina is part of Unlocking Resilient Benefits from African water resources (RESBEN), a project looking for a holistic understanding of processes and relationships of factors involved in sustainable water resource management and development while focusing on a novel research theory, methodologies and practice.

Ayse Kose is a bioengineer specializing in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Her research focuses on mimicking bio-piezoelectricity to improve bone and cartilage repair. She works at the intersection of material design, biomimetic intermediates, and animal-free science. She develops novel sustainable regenerative approaches to bridge biology and engineering in biomedical sciences by using organ-on-chip models, bio fabrication, bioprocess tools, and beyond. Ayse also mentors female students through The Bilim KızıTM (Science Girl) Project in Türkiye to support women’s empowerment in STEM.

Associate Professor Camille Short is a behavioural scientist at the University of Melbourne. She holds a Bachelor of Psychology with Honours and a PhD in Behavioural Medicine.  Her research aims to develop, evaluate and disseminate innovative health intervention and behaviour change technologies that can help bridge the gap between what is available in clinic and what is available at home. A/Professor Short brings extensive experience in co-design to develop relevant, feasible models of care.

Dr. Carl Otto Schell is a consultant physician in internal medicine and cardiology at Nyköping Hospital and researcher in global public health at Karolinska Institute and the Centre for Clinical Research Sörmland, Uppsala University in Sweden. He co-initiated the EECC concept, has worked on implementing EECC in Tanzania and other countries and with UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank.

Carla Fabiana Crespo Melgar is a biochemist focused on increasing agricultural productivity as a crucial step to alleviate hunger. With her research, she is investigating the potential of using beneficial microorganisms and application protocols as biocontrollers, biofertilizers, bioinoculants and growth promoters for crop production in Bolivia and the region, with the aim of exploring ways that they can be produced locally by communities or small companies, once the technology and application protocols are validated.

Dr. Champika Ellawala Kankanamge works on ecosystem conservation and pollution control. Her current research efforts are focused on controlling invasive macrophytes (aquatic plants) in river ecosystems, by restoring shade and encouraging the natural resistance of native plants to invasive species. By understanding the behavior of aquatic plants in response to changes in environmental conditions, her research will help to control ecosystem degradation. She additionally works on assessing pollution levels in aquatic ecosystems. Specifically, she is studying the levels of heavy metals in edible fish and shellfish in Sri Lanka’s Batticaloa lagoon, which serves as the main source of seafood for the local community. Dr. Ellawala Kankanamge was born in Matara, Sri Lanka.

She started her career as an engineer after graduating from the University of Moratuwa with a degree in civil engineering in 2005. Soon after beginning to work as an engineer, she decided to continue her education, and obtained a PhD from Saitama University, Japan in 2011. She joined the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka as a Senior Lecturer attached to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering just after the completion of her PhD. Since then, she has served as a teacher and supervisor for many undergraduate and postgraduate students. In 2013, she received the Sri Lankan President’s award for scientific publications. Dr. Ellawala Kankanamge collaborates with the Eastern University in Sri Lanka for her research on the Batticaloa lagoon, in addition to research collaborations with other government institutions. She has conducted research studies in Sri Lanka, Japan and New Zealand. Her research has been published in high-impact journals including the Journal of Environmental Sciences, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Flora, Aquatic Botany, Aquatic Ecology and Hydrobiologia. Results of her studies will contribute to local and global freshwater ecosystem conservation

Dr. Chao’s current research focuses on supporting students in resource-constrained environments to learn to program using mobile devices. Computer programming is a core course in most IT-related degrees. The ubiquity of mobile phones makes them valuable tools for students to practice programming on their phones. However, limitations of mobile phones, such as small screens and small keypads, impede their use as typical programming environments. Dr. Chao is designing supporting techniques to enable learning of computer programming on such limited devices.

Since obtaining her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town in 2015, Dr. Chao has received several recognitions for her academic achievements, demonstrated leadership skills, and community involvement. She was a winner of the 2014 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship and a recipient of the 2015 Schlumberger Faculty for the Future award for women in STEM. She was also named as one of the 2017 Quartz Africa Innovators, was selected as a 2017 Techwomen Fellow, was awarded a Leadership ‘Zuri’ award for her positive contribution to the Kenyan community in 2018, and was named as one of the 2018 Faces of Science in Kenya. In 2019, Dr. Chao was recognized by Okay! Africa as one of the women of African descent who are making a positive and impactful contribution to the youth in their communities. In addition to publishing her work in several international peer-reviewed journals and conference papers, Dr. Chao is also actively involved in the local and international Information Technology scene and is an active advocate for quality education and research. She was one of the committee organizers for the 2019 Mozilla Festival and is Founder and Program Lead for KamiLimu, an impactful structured mentorship program for university students studying computer science.

Dr Charlene Wright is an early-career researcher, research fellow and communications lead of the ECORRA Research Program. Her research focuses on how initiatives can support patients in resource-limited settings, ensuring continuity of care. She combines a strong academic foundation with practical experience, positioning herself as both a strategic thinker and an effective implementer in the field of health and digital interventions.

Charlotte Berrezueta Palacios is a Ph.D. candidate in physics at the Freie Universität Berlin, specializing in low-dimensional materials using Raman spectroscopy. Originally from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, she earned her B.Sc. in nanotechnology engineering at Yachay Tech University before completing an M.Sc. in physics at the Freie Universität Berlin, where she continues her research in Prof. Stephanie Reich’s laboratory, focusing on 2D nanostructured materials, a field she has been working in since 2020. In addition to her academic pursuits, Charlotte is dedicated to science outreach. She co-chairs the Nanoscience Summer School at Yachay Tech (NSSY), a conference held in the Galapagos Islands that promotes student development and community engagement. She received the 2023 Materials Today Agents of Change Award for her contributions to NSSY.

Chi Ying Lam is a researcher-practitioner working at the intersection of music education, community music, and healthcare. Her research takes an evidence-informed, interdisciplinary approach to examining how music supports wellbeing, social inclusion, and community development, particularly with migrant and marginalised communities. Chi Ying is a Lecturer in Community Music and Social Justice at the University of Southampton and Director of the Southampton Centre for Music Education and Social Justice. She is also a Neurologic Music Therapy Allied Professional (NMTAP) and a member of the UK Young Academy.

Colette Wabnitz is an interdisciplinary marine scientist. Her work explores how social-ecological systems respond to change and contributes to efforts toward more equitable and sustainable development in marine food systems. She works primarily in the Global South, collaborating closely with communities, researchers, governments, businesses, and other stakeholders to co-develop solutions that inform both science and policy. She holds research positions at Stanford University, the University of British Columbia, and the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Dr. Cristina Dominguez is a civil engineer from Guatemala whose research and leadership advance sustainable energy access and SDG7 across Latin America and beyond. She pioneered geospatial modelling to forecast rural energy demand, led the development of open-source energy access modelling tools, and has delivered capacity building for policymakers, researchers, community members, women and youth. Cristina is a full member and former Executive Committee Secretary of OWSD Guatemala, committed to bridging science, policy, and community action for access to clean, affordable energy.

Cristina is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine at King’s College London. A nurse, midwife and public health practitioner, she has led maternal, child and adolescent health research, with expertise in clinical trials of complex interventions and innovations, implementation science, health systems and policy, systematic reviews, data science and mixed-methods research to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequities in the UK and globally. Her collaborative work has informed national and international guidelines and policy. She is also a co-founder of the UK Chagas Hub and a Google Higher Ed Faculty AI Fellow.

Cynthia is a social entrepreneur and PhD candidate at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Nigeria. As a researcher, she is passionate about finding sustainable and climate-smart solutions to global water challenges. She and her team are currently working on producing biomaterials from renewable waste sources to provide solutions that extend our water resources, reduce waste, and promote a circular economy.

She has a strong interest in engineering education and is a student at the African Centre of Excellence on New Pedagogies in Engineering Education, ABU. In her spare time, she volunteers with the Centre of Water and Environmental Development in Kaduna, where she contributes to community-based tree-planting initiatives and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) programmes.

Cynthia is a Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Fellow, an alumna of the CLS-SustainFood Network, a member of the International Water Association, and Vice President of the Nigerian Youth Parliament for Water.

Deborah Braide is a PhD candidate in Materials Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal where she conducts research at the Engineering and Process Intensification (EPIC) lab. Her research focuses on membrane-based, process-intensified carbon dioxide conversion to clean fuels, leveraging sonochemistry to advance membrane synthesis, optimize separation performance, and enable sustainable processes. Deborah holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Chemical Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana and a Master of Science (MSc.) in Sustainable Energy and Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Deborah has received several academic awards including the British Chevening Scholarship (2018), the Tyler Lewis Clean Energy Research Foundation Research Grant (2024), and the Hydro Quebec Excellence Scholarship (2025). Beyond academia, she engages in energy and sustainability initiatives through consulting and outreach, with a strong interest in translating research into real-world solutions.

