Dr. Markus Schmidt is founder and team leader of BIOFACTION (www.biofaction.com), a research, technology assessment and art-science intitute in Vienna, Austria. With a multidisciplinary educational background in biomedical and electronic engineering, biology and environmental risk assessment he has carried out inter- and transdisciplinary projects in a number of science and technology fields such as GM-crops, gene therapy, nanotechnology, converging technologies, synthetic and xenobiology, and neurotechnology. Schmidt works on the interface between science and society, and since 2004 has participated in a total 22 EC FP6/7/H2020, national and international research projects projects. He served as an advisor to the EC European Group on Ethics (EGE, 2009), to the US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010), and was member of the EC’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR, 2014/15) working group on synthetic biology.

He published 45+ peer review papers on risk assessment, biosafety, art-science and public understanding of science, edited two special issues and four books on ethics, sustainability and artistic interpretations of biotechnology. In addition to the scientific work, he supports the democratization of science and technology, co-founding in 2012 the Austrian Biohacking club “Pavillon 35”. He engages in a number of public dialogue activities - including the World Wide Views series - and finds inspiration in the collaboration between art and science. He initiated and co-curated the BIO·FICTION Science Art Film Festival (2011, 2014 and 2019), the art exhibition “synth-ethic” (2011), the design exhibitions “Possible Tomorrows” (2016), "Plant Designer" (2018), “Plant Stories (2020), “Carbon Futures” (2020), “Dryland Projection (2022, and “Traces of Fluorine (2022); and supported, so far, eigth artist in residencies in research labs in order to explore creative ideas about future technologies. Together with his team he developed four science games on antibiotics, bioengineering and vaccines, available on itunes and google play store, and several documentaries and animations about the societal ramifications of novel technologies.

A research affiliate in the Department of Biology at MIT, and in the George Church Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. Joe Davis spent most of his early life in the American Deep South. While earning his Creative Arts degree (1973) from Mt Angel College in Oregon, he pioneered sculptural methods in laser carving at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, and University of Cincinnati Medical Center Laser Laboratory.

Committed since I am a nutritionist doctor in the fight against overweight, obesity and diabetes. In 1970, faced with a scientific environment immersed in the dogma of the undifferentiated calorie and faced with its impotence, I created my method leaving the calories for the categories. This method considers industrially processed carbohydrates as the exclusive culprit of overweight and diabetes, and proteins and dietary fibers as the two nutrients to be favored to fight them. This method has been supported by books that have sold 18 million copies in 30 countries. The second aspect of my action is my work and research on the impairment of the fetus during pregnancy by the ultra-processed diet of the mother. Such a diet during the 4th and 5th month of pregnancy (91st day to 150th day) deeply disturbs the development of the fetus' pancreas which produces a vulnerability of the future adult to overweight and diabetes. Once an adult, this acquired vulnerability will be directly affected by the new eating. And it is this encounter between a fragile pancreas and a non-human diet that is for me at the origin of the epidemic of overweight and diabetes, and by ricochet of the diseases of civilization.

Vishaal co-founded Aanika Biosciences in 2018 after experiencing first-hand the complexities and problems in our food supply chain. Prior to Aanika, Vishaal spent over a decade in the investing space, serving as a portfolio manager of a multi-strategy hedge fund with over a billion in AUM and trading a portfolio of esoteric derivatives for a group of family offices. He has co-authored / edited three books with Wiley and FT Press on the use of financial derivatives and insurance to combat issues such as overfishing, water scarcity and demographic change.

Vishaal graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 with a B.A. in the History of Science and began his career working for one of the largest commodity traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Margherita Pevere (IT/DE) is an internationally acknowledged artist and researcher whose practice glides across biological arts and performance with a distinctive visceral signature. Her inquiry hybridizes biotechnology, ecology, politics, queer and death studies to create arresting artworks that trail today’s ecological complexity. Her body of work is a blooming garden crawling with genetically edited bacteria, cells, sex hormones, microbial biofilm, bovine blood, slugs, growing plants and decomposing remains. With Marco Donnarumma and Andrea Familari, she co-founded the artists’ group Fronte Vacuo to realize performances made of bodies, symbionts, sounds, machines and images. She is completing a PhD at Aalto University on biological arts and queer studies.

Marta de Menezes (born 1975) is a Portuguese artist, with a Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon and a MSt from the University of Oxford. De Menezes is director of Cultivamos Cultura, the leading institution devoted to experimental art in Portugal and Ectopia, dedicated to facilitating collaborative work between artists and scientists. Marta de Menezes has worked in the intersection of art and biology since the late 90s, in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and Portugal, exploring the conceptual and aesthetic opportunities offered by biological sciences for visual representation in the arts. Her work has been widely exhibited in major venues in all continents, presented in most anthologies devoted to bioart, discussed in doctoral dissertations, and considered an example of research in the visual arts. Among the most recent international exhibitions, de Menezes was invited for the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival: Out of the Box, and organized two 2020 Ars Electronica Gardens (Lisbon and São Luis).

She was invited to be the official representation of Portugal at the London Design Biennale 2016 and exhibited at the Beijing Biennale of New Media Art 2016. DeMenezes was nominated in 2015 by Time and Fortune magazines for the Art and Technology Awards 2015. Besides her work as artist, de Menezes curated major international exhibitions including for European Capital of Culture (Portugal), Kontejner Festival (Zagreb), Verbeke Foundation (Belgium) and this last three years the editions of FACTT –Transnational and Transdisciplinary Festival of Art and Science that took place in Lisbon, New York, Mexico City, Berlin and Toronto.

