John is Professor of Biological Chemistry with particular interests in chemical ecology involving chemically mediated interactions between various organisms including pests attacking plants and animals.

John’s contributions to the field of chemical ecology have been acknowledged with the 1995 Rank Prize for Nutrition and Crop Husbandry, election to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1996, election to Membership of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina in 2001 and received the International Society of Chemical Ecology Medal in 2002. John was appointed to CBE for Services to Biological Chemistry in 2004.

In 2008 he was jointly awarded the Wolf Foundation Prize in Agriculture. He presented the Royal Society’s premier lecture in the biological sciences, the Croonian Prize Lecture in 2008, and the Cornell University Lecture in 2009. He was awarded the International Congress of Entomology Certificate of Distinction at the XXIV International Congress of Entomology held in Korea, August 2012. He was elected International Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014. He became President of the Royal Entomological Society in 2014 and in August 2017 gave the Sterling B Hendricks Memorial Prize Lecture at the 254th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington DC. In 2020, John was elected Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

Xue-xin Chen received his M.S. (1987) and Ph.D. (1994) in Entomology from Zhejiang University, China. He has been employed with Zhejiang University since 1987 and has been a full professor of Entomology since 1998. He became a Chang Jiang Distinguished Professor of Entomology in 2009. At present he is the vice dean of Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang University, and currently leading the Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Pathogens and Insect Pests, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China, and Key Laboratory of Biology and Ecological Regulation of Pathogens and Insect Pests of Zhejiang province, China. He did his postdoctoral research or visiting studies in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the Netherlands; the Department of Entomology, University of Queensland, Australia; the Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, USA.

Xue-xin’s primary interests are the evolutionary biology of parasitoid wasps and biological control of insect pests. Since later 1990’s, this focus has been expanded to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying interactions between parasitoids and their hosts, and new methods and technologies for insect pest management. He has produced over 430 referred papers in a number of journals, such as Cell, PNAS, Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Communications, Nature Chemical Biology, Science Advances, ISME Journal, Molecular Biology and Evolution, and Annual Review of Entomology. He has been the leader for several national research projects supported by the China Basic Research Development Program (973), National Key Research and Development Program of China, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and Key Program of Natural Science Foundation of China. He has been awarded the second-class prize of the National Scientific and Technological Progress Award of China, the first-class prize of the Provincial Scientific and Technological Progress Award of Zhejiang, the China Entomological Society Award for Outstanding Young Scientist, the Zhejiang Provincial Award for Outstanding Young Scientist, and the Baogang Education Fund Award for Excellent Teacher. He is the vice president of the Entomological Society of China and the chair of the Biological Control Committee; the president of the Entomological Society of Zhejiang province, China; and a member of the Consultative Committee of Biological Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has been the Chief-in-Editor of the journal Crop Health, the Associate Editor of the journals such as Acta Entomologica Sinica, Chinese Journal of Biological Control and Journal of Environmental Entomology.

Siegfried Roth graduated from the Max Planck Institute in Germany in 1990 and conducted postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Princeton University in the United States. From 1998 to February 2025, he has been working at the Institute of Zoology, University of Cologne, Germany. In April 2025, he was introduced as high-level talents from Shanxi University. Siegfried Roth is an internationally renowned entomologist with a proven track record in the field of insect development and evolution.

His main research filed include the evolution and gene regulation of cell-to-cell communication in insects, the self-regulatory patterns and molecular mechanisms of insect somites and morphogenesis, and the influence of the evolution of insect morphogenesis on ecological development and evolution. Prof. Siegfried Roth has received 13 grants, including the German Science Foundation, and has published more than 100 papers in internationally renowned journals such as Nature, Cell, Science，Nature communications, Current Biology, eLife, BMC Genomics, Development Cell, etc., with a total of more than 8000 citations. With an H-index of 52 he enjoys an important academic reputation.

Dr. Sheng Li is a professor in School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University. He has established and is currently leading the Institute of Insect Science and Technology in South China Normal University, and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental Biology and Applied Technology. After obtaining the Ph.D. degree from Shanghai Institute of Entomology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2000), he had postdoctoral trainings in Europe and the US and then worked as a professor in Shanghai (2006) and Guangzhou (2016). Due to his scientific achievements, he has received numerous national and provincial honors and awards.

