SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

Innovations in the development of clonal hybrid crops

Hybrid vigor, refers to the higher performance of a hybrid plant in comparison to those of its parents. Although hybrid seeds exhibit superior yield, the seeds must be renewed at every crop season. Hybrid seed production for rice, the staple food for more than half of humankind, is a laborious and costly procedure resulting in a high seed cost. As a result, the benefits of hybrids have not yet reached a large number of rice farmers. This groundbreaking research leveraged knowledge of plant development and genetics to produce rice seeds that carry the same beneficial characteristics as the parent plant simply by self-pollinating the plant.

SCALE OF IMPACT

This is an extraordinary advance in agriculture, as it will eventually allow farmers to plant and replant seeds from elite plant varieties, all without losing any of their valuable traits, most notably yield, with the added possibility of incorporating biotic and abiotic stress tolerance leading to a new generation of crops better equipped to deal with the challenges posed by global climate change and increased food demand.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

Optimization of this technology and work and introduction into diverse crops will allow farmers who cannot afford hybrid seeds to still obtain the full benefits of hybrids from their home-grown seeds.

SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

Innovations in the development of clonal hybrid crops

Hybrid vigor, refers to the higher performance of a hybrid plant in comparison to those of its parents. Although hybrid seeds exhibit superior yield, the seeds must be renewed at every crop season. Hybrid seed production for rice, the staple food for more than half of humankind, is a laborious and costly procedure resulting in a high seed cost. As a result, the benefits of hybrids have not yet reached a large number of rice farmers. This groundbreaking research leveraged knowledge of plant development and genetics to produce rice seeds that carry the same beneficial characteristics as the parent plant simply by self-pollinating the plant.

SCALE OF IMPACT

This is an extraordinary advance in agriculture, as it will eventually allow farmers to plant and replant seeds from elite plant varieties, all without losing any of their valuable traits, most notably yield, with the added possibility of incorporating biotic and abiotic stress tolerance leading to a new generation of crops better equipped to deal with the challenges posed by global climate change and increased food demand.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

Optimization of this technology and work and introduction into diverse crops will allow farmers who cannot afford hybrid seeds to still obtain the full benefits of hybrids from their home-grown seeds.

SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

Innovations in the development of clonal hybrid crops

Hybrid vigor, refers to the higher performance of a hybrid plant in comparison to those of its parents. Although hybrid seeds exhibit superior yield, the seeds must be renewed at every crop season. Hybrid seed production for rice, the staple food for more than half of humankind, is a laborious and costly procedure resulting in a high seed cost. As a result, the benefits of hybrids have not yet reached a large number of rice farmers. This groundbreaking research leveraged knowledge of plant development and genetics to produce rice seeds that carry the same beneficial characteristics as the parent plant simply by self-pollinating the plant.

SCALE OF IMPACT

This is an extraordinary advance in agriculture, as it will eventually allow farmers to plant and replant seeds from elite plant varieties, all without losing any of their valuable traits, most notably yield, with the added possibility of incorporating biotic and abiotic stress tolerance leading to a new generation of crops better equipped to deal with the challenges posed by global climate change and increased food demand.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

Optimization of this technology and work and introduction into diverse crops will allow farmers who cannot afford hybrid seeds to still obtain the full benefits of hybrids from their home-grown seeds.

SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

Innovations in the development of clonal hybrid crops Hybrid vigor, refers to the higher performance of a hybrid plant in comparison to those of its parents. Although hybrid seeds exhibit superior yield, the seeds must be renewed at every crop season. Hybrid seed production for rice, the staple food for more than half of humankind, is a laborious and costly procedure resulting in a high seed cost. As a result, the benefits of hybrids have not yet reached a large number of rice farmers. This groundbreaking research leveraged knowledge of plant development and genetics to produce rice seeds that carry the same beneficial characteristics as the parent plant simply by self-pollinating the plant.