Dipuo Motshwari is a biomedical scientist and Senior Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council. Her research focuses on genetic and epigenetic drivers of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and related non-communicable diseases among African populations, with the aim of developing affordable, population-specific tools for early detection and prevention. She is part of the CKD in Africa Collaboration, manages a research biobank, and chairs the African Federation of Clinical Chemistry Young Scientists Task Force, supporting capacity building and collaborations across the continent.

Dr. Duleeka Sandamali Gunarathne is a chemical and process engineer from Sri Lanka, specializing in bioenergy systems. Her research focuses on biomass thermochemical conversion technologies, and she is committed to sustainable energy education. Duleeka has pioneered practical solutions for clean energy, mentored future professionals, and contributed as a technical expert to national and international energy initiatives.

Elibariki Godfrey Mkumbo is a Social Science Researcher at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, previously with Ifakara Health Institute, bringing 17 years of experience in maternal and newborn health, quality improvement, community interventions, and critical care research. He coordinates the community critical care research and CRISP group at MUHAS, and has a special interest in how behaviour change and mindsets shape healthcare provision and access.

Elizabeth “Betty” Sam is s a prominent qualified nurse-midwife, researcher, and maternal health advocate with over 40 years’ experience in Sierra Leone’s health system. She completed her Diploma in Reproductive Health at the LSTM and has worked with the Ministry of Health and multiples organisations, developing extensive expertise in maternal and newborn health, emergency obstetric and newborn care, mentorship and capacity strengthening. Betty is passionate about strengthening the skills of healthcare providers and improving the quality of care for mothers and babies and has contributed to operational and applied research to improve sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.

Dr. Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and holds the L.B. (Preach) Meaders Professorship in Engineering. She received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University under the guidance of Professors Anne Hiltner and Jim Anderson.

She then completed a UT-TORCH Postdoctoral Fellowship with Professor Tony Mikos at Rice University with a focus in orthopaedic tissue engineering. Dr. Cosgriff-Hernandez joined the faculty of at Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor in 2007 and the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. Her laboratory specializes in the synthesis of hybrid biomaterials with targeted integrin interactions and scaffold fabrication strategies.

Dr. Dauqan is currently Head of the Medical Laboratory Sciences Department at Al-Saeed University in Taizz, Yemen, where her research focuses on the antioxidant properties of vegetable oils. Dr. Dauqan’s interests are in biochemistry and biotechnology and she has conducted specialist research in sensory evaluation and organic chemistry. She received her PhD from the National University of Malaysia (UKM). Dr Dauqan is a dedicated teacher and an active member of the OWSD chapter in Yemen.

Eugenie Kayitesi is a food scientist, who is trying to improve nutrition, diet diversity and food security in Africa developing unique products from underutilized food sources, as well as improving their nutritional composition and health promoting constituents. The core of her research relates to indigenous, underutilized African plant-based foods, such as legumes, cereals, green leafy vegetables and fruits. Her work has highlighted the importance of using readily available and affordable food crops to create food products with improved nutritional, functional and sensory quality.

Dr. Fadia Alhaj Hussien is an organic chemist from Syria, specializing in green and sustainable chemistry. Her research focuses on recycling steel industry waste into catalysts for clean hydrogen and biofuel production, advancing affordable and sustainable energy solutions. Fadia mentors students in AI-assisted catalyst design, collaborates with industry, and leads environmental awareness initiatives, empowering her community toward a more sustainable future.

Dr. Fathiah Zakham applies biotechnology and bioengineering to the diagnosis and management of tuberculosis and other emerging infectious diseases. Her main goal is to develop rapid, accurate and cheap tools for the detection of the causal agent of tuberculosis and the control of drug-resistance TB strains, which are dramatically increasing, especially in low and middle income countries. Conventional culture methods for laboratory diagnosis and drug resistance testing require several weeks; the molecular approach is a good alternative in poor infrastructure settings. In addition to her work on TB, she is also using metagenomics technology to identify new zoonotic viral pathogens emerging on the Arabian peninsula, including hemorrhagic fevers. Dr. Zakham is working to implement the appropriate molecular tests for the diagnosis and surveillance of these infectious diseases. Dr. Zakham obtained her PhD in microbiology and molecular biology from Mohammed V University, Morocco, in 2012 and a MSc degree in microbiology and bio-engineering from the University Hassan II. In 2018, she completed a year-long postdoctoral fellowship in the Microbiology institute of University Hospital in Lausanne.

She has received the Young Investigator Award at the international Congress of Internal Medicine 2014 and the 2017 Gro Brundtland Award for professional performance in sustainable development and public health among young female scientsts. She also received the 2017 Fayza Al-Kharafi Award in biological sciences from The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Dr. Zakham is a TWAS Young Affiliate, a member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and international societies including the International Society for Infectious Disease, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Yemeni Society of Biosafety and Biosecurity, and others. Currently, Dr. Zakham is an Institute of International Education Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) scholar at the University of Helsinki.

Dr Flor de Mayo González Miranda is trying to engineer better landslide prevention for vulnerable areas in Guatemala. Climate change is causing increasingly strong periods of rain in the country, where much of the terrain is rugged. Due to poverty and the lack of governmental and private programs for decent housing, many people live in settlements on the slopes of ravines, where rain and other events make landslides more frequent. Landslides obstruct roads and sometimes bury entire communities.

Dr González Miranda is investigating how a specific grass in the vetiver family, Chrysopogon Zizaniodes, can help to prevent landslides. Through soil tests, X-ray diffraction and other techniques, she has shown how the plants’ roots alter the chemical, physical and mechanical behavior of the soil, reducing the speed of soil infiltration as well as soil plasticity. In addition to this work, Dr. González Miranda has also studied the flow of fresh water into Guatemala’s ports, and the thermal behavior of sand sericite as a precursor to mullite material.

Dr González Miranda earned a certification as a production control technician from Rafael Landivar University in 1986, and a bachelor’s degree  in industrial engineering from San Carlos University in 2002. She holds two master’s degrees in environmental science: from San Carlos University (2008) and Cadiz University in Spain (2009). She has worked as an engineer in various capacities, including as an environmental adviser for the company Superingenieria. In 2019, she earned her PhD in industrial and environmental engineering from the University of Almería, Spain. She is currently a researcher and Lecturer in the School of Industrial Mechanics at San Carlos University.

Dr González Miranda is very active in public outreach, training and awareness raising. She has collaborated with the National Council of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education of Guatemala on the TIC-STEAM project to provide training in programming, robotics and environmental care to girls in rural areas. She has conducted free trainings for women, youth and community leaders on manufacturing simple products, safety and industrial hygiene, and best practices for manufacturing, among other topics. She has also been interviewed in the newspaper Prensa Libre to provide expert analysis on Guatemala’s multi-million dollar Chimaltenango Bypass, which gave rise to a corruption case related to the project.

Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt is a nutritionist and food scientist whose work contributes to strengthen primary health care in rural Guatemala. She works in the most impoverished communities in Guatemala’s to provide health care in Mayan languages and contribute to reducing maternal mortality and child malnutrition, overcoming barriers to the treatment of complex medical conditions, providing optimal care to children and adults with chronic conditions, and promoting access to clean water. Her research is designed to take into consideration nutrition’s broad strategic possibilities, such as empowering women, increasing the availability of nutrient-rich foods, improving access to health services, and design effective policies.

Dr Gawsia Wahidunnessa Chowdhury is committed to conserving the aquatic ecosystems and threatened species of Bangladesh. In particular, she focuses on assessing the extent of and the risks from plastic pollution, which is closely linked to climate change. Microplastics and other plastics enter the waterways in Bangladesh from fishing nets, among other sources, and are harmful to threatened species and habitats. Dr Chowdhury is leading an effort to educate women in poor and marginalized fishing communities about how discarded Nylon-6 fishing nets can be turned into value-added products such as carpets and clothing, creating an alternative income source for the communities while protecting the wetland habitats.

Dr Chowdhury received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Zoology from the University of Dhaka and joined Noakhali Science and Technology University in 2006. She was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship to study for her PhD in Zoology at the University of Cambridge, completing it in 2012. Since 2013 she has worked at the University of Dhaka, teaching animal diversity, wetland ecology and other topics in zoology.

She has received many awards and grants, including a Wildlife Conservation Society Fellowship. She is a board member of the conservation organization WildTeam and member of the Zoological Society of Bangladesh, and has been appointed regional co-chair of the South Asian Invertebrate Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She is also a member of the Commission on Education and Communication and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. She is an alumna of the Aquatic Ecology Group, University of Cambridge.

Dr Chowdhury was the country lead for the National Geographic “Sea to Source: Ganges” expedition in 2019–2020. She was responsible for assembling a research team and organizing stakeholder meetings and for all national operations and logistics. Following the expedition, she led a World Bank-funded pilot project to turn the research findings from the expedition into a community-based solution involving several international technical partners. Dr Chowdhury aspires to get more women engaged in science education and conservation efforts in Bangladesh, and to make scientific findings understandable to the public:

Dr Ghada Dushaq is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Photonics Research lab of NYU Abu Dhabi. As a researcher in applied physics, she investigates new and innovative materials, structures and process technologies to improve the performance of high-speed optoelectronics, nanoelectronics and photonics devices. Her research on the use of silicon, germanium, III-V compound semiconductors, and other 2D materials is intended to improve the efficiency of current technologies and address their limitations.

