K R K Easwaran obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science in 1967. He explained the mechanistic and kinetic aspects of transmembrane ion transport mediated by carrier ionophores, which helped design and develop anti-fungal drugs, lipids, and membrane structures. He also contributed to the spectroscopic analysis of peptides and proteins. He received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1984 and was the recipient of the Ranbaxy Research Award in 1994.

Dipankar Chatterji secured his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, in 1973. His specialization was in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Escherichia coli and the Omega factor concerning the Bacterial transcription mechanism and genome expression. He was a visiting fellow at the National Insitute of Genetics, Japan, and John Hopkins University. He is an elected fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (1997); the National Academy of Sciences, India (1989). He received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1992; Padma Shri in 2016.