Creator of Sinestesia, an Edtech startup focused on synthetic biology, and a bioart and biodesign exhibition, respectively. She is a fellow of the leadership program of the Global Community Biotechnology Initiative of the MIT Media Lab. Minerva was iGEM Ambassador for Latam and Outreach Lead of Design League. Leader in biotechnology selected by Allbiotech and TEDx speaker. Recognized by the Tec Women award in the entrepreneurship category in 2019.

Dr. Jo Zayner is a visionary biochemist and genetic designer. For over 15 years, they have pioneered work in the field of bioengineering, publishing a number of scientific papers on the topic. Jo received their PhD in Biophysics from the University of Chicago, winning a number of awards for their work on engineering proteins. They then spearheaded work on developing engineered microbes for Mars terraforming at NASA, eventually leaving to start The ODIN, a bioengineering company based in Austin, Texas that is working to make genetic engineering accessible to everyone. Zayner’s groundbreaking work in human genetic engineering and medicine has been the focus of many documentaries, including the Netflix documentary Unnatural Selection and the NYT documentary Gut Hack. They have been made fun of on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and written about in media all over the world including The New York Times, The New Yorker, El País, Le Monde, Time, Scientific American and NPR, among others. Somehow Jo still finds time to be an accomplished artist whose work has been featured in exhibits at San Francisco MoMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, NY MoMA, ZKM and the Smithsonian. Zayner is transgender and uses they/she pronouns advocating for diversity, body autonomy and science for all.

Salman Khan Promon is a science and technology enthusiast, looking for acquiring expertise required to solve real-life problems by working and collaborating with various local and global initiatives. He is currently working as a lecturer at the Department of Life Sciences, Independent University, Bangladesh. He completed his BS and MS in Biotechnology from Brac University, Bangladesh. He is involved in teaching, student activities, research, technology & innovation and social development initiatives. Currently his research line is focused on regenerative medicine, industrial biotechnology, biomedical engineering, cancer research, cell & molecular biology.

Jonathan is a multidisciplinary researcher and technology developer, focusing on environmental and land use change in rural and agricultural contexts. In the field ‘International Cooperation, Sustainable Emergency Architecture’ he has worked on housing and development projects associated to ‘UN habitat’ in Barcelona, ‘Habitat for Humanity’ in Costa Rica, ‘UNESCO’ in Cuba. He has authored several research papers and contributed to books on the topic of “Geographic referencing for Technology Transfer” and themes involving ‘Computational Agriculture’ and technology choice. Between 2013 and 2018 he setup and managed the ‘Green Fab Lab’ and ‘Valldaura Labs’ campus for the ‘Institute of Advanced architecture’ in Catalunya (IAAC). He co-founded the project and company OSBH ‘Open Source Beehives’ and was the project manager for the European Commission H2020 program named ‘ROMI’, Robotics for Micro-farms and is currently involved with the European Commission ‘ICAERUS’ program for innovation and capacity building in UAV services for crop monitoring. He now directs the applied research group named ‘Ecological Interaction’ and runs a ten hectare research farm in Southern Catalunya.

Dr. Dilip Kumar Verma is a senior scientist specializing in plant breeding, genetics, and cytogenetics. He has worked on a range of crops including rice, maize, wheat, temperate grasses, and legumes. Dr Verma received his MSc and PhD from the Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University in Pusa, Bihar, and has guided 9 MSc students. He has developed a number of varieties of wheat and identified various strains of grasses and legumes. Dr Verma has also worked at various institutes including the ICAR-ICAR(RC)NEH region in Umiam, Meghalaya, the ICAR-IIMR in Ludhiana, the ICAR-IARI RS Pusa in Bihar, the ICAR-IGFRI RRS in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, and the ICAR-IARI RS Indore, where he is currently based.

Sebastian is a self-taught amateur biologist with a focus on flower morphology research and the production of tools that lower entry barriers for others to do biology as a hobby. He runs a for-profit startup New York Botanics, LLC which provides consultation and wetlab work for hire in the field of plant bioengoneering and a non-profit Binomica Labs where he helps develop the software, hardware, wetware, and thoughtware necessary to help others explore the living world.

David Ishee is a biohacker and dog breeder working on projects to improve access to genetic engineering technology. Starting with no degree or laboratory David had to be self taught genetic engineering and build his own genetic engineering lab. With a lab built from home made and used genetics equipment he’s been able to bootstrap genetically modified organisms at a fraction of the typical costs. His projects range from developing more accessible methods of gene editing dogs that allow breeders to remove genetic disease, all the way to developing DIY methods of gene therapy for humans.

His work is focused around the idea that these powerful new technologies can only reach their potential if they’re accessible to a broad DIY community and the rapid innovation it can drive. This work led to media coverage all over the world with the biggest coverage of some of his work being on the BBC, MIT technology review, New Scientist, Showtime and a 4 part documentary on Netflix called “Unnatural Selection”.

Dr. Parvathi JR is the Assistant Director of Somaiya Institute for Research and Consultancy and Co-director of the newly established Centre for Sustainable Development and Climate Action at Somaiya Vidyavihar University. She focuses on nucleating interdisciplinary research teams within the University, strengthening outreach communication, coordinating and executing special projects, and global networking assigned by management. Dr. Parvathi is also a bioscientoonist and is passionate about creating multilingual instructional scientoons, concept sketches, illustrations, and building a network of creative educators and communicators.

She is also the Co-director of the newly established Centre for Sustainable Development and Climate Action at Somaiya Vidyavihar University and mainly contributes to drafting concept notes, building global programs, research capacity & network in omics, and strengthening outreach communication of the University’s sustainable initiatives.