Maurizio Bona
Senior Advisor to the Director General of CERN for relations with international organizations, parliaments and scientific policy.

Maurizio Bona was born in Milan. He holds an engineering degree (1979) and a Doctor degree on material science (1983) from Politecnico di Milano. Starting in the mid-eighties he participated in the design and development phases of the LHC* superconducting magnets. He led the Technical Group (1998) and the Integrated Safety and Environment Group (2003) of the CERN Safety department. He then led the Safety department from June 2006 until the end of his mandate in December 2008.

From 2009 to end 2015 he was the Advisor to the Director-General, charged with relations with international organizations. He was instrumental to develop the CERN network of relations with other international organizations and to obtain the status of Observer for CERN in the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 2012. From January to September 2016 he served as the Head of Relations with international organization.

Ana Elorza
Science Advice Coordinator, FECYT.

Ana Elorza is a biomedical scientist by training. She is the Science Advice Coordinator at the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, FECYT, a public foundation depending on the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in Spain. Ana is an expert on science policies with extensive international experience in academia, public administration and multi-lateral organizations working abroad for over 15 years in the USA, Belgium, Morocco, Sweden, Spain and Colombia. Her work is focused on science diplomacy, science advice, scientific communities and capacity building for a sustainable future through science and innovation. Ana was the first scientist to be appointed in a Spanish Embassy in the US. She belongs to the network of science diplomats that was envisioned and built around independent communities of Spanish scientists abroad, leading a new and creative model for Spanish science diplomacy, providing top-down support to bottom-up scientific associations and opening new channels from the administration to civil society. Ana was the Chair of the First Meeting of Spanish Scientists in the US (www. cientificosus.es) presented by HM King Felipe VI in September 2015 at the University of Georgetown in Washington DC. Ana is also one of the “Ciencia en el Parlamento“ (Science in Parliament) coordinators. This new initiative brings scientists to the Spanish National Parliament to hold a joint dialogue between scientist and members of parliament on the role science should play in the legislative process.

Ernesto Fernandez
Chief of Section, Science Policy and Partnerships, Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building, Natural Sciences Sector, UNESCO. 

Ernesto Fernandez Polcuch is a Science Diplomat, specialist in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy and Statistics.As Chief of Section for Science Policy and Partnerships, Natural Sciences Sector of UNESCO, he manages global UNESCO programmes in STI Policy, Gender Equality in STI, Science Diplomacy, and Science-Policy-Society linkages.

He was previously at the UNESCO Offices in Montevideo and Windhoek, and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in Montreal. Before, he worked as a researcher, professor, government adviser and consultant in Argentina and Latin America and Caribbean.

Marga Gual
Science Diplomacy adviser to EU Commissioner Moedas & former Senior Project Director AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy. 

Dr. Marga Gual Soler believes in the power of science to break down barriers and build bridges between people and nations. She works with governments, universities, NGOs and international organizations worldwide to connect scientists with policy and has trained thousands of emerging leaders to engage at the science-diplomacy nexus. Marga has a PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Queensland in Australia, a master's from the University of Barcelona, and is an alumna of the Georgetown Global Competitiveness Leadership Program. In 2019 she will join an expedition to Antarctica to promote women in science diplomacy and climate leadership.

Katharina Höne
Research Associate in diplomacy and global governance at DiploFoundation, with a focus on technology and AI. 

Katharina E Höne obtained her PhD from the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, UK. Since 2016, she has been a researcher in global governance and diplomacy with DiploFoundation (diplomacy.edu). Her work focuses on the interplay between technology and diplomacy, old and new forms of diplomatic practice and capacity building for a more equal representation at international negotiation tables. Key areas of research include science diplomacy and the impact of new technologies, such as big data and AI, on diplomatic practice.

Together with Barbara Rosen Jacobson, she has worked on a research project on data diplomacy, commissioned by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As part of DiploFoundation’s AI Lab, she is currently co-leading a project, also commissioned by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to look at the implications of recent developments in AI for the practice of diplomacy.

Nasser Kamel
Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean.