SCALE OF IMPACT

This is an extraordinary advance in agriculture, as it will eventually allow farmers to plant and replant seeds from elite plant varieties, all without losing any of their valuable traits, most notably yield, with the added possibility of incorporating biotic and abiotic stress tolerance leading to a new generation of crops better equipped to deal with the challenges posed by global climate change and increased food demand.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

Optimization of this technology and work and introduction into diverse crops will allow farmers who cannot afford hybrid seeds to still obtain the full benefits of hybrids from their home-grown seeds.

SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

Innovations in the development of clonal hybrid crops Hybrid vigor, refers to the higher performance of a hybrid plant in comparison to those of its parents. Although hybrid seeds exhibit superior yield, the seeds must be renewed at every crop season. Hybrid seed production for rice, the staple food for more than half of humankind, is a laborious and costly procedure resulting in a high seed cost. As a result, the benefits of hybrids have not yet reached a large number of rice farmers. This groundbreaking research leveraged knowledge of plant development and genetics to produce rice seeds that carry the same beneficial characteristics as the parent plant simply by self-pollinating the plant.

SCALE OF IMPACT

This is an extraordinary advance in agriculture, as it will eventually allow farmers to plant and replant seeds from elite plant varieties, all without losing any of their valuable traits, most notably yield, with the added possibility of incorporating biotic and abiotic stress tolerance leading to a new generation of crops better equipped to deal with the challenges posed by global climate change and increased food demand.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

Optimization of this technology and work and introduction into diverse crops will allow farmers who cannot afford hybrid seeds to still obtain the full benefits of hybrids from their home-grown seeds.

SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

The identification of the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1.

Mary-Claire King discovered that mutations in the BRCA1 gene were associated with development of breast and ovarian cancer, laying the foundation for genetic testing, cancer risk prediction and personalized medicine. By using large families affected by early onsets of breast cancer, she succeeded in 1990 in localizing the BRCA1 gene to a specific chromosomal location (chromosomal 17q21), before the human genome sequence was known. Discovery of BRCA1 mutations and their impact on breast and ovarian cancer definitively establishes the concept of inherited cancer susceptibility and is the foundation of clinical cancer genetics.

SCALE OF IMPACT

Every woman in the world is concerned by breast cancer which is the leading cancer burden in women. Incidence of cancer  varies dramatically amongst countries, and increases in transitioning countries. The impact of the discovery of BRCA1 and its role in breast and ovary cancer is profound, having paved the way to genetic testing, cancer risk prediction and early detection and personalized care, saving millions of lives.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

Identification of the BRCA1 gene was a groundbreaking achievement in cancer genetics. It was the first demonstration that a common cancer could be inherited through a single gene mutation paving the way for genetic testing, allowing women with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer to assess their risk and take preventive measures, including surgery.

SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

Advances in microbial ecology and symbiotic nitrogen fixation in the tropics.

Plants interact with diverse microbial communities. These associated microorganisms confer advantages to the host plant. In particular, nitrogen-fixing bacteria—particularly Rhizobium—enhance plant growth and productivity. Unlike many approaches that relied on model rhizobial strains or commercial inoculants from temperate regions, María Esperanza Martínez-Romero focused on isolating native strains adapted to local soils and crops in tropical regions, advancing foundational knowledge in microbial ecology and symbiotic nitrogen fixation. She discovered and described multiple new species of Rhizobium, contributing to microbial taxonomy and understanding of plant-microbe interactions in agriculture. Her early identification of Rhizobium tropici opened an entirely new avenue in the study of nitrogen-fixing bacteria adapted to tropical environments. Her emphasis on microbial diversity, symbiosis beyond legumes, and real-world application in low-resource settings has had a profound influence on the field of microbial ecology.

SCALE OF IMPACT

Martínez-Romero’s research combines microbial ecology, genomics, and taxonomy to isolate and characterize new bacterial species uniquely adapted to local soil and crop conditions. The description of microbial diversity, functionality in diverse agrosystems and practices, advances the ability of scientists to select microbes that are better adapted to different types of soil, cultivation, and type of tillage enhancing the ability of plants to absorb nitrogen and other key nutrients.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

These Rhizobium strains can be used as microbial inoculants to enhance local soils and improve crop productivity. The application of these carefully studied strains tailored to a specific in agrosystem is expected to reduce the use of added inorganic. In a changing climate, these biofertilizers can enhance crop resilience and help feed the human population.

