Professor Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS, is a distinguished Pakistani organic chemist renowned for his extensive work in natural product chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D from King's College, University of Cambridge in 1968, and has since produced over 1,250 scholarly works, including 792 research papers, 74 international patents, and over 300 books. He earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry He has supervised 83 Ph.D. students and serves as Editor-in-Chief for several prestigious chemistry journals, including Current Medicinal Chemistry. He is also the editor of the globally renowned encyclopedic series Studies in Natural Product Chemistry, comprising 75 volumes.

Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2006, Professor Rahman is one of only four Muslim scientists to achieve this distinction in the last 360 years. His accolades include the UNESCO Science Prize (1999), honorary doctorates from institutions including Cambridge University, and high civil honors from Pakistan, Austria, and China. He has played a transformative role in science policy in Pakistan, serving as Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Education, and as Chairman of the Higher Education Commission, spearheading revolutionary reforms in the country's higher education sector.

Globally, he has fostered scientific collaboration through leadership roles in organizations such as COMSTECH and NASIC. His name graces major research institutions including the Atta-ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Product Discovery (Malaysia) and the Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (Pakistan). He is also a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Korean Academy of Science and Technology.

Currently Professor Emeritus and Distinguished National Professor at the University of Karachi, he also leads Pakistan’s science policy through various prime ministerial task forces. Professor Atta-ur-Rahman remains a symbol of scientific excellence and visionary leadership in the Muslim world.

Professor Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary is a distinguished Pakistani chemist recognized globally for his work in organic and bioorganic chemistry. He serves as the Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at the University of Karachi and is the Coordinator General of COMSTECH, an OIC ministerial body promoting science in Islamic countries. He also holds the position of Vice President (Central & South Asia) at The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

With over 1,370 publications, 94 books, 40 book chapters, and 94 patents (including 64 registered in the U.S.), Dr. Choudhary’s research has significantly advanced the field of natural product chemistry. His scholarly output has been cited more than 46,000 times, reflecting an h-index of 88. He has supervised over 100 Ph.D. scholars, contributing to scientific capacity-building both in Pakistan and internationally.

Dr. Choudhary is the recipient of Pakistan’s top civil awards: Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, and Hilal-i-Imtiaz. Internationally, he has been honored with the Mustafa Prize (2021), the Chinese Government’s Friendship Award (2022), and the Khwarizmi International Award. A fellow of multiple scientific academies, he is renowned for fostering global scientific collaboration and empowering emerging researchers, especially women, across the Islamic world.

Professor Daniel Christian Hoessli is a distinguished immunologist and molecular biologist whose career spans several decades and continents. He earned his MD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1970 . Following his medical degree, he pursued postdoctoral training in immunology at Washington University in St. Louis and Yale University in New Haven, USA .

From 2000 to 2009, Dr. Hoessli served as Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva. Since 2009, he has been an Adjunct Professor at the Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Pakistan

Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Cordell obtained his Ph.D. in 1970 in synthetic and natural products chemistry at the University of Manchester, and after two years in the Department of Chemistry at M.I.T. joined the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois Chicago, from where he retired in 2002 after serving as a Center Director, Department Head, Associate Dean, Interim Dean, and Assistant Vice Chancellor. He is the author of over 600 publications, two books on alkaloids, and the editor of 37 books. His collaborative research programs focused on drug discovery and the biosynthesis of natural products, particularly alkaloids, and the development of techniques for structure elucidation. He is an Honorary Professor at universities in China, India, and the Philippines, and a Visiting Professor in Malaysia (4 universities), Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Colombia, and a former advisor to WHO on traditional medicine. He was the Co-founder of the U.S.-Thai Consortium for the Development of Pharmacy Education in Thailand. He is a Past President, Fellow, and Honorary Member of the American Society of Pharmacognosy, has received several international awards for his research achievements, and is presently writing two books on natural products. His current research interests include alkaloids and their biosynthesis, ecopharmacognosy, medicines security, cyberecoethnopharmacolomics, natural products in the 4IR, and C.A.R.E. in natural product research. He has over 30,050 citations and an h-index of 83.

Professor Dr. Doralyn Dalisay is a licensed pharmacist, registered microbiologist, and natural products chemist specializing in microbial, marine invertebrate, and plant natural products for drug discovery. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in marine natural products chemistry at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Dalisay has contributed to drug discovery research at the University of British Columbia and Washington State University before returning to the Philippines in 2015 as a Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Balik Scientist. She established a research program on natural products drug discovery at the Center for Chemical Biology and Biotechnology (C2B2), University of San Agustin.

Dr. Dalisay is recognized as a pioneering scientist in studying marine sediment-derived actinobacteria from the Philippine archipelago, focusing on their biodiversity, biological activities, and chemistry. Her work aims to discover new antibiotics to combat drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. Her laboratory at C2B2 houses a microbial biobank with over 3,000 diverse actinobacteria isolates, serving as a valuable resource for drug discovery in the Philippines.

With over 3,290 citations, Dr. Dalisay has published extensively in high-impact journals and discovered more than 20 antibiotic and anticancer compounds from marine organisms. She holds three U.S. patents related to these compounds. Her work has earned numerous prestigious awards, including the 2022 Eduardo Q. Quisumbing Award for Basic Research, multiple DOST recognitions, the 2020 NRCP Achievement Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the 2019 Most Outstanding Professional in Pharmacy.

Currently a Diplomate of the Philippine Academy for Microbiology, Dr. Dalisay serves as Director of C2B2 at the University of San Agustin. Her research is supported by the National Research Council of the Philippines-DOST, USAID-STRIDE, and the University of San Agustin.