Ashok Vaseashta is CEO/CTO and Executive Director for research with the International Clean Water Institute in Virginia, USA. He also serves as a Professor at the Transylvania University of Brasov; Chaired Professor of Nanotechnology at the Ghitu Institute of Electrical Engineering and Nanotechnologies, Academy of Sciences of Moldova; Academician at Euro-Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Senior Strategic Research Advisor for several organizations. Inspired by nature and guided by societal necessities, he strives for technological innovations to address the global challenges of the 21st century. His research interests include CBRN defense, critical infrastructure safety, and security and environmental sustainability - all using nexus of advanced technological solution platforms. He is a scholar, visionary, strategist, and dedicated futurist providing strategic leadership to promote and advance research initiatives and priorities using data-driven decisions. He received Ph.D. from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA in 1990 followed by Kobe post-doctoral fellowship. Following his Ph.D., he served as a professor and researcher at Virginia Tech and Marshall University. He also served as the Director of Research at the Institute for Advanced Sciences Convergence and International Clean Water Institute for Norwich University Applied Research Institutes, Vice-Provost (Rector) for Research in South Carolina, Visiting Professor at the Riga Technical University, Latvia, 3 Nano-SAE Research Centre, University of Bucharest, Romania and Visiting Scientist at the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center of Nanoscale Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. He served the U.S. Department of State in two rotations, as strategic S&T advisor in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism, and U.S. diplomat. His research interests span nanotechnology, environmental/ecological science, and safety and security. Much of his work in nanotechnology has been on improving the understanding, design, and performance of nanofibers and sensors/detectors, mainly for applications such as wearable electronics, target drug delivery, detection of biomarkers, and toxicity of nano and xenobiotic materials. In the security arena, he has worked on counterterrorism, countering unconventional warfare and hybrid threats, critical-Infrastructure protection, biosecurity, dual-use research concerns, and mitigating hybrid threats including the weaponization of misinformation and fake news. In addition, he has made numerous contributions in environmental/ecological science including directing research for International Clean Water Institute, pollution monitoring, contamination detection and remediation, and sustainability through green nanotechnology. He is the author/editor of 11 books and has published over 300 articles in scientific journals, book chapters, and conferences. He serves on editorial boards of several international journals and is an active member of various professional organizations.
Gheorghe Duca is the author of 1760 edited works, including 418 scientific papers, 136 editorial works, 165 patents, 83 monographs and textbooks, 513 articles on science popularization and more than 445 conference presentations and materials, including the first textbook "Ecological Chemistry," published in three editions and translated into three languages: Romanian , Russian, English. Prof. Gh. Duca developed and taught courses on Physical chemistry, Chemical technology, Ecological chemistry, Processes and equipment, Physico-chemical research methods, Chemical risk assessment, Kinetics and thermodynamics of ecological systems. He held the lectures at the State University of Moldova, State University "Dmitrie Cantemir", Universities of Rome, Turin (Italy), Texas, California (USA), Zurich (Switzerland), Budapest (Hungary), Prague (Czechia), Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj, Bucharest (Romania). Under his supervision 30 PhD were granted, including thesis in cooperation with INSA, Lyon, France (1998) and 5 Habilitate Doctors. He founded Department of Industrial and Ecological Chemistry, SUM (1991), Research Center of Ecological and Applied Chemistry, SUM (1992), Faculty of Ecology, International University of Moldova (1992), Research Center of Physical and Inorganically Chemistry (2006), High School for gifted children of the ASM (2007), University of the Academy of Sciences (2007), Nongovernmental organization for environmental protection "Terra Nostra" (1992), Moldovan Research and Development iAssociation, MRDA (2000), and the journals "Environment" (2002), "Chemistry Journal of Moldova" (2005), Journal of Science, Innovation, Culture and Art "Akademos" (2005). Acad. Gh. Duca is a member of Board of Directors of BSCSF-International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (2010), JRC-European Union Joint Research Center (2013), ALLEA-All European Academy (2018) and was delegated by the Government of Moldova to sign the Memorandum of Understanding for participation of the Republic of Moldova in the FP7, EU Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007-2013), Association Agreement for participation of the Republic of Moldova in the H2020, EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) and supervise the cooperation of the Republic of Moldova with the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, CRDF (2000-2010). Besides, he is Honorary and Full Member of the Balkan Academy of Science, Bulgarian Academy of Science and Art (2018), Culture New and Sustainable Development, Bulgaria (2004), Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences "Gheorghe Ionescu-Siseşti" Romania (2006), Academy of Sciences and Arts of Montenegro (2006), Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy (2007), National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2009), Russian Academy of Sciences (2012), Research Network for Advance Studies of River System DANUBIUS (2013), APOLLONIA University, Iasi, Romania (2018), BABES-BOLYAI University, Cluj-Napoca University, Craiova University and Oradea University, Romania (2018). He was appreciated with a lots of awards and distinctions such as: Knight of the Order for Inventions of the Kingdom of Belgium (2003), the Cross of Commander of the Order of Honour, Poland (2004), the Gold Medal for Eminent Services to the cause of progress, Brussels (2005), Order "Cultural Merit" of Romania (2006), Gold Medal "N. S. Kurnakov ", Russian Federation (2007), International Socrates Award, Oxford, UK (2009), Silver Medal of the Association of Innovators of China (2010), Gold Medal "EUROINVENT", Brussels (2011), Order of the Republic of Moldova (2011), Award for outstanding achievements in the field of European Integration of the Economic Cooperation Organization of the Black Sea (2013), Medal of the National Commission of the Republic of Moldova for UNESCO (2014),the Order "The crown of Romania" with the rank of Commander (2015), Award of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (2016), Runners up Prize for Scientific Papers, Japan ICMSEM-2017, European Innovation Award with Diploma of Commander, European Commission, Belgium (2018), etc. Acad. Gh. Duca is not only a scientist, professor and prominent specialist in its field, but also a great organizer of research, skillful leader of the most important and prestigious institution of Moldova.
Sergey Travin received his degrees from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), faculty of molecular and chemical physics 1976, diploma with honors, specialty engineer-physicist, followed by his Ph.D. in Chemistry 1979 Doctor of Sciences in Economics, Professor 2001 and Full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in the section "Education and sustainable development" 2002. He is co-author of three books and more than a hundred articles, including on chemical kinetics, environmental chemistry, Bank information technologies, corporate data warehouses. He is currently working with the Institute of Chemical Physics, USSR Academy of Sciences since 1973. Experience 43 years. Senior Research Scientist, with the scope of interest: Science, education; Chemistry, physics, mathematical modeling, and Computer science, Information systems. Chemical kinetics. Study of the mechanisms of complex multistage reactions. Automation of the experiment, creation, and maintenance of computer systems for automated processing of experimental data. Mathematical modeling of the behavior of multicomponent systems. Application of mathematical methods of forecasting. Probability research in non-Gaussian cases with the distribution of Zipf-Mandelbrot with “long tails.