SUMMARY OF WINNING ENTRY

Discoveries and development of HPV vaccines for prevention of tumors caused by human papillomavirus.

Foundational studies on human papillomavirus capsid proteins by Douglas Lowy and John Schiller led to the development of highly effective HPV vaccines, preventing millions of cervical cancer cases, especially in developing countries. Single-dose HPV vaccination, validated by Aimee Kreimer’s seminal clinical studies has increased worldwide access and is established as a World Health Organization recommendation. In addition, laboratory and epidemiological studies by Maura Gillison and Aimée Kreimer established the link between HPV and head-and-neck cancers, which represent an emerging cancer threat expected to be mitigated by HPV vaccination efforts. The achievements of Douglas Lowy, John Schiller, Aimée Kreimer, and Maura Gillison have already saved millions of lives and will keep lowering the global cancer burden for decades to come.

SCALE OF IMPACT

Human papillomavirus causes around 690,000 new cancer cases and 350,000 deaths annually. Most of the cases occur in Asia and Africa, where single-dose vaccination dramatically enhances access and dissemination. Over 250 million doses have been given to more than 86 million girls, expecting to avert millions more cases.

MEANINGFUL CHANGE

HPV vaccines been given to millions of girls and boys and it is estimated that vaccination will prevent at least 8 million additional cancer cases caused by human papilloma viruses in the next 7 decades.

Filippo Giorgi is currently an Emeritus Scientist at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. From 2005 to 2024, he served as the head of the Earth System Physics section (ESP) at ICTP, where he had moved in 1998 after working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, from 1986 to 1998. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1986.

Giorgi is an international expert in climate modeling, climate change and its impacts from global to regional scales, extreme meteoclimatic events, biosphere–atmosphere interactions, and chemistry–climate interactions. He pioneered the field of regional climate modeling and made significant contributions to the study of regional climate change. He has authored over 420 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is one of the most cited scientists in the geosciences. He is the top-rated Italian scientist in the field of Natural and Environmental Sciences, as assessed by VIA-Academy. In 2020, a study by Stanford University based on multiple bibliometric indicators ranked him 11th (out of 54,940) in the list of the most influential scientists worldwide in the field of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics.

Giorgi has served on numerous international scientific committees, including the WMO/ICSU/IOC Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) for the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) (2009–2014), and the Scientific Advisory Team of the WCRP Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) (Co-Chair, 2012–2018). He contributed to the first five reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). From 2002 to 2008, he was one of the vice-chairs of Working Group I of the IPCC, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Giorgi has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Alexander von Humboldt Medal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), in recognition of his outstanding contributions to climate research and to the advancement of science in developing countries. He is a member of the Italian Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti.

Giorgi regularly engages in a wide range of outreach and educational activities, including seminars for schools and the public, as well as interviews for radio, television, and social media platforms.

Jayshree Seth is a Corporate Scientist at 3M and currently holds 80 patents for a variety of innovations, with several additional pending. She joined 3M in 1993 after an MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University, New York. She is a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from her alma mater REC Trichy India, now NIIT Trichy, where she earned a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering. Jayshree was appointed 3M’s first ever Chief Science Advocate in 2018 and is using her scientific knowledge, technical expertise and professional experience to advance science and communicate the importance of STEM fields to drive innovation. She is also a member of Carlton Society which is the 3M Science and Innovation “Hall of Fame.” Jayshree is the fourth woman and first female engineer to be inducted. In 2020, she was awarded Society of Women Engineers (SWE) highest Achievement Award. She is also the first-ever winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the new Female Thought Leaders of the Year – category in the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business in 2021. In 2025, she was named to the Thinkers50 Radar list.

Jayshree is a TEDx speaker and was also featured in a docuseries titled Not the Science Type that premiered during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and accepted for Brand Storytelling Showcase, a sanctioned event at Sundance Film Festival. She is the author of the books The Heart of Science – Engineering Footprints, Fingerprints, & Imprints,  The Heart of Science – Engineering Fine Print and The Heart of Science – Engineering Blueprint published by the Society of Women Engineers, and all sales proceeds of the trilogy go to a scholarship for women in STEM. She is a sought-after speaker, globally, on a multitude of topics such as innovation, leadership and STEM advocacy and has featured in local, national and international media.