A career diplomat for the Egyptian government, Nasser Kamel held the position of Ambassador of Egypt to the United Kingdom from 2014 to 2018. He was also Ambassador to France in the period 2006-2012, during which he took part in the drafting of the Joint Declaration of the 2008 Paris Summit that marked the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean. Furthermore, between 2012 and 2014, he was Assistant Minister for Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs. From 2004 to 2006, he was the Director of Egypt’s Public Information Service. Prior to this position he served in various embassies, including Washington (1984-1988), Lisbon (1990-1994), Tunis (1994-1998), Brussels (1999-2001) and Paris (2001-2004).

Luk Van Langenhove
Coordinator of the H2020 program 'European Leadership in Cultural, Science and Innovation Diplomacy (EL-CSID), Academic Director at the Institute for European Studies (IES) at VUB, Associate Senior Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS.

Luk Van Langenhove (BE) is a Research Professor at the Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He previously held the position of Director at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) in Bruges and Representative of the Rector at UNESCO in Paris. Before he was Deputy Secretary-General of the Belgian Federal Ministry of Science Policy, Deputy Chief of Cabinet of the Belgian Federal Minister of Science Policy and a researcher and lecturer at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). From 2006 until 2010 he was Vice-President of the International Social Sciences Council. He currently also teaches at the VUB.

Izaskun Lacunza
International Projects Head of Unit, FECYT.

Izaskun Lacunza is a science policy practitioner currently running the International Projects Unit at the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). She is focused on bringing science beyond the frontiers of academia. On one hand, she has coordinated the science advisers' network at strategic Embassies of Spain and its collaboration with relevant civil and administration stakeholders. Also, she belongs to the S4D4C consortium being mainly co-responsible for the stakeholder networking at the international level and the development of training materials for science diplomats. Moreover, Izaskun is one of the "Ciencia en el Parlamento" (Science in Parliament) coordinators. This civil society initiative brings researchers and members of parliament together to discuss the role of scientific evidence in the legislative process.

On the other hand, she coordinates FECYT's participation in European projects in order to create the conditions for researchers to fully develop their potential and to have open, diverse, intersectoral, international and interdisciplinary career paths in an open science framework.

Josep Maria Martorell
Associate Director at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS).

Josep Maria Martorell holds a degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona and has a PhD in Computer Science from the Ramon Llull University. He has more than twelve years of experience in the field of research, including five as the general director of research at the Government of Catalonia. Since April 2016 he has been an associate director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Octavi Quintana
Director of the PRIMA Foundation - Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area. Former Director of the European Research Area.

Octavi Quintana trained as a medical doctor in the University of Barcelona. He joined the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission in 2002, serving first as the Director of Health Research for five years and subsequently as the Director of Energy (EURATOM) in the same Directorate-General.

Prior to this, Octavi Quintana-Trias served for two years as Director of International Affairs in the Spanish Ministry for Health and Consumer Affairs and from 1990 – 2000 as Deputy Director General of INSALUD, the organisation which is responsible for the management of the health care system in Spain. He has also served as an advisor to the Pan American Health Organisation, working on health care systems in various Latin American countries (1994 – 2011), he was Vice-Chair of the European Group of Ethics (1994-2001) and Chair of the Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe (1992–1995). Between 1996 and 1998, he was President of the Spanish Society of Quality Assurance on Health Care and Founder of the European Society of Quality Assurance on Health (ESQH).

Alexis Roig
CEO SciTech DiploHub.

Mr. Roig is the Chief Executive Officer of SciTech DiploHub, the Barcelona Science and Technology Diplomacy Hub, the public-private partnership in charge of making Barcelona the world’s first city to implement a Science Diplomacy strategy. He has 10 years’ experience as senior advisor on science diplomacy for ministries of Foreign Affairs, Science, Research and Education across Asia and Europe. He is professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policies at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. Alexis is actively engaged and member of the board in numerous private ventures and nonprofit initiatives in the fields of Engineering, Higher Education and Public Diplomacy. He holds a masters in Computer Science from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, an MBA from Ecole de Management de Normandie, and a Postgraduate degree in Diplomacy from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.