Herminia Domínguez (Spain) is currently Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Sciences of Ourense (University of Vigo). She teaches graduate courses on unit operations and master courses on advanced extraction processes. Her research is focused in the development of multistage processes based on the use of green efficient technologies aimed at the integral utilization of natural renewable resources. In the last years, she has been working on seaweed biorefinery, optimizing the operative conditions for the sequential fractionation of macroalgal biomass to obtain high added value bioactive components with food, feed, cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications.

María Dolores Torres (Spain) was awarded her PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She lectures undergraduate and master in the area of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. She has a research position at the University of Vigo (Spain), where is working on the integral valorisation of brown and red algae using environmental friendly technologies to obtain hydrogels and other components of industrial value.

Félix López Figueroa (Spain), is Full Professor of Ecology  (Catedrático) in Málaga University. Member of the Research group Photobiology and Biotechnology of aquatic organisms (FYBOA-RNM 295) and Institute for Blue Biotechnology and Development (IBYDA). The main research lines are ecophysiology of seaweeds related to climate and global change factors (UV radiation, temperature, acidification, nutrients), photobiology, photosynthesis, biotechnology of macro and microalgae, UV photoprotectors, antioxidants, lipids, immunological and anti-tumoral substances from algae and Cosmeceutics. He has published until May 2019: 27 book chapters, 213 regular papers and reviews and 15 patents on Mycosporine like amino acids as UV screen photoprotector. He has conducted 18 Doctoral Thesis and he has promoted international scientific cooperation specially with latinoamerican countries. He has H index: 37 (Scopus), 45 (Scholar Google) and  according to Research gate, 42.77 and 6065 total citations.

José Lucas Pérez Lloréns (Spain), PhD, is a biologist and Professor of Marine Ecology at the Faculty of Environmental and Marine Sciences (University of Cádiz, Spain). His field of research encompasses from seagrass and seaweed ecology and ecophysiology to seaweed aquaculture. He has been member of the Spanish committee of the IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme). Currently he is the Secretary of the Spanish Society of Phycology. He is very much interested also in the culinary ethnology of seaweeds, including its use in the avant-garde cuisine (phycogastronomy). He has coordinated and co-authorized the book “Those Curious and Delicious Seaweeds. A Fascinating Voyage from Biology to Gastronomy” (2018) that has been nominated for “Best of the World” in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. The Spanish edition of this book (2016) already won this award as well as the first prize in the category of “outreach publications” in Spain´s XXth National University Publishing Awards 2016.

Susan L. Holdt (Denmark), Associate Professor at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU Food) has a broad experience in (bioactive) components, ingredients, threshold values and Danish and EU regulations of seaweeds. Susan are involved in multi-extraction of seaweed valorizing and optimizing the biomass use compared to the single-extraction of e.g. the existing carrageenan/hydrocolloid/stabilizing agent industry. All the research is applied with national and international aprtners within both research and businesses. She is the Secretary General of the International Seaweed Association, has initiated the Danish Seaweed Organisation (DSO; Danish-seaweed.dk) a marketing platform for seaweed companies, and she is chair of the cross disciplinary Seaweed Network in Denmark (www.tangnet.dk) initiated in 2008, with more than 360 members from industry, universities, organizations, national authorities, chefs, fish farmers, groups and persons that work with or have interest in seaweed. Susan was chair of the National Organizing Committee for the 22nd International Seaweed Symposium, Copenhagen 2016 (www.iss-2016.org) which the National Food Institute, DTU (DTU Food) is hosting. This won the prize in the category  “Best congress in Copenhagen in 2016 with less than 1,000 delegates”.

Stefan Kraan (Ireland), He moved to Ireland to pursue a PhD on phylogenetics and aquaculture of edible seaweeds at the National University of Ireland, Galway in 1998. He became manager of the Irish Seaweed Industry Organisation in 1998 and established the Irish Seaweed Centre in 2001, a dedicated R&D centre for seaweed-based research and development. In 2009 Stefan established Ocean Harvest Technology, a company dedicated in using seaweeds for animal health and production. After 8 years he resigned to pursue and develop some commercial ideas using seaweeds for a variety of purposes amongst them functional food ingredients for human food and novel algae cultivation systems for biomass production. He has organised the International Society for applied Phycology conference in 2008 in Galway and has been instrumental in several other seaweed meetings and conferences amongst them several International Seaweed Symposia. Dr Kraan is currently president of the International Seaweed Association.