Details: Prof. Xinbin Feng is a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He is now the director in general of Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He obtained a PhD in geochemistry in 1997 at the same institute and did post-doctoral study at Gothenburg University, Sweden. His research focuses on mercury biogeochemical cycling in the environment and its health impact, mercury stable isotope geochemistry and remediation of mercury contaminated lands. He was the coordinator of China’s large scale project of mercury in the environment, which provided the scientific base for China’s implementation of Minamata Convention. He is now an associate editor of Journal of Geochemical Exploration. He also serves as editorial board members for a number of journals. He was the Chair of the 9th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant and the 17th International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment. He has published more than 400 peer reviewed papers in international journals.

Details: Dr. Qingru Wu is an associate professor at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University. Her research includes the sources, transformation, transport, and fate of mercury in a changing environment and develops strategies to reduce its ecological and health risks. She has published over 100 papers in top-tier journals. She currently serves on the Early Career Board for ACS ES&T Air and the Open-Ended Scientific Group (OESG) for effectiveness evaluation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, while actively mentoring students, occupational workers, and government officials. Beyond research, she plays a key role in shaping policies by contributing to China's mercury control strategies, UNEP guidance documents, and ISO standards for reducing mercury pollution worldwide.

Details: Patricia Forbes is a Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where she leads the Environmental Monitoring and Sensing research group. Her research focuses on the development of novel sampling and analytical methods for environmental pollutants, including mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and emerging chemical pollutants. Patricia previously held the Rand Water Chemistry Research Chair (2020 to 2025) which focused on the development of analytical methods for the monitoring of organic chemical pollutants in drinking water, in support of the water treatment industry. She is appointed as IUPAC National Representative for Analytical Chemistry and is the Editor in Chief of ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. Patricia previously served on the Scientific Steering Committee of the 15th ICMGP (online in 2022) and 16th ICMGP (2024 in Cape Town).

Details: Dr. Nguyen Ly Sy Phu is a Lecturer/Researcher at the Faculty of Environment, VNUHCM - University of Science, Vietnam, and the Group leader of the Mercury and Metal Laboratory. He is a dynamic atmospheric scientist with extensive experience in atmospheric mercury (Hg), particularly in the Southeast Asian region where Hg emissions are significant yet understudied. His research focuses on the biogeochemical cycling of atmospheric Hg, including its concentration, chemical transformation, transport, and deposition. Dr. Phu has led and contributed to over 30 SCIE publications, many of which provide important insights into Hg behavior in tropical urban and regional settings. He serves as the principal investigator of several national projects on atmospheric mercury, including studies on atmospheric Hg deposition, and the influence of biomass burning on atmospheric Hg across Peninsular Southeast Asia (PSEA). In recent years, his team has increasingly integrated advanced mathematical approaches and AI into environmental modeling to improve source apportionment, pollution forecasting, and the understanding of atmospheric Hg transformation mechanisms. Dr. Phu has also collaborated extensively with international networks such as the Asia-Pacific Mercury Monitoring Network (APMMN) and research groups in Taiwan, Canada, and the United States. His commitment to atmospheric science and regional capacity-building is reflected in his active involvement in field campaigns, public outreach, and scientific workshops, making him a key figure in advancing Hg research in (PSEA).

Details: Dr. Mi-Ling Li is an Assistant Professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy at the University of Delaware. Her research investigates the sources, transport, fate, and bioavailability of environmental contaminants, including mercury, with a strong emphasis on their impacts on health and the links between global environmental change and both ecological and human well-being. She is expanding her mercury research to the Arctic, applying isotope geochemistry and incorporating big data from fisheries into her analyses. Prof. Li completed her doctoral degree in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard University and has worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Institute for Resources and Environmental Sustainability at the University of British Columbia.

Details: Prof. Maria Dieguez is a biologist and Principal Researcher of the National Council for Science and Technology of Argentina (CONICET). She works at the Institute for Environmental and Biodiversity Research (INIBIOMA, CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue) in Bariloche, Patagonia. Her research group, Aquatic Ecology at Landscape Scale (GESAP), focuses on carbon dynamics in Andean Patagonian catchments. She studies the co-dynamics of mercury and dissolved organic matter, and the incorporation of mercury in pelagic food webs of ultra-oligotrophic lakes in areas of frequent volcanic disturbance. María is in charge of the EMMA Station (GMOS network), located in the Nahuel Huapi National Park in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. She served on the Scientific Steering Committees of the 15th and 16th ICMGP.

Details: Krushna Vudamala working as a senior scientist at CSIR-National institute of oceanography, Goa, India. I am actively involved in research focused on the biogeochemical cycling of inorganic and organic pollutants, with a particular emphasis on their behavior, transformation, and fate in marine environments. My work integrates the study of trace/heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and cadmium and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to understand their sources, transport mechanisms, sediment-water interactions. Through a combination of field expeditions, clean sampling techniques, and advanced analytical methodologies, I aim to assess pollutant dynamics in estuarine, coastal, and open-ocean systems contributing to the broader understanding of marine pollution and its implications for environmental health and policy.

Details: Dr. Farishta Yasmin Associate Professor & Academic Registrar, Nagaon University, Assam Dr. Farishta Yasmin, Fellow of the Lichenological Society of India, is a leading algal and lichen researcher with over 25 years of expertise in documenting the cryptogamic flora of the Brahmaputra Valley. A Ph.D. in Algal Biofertilizer (Gauhati University, 2004), she has discovered two freshwater red algae and one lichen species new to science, and recorded multiple species new to India and Assam. She has published extensively, authored books, presented at international forums in the UK and South Africa, and led pioneering projects funded by DBT, DST, MoEF, UGC, and NESAC–ISRO, including establishing the first phycology and lichen laboratory at her institution. Dr. Yasmin has been recognized as a mentor by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and honoured with the 2023 Late Dulal Chandra Goswami Memorial Research Award. She has also been appreciated by the Department of Higher Education, Govt. of Assam in 2016. Her current research focuses on the uptake of heavy metals by algae and its environmental applications. She remains deeply committed to advancing biodiversity research, capacity building, and science outreach in Assam.

Details: Prof. Carl Lamborg Carl Lamborg is a Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Ocean Sciences Department and the Director of the undergraduate Environmental Sciences major. Details: Carl Lamborg researches the biogeochemical cycling of mercury in a variety of media, especially in the ocean. This work has included development of analytical methods, mass balance studies and examining the dependencies of methylation/demethylation and reduction/oxidation reactions in water and sediments. He has a B.A. in Chemistry from Oberlin College, an M.S. in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Michigan School of Public Health (with Jerry Keeler) and a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from the University of Connecticut (with Bill Fitzgerald). He is currently a Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Ocean Sciences Department. Prior to joining the faculty at UCSC, he was a post-doctoral fellow and then Assistant/Associate (w/o