Jaya Tyagi obtained her doctorate from the University of Delhi in 1979. During her association with AIIMS, New Delhi, she contributed to the research areas of Molecular Biology, Mycobacteriology, and Gene Regulation. Her specialization was molecular pathogenesis regarding dormancy adaptation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She has developed novel technologies for diagnosing TB and drug resistance relevant to India’s national strategic plan for TB elimination. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy. Dr. Tyagi received many prestigious awards - P.S.Sarma Memorial Award; Dr. Kona Sampath Kumar Memorial Prize; New Millenium Science Medal of Indian Science Congress; National Women Bioscientist Award.

Sarala Subbarao obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1973. She specialized in Insect Genetics, Cytogenetics, Molecular Entomology and Epidemiology. She had a keen interest in malaria research and focused on the biology of malaria vectors and parasites and the epidemiology of malaria, which was also extended to other mosquito-borne diseases. Her research provided a new dimension to malaria epidemiology and control. She served on many Expert/Advisory committees of the WHO, ICMR institutes, DBT, DRDO. Dr. Subbarao was an elected Fellow of the Indian Society of Malaria and Other Communicable Diseases. She was recipient of the Dr. MOT Iyengar Memorial Award for Malaria Research; Best Scientist Award for research on Environmental Aspects of Vector-Borne Diseases by the NAVBD.