Professor Sheng Li is an entomologist with remarkable leadership in modern insect sciences in China. Focusing on “hormonal regulation and evolutionary rules of insect metamorphosis”, he made significant achievements in the field of insect development and genetics with impacted international reputation. He had 171 SCI papers published (H-index 50) and 20 patents issued. As a corresponding author or a first author, he published 90 papers in prestigious peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Ecology and Evolution (2022, 2025), Science Advances (2024), PNAS (2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2025), Nature Communications (2018, 2023, 2025a, 2025b), Cell Reports (2024), Science Bulletin (2022), Cell Research (2010, 2011), Autophagy (2013, 2015), Molecular Biology and Evolution (2019, 2022), National Science Review (2025), the Innovation (2023) and Annual Review of Entomology (2014, 2019).

Dr. Gary W. Felton, a professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Penn State University. He is internationally recognized for his research on insect-plant interactions, and in particular on the role of herbivore saliva in evading plant defenses.
  Felton was born in Norfolk, VA in 1953, but soon moved to California where he grew up. He completed his B.S. in biology in 1975 at the University of California, Irvine, where he was inspired by Howard Schneiderman to study insect physiology. After taking several years off from his education to start a family, Felton completed his M.S. in entomology in 1983 at the University of Kentucky, where he studied under Douglas Dahlman. He then moved to the University of California, Davis, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1988 with Sean Duffey. After a short postdoctoral study with Duffey, he became an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Arkansas in 1990. He attained the rank of full professor in 1998 and then accepted the position as professor and head of Entomology at Penn State University in 2000.

Felton’s research focuses on mechanisms of plant defense and the adaptations that herbivorous insects use to avoid them. This research has uncovered unique ways in which insect herbivores use salivary secretions to suppress the induced responses of their host plants and has been published in journals such as Nature and the Proceedings of the  National Academy of Science. He has published more than 100 refereed papers, including numerous review articles for book chapters and journals such as Plant Physiology, Current Opinion in Plant Biology, and Annual Plant Reviews. 

Qing Yang is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. She has made pioneer contributions to the development of novel pesticide molecular targets that are highly effective and safe for both humans and animals. Her major research interests include: 1) discovering new pesticide targets, specifically key proteins involved in chitin-associated bioprocesses such as chitin biosynthesis, degradation, and assembly in insect pests and phytopathogens of agricultural significance, and 2) developing small molecules to target these proteins. The ultimate goal of her work is to control insect pests, nematodes, and phytopathogens of agricultural importance in a human-safe, eco-friendly, and efficient manner. She has published 122 SCI-indexed papers in leading journals including Cell, Nature, and Nature Microbiology. 

Dr. Ryusuke Niwa is a professor at the Life Science Center for Survival Dynamics, Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance (TARA) at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He earned his Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 2002, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Tokyo (2002–2005) and Yale University (2005–2008). He joined the University of Tsukuba as an assistant professor in 2008. He was then promoted to associate professor in 2012 and became a full professor at his current institute in 2019.

Dr. Niwa’s laboratory investigates the molecular, cellular, and neuroendocrine mechanisms of interorgan and interspecies communication, primarily using Drosophila melanogaster and its parasitoid wasps. His work has provided key insights into developmental timing, reproductive regulation, nutrient homeostasis, and host–parasite interactions. He also contributes to the development of environmentally friendly pest control strategies through chemical biology approaches.

Dr. Niwa has authored over 60 peer-reviewed original research articles in journals such as Cell, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Current Biology, PLoS Biology, BMC Biology, and eLife, with his work cited more than 6,500 times.

Dr. Shuai Zhan is a professor at the CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS) in China. His research focuses on the adaptive evolution in insects. His laboratory applies multi-omics and interdisciplinary approaches to uncover the genetic bases underlying the phenotypic and behavioral changes along local adaptations in various environmental scenarios, with a particular interest in seasonal and host adaptations. Dr. Zhan has made significant contributions to the field and has published in high-profile journals, including Science, Nature, Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Communications, and others.

Dr. Adam Steinbrenner is a Professor at the University of Washington. Dr. Steinbrenner received a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, and a B.S. in Biology from Tufts University in 2010. The Steinbrenner lab studies the molecular bases of plant immunity to pathogens and pests. We are interested in recognition and signaling functions of cell surface receptors and evolutionary processes driving novelty in plant immune systems. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers, including articles in PNAS and The Plant Cell.