Marta Cehelsky is Senior Adviser for Science And Technology in the Department of Sustainable Development of the InterAmerican Development Bank,where she has spearheaded a initiatiative to strengthen the effectiveness of the Bank’s S&T activities, resulting in the establishment of a new Subdepartment of Education and Science and Technology.  Dr. Cehelsky is on assignment from the National Science Foundation, where she served as Executive Officer of the Presidentially appointed National Science Board, responsible for NSF policy and for advising the US President and Congress on national science and technology policy.  She served in a number of senior policy positions at NSF including Senior Advisor the Director and Senior International Fellow, and was principal NSF liaison to the policy committees of the National Academies.  While on the staff of Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC), she served as special assistant for policy.  As senior policy analyst at NASA she was a member of the Presidential Task Force on Remote Sensing Policy. She was a on the faculty of Brooklyn College, CUNY and  the University of Houston and holds a doctorate from Columbia University in political science.

Saul Hahn is currently Head of the Division of Science and Technology, within the Office of Education, Science and Technology at the Organization of American States (OAS), with headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he has been since 1987. 

He has coordinated the Hemisphere Wide Inter-University Scientific and Technological Information Network project (RedHUCyT) project which was established in 1991 to help integrate academic electronic networks in the 34 Member states of the OAS. A subproject of RedHUCYT, the Caribbean University Network (CUNet) was also started in 1991. Both projects have played a key role in developing the Internet in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in enhancing the development of national research and education networks in the Western Hemisphere:  http://www.redhucyt.oas.org. Because of this work he was nominated and then elected to the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society, 1994-1997, and Trustee Emeritus in 1998.

He holds an Electronics and Communications Engineering degree from the National Polytechnic Institute (Mexico) where he also studied physics and mathematics. He earned a Master of Science, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Mathematics from New York University (Courant Institute).

After a period of research in the U.S., he returned to Mexico and became a Professor of Mathematics and Co-coordinator of the Computer Lab at the Centro de Investigacion y Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV) in Mexico City. He worked as a consultant in digital image processing at the IBM Scientific Center where he also coordinated special projects, including oil reservoirs simulation. The author of several monographs and numerous articles, he was appointed to several Commissions at the Mexican National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT) and the National University of Mexico  (UNAM). In 1985, he was distinguished as a National Researcher. He has lectured in mathematics and has done research at several universities across the U.S. On sabbatical leave from CINVESTAV, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of New Mexico,  in 1985.

Mandë Holford is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory of Dr. Baldomero Olivera at the University of Utah.  Dr. Holford’s research involves the characterization and analysis of toxins from venomous cone snails, and newly described turrids, as biochemical tools for investigating the functional roles of ion channels and receptors in mediating cell signaling in the nervous system.  She received her PhD in synthetic protein chemistry at The Rockefeller University in New York City.  After her degree, Dr. Holford joined the American Museum of Natural History where she served as the inaugural Manager of the High School Science Research Program (HSSRP).  Dr. Holford developed HSSRP as an early training ground in critical thinking and experimentation for New York City high school students interested in pursuing a career in science.  In 2004, Dr. Holford was awarded an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the National Science Foundation (NSF).  As a AAAS/NSF Fellow Dr. Holford met with scientific and administrative counterparts in the Nordic and Americas regions, to review or initiate collaborative opportunities for American researchers.  Dr. Holford is an inaugural member of the World Academy of Young Scientist (WAYS), an organization sponsored by UNESCO and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), aimed at encouraging global mobility and facilitating the emergence and sharing of scientific knowledge to reduce the gap between developed and developing countries.

Steven G. Huter is a Research Associate at the University of Oregon Computing Center, where he serves as Project Manager for the Network Startup Resource Center. The NSRC provides technical information, engineering assistance,  training, equipment, and educational materials to network operators at  research and education institutions and Internet Service Providers in countries with limited Internet infrastructure.

Other relevant activities include:

Ana Sittenfeld born in San José, Costa Rica, is the Director of the Office of International Affairs and External Cooperation (OAICE) of the University of Costa Rica (UCR). Dr. Sittenfeld, a Professor of Microbiology at the Center for Research in Cellular and Molecular Biology (CIBCM) of the University of Costa Rica, obtained with honors a Professional Doctorate in Microbiology and Clinical Chemistry in 1978, and a M.Sc. in Microbiology in 1985 at UCR. As a faculty member of CIBCM, she participates in research and teaching in the areas of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Microbial Ecology and Microbial Gene Prospecting. She served until 2004, as the Director of the Microbial Gene Prospecting MIRCEN (Microbial Resources Center, UNESCO) and coordinator of the Microbial Ecology Department. She was the Director of CIBCM in two occasions: from 1988 to 1989 and from 1996 to 1998. Her research activities includes the characterization of microbial communities living in extreme environments and as part of the Rice Biotechnology Group at CIBCM, she leads efforts related to intellectual property, freedom to operate and public perception.

From 1991 to May 1996, she joined the National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio) as its Director of Bioprospecting, with direct responsibility for facilitating the sustainable economic use of biodiversity and biotechnology. She has served in several national and international Committees dealing with Biodiversity and Biotechnology including the National Biotechnology Committee, the Inter-American Commission on Biodiversity and Sustainable Development and the National Advisory Committee for Biodiversity (COABIO). She is an active member of the Private and Public, Scientific Academic and Consumer Food Policy Committee at Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration, and the Consultative Group for Agricultural Biotechnology, Latin America (UNIDO). From 1997 to 2003 she joined the Board of Trustees of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) (CGIAR), with headquarters in Kenya and Ethiopia. More recently she is a member of the Board of Trustees for the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) (CGIAR). Dr. Sittenfeld is a founding member and was the first President of the Board of Directors of the Costa Rica-United States Foundation (CRUSA). She served as the coordinator of the Institutional Biodiversity Commission, participates as a member of the Biotechnology Commission at the University of Costa Rica. Dr. Sittenfeld is author or co-author of more than 150 papers and presentations in scientific meetings.

Jorge Soberon obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the National University of Mexico. He obtained his Ph.D. from Imperial College, University of London, in 1982. From 1982 to 2005 he was a Researcher at the Institute of Ecology, National University of Mexico. He is now Senior Scientist at the Biodiversity Research Center of the University of Kansas. He has published more than 80 scientific papers, chapters, books and science popularization articles. His areas of expertise are theoretical population ecology, conservation biology and informatics for biodiversity.

From June 1992 to April 2005 Soberon was seconded by the National University to serve as the Executive Secretary of the National Commission on Biodiversity of Mexico (CONABIO).  In his capacity as Executive Secretary he helped to design and supervised the development of large databases of specimen data, systems for utilize remote sensing data to the monitoring of biodiversity in Mexico and the application of cutting-edge extrapolation techniques to the problem of predicting occurrences of biodiversity elements based on partial and biased data. He has attended all the Conferences of the Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity and many of its peripheral meetings, often as Head of the Mexican Delegation. He helped to develop the concept of the Global Biodiversity Information facility (GBIF) and still serves as Vice Chair of the Scientific Committee of GBIF. He has served as board member of the All Species Foundation, NatureServe, Pronatura, the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Fund, the Scientific Advisory Council of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology, the Advisory Board of the Network of the National Ecological Observatory Network   and many Mexican institutions.