Professor Ming Hung Wong is a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Changjiang Chair Professor of the Ministry of Education, China. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of 'Environmental Geochemistry and Health' (Springer Nature) for 20 years (2002-2023). Professor Wong was the Coordinator of Central and North-East Asia of 'Regionally Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances' and a Panel Member (of 3 experts) of 'Chemicals Management Issues of Developing Countries and Countries with Economies in Transition', sponsored by UNEP/GEF, during 2001-2003 and 2010-2012, respectively. His research areas included 'Environmental toxicology'; 'Ecological restoration'; and 'Resource reuse'. In addition to his PhD (Durham), he was awarded two higher Doctoral Degrees based on published papers in 1992 and 2004: DSc (Durham) and DSc (Strathclyde). Recently, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) from the Southern Federal University, Russia (2024), in recognition of his involvement as the Lead Scientist in the Mega Project on Bioremediation of Polluted Ecosystems, sponsored by the Russian Government. Professor Wong is ranked 6th for 3 years, 7th for 1 year, and 8th for 2 years (career-long ranking) under Environmental Science, according to the World's Top 2% Scientists (Stanford University, 2020-2025). Dr.

Xun Wen Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology, College of Life Science and Technology at Jinan University, China. He obtained his PhD at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His interdisciplinary research focuses on the complex interactions between plants and microbes under stress, including exposure to chemical and physical stressors. The goal of his research is to gain a deeper understanding of the complex plant-microbe interactions and to extract general principles that can be applied to advance ecological restoration and sustainable development. Dr. Masayuki Ushio is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ocean Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He began his academic career as a forest ecologist in 2005, earned PhD in 2010 from Kyoto University, and has been actively involved in research in ecology, covering a wide range of topics, including tropical forest ecology, nutrient cycling, community assembly, environmental DNA analysis, and statistical ecology. He moved from Kyoto University to Hong Kong in 2022 and began ecological research in local coastal regions.

In Hong Kong, his research team is currently developing environmental DNA-based methods to monitor cetacean and fish communities in coastal ecosystems.