Jayshree has served on the CEOs Inclusion Council, chaired the 3M Asian Employee Resource Group A3CTION and serves on the Steering Committee for 3M Technical Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF). She also serves on the Board of the Science Museum of Minnesota, Engineering Advisory Council for Clarkson University, American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) Industry Advisory Council, Advisory Board for Innovation – The Conference Board as Innovation Fellow, and Advisory Group of Aspen Institute Our Future is Science program.

Prof. Daniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Her research interests are in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and their applications toward a better world. Rus is a senior visiting fellow at MITRE Corporation, a MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, AAAI, AAAS, and IEEE, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the recipient of the Engelberger Award for robotics, the IEEE RAS Technical Award, the John Scott Medal, and the IEEE Edison Medal. Rus earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Ana Belén Elgoyhen, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Buenos Aires, School of Medicine and a Senior Scientist and Vice-Director of the Institute for Research in Genetic Engineer and Molecular Biology, National Research Council (CONICET), Argentina. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Pharmacology from the University of Buenos Aires and performed her postdoctoral training in Molecular Neurobiology at the Salk Institute, California.

Her research interest is focused on the genetics, physiology and pathology of hearing at the systems and synaptic level, the mechanisms underlying noise-induced hearing loss and the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms leading to tinnitus.

Prof Elgoyhen has been the recipient of several important awards including: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow (2003, USA), the TWAS prize in Biology (2011), Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Scholar (1997-2011), Latin American Laureate of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science (2008), Scientist of the Argentine Nation nominated by the President (2012), Fondation Pour L´Audition Grand Prix (2018). She is a member of the World Academy of Science, the Latin American Academy of Science and the Argentine Academy of Science.

Professor Fiona Watt obtained her first degree from Cambridge University and her DPhil, in cell biology, from the University of Oxford. She was a postdoc at MIT, where she first began studying differentiation and tissue organisation in mammalian epidermis. She established her first research group at the Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology in London and then spent 20 years at the CRUK London Research Institute. She helped to establish the CRUK Cambridge Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research and in 2012 she moved to King’s College London to found the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine. From 2018 to 2022 she was on secondment as Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council. In 2022 she moved to Heidelberg where she runs a lab at EMBL and is EMBO Director.

Prof. Dr. Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter is Chair of the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. He studies the impact of global environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystem services. His expertise covers biodiversity – ecosystem functioning relationships, pollinator ecology, crop pollination services, biological pest control, tropical agroforestry systems and landscape ecology. It is his ambition to lay the scientific ground for sustainable landscape management and agri-environmental schemes shaping the transition to future climate-resilient, adaptive and biodiverse ecosystems.

He has extensive experience as coordinator and partner in several international, African, European and national research projects and a long-lasting track record of successful inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation. He has published more than 300 peer reviewed articles and currently coordinates the EU H2020 project Safeguard – Safeguarding European pollinators.

Professor Pamela Christine Ronald graduated from UC Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Molecular and Physiological Plant Biology. She was a M.S. student at Stanford University, a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University and joined the faculty of UC Davis in 1992.

She also serves as Investigator, Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley and is coauthor of Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, genetics and the Future of Food.

She was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in biotechnology by Scientific American. In 2022, Ronald was awarded the Wolf Prize in Agriculture & the VinFuture Special Prize for Female Innovators.

She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences & the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Martin Green is Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and Founding Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, involving several other Australian Universities and research groups.

His group’s contributions to photovoltaics are well known and include holding the record for silicon solar cell efficiency for 30 of the last 40 years, described as one of the “Top Ten” Milestones in the history of solar photovoltaics.

The PERC solar cell that he invented in 1983 and his team developed to its full potential accounted for 91.2% of worldwide silicon solar module production in 2021 (CPIA).