Ghada received her bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics from Birzeit University, Palestine, with distinction in 2009. She went on to graduate with an MSc in Physics from the University of Jordan in 2012, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She then pursued a PhD in Microsystems Engineering at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Khalifa University, in Abu Dhabi under a cooperative program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 2017.

Ghada has received several awards for her research, including the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) Scientist Medal for 2018, the Post-Doctoral Conference and Travel Award from New York University Abu Dhabi in 2018, and the Falling Walls Lab prize in 2020, for her work on “Breaking the Wall of High-Speed Optical Communication,” awarded at the World Science Summit in Berlin, 2020.

She has published over 35 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings. She is also a reviewer for several scientific journals including Optics Express, Advanced Optical Materials, Scientific Reports, Applied Optics, Optical Materials Express, Journal of Applied Physics, Photovoltaic Specialist Conferences (IEEE PVSC) and the Journal of Materials Science.

Dr. Godfrey Barabona is an experienced health systems and infectious disease researcher and clinician. He holds a PhD from Kumamoto University, Japan, and a Doctor of Medicine from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania. He serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Kumamoto University and as an Adjunct Lecturer at MUHAS. Dr. Barabona leads research projects in Tanzania, dedicated to building evidence and implementing Essential Emergency and Critical Care.

Halima Twabi is a biostatistician from Malawi who employs advanced statistical methodologies and data-driven approaches to understand health issues. Through these approaches, her work identifies factors contributing to health disparities among vulnerable populations such as women and children and assesses intervention effectiveness, especially those affected by HIV infection, in socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Her previous work has examined the effects of maternal HIV on adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as low birth weight and perinatal mortality. Her research has also utilized innovative statistical methods to investigate the influence of unhealthy food consumption on childhood overweight, a growing challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2023, she was named a Young Affiliate of The World Academy of Sciences and received the 2020 L’Oréal-UNESCO Young Talent Award for Sub-Saharan Africa. She is a fellow of the DELTAS Sub-Saharan Africa Consortium on the Advancement of Biostatistics (SSACAB) program and a founding member of the Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (Gi-STEAM) network. She currently serves as the Treasurer for both the International Biometric Society’s Sub-Saharan Africa Network (IBS-SUSAN) and its Malawi region. She is currently collaborating on a project ‘Strengthening Women’s Research Network and Capacity to Address Women’s Health in Sub-Saharan Africa’ project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Grand Challenges as a country lead for Malawi.

Haneen Dwaib has a background in Nutrition and Public Health, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences. She is investigating dietary interventions to tackle obesity as a case of disguised hunger, since the lack of a decent, well-balanced diet causes deficits in the majority of micronutrients and occasionally macronutrients. Her research focuses on studying the gut microbiota and to find non-invasive early detection biomarkers of premature cardiovascular dysfunction and adipose tissue inflammation in pre-diabetic laboratory rats.

Hannah Jongebloed is a clinician-researcher, research fellow and psychologist currently undertaking her PhD. She brings extensive experience in project coordination, stakeholder engagement, and health services research. She chairs the ECORRA Advisory committee, who provide pragmatic guidance and support to the ECORRA Trial. Her research utilises are range of methodologies and she partners across government, health services and community groups to drive change.

Hawa Camara is a global health researcher, and implementation scientist committed to advancing women’s health globally. Currently, she is a postdoctoral Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) where she explores how cervical cancer prevention innovations, such as HPV self-sampling and point-of-care diagnostics, can be integrated and sustained in limited resource settings. She holds a PhD in Medicine from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). She also brings over a decade of public health experience across Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the U.S. She aspires to positively change people’s lives as she accompanies them in their professional and personal journey.

Dr Heyddy Calderon is working to provide secure and sustainable water sources for vulnerable populations in a region of Central America known as the Dry Corridor, spanning Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. About 3.5 million people out of 10.5 million in the region need humanitarian assistance, and 1.6 million suffer food insecurity. Precipitation can be scarce for long periods, exacerbated by climate change. To better understand climate threats and vulnerability in the region, Dr Calderon and colleagues formed a network of Central American water, social, and economic scientists who are committed to improving the population’s capacity to cope with climate variability and climate change, and to providing information that can help decision-makers and local stakeholders plan and prepare for the future.

Dr Calderon’s first became interested in sustainable water management as an undergraduate in chemical engineering. After graduating in 2001, she received a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to pursue a master’s degree in hydrogeology at the University of Calgary, where she focused on groundwater flow modeling. After graduating in 2004, she worked for 5 years as adjunct professor at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, Managua (UNAN-Managua), where she realized the need for an integrative and collaborative approach to tackle the impact of climate change in water resources. This led her to the UNESCO Institute for Water Education, now the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, where she completed a PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources in 2014.In 2018, she was appointed the first female and youngest director of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at UNAN-Managua, where she has worked since 2016.Dr. Calderon has received an International Science Foundation grant (2012) and the prestigious Faculty for the Future Grant from the Schlumberger Foundation (2012–2014). She has been invited as guest lecturer in water resources and climate change at various Central American universities and the University of Denver. She has supervised several PhD, master’s and undergrad theses and has collaborated with the National Water Authority of Nicaragua.

Hilda Mushi is a Principal Nursing Officer in the Department of Curative Services at the Ministry of Health, Tanzania. She has extensive experience in strengthening nursing services, health systems, and the delivery of quality healthcare. In her role, she contributes to the development and implementation of national policies and strategies to improve the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes across Tanzania.

Dr Imalka Munaweera is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka. Her research focuses on using synthetic chemistry techniques to produce nanoparticles and nanofibre composites that can be applied in a range of functions, from drug delivery to water filtration to minimizing post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables. She has made particular advances in using nanotechnology to produce environmentally-friendly and cost-effective crop fertilizers, and in developing chemoradiotherapeutic formulations and radiotherapeutic bandages for use in lung and skin cancer treatment.

Imalka first became interested in functional and applied materials as an undergraduate at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, where she worked on applications of iron oxide nanoparticles. As a master’s student at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, she gravitated towards nanofertilizer research, for which she received the National Science and Technology Award in 2010 and holds two US patents. She went on to do a PhD at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she developed an innovative approach that could ultimately enable clinicians to target and aggressively reduce tumor burden in cancer patients. She also holds two US patents as well as a Sri Lankan patent and an international patent for this technology.

Following three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Imalka worked as an Assistant Professor at Prairie View A&M University in Texas before returning to Sri Lanka, where she has worked since 2019.

Imalka received a Sri Lankan National Research Council Private-Public Partnership grant in 2019 and a research grant from TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences, in 2020. She has won several awards and has published many papers in prestigious journals including Nature Scientific Reports, Biomaterials and ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. In addition, she has more than 10 years of experience mentoring high school, undergraduate and graduate student

Inge Herrmann, an ETH Zurich engineer, is a Professor of Medical Technology Innovation at the University of Zurich, Balgrist University Hospital, and Swiss Federal Labs. Her lab focuses on developing the tools and technologies shaping the future of medicine. These innovations advance diagnostics and therapy, translating into clinical applications and successful ventures. Her achievements include the Eccellenza Professorial Award, Latsis Prize, and Largiader Award.

Iris Blom is a medical doctor, climate-health researcher and policy expert. She recently completed her PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, focusing on greenhouse gas mitigation in healthcare systems and its intersection with climate change adaptation, with a specific focus on Kenya. A Schwarzman Scholar with a master’s in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University, she brings a transdisciplinary lens to climate and health. Iris currently serves as Penholder of the Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health at WHO Europe, Working Group Co-Chair for the Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare, and Research Consultant for LSHTM’s Pathfinder Initiative.

Jane Sandall is Professor of Social Science and Women’s Health in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine at King’s College London. Her multidisciplinary research focuses on the impact of innovative health technologies, maternity care organisation and service delivery on improving experiences, care and outcomes for women and babies. She brings methodological expertise in systematic reviews, hybrid implementation methodology and implementation science to research on complex interventions. She has received a CBE for services to women’s health, NIHR Senior Investigator awards and King’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2024.

Jheannelle Johnson (@JheannelleJ) is one of the Rising Black Scientists Awards’ winners in the category of life and health sciences. After receiving her bachelor’s at Howard University, she’s now completing a Neurodegeneration Computational Fellowship at Stanford University, where her work centers on understanding cell vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease. She also serves as the development director for the non-profit organization Black in Neuro, whose aim is to empower Black scholars and professionals in neuroscience. In her essay “The sounds of music: Tracing memories and pathways through research and resistance,” she shares how music offered her a window to connect with her grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and this musical connection sparked her journey into studying both the molecular and societal underpinnings of the disease.  

Dr. Karima Khalid is a Lecturer and Senior Consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences and Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute in Tanzania. She is a leading critical care expert with over 15 years of experience in clinical care, health systems research, policy engagement, and capacity building, and is actively involved in several WHO and global critical care initiatives.