Major international awards include the 1999 Australia Prize, the 2002 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, the 2007 SolarWorld Einstein Award, the 2016 Ian Wark Medal from the Australian Academy of Science, the Global Energy Prize in 2018, the prestigious 2021 Japan Prize, the 2022 Millenium Technology Prize, the 2023 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the 2023 VinFuture Grand Prize.

Professor Leslie Gabriel Valiant is a British-American computer scientist and computational theorist who is currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University.

Professor Valiant is well-known for his work in theoretical computer science. He was awarded the A.M. Turing Award in 2010 for work in machine learning, computational complexity and parallel computation, having been described by the ACM as a heroic figure in theoretical computer science and a role model for his courage and creativity in addressing some of the deepest unsolved problems in science.

Professor Valiant also received the Nevanlinna Prize from the International Mathematical Union in 1986, the Knuth Prize in 1997, and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science Award in 2008. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1991, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2001.

Professor Valiant was educated at King’s College, University of Cambridge, followed by Imperial College London, and finally at the University of Warwick, where he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1974. He started teaching at Harvard University in 1982, prior to which he taught at Carnegie Mellon University, Leeds University, and the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Sir Konstantin ‘Kostya’ Novoselov FRS was born in Russia in August 1974 and has dual British and Russian citizenship. He is best known for isolating graphene at The University of Manchester in 2004 and is an expert in condensed matter physics, mesoscopic physics, and nanotechnology.

Every year since 2014, Professor Novoselov has been included in the list of the most highly cited researchers in the world. Kostya holds the position of Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is also the part-time Langworthy Professor of Physics and the Royal Society Research Professor at The University of Manchester. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for his achievements with graphene.

He was awarded with numerous prizes, including Nicholas Kurti Prize (2007), International Union of Pure and Applied Science Prize (2008), MIT Technology Review young innovator (2008), Europhysics Prize (2008), Bragg Lecture Prize from the Union of Crystallography (2011), the Kohn Award Lecture (2012), Leverhulme Medal from the Royal Society (2013), Onsager medal (2014), Carbon medal (2016), Dalton medal (2016), and Otto Warburg Prize (2019) among many others. He was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and undertook his PhD studies at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands before moving to The University of Manchester in 2001. Later Professor Novoselov joined the National University of Singapore in 2019.

Professor Novoselov has published more than 400 peer-reviewed research papers.

Professor Daniel M. Kammen earned his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Cornell University (1984) and his master’s degree (1986) and PhD (1988) in Physics from Harvard University. He held postdoctoral positions at the California Institute of Technology and Harvard University. He also previously taught at Princeton University, where he chaired the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Program at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, before moving to the University of California, Berkeley, and later Johns Hopkins University. At Johns Hopkins University, he is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Justice, with joint appointments in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering (CASE) and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a leadership role in the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI).

His research and policy work span energy innovation, decarbonization, energy access, and climate justice, and he has published over 500 scientific papers through his Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) at the University of California, Berkeley. His current projects focus on decarbonization of power systems worldwide, energy access and social justice, materials science for low-carbon economies, big-data approaches to clean transportation, and the electrification of health facilities across Africa.

He has served in numerous high-level advisory roles, including Senior Advisor for Energy and Innovation at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID, 2021–2022), the first Environment and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA) Fellow appointed by Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton (2010), and Science Envoy for Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama (2016–2017). He was also the inaugural Chief Technical Specialist for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the World Bank (2010–2011). In addition to his academic work, he has co-founded and advised more than ten companies, and serves on several boards, including Native Renewables, the Chabot Space and Science Center, the Human Needs Project/Kibera Town Center, and the Energy & Environment Committee of the X-Prize Foundation.

Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020 and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2025, Professor Kammen has also been a contributing and coordinating lead author on multiple reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1999, his work was recognized when the IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Beyond research and policy work, he is a member of the Diversity Scholars Network and co-hosts the Energy Matters podcast with Claire Broido.

Professor Văn-Chí Đặng received his BS in Chemistry (highest honors) from the University of Michigan and was awarded a Ph.D. in Chemistry (high distinction) from Georgetown University.

He received his MD (inducted to Alpha Omega Alpha and Phi Beta Kappa) and internal medicine residency training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He trained in hematology-oncology at UCSF, where he did postdoctoral work on the MYC oncogene. Professor Đặng then returned to Johns Hopkins in 1987 where he established the first mechanistic link between a cancer gene (MYC) and cellular energy metabolism, contributing to the concept that genetic alterations in cancers re-program fuel utilization by tumors and render cancers addicted to certain fuel sources. This conceptual framework contributes to strategies for therapeutic targeting of cancer cell metabolism. His current work extends the role of MYC in cancer metabolism and the role of the circadian clock in metabolism and cancer.

He was Director of the Division of Hematology at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1993-2003) and was appointed Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research and Vice Dean for Research at Johns Hopkins. In 2011, he became director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and on July 1, 2017, he assumed the position of Scientific Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, overseeing Ludwig branches located in the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Research, an AACR journal.

Professor Pascale Cossart is a pioneering cellular microbiologist who has made significant contributions to our understanding of how bacteria both infect, and survive within, host cells. She uses the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes as a model, with her research paving the way for future therapeutics.

She is currently a Professor and Head of the Unité des Interactions Bactéries Cellules at the Pasteur Institute. She was also a Professor of Biochemistry at the Royal School of Medicine in Vientiane, Laos from 1974 – 1975 before working at Pasteur Institute in Paris from 1988 until the present.

Professor Cossart’s research provides a detailed picture of the factors which make Listeria such an effective infectious agent. She identified different proteins that Listeria uses to enter cells, move, and disseminate in tissues. Through the creation of a transgenic mouse model, she paved the way for in vivo studies. Professor Cossart has also unveiled new regulatory mechanisms in bacteria and is now deciphering how bacteria induce epigenetic changes during infection.

Professor Cossart has received several prestigious awards and recognitions, not only for her research but also for her role as a mentor and promoter of interdisciplinary collaboration. These awards include the Robert Koch Prize for biomedical science in 2007 in Germany, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2008 in Switzerland, the Balzan Prize in 2013 in Italy, the 2014 FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award, and most recently, the FEMS-Lwoff Award in 2019 in the UK. She became the Honorary Doctor of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in 2020.

Professor Sir Richard Henry Friend, FRS holds the Cavendish Professorship of Physics at the University of Cambridge. He is Director of the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability and of the Maxwell Centre. He is also a Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore and serves as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore. In addition, he is one of the principal investigators in the new Cambridge-based Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) on nanotechnology and co-founder of Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) and Plastic Logic.

Owning more than 140 patents and having written or co-authored over 1,100 prestigious scientific publications worldwide, Professor Sir Richard Henry Friend, FRS is one of the most influential physicists in the world. He also serves as a Council member of many prestigious global Prizes.

He and his group have developed polymer-processing techniques for conjugated polymers and demonstrated non-linear electronic excitations through electrical and optical measurements. He is credited for the first construction of MOSFET (Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) with polyacetylene as the active semiconductor; the demonstration of novel mechanisms of operation with novel behavior; and the first construction of the efficient, large-area, polymeric semiconductor LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes), based on polyphenylene-vinylene. His research on OLED has been used to develop flat screens, scroll screens, and motion screens for the future with the most well-known application of his research being the OLED TV. His work has also been applied to develop polymer field-effect transistors, light-emitting diodes, photoelectric diodes, optical pump-proof tubes, and direct-printed polymer transistors.

With a world-renowned reputation and numerous achievements in both research and teaching, Professor Sir Richard Henry Friend, FRS was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2002. His notable honors and awards include the IEE’s Faraday Medal in 2003, the Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2006, the Institute of Physics Katharine Burr Blodgett Medal, Prize with Dr. David Ffye in 2009, and the Millennium Technology Prize for the development of plastic electronics in 2010. He was knighted for “Services to Physics” in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Vivian Yam is the Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professor in Chemistry and Energy and Chair Professor of Chemistry at The University of Hong Kong. She was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, International Member (Foreign Associate) of US National Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of Academia Europaea, Fellow of TWAS and Founding Member of Hong Kong Academy of Sciences.