Associate Professor Kate Gunn leads a team of behavioural science-focused researchers at Adelaide University to understand health and mental health-related strengths and challenges and co-develop and evaluate meaningful solutions to them. She is particularly passionate about improving rural cancer outcomes, drawing upon her experience in rural Australia and work as a clinical psychologist. In 2018 was awarded the prestigious Leslie (Les) J. Fleming Churchill Fellowship to investigate sustainable methods of improving the health and well-being of rural cancer survivors

As a computer science undergraduate at Philander Smith University, she has co-led a team to design an award-winning AI-driven literacy-support prototype to assist students in Detroit and has worked on a National Science Foundation project to develop an intelligent learning support AI-powered iOS app.

Dr Khongorzul Dorjgotov is a mathematician whose research focuses on fractional differential equations (FDEs), an emerging field in applied and theoretical mathematics with many applications in science and engineering. FDEs have been recognized as an excellent tool for describing complex systems and processes in many applied sciences, including physics, chemistry, biology and economics. The study of these types of equations is becoming increasingly popular as they can more accurately model a given physical system or process than conventional differential equations.

Khongorzul began studying applied mathematics as an undergraduate student at the National University of Mongolia (NUM), where she won an award for best research in a student competition. She went on to do her master’s degree in the same subject, before winning a MEXT scholarship from the Japanese government for doctoral study at Kyushu University in Japan. It was there that she first started her research on FDEs, focusing on Lie theory and the symmetry approach. During the final year of her PhD, she out-competed many international students  to win Best Poster at the Forum “Math-for-Industry” 2017. After completing her PhD, she returned to Mongolia, becoming one of the few women with a mathematics PhD in the country. She began working as a lecturer at NUM in 2018.

Now, Khongorzul is working to establish the study of fractional calculus in Mongolia. In addition to serving as senior lecturer and supervising graduate students, she is working to increase collaboration between the industrial and academic sectors. To this end, she recently organized, with fellow researchers, the first Mongolian “Study Group” workshops, an internationally recognized method of technology and knowledge transfer between academic mathematicians and industrial sectors. Khongorzul hopes that not only the industrial representatives but other decision-makers will be able to apply the results of mathematical research to do their jobs more effectively.

Dr Rivera is a biologist from Honduras. She has a multidisciplinary research background that ranges from analyzing the management of larval dispersal, to the use of perception research to assess the adaptive capacity of coastal communities. Her Mesoamerican Reef Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program —an initiative across three countries, 90 sites and over 20 institutions — established a unified monitoring protocol and provided invaluable data on key contaminants in principal tourist zones. Currently, Antonella works on generating research to support science-based decision-making in fisheries and water quality.

Loki is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Heriot-Watt University working in the experimental medicine domain of the U-Care project in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh. Her work integrates advanced manufacturing, biomedical engineering, and clinical application, with a focus on translating laser-based technologies into impactful diagnostic and surgical tools.

In her current role, Loki leads the fabrication of micro-optical components using two-photon polymerisation (2PP) to enable imaging of far-field lung cavities, supporting improved access to previously unexplored regions of the lung. Alongside this, she is developing novel tissue-sampling tools using advanced laser-based fabrication techniques to enable high-precision, repeatable biopsy procedures.

Loki received her doctorate in 2024 from Heriot-Watt University, where she worked on an EPSRC-funded adventurous manufacturing project focused on laser-based fabrication of shape memory alloys for minimally invasive surgery. Her research demonstrated new manufacturing pathways for NiTi-based micro-scale components using laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT). She previously completed a joint master’s degree from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Aix-Marseille University, specialising in photonic materials and devices.

Beyond research, Loki is a committed STEM ambassador and mental health advocate. She is passionate about inclusive leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration, and building supportive research cultures.

Lucy is a midwife research fellow at King’s College London with extensive experience working with children, young people and families in Sierra Leone and the UK. She spent several years in Sierra Leone working with war-affected children and, following a 2017 Wellbeing of Women fellowship exploring causes of high adolescent maternal mortality, co-founded 2YoungLives with Mangenda Kamara. Lucy has also worked as a parent-and-child foster carer and ‘hub home carer’ within the award-winning Mockingbird family hub model, and evaluated training and support needs of parent-and-child foster carers, developing resources and a national practitioner network.

Manal Badrasawi is a clinical nutrition scientist from Palestine whose expertise lies in clinical nutrition, women’s health, geriatric nutrition, and public health. As a prolific researcher, she has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals, covering topics such as dietary behaviors, nutritional epidemiology, chronic disease management, and the psychosocial aspects of health. Her work frequently integrates innovative approaches, such as machine learning, to analyze complex nutritional and health data. Dr. Badrasawi has been instrumental in advancing research on food insecurity, aging, and nutritional health in Palestine. She has led and participated in several funded projects, including the Pal-Age Project, which focuses on aging populations, and the development of the Palestinian Food Atlas, a tool for improving nutrition assessment and education. Her commitment to community-oriented research is further exemplified by her role as the principal investigator in studies addressing food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable populations. In addition to her academic and research contributions, Dr. Badrasawi has developed educational resources, including illustrated food exchange lists, nutritional modules for specific patient populations, and a photographic food atlas. These tools are widely recognized for their cultural relevance and practical application in clinical practice and public health interventions.

Manali Mukherjee is a respiratory immunologist at McMaster University, Canada, whose research reveals the biological basis of Long COVID. Her studies identify autoantibodies and inflammatory markers driving persistent symptoms, disproportionately affecting women dismissed as anxious rather than ill. By turning an invisible illness into measurable evidence, she is closing a critical diagnostic gap and advancing equitable, precision-based care for patients worldwide.

Mangenda is a teacher and gender expert leading the 2YoungLives programme at Lifeline Nehemiah Projects and working as a research fellow at Welbodi Partnership in Sierra Leone. Having had an adolescent pregnancy herself, she is passionate about supporting girls and ensuring their voices shape research and services. She co-founded 2YoungLives with Lucy and has extensive experience in gender, adolescent health and community-based research. Her PhD was awarded in 2025 and used photovoice with 2YoungLives girls to document their experiences, highlighting family rejection, social stigma and fear of seeking healthcare, as well as the strength they found through peer support, mentoring and community.

As a Junior Professor in the School of Physical Sciences and Mathematics at University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC), Dr María Eugenia Cabrera’s Catalán researches the phenomenology of physics. Her work builds on the discovery of the Higgs boson particle in 2012, expanding the knowledge of what we know about the Standard Model of particle physics and the fundamental forces of nature.

María studies dark matter, the most abundant component of matter in our universe, known only by its gravitational interactions and key to developing a more fundamental theory of nature. She focuses on the interaction between newly discovered particles such as the Higgs boson; understanding these dynamics can help scientists understand the interactions that could be expected between massive weakly coupled dark matter particles in particle collider experiments, or seen by underground detectors that attempt to measure how dark matter interacts with the Earth.

María first became interested in physics in secondary school, thanks to the inspiration of her physics teacher. She majored in physics at USAC, then received a scholarship to pursue a postgraduate diploma at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theo­retical Physics (ICTP) in Italy. There, she became fascinat­ed by high energy physics and made this the focus of her PhD research at the Institute for Theo­retical Physics in Madrid. She graduated Cum Laude in 2011 with the distinction of Doctor Europeus.

Following a postdoctoral position at the GRAPPA Institute at the University of Amsterdam, during a second postdoc at the Institute of Physics at the University of Sao Paolo in 2016, María learned that her alma mater USAC was opening permanent research positions in Physics and Mathematics for the first time, with 75 percent of the time available for research. Six months later she accepted one of these positions. Now, she is working to put her country and region on the world physics map, having helped to organize the first Central American Meeting of High Energy Physics, Cosmology and High Energy Astrophysics in 2020, and dedicating much of her time to supervising and tutoring undergraduate students in particle physics.

Maria Nelago Kanyama is a UKUDLA Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of the Western Cape. She holds a PhD in Computer Science, a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications, and a Master’s degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering. In her research, she applies artificial intelligence and data-driven systems to address challenges in water management, climate resilience, food systems, and critical infrastructure. Her work integrates advanced machine learning techniques with questions of governance, ethics, and public-interest outcomes, with a strong focus on real-world deployment in resource-constrained settings. Drawing on experience in safety-critical environments and community-oriented research, Maria works toward developing inclusive and trustworthy technologies that support sustainable decision-making. Alongside her research, she contributes to capacity building and inclusive innovation as a founding member of Women in AI Namibia, where she supports the growth of diverse and responsible AI ecosystems.

Maria Wilvenna Añora is the co-founder of AtoANI and AtoANI BioPack which seek to provide solutions in the agriculture industry. Currently connected with the University of San Carlos, Maria teaches in the areas of business analytics and operations management along with creating some courses for Pluralsight. With a Chemical Engineering and MBA Degree, Maria has corporate experience working for companies such as Lufthansa Technik Philippines and Procter and Gamble Philippines in the areas of Strategy, Digitalization, Innovation, Finance, Material Management, Quality Assurance, and Project Management. She also has previous freelance consulting experience in the areas of strategy and digital transformation strategies.