She was Laureate of the 2011 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award. Professor Yam has also received a number of prestigious awards, including the RSC Centenary Medal, RSC Ludwig Mond Award, Porter Medal, FACS Foundation Lectureship Award, APA Masuhara Lectureship Award, JPA Eikohsha Award, JSCC International Award, State Natural Science Award, CCS-China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) Chemistry Contribution Prize, CCS Huang Yao-Zeng Organometallic Chemistry Award, Croucher Senior Research Fellowship, and others.

Her research interests include inorganic/organometallic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, photophysics and photochemistry, and metal-based molecular functional materials for sensing, organic optoelectronics and energy research.

More information about Prof. Yam can be found at http://web.hku.hk/~wwyam/yam/homepage/

Professor Ngoc-Minh Do is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and is currently serving as the Vice Provost of VinUniversity.

Since 2002, he has been a faculty at UIUC, where he is currently the Thomas and Margaret Huang Endowed Professor in Signal Processing & Data Science in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and holds affiliate appointments with the Coordinated Science Laboratory, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the Department of Bioengineering, and the Department of Computer Science.

He was previously the Vice editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and member of IEEE Technical Committees on Signal Processing. In 2014, he was appointed IEEE Fellow for his contribution in image representation and computerized images. Professor Do believes that modern researchers need to have both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding to develop novel ideas. With this in mind, he has made significant contributions in technology transfer as the Chief Technology Officer of Personify, scientific lead of Misfit, and Beckman Fellow at Center for Advanced Study, UIUC. Prof. Do has a strong research foundation with an H-Index of 60.

In addition to 70 scientific publications and 63 presentations at international conferences, Prof. Do has been honored with prestigious awards such as the NSF Career Award by the National Science Fund; Best Student Paper Award in the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP); Most Innovative Paper Award at IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP); Xerox Award for researching Faculty, Technology University, UIUC and IEEE Best Paper Award.

He is also the recipient of the Best Doctoral Thesis Award from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne in 2001, University Medal from the University of Canberra, Australia in 1997, and Silver Medal in the 32nd International Mathematical Olympiad, Sweden (1991).

Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim is an infectious disease epidemiologist whose primary research focuses on understanding the evolving HIV epidemic in South Africa and preventing HIV in women.

She is the Scientific Director of CAPRISA and Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and a Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, USA. She is a Fellow of The World Academy of Science; African Academy of Science; Academy of Science of South Africa, Royal Society of South Africa, and elected Member of the US National Academy of Medicine.

She was awarded the inaugural VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators from Developing Countries, in recognition of her ground-breaking research on HIV prevention.

Professor Ermias Kebreab is Associate Dean for Global Engagement in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, as well as Director of the World Food Center. He is a renowned scholar and skilled administrator with extensive experience in sustainable agriculture and animal science.

Professor Kebreab is the Sesnon Endowed Chair in the Department of Animal Science. He has conducted extensive research in developing strategies for using feed additives to reduce methane emissions from livestock and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.

He is the Chair of the United Nations FAO Technical Working Group on Feed Additives, a Committee Member for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Panel on Anthropogenic Methane Emissions in the United States, and also serves on the NAS Committee for Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle. He is a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2019, “Emissions from Livestock and Manure Management.”

Prof. Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She joined the faculty of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at UCSB in summer 2004. Prior to that, she was a research associate in the Department of Chemistry and the Nano Center at Columbia University, working with Professors Louis Brus and Colin Nuckolls on molecular self-assembly, nanoscale characterization and devices. She also spent time at the IBM Research Center at T. J. Watson (Yorktown Heights, NY) working with Richard Martel and Phaedon Avouris on molecular electronics.

Her current research interests are electronic properties of conjugated polyelectrolytes, interfaces in optoelectronic devices, charge generation and transport in organic semiconductors, new materials for organic solar cell applications, molecular self-assemblies, materials processing, nanoscale characterization of organic solar cells, and device physics.

Prof. Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is among the Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science and Cross-Field by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics. In addition, she has received numerous prestigious honors and awards, including: The 2015-2019 World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds; The 2019 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; The 2019 Hall of Fame – Advanced Materials; The 2016 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry; The 2015 Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award; and many more.