Dr Marian Asantewah Nkansah is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana, where she teaches Practical Chemistry, Nuclear/Radiochemistry, Chemistry and Society, and Petroleum Chemistry. In her research, she focuses on identifying and characterizing the presence of both inorganic and organic contaminants in water, food, soil, the atmosphere and other environmental matrices, and on developing strategies for environmental remediation. By preparing and analyzing samples from different environments, she can determine the levels and effects of contaminants such as heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are generated by urbanization, industrial activities, artisanal activities and mining. She is striving to make the public aware of the risks of heavy metals, which she has found in unexpected places such as spices, lipstick, edible clay and classroom dust

Growing up as one of six children in Ghana during a period when the economy was in a state of collapse, Marian had a desire to help society from an early age. After completing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Chemistry at KNUST, she went to Norway to pursue her PhD in Environmental Chemistry at the University of Bergen. After completing it in 2012, she returned to KNUST where she worked as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer before being promoted to Associate Professor in 2019, making her the youngest woman at the university to hold this position.

In addition to her research and teaching, Marian has undertaken training in science diplomacy. She is involved in advocacy and initiatives of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she mentors school children and younger peers. Her many achievements have brought her international recognition, including the TWAS FM Al-Kharafi Prize in 2016, a feature in the book Women in Science: An Inspiring Story from Africa and a slot on the commemorative Periodic Table of Younger Chemists by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Marian has 33 peer-reviewed articles and books chapters.

Dr. Marianna Prokopi-Demetriades, a visionary in the biotech sector, has pioneered an integrated, holistic approach to cancer care as co-founder of three biotech startups: Theramir Ltd, Promed Bioscience, and RSL Revolutionary Labs. By uniting nanotechnology, dermaceuticals, and tissue regeneration, she creates patient-focused solutions. A TEDx speaker and women-in-STEM advocate, her work has earned accolades like Forbes 20 Women In Tech Cyprus 2023 and King’s Distinguished Alumni Award 2022.

Maribel is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cologne investigating molecular mechanisms of plant immunity and their intersection with metabolism. Her work focuses on discovering new metabolites that shape plant–microbe interactions in health and disease. Trained as a biochemist during her PhD at the University of Oxford, she enjoys working at the complex interface of plant genetics, biochemistry, and biophysics. Passionate about widening access to higher education, Maribel mentors young female talents as a convenor of the Female Scholars Network Cologne and is an enthusiastic science communicator and speaker.

Dr. Marwa Shumo a.k.a The Lady of the Flies is a Falling Walls Labs Finalist (2016) and a Young Scientist of the “Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings” (2020,2021 and 2023). The Lady of the Flies gained a B.Sc. in Biotechnology (University of Nizwa, Oman), an MSc. in Environmental Sciences (University of Cologne, Germany) and a PhD in Agricultural Sciences (University of Bonn, Germany) and an International Doctorate in Development Studies (Center for Development Research/ZEF, Germany). She is an expert on organic waste recycling, use of insects for food and feed and bioeconomy and has held various roles both in the industry and academia.

Milemo Lusambya leads Let’s Be Transformed (MAGUFINA), established in 2017 serving Dzaleka Refugee Camp’s 56,000 residents. MAGUFINA implemented agriculture programs training 120 women, increasing food security by 30% and establishing four gardens producing 2,400kg vegetables annually. We achieved 85% program completion rates compared to 45% camp average through participatory design. MAGUFINA partners with UNHCR Malawi for policy support, Ministry of Natural Resources for compliance, and Malawi University of Science and Technology for technical validation.

Mokgadi is a self-professed environmental activist with a PhD in Chemistry. She completed her BTech and MTech degrees in Chemistry, both with cum laude, showcasing her dedication and academic excellence. Her research focuses on sustainable strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on medicinal plants.

Munkhjargal Tserendorj is a Veterinary Doctor with a PhD in Animal and Food Hygiene, who is helping Mongolia to control economically important tick-borne diseases. She has conducted national and international projects for strengthening capacities in the diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases, especially vector-borne diseases, leading to the development of effective strategies to decrease severe economic losses in the small ruminants’ population in Mongolia. Data from these studies is now used as base information for initiating prevention and control programs.

Dr Myriam Mujawamariya is helping Rwanda prepare for climate change by studying how various types of indigenous trees respond to different climate scenarios. Erosion is a major environmental concern in Rwanda, and many efforts are being put into landscape restoration and ecosystem-based adaptation. However, greater knowledge is needed about how trees will respond to higher temperatures and other climatic changes, as well as which trees can best support ecosystem services such as soil stabilization, climate regulation, biodiversity and bioenergy.

To simulate different climate change scenarios, Dr Mujawamariya tested the physiological responses of 20 native species grown at three sites along an elevation gradient. Her research is part of the unique Rwanda Tropical Elevation Experiment, Rwanda TREE project. The project will contribute to understanding how climate change will influence tropical forest cover, carbon sequestration and biodiversity not only in Rwanda but in all of Africa’s Western Rift Valley region and beyond.

Dr Mujawamariya received her bachelor’s degree in biology at the former National University of Rwanda in 2007 and a master’s degree in plant sciences, specializing in natural resources management, from Wageningen University in the Netherlands in 2012. She received her PhD in natural sciences, specializing in environmental science, from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2021. She began working at the University of Rwanda in 2007 as as a Tutorial Assistant and then Assistant Lecturer since 2013. Last year, she was promoted to Lecturer.

Dr Mujawamariya is a member of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and is a Research Associate at the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resources Management (CoEB). She has won numerous grants for her work, including the Belgian ARES grant, and grants from the Rwanda National Council of Science and Technology and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). She has participated in many community outreach activities through the University of Rwanda and CoEB to raise awareness for biodiversity conservation, including educating school children about environmental protection.

Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana’s research focuses on documenting and protecting traditional knowledge of plant use by indigenous populations and local communities, especially in Bolivia. She works to provide local populations with tools that allow them to make decisions about the conservation of their natural resources and associated traditional knowledge. Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana’s research has mostly focused on native palms of the Andes and the Amazon.

She has worked consistently to disseminate the results of her research among the local communities with which she works. Her research has been incorporated into educational materials in local schools and has also served as important documentation protecting the traditional knowledge of local communities. The communities are enabled to elaborate strategies to conserve their natural resources, and encouraged to share and expand their knowledge regarding their use and maintenance.

Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana was born in La Paz, Bolivia. She received her PhD in Biological Sciences from the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain in 2016. Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana is one of the most published researchers in Bolivia, according to a regional report by Elsevier. Her research has resulted in numerous scientific articles published in journals including Nature Plants, PlosOne, and the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, among others, and she also acts as a reviewer of numerous scientific journals. She has published more than 100 book chapters and 15 books.

In addition, she works with undergraduate, masters and doctoral students around the globe who are interested in ethnobotanical studies, many of them young women scientists. She is a member of the Society for Economic Botany, where she currently serves on the council, the Latin American Association of Botany, the Latin American Group of Ethnobotany – Bolivia Chapter, the Bolivian Organization for Women in Science, and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD).

Nathasia is a postdoctoral researcher at the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London and an Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellow. She studies how toxic tau protein disrupts brain cell communication in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. A dedicated advocate for health equity, she leads dementia-focused outreach and public engagement with Black communities across the UK, earning her the 2025 UK DRI Engagement Award. She co-founded Visibility STEM Africa to amplify African voices in STEM and is a Fellow of the Zimbabwe Young Academy of Sciences, bridging the gap between laboratory science and societal impact.

Professor Nicolas Hart, PhD AES CSCS FESSA is an NHMRC Research Fellow in Cancer Survivorship, and Discipline Lead of Clinical Exercise Physiology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). His clinical research focuses on improving outcomes for people affected by cancer (i.e., cancer survivors and caregivers), with a sub-specialty in advanced or metastatic cancers. He holds national and international research leadership roles in prominent cancer organisations.

Dr. Mamadalieva is currently Senior Scientific Researcher at the Institute of the Chemistry of Plant Substances in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Her work focuses on the phytochemical and biological investigation of active compounds derived from medicinal plants growing in Central Asia. The field of natural substances, a tradition at the Tashkent Institute, is gaining more interest in western countries for the development of efficient nutraceuticals and the discovery of new lead compounds for the pharmaceutical industry. Mamadalieva is the recipient of a number of international fellowships which have allowed her to travel extensively and develop a strong network of international collaborators.  She received her MSc from Fergana State University in Uzbekistan and her PhD from the Institute where she is currently researcher in Tashkent.  In 2011 she received the UNESCO-L’Oreal Award for Young Women in Life Sciences.

Trained as an electrical engineer at Ashesi University in Ghana, she has developed affordable, sustainable devices such as an air pollution detectors and solar cookers. She recently defended her master’s thesis at Michigan Technological University, where her research centered on building just energy transitions in underserved communities.

Olka Missaghimamaghani is a PhD student in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia, studying epigenetic changes underlying lineage plasticity in prostate cancer, with a focus on enhancer regulation in neuroendocrine prostate cancer. She completed her master’s research at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Germany, investigating translational regulation in microglia during aging and Alzheimer’s disease. She earned her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Middle East Technical University as a top-ranked student. Alongside research, she works to bridge academia and industry and support graduate career development.

Omneya Attallah is a Professor of Biosignal Processing and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Healthcare at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Egypt. She is a founding member of the WeBios Lab, where her research focuses on developing intelligent systems for medical diagnosis and prognosis, long-term patient monitoring, assistive technologies, and stress management. She has been recognized among the top 2% of the world’s most influential scientists by the Stanford/Elsevier database (2022–2024) and ranked in the top 0.05% of global scholars according to the 2024 ScholarGPS rankings. Her awards include the Bioinformatics Sciences Award, the Best Presented Paper Award at the ICICM conference, and travel awards from IEEE and AWC. She has contributed to numerous nationally and internationally funded research projects. Omneya serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Computational Intelligence in Biomedicine and holds editorial roles in several prestigious journals. She is a Senior Member of IEEE and affiliated with several global scientific societies, including ACM and OWSD.

Professor Orlando Rojas is the Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of British Columbia and Director of the Bioproducts Institute. His research focuses on bio-based materials and soft matter. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to renewable materials science, and has received several prestigious honors, including the Anselme Payen Award, the highest distinction in cellulose and renewable materials research.

He is an elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2013), the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2017), and the TAPPI Association (2025). Earlier in his career, he served as a Finland Distinguished Professor and was named an inaugural Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University.

Prof. Rojas maintains active collaborations with institutions across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He serves on the Selection Committee of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and holds scientific advisory roles with organizations including the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, the VALUED Project (with Imperial College London, University of Bristol, and University of Cambridge), and the Materials Institute of the University of Santiago de Compostela.

He is Emeritus Editor of the Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology and Associate Editor of ACS Biomacromolecules. He is ranked among the top 1% of researchers globally by citations (Clarivate, Web of Science).

Paul is a now an Emeritus Reader in Medical Statistics at King’s College London, where he has worked in public health science and maternal and children’ health research since 1996. He moved into medical research after a career teaching mathematics and statistics and gained an MSc in Medical Statistics from LSHTM. He has extensive expertise in study design, sample size calculation, diagnostic and screening methods, growth data and measurement, and statistical analysis of maternal and pregnancy outcomes, including postpartum haemorrhage, preterm birth, pre-eclampsia and fetal growth.

Philemon “PS” is Administrative Director of Lifeline Nehemiah Projects (LNP) in Sierra Leone and former Principal of Lifeline Secondary School. Having himself been a beneficiary of LNP in the 1990s, he has since contributed to a range of community and sustainability initiatives and provides community and administrative support to 2YoungLives. He is passionate about supporting marginalised groups and recently researched barriers to healthcare for adolescent girls living with disabilities, highlighting the need for disability-inclusive services, healthcare-provider training and community advocacy to reduce stigma and improve access to care.

Dr. Pius Kagoma is the Coordinator for Clinical Services in the Division of Health, Social Welfare and Nutrition Services at the Prime Minister’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PMORALG), Tanzania. He is a senior public health specialist with experience in health systems, healthcare management, and leadership. Dr. Kagoma’s research focuses on strengthening the use of high-quality evidence to inform decision-making in the public health system.

Dr. Pooja Singh is currently associated with Symbiosis Centre for Waste Resource Management (SCWRM) of the Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune India, as an Assistant Professor. She is CSIR-NET-JRF qualified, has 4 patents filed and over 30 research publications and book chapters to her name. She was the recipient of the DST-WOS-B grant (2017-2020) and was associated with Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences (SSBS) as a DST Woman Scientist.

Prince is a human rights defender and Executive Director of Lifeline Nehemiah Projects (LNP), a civil society organisation working for the rights of marginalised people, including children, women and people with disabilities. Having himself been a beneficiary of LNP in the 1990s, he has spent over 25 years in various leadership roles within the organisation, becoming Executive Director in 2019. Prince is passionate about engaging and empowering communities and has extensive experience in CEI, including leading community engagement during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. He is also a CEI lead for various global maternal health research programmes at King’s College London and a CEI adviser to the UK’s NIHR.

Dr. Rafael Shayo is a medical doctor and project coordinator on the implementing EECC in Tanzania programme at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. He has over five years of experience coordinating quality improvement programmes and multi-country clinical data management.

Ramia Al Bakain holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Sorbonne Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris, France. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Jordan, Amman.

Her research focuses on the application of analytical chemistry to develop innovative methods in water, agriculture, and food security. She also works on green techniques for wastewater treatment and sustainable approaches to preserving natural resources. Ramia maintains extensive international research collaborations with institutions in the USA, France, Italy, Austria, Lebanon, Germany, Slovakia, and the UK.

She leads numerous international scientific projects and supervises interdisciplinary teams of graduate students working on water-food-agriculture security challenges in the MENA region. In addition, she is a member in the editorial board of Journal Sustainable Chemistry One World- Elsevier and Science & Technology Nexus Journal.

Ramia has received several prestigious international honors and awards, including: Elsevier Foundation-ISC3 Green & Sustainable Chemistry Award, L’Ordre national du Mérite – President of the French Republic, the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science and the MIT-Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Award.

Dr Rebecca Bergin is a Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University. She also holds honorary positions at the University of Melbourne (Department of General Practice and Centre for Cancer Research) and Cancer Council Victoria (Cancer Epidemiology Division). Her research aims to understand and address inequities in cancer outcomes, quality of care and patient experience by optimising pathways to cancer diagnosis and treatment. She has a special interest in early-onset cancers and rural and remote populations.

Reem Obaydo is a Syrian pharmaceutical analytical chemist and educator who, despite the hardships of war, economic constraints, and a lack of research infrastructure, remains committed to advancing scientific knowledge and mentoring young researchers, particularly women. Her research focuses on green analytical chemistry, where she develops sustainable, eco-friendly methods for pharmaceutical analysis. By reducing the use of hazardous chemicals in drug testing, her work ensures the safety and efficacy of medicines while minimizing environmental and health risks. She also integrates sustainability assessment tools to evaluate the environmental and health impact of her analytical methods, ensuring they adhere to green chemistry principles. Dr. Obaydo’s research plays a vital role in improving public health by reducing exposure to harmful substances in pharmaceuticals. By developing greener quality control techniques, she enhances drug safety and prevents the introduction of toxic residues into the environment. Her work also fosters safer laboratory environments by reducing researchers’ exposure to hazardous chemicals. Beyond pharmaceutical sustainability, Dr. Obaydo has supported Syrian women in conflict-affected areas by providing digital guidance on mental health management, ensuring accessible care for those in need. She has fostered international collaborations with researchers from Egypt, Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Kingdom. Due to travel restrictions imposed on Syrian scholars, she has participated in international conferences online to promote green analytical chemistry, advocating for sustainable scientific research and safer practices in pharmaceutical laboratories worldwide.

Renuka Attanayake is a plant pathologist working on crop disease identification and management in Sri Lanka. Her projects include the optimization of a rapid detection method of coconut phytoplasma in Sri Lanka, and the identification of genetic diversity of white mold pathogen on cabbage and black mold on onions. With her work, she is contributing to the development of resistant inducer treatments and farmers’ education to reduce the negative effects of some of the most common crop diseases in her country.

Resshaya is a geroscientist and currently a Research Fellow at TUMCREATE, Singapore. with a focus on intervention development to support healthspan rather than just lifespan. Her work focuses on preventive medicine and health promotion, using digital and behavioural approaches to improve healthy ageing. She is particularly interested in practical, real-world interventions that can be integrated into everyday life.

Dr. Sabra Nazir Husseinis a medical doctor, anaesthesia resident, and project coordinator on the implementing EECC in Tanzania programme at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS).

Dr. Subrina’s research focuses on the modeling of thermal and electronic transport in nanoscale materials and the applications of these materials in nanoscale devices. She is particularly interested in nanomaterials with high thermal conductivity, such as graphene (a form of carbon), that make it useful in heat mitigation. Fast, high-performance electronic devices tend to suffer from overheating, which causes performance degradation and shortens the life of the devices. Use of high heat-carrying materials in electronic device design can provide a solution to this issue. Dr. Subrina is also focused on how physical properties of materials change as devices are increasingly scaled down to the nano level; identifying nanomaterials with the right thermal and electronic properties for this scale can lead to new technologies such as low-power nanoelectronics, high-efficiency solar cells, and thermoelectric power generators. Dr. Subrina received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California Riverside in 2011.

Her research has been published in many prestigious journals including Nature Materials, Nature Scientific Report, and the Journal of Applied Physics. She has been honoured with a number of awards throughout her career, including the Best Paper Award at the 2018 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) WIECON-ECE conference and the Young Scientist Award from the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences and TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences, in 2016. She is also the recipient of the Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship from the University of California, Riverside, and is a TWAS Young Affiliate. She has been involved in organizing many conferences, workshops and tutorials, and is actively engaged in several national and international professional organizations, including as executive committee member and Chair (in 2017) of the IEEE EDS/SSCS Bangladesh Chapter and editorial board member of Nature Scientific Report. Dr. Subrina is dedicated to building the technological capacity of women in engineering in Bangladesh, and has served as Affinity Group Treasurer (in 2015) of the Women in Engineering group of IEEE Bangladesh. She is also involved in various kinds of consultancy services in the public and private sectors of Bangladesh.

Sarmila Tandukar is an environmental engineer from Nepal whose research bridges the gap between environmental microbiology and public health and helps to improve infectious disease preparedness, build public health infrastructure, and advance global health security. Her research mostly focuses on environmental monitoring, wastewater surveillance, and public health microbiology, with a particular focus on detecting and identifying pathogens in water systems. She tracks disease-causing microorganisms and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes to identify emerging health threats in wastewater, sewage, river water, and drinking water sources, using molecular techniques like genomics, metagenomics, and qPCR-based detection methods. Her work is highly interdisciplinary, bridging microbiology, environmental science, epidemiology, and public health to provide critical insights into disease transmission dynamics and waterborne health risks. Her work ensures early detection of emerging infectious diseases and mitigation techniques to reduce disease burden by producing high-resolution epidemiological data, which enables evidence-based decision-making for public health actions. Furthermore, her research provides scientific evidence for policymakers, contributing to the development of water safety regulations, wastewater treatment guidelines, and disease control strategies at both national and global levels.

Sawsan Abdul-Jalil is a PhD candidate in Agricultural Economics and Governance at Humboldt University in Berlin. She holds a Master’s degree in International and Development Economics from HTW Berlin and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Economic Development from the University of Khartoum. Alongside her doctoral studies, she is on leave from her position as a Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Khartoum.

Her research focuses on development economics, agricultural and environmental economics, and public policy analysis, with a particular interest in economy-wide modelling of ecosystem restoration and its economic and distributional impacts. She employs quantitative economic modelling and policy evaluation tools to assess sustainable development strategies in fragile and low-income contexts.

Sawsan has extensive experience working with international and multilateral organizations, including the World Bank Group, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and Sudan’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Her work spans public finance management, labor market analysis, education finance, and socioeconomic policy reform. She has presented her research at conferences internationally.

In addition to her academic and policy work, Sawsan is committed to advancing gender equality in economics. She is the founder of the Sudan Women Economist Association and actively works to support and mentor women in the field.

Selin Akpinar Adscheid is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacy at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Her EU-funded training includes a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Industrial PhD and an Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Nanomedicine for Drug Delivery; she also holds a BSc in Chemistry from METU, Türkiye. Trained across ten institutions in seven countries, she has academic and industrial expertise in drug delivery, scalable nanoparticle production, and neurodegeneration. She also serves as national co-director of Activator at Nucleate Germany, where she volunteers to support researchers and founders in building impactful biotech startups.

Associate Professor Serene Yoong is an internationally recognised implementation scientist and Co-Director of the Deakin Centre for Global Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) at Deakin University. Her research focuses on improving the translation, scale-up and equitable implementation of interventions to prevent chronic disease. Over the past decade, A/Professor Yoong has established an internationally recognised program of research that has advanced implementation science through implementation trials, methodological innovation, evidence synthesis, systems-informed approaches and digital implementation strategies.

Dr Tasrina Rabia Choudhury is a chemist from Bangladesh with expertise ranging from water quality improvement to environmental restoration, from climate change to risk assessment and environmental modeling, and more. She is working to pioneer novel approaches in the remediation techniques of toxic elements from wastewater and drinking water, ensuring the delivery of safe drinking water to underserved communities. Tasrina has actively engaged with local communities, implementing awareness campaigns that educate them about the importance of hygiene and efficient water use.

Dr. Simangele Shakwane is a registered nurse, midwifery practitioner and health sciences educator. She obtained her BA in nursing sciences from UNISA in 2011, including her postgraduate qualifications (MA 2015 and PhD 2018). She is a senior lecturer in the Department of Health Studies at UNISA. She has developed a model for teaching intimate care to nursing students. She is currently doing a postdoctoral research project on implementing the mentioned model and collaborating with the National Research Foundation (NRF) for three years (2022-2024). She advocates for transformative knowledge of the touched body with emphasis on respect and integrity of the human body regardless of their diversity (gender, culture and religion).

Dr. Simone Badal McCreath currently manages the Biochemistry lab at the Natural Products Institute at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica and is overseeing and designing a new cell culture lab at the same Institute. McCreath is an accomplished early career researcher who has been investigating the cancer-fighting properties of Jamaican natural compounds. She will be launching a new Masters degree in Natural Therapeutics at her institute in 2014. She has received numerous awards and has published extensively. McCreath received her BSc, MPhil and PhD from UWI and also undertook an MBA at the University of Wales in Cardiff, UK.

Associate Professor Skye Marshall (BNutrDiet (Hons), PhD) is a rural health researcher, currently holding a project management and leadership position with the ECORRA Research Program at Deakin University. A/Professor Marshall has a background of traditional clinical and health services research combined with a high-performance, fast-paced industry research. Marshall’s expertise lays in her ability to integrate outstanding research rigour at all project steps whilst optimising project management, governance, and stakeholder engagemen

Sudeshna Das earned her PhD from the Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. Her doctoral research concentrated on AI-driven Gender Bias Identification in Textbooks. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine, Emory University, USA, where she is part of the Sarker Lab. Her research interests lie at the intersection of AI and Social Good, with a particular focus on gender equity in education and healthcare. Prior to her doctoral research, she studied computer science and engineering, leading to an MTech from the National Institute of Technology Durgapur, India, and a BTech from West Bengal University of Technology, India.

Dr. Susana Arrechea’s research is focused on the potential industrial and environmental applications of materials such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, and graphene, which can be employed in creating more sustainable building materials, in water treatment, and in solar devices and other renewable energy solutions. In addition to contributing to the development of nanotechnology in Guatemala, she is also involved in improving solar electrification, connectivity, and digital and STEM literacy in schools in rural Guatemala, in partnership with New Sun Road and Microsoft. Dr. Arrechea received her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC), and worked there as a professor of physical chemistry before pursuing her master’s degree and doctorate in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. After graduating Cum Laude, she worked as a visiting researcher at the University of California-Berkeley as part of a Fulbright Nexus project on renewable energy, and later at the Center for Biotechnology Studies of the University of Valle de Guatemala. Her projects have won grants from the National Secretariat of Science and Technology in Guatemala (Senacyt) and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), among others, and she has received awards including the 2017 “Guatemaltecos Ilustres” Award and a prize for young scientists granted by TWAS, Senacyt and the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Guatemala. She has been profiled in national magazines, and in 2018 was named one of 50 Defiant Woman in Central America by the magazine Estrategia y Negocios. She is a member of the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Guatemala, the International Network of Scientists of Guatemala, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and of other scientific networks in nanotechnology and energy.

Suzanne, once the trial manager for 2YoungLives, is now Education, Training and Advocacy Director for Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone. A pharmacist specialised in clinical education, she oversees training onboard the Global Mercy, the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, and leads a land-based team working with the Ministry of Health and University of Sierra Leone to strengthen surgical care. Having lived and worked in Sierra Leone for 15 years, she has extensive experience in health systems strengthening and partnership working, with particular interest in faculty development and clinical skills education.

Dr. Tabassum Mumtaz is an environmental microbiologist from Bangladesh and works on the conversion of biomass and other waste materials into useful compounds using bacteria. Her work contributes to directly removing harmful materials from the environment as well as generating renewable energy in the process. She specializes in producing polyhydroxyalkanotes (PHAs), bioplastics produced by special bacteria that are cultivated from compost, food waste and wastewater, such as the effluents from palm oil production. She received her PhD in Environmental Biotechnology from Universiti Putra Malaysia, under an OWSD PhD fellowship. After a post-doctoral position at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia, she returned to the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, where in addition to her research as a Principal Scientific Officer, she trains students in laboratory techniques for microbiology. She has acted as a reviewer and has publications in several high-impact journals. She is the author of “Changes in the properties of LD-PE during biodegradation in soil.”

Dr. Mumtaz’s current research focuses on the remediation of wastewater by gamma radiation and the capability of radio-resistant bacteria for PHA production. In the future, she hopes to implement projects related to biohydrogen and bioethanol production from biomass. She believes that focusing on pollution abatement and renewable energy and valuable green bioproducts can be achieved through collaborations with industries such as textile dyeing. These developments will have a big impact on the energy consumption of Bangladesh in the near future.

Dr. Tabitha Awuor Amollo is a physicist and materials scientist from Kenya, specializing in solar energy conversion and thin film technology. Her research focuses on developing cost-effective, high-performance solar cells and translating these innovations into community solutions, such as solar-powered refrigeration for rural health centers. Tabitha mentors women and students in STEM, leads a photovoltaics research lab, and collaborates internationally to drive affordable, clean energy for Africa.

Dr. Elufioye is currently acting head of the Department of Pharmacognosy at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her research focuses on the medicinal properties of native Nigerian plants. In particular she has looked at the effectiveness of different species in treating malaria, wounds, memory loss, leprosy and cancer.  Dr. Elufioye received both her MsC and PhD from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Nigeria. She is a Senate member of the University of Ibadan, a Coordinator of the consultancy group in her Department, and the Secretary of the Ibadan chapter of the National Association of Pharmacists in Academia.

Dr Tasrina Rabia Choudhury is a chemist from Bangladesh with expertise ranging from water quality improvement to environmental restoration, from climate change to risk assessment and environmental modeling, and more. She is working to pioneer novel approaches in the remediation techniques of toxic elements from wastewater and drinking water, ensuring the delivery of safe drinking water to underserved communities. Tasrina has actively engaged with local communities, implementing awareness campaigns that educate them about the importance of hygiene and efficient water use.

Temitope Adeniyi is a PhD researcher at Cleveland State University working at the intersection of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and data-driven healthcare. Her research focuses on quantum sensing, reinforcement learning, and machine learning for early disease detection. She is the Programme Lead at the Africa Quantum Consortium, advancing talent development and research collaboration across Africa. Her work has been recognized through selection to UNESCO’s Quantum 100 and as the 2024 Femtum Quantum Rising Star Award winner, and she actively supports quantum education through university teaching and high school outreach initiatives.

Dr. Thilini Mudiyanselage is a Professor in the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, and a polymer chemist by training and practice. She earned an Honors degree in Chemistry, which laid a strong foundation in molecular science and led her to pursue a PhD, where she was introduced to the world of polymers and their potential to address pressing sustainability and climate challenges. Her research focuses on bio-based polymers, waste-derived materials, and functional hydrogels for water treatment, agriculture, and nutrient-use efficiency.

Dr. Tim Baker is an Associate Professor, Critical Care Physician, and Anesthesiologist with over 20 years of experience in global critical care research, clinical practice, and health systems strengthening. His work focuses on developing and scaling health system innovations, particularly Essential Emergency and Critical Care, to improve outcomes for critically ill patients. Dr. Baker leads international collaborative research and capacity-building programmes, has positions at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and has worked with WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and EECC Global.

Dr. Prasai Joshi’s work is dedicated to creating more environmentally friendly and economic techniques for water treatment, through the development of novel metal oxide adsorbents that can remove harmful organic and inorganic arsenic compounds efficiently from water. Her work has had a significant impact on public awareness and accountability of drinking
water suppliers in Kathmandu. Organic arsenic-based compounds are extensively used as feed additives in poultry farming, and upon entering the environment, these compounds tend to
transform into more toxic inorganic arsenic through microbial activity, which can spread to surface and ground water sources and cause serious harm to human health. Dr. Prasai Joshi has made significant contributions to understanding the interactions of the organic arsenic compounds with iron- and manganese-based adsorbents in order to optimize the adsorbents’ efficiency and prevent the arsenic compounds from reaching the environment. She has a registered patent in China for her novel method of treating organic arsenic-containing wastewater.

Dr. Prasai Joshi was born in Nepal. She received her PhD in Environmental Engineering in 2017 from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for which she was awarded a medal by the President of Nepal. Her work has been published in many leading international and national journals, and she also writes about science awareness in Nepal. Dr. Prasai Joshi actively mentors post-graduate students (the majority of them women) and lectures at universities. She has served as a member of several governmental committees in Nepal dedicated to public and environmental health, and is engaged in promoting drinking water quality in Nepal through public lectures and demonstrations. Dr. Prasai Joshi also organizes environmental awareness campaigns which are particularly focused on women and school teachers in remote mountainous areas of Nepal.

Tumai is a PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, advancing African precision public health through integrated disease modelling using machine learning. Her research develops Africa-specific cardiometabolic disease risk prediction models that challenge Eurocentric approaches, which leave African populations underserved by global health innovation. As DS-I Africa Partnership and Outreach Working Group Co-chair (2026), she fosters collaborations between the consortium and key data science players across Africa. She is also passionate about mentoring young scientists.

At the heart of Dr. Uduak Okomo’s work is the desire to decrease preventable deaths from infections in newborn babies. To this purpose, she has studied how neonatal infections are transmitted, and has found that hospital-acquired infections play a significant role. This finding has major implications for clinical and public health interventions and can inform policy at all levels of the healthcare system.

Dr. Okomo completed her undergraduate medical training in Nigeria, followed by paediatric specialist training in Nigeria and The Gambia. She received her PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom. With research funding from the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation, she established a paediatric HIV/AIDS cohort in The Gambia, improving capacity for clinical care and research through mentorship, in partnership with the National AIDS Secretariat. She also led the team that wrote the first national paediatric HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines in The Gambia. With the support of a recently awarded Pump Priming Grant from the Wellcome Trust and in collaboration with UNICEF, she is currently carrying out a facility-based evaluation of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in the country.

She is a Vice President and Chairwoman of the Gambia Chapter of the West African College of Physicians. Dr. Okomo is as passionate about supporting young scientists as she is about improving neonatal survival. She is a visiting Consultant Paediatrician to the National Teaching Hospital and teaches Paediatrics at the School of Medicine & Allied Health Sciences, University of The Gambia. She is a member of the Medical Research Council’s Gambia Women in Science Working Group and helps to facilitate the development and advancement of young girls in biomedical and clinical research careers, through public engagement activities and as a mentor to young African scientists across the region.

Upendo Bandeke is a community member and patient researcher in the EECC community engagement and involvement group ‘CRISP’ – Critically Ill Survivors, Patients and Relatives – which brings together people with lived experience of critical illness. Upendo cared for her brother who became critically ill during several admissions to hospital in Tanzania. Upendo provides firsthand insights about how the health system cares for critically ill patients and the priorities for patients, relatives and the community.

Velma is a PhD candidate in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology at Makerere University, Uganda. She develops disease-resistant groundnut varieties using genomic tools to address critical agricultural challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. She is also a Project Coordinator at the JR Biotek Foundation where she supports agricultural innovation, farmer engagement, and scientific project coordination contributing to climate-resilient food systems across Africa. She has served as a Junior researcher with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and contributed to projects with Innovations for Poverty Action aimed at improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Dr. Victoire Ghafi Kondi Akara is a Togolese climate–energy scientist based in Kigali, Rwanda. With over 11 years’ experience, her work focuses on electricity-demand modelling, renewable integration, and energy-sector MRV systems supporting SDG7 in Africa. She is a Resident Researcher at AIMS-RIC, contributes to national and regional energy policies, supports African Union efficiency initiatives, and mentors emerging STEM leaders. Her work bridges science, policy, and community impact to advance reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy solutions.

Victor Ekuta is currently a neurology resident at the Morehouse School of Medicine and holds several scholarly appointments, including as a postdoctoral research fellow and Clark Scholar at Penn Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and as Health Equity Scholar with the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). His aim is to specialize in academic neurology as a physician-scientist-advocate.  

Dr. Vishal Chaudhary is a lecturer at Mahidol University in Thailand since 2025. He is an expert in the field of green semiconductors at the nanoscale for One Health management, with a special focus on breath-based diagnosis, environmental sensors and waste-water remediation. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, 4 authored books, and 3 edited books in reputed journals.

He has been recognized as Top 2% of Scientists in both 2023 and 2024 by the Stanford University List and is also serving as an associate editor and review editor in significant journals. He founded “The Happy Mentals Club” after battling depression during his doctorate tenure, and started to aid the research community, especially students, for mental health-related help through his public talks and club events.

Dr. Chaudhary received the 2023 Materials Today Agents of Change Award due to his dedicated work in the field of mental health for researchers. Currently, he aims to establish mental health clubs in academic and research institutes, examine the prevalence of mental health issues by conducting surveys during his talk and examining its causative factors, correlate mental health concerns with environmental factors, develop non-invasive biosensors to screen mental health, root out the stigma related to mental health, especially in the LGBTQI+ community, and developing awareness on suicide prevention through his club and institute collaborative initiatives.

Dr Yeyinou Laura Estelle Loko is an entomologist with a PhD in plant genetic resources and crop protection committed to the reduction of losses caused by insect pests. She develops control methods that respect human health and the environment, favoring the use of naturally resistant varieties, medicinal plants with insecticidal properties, entomopathogenic microorganisms, and predators. She is also working on the development of a digital toolbox and an intelligent monitoring system adapted to smallholder farmers for effective pest management in Benin.

Dr Zubeda Ukundimana is a chemical and environmental engineer from Rwanda, working as lecturer and environmental impact assessment consultant in Uganda. Her research has focused on assessing the wetland vulnerability to wastewater and developing treatment processes for abating pollutants concentration to protect receiving water bodies. Currently, Zubeda coordinates the North-South Alliance for Inclusive Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (ALL4WASH) — bringing together international partners to confront challenges of water supply and sanitation through mutual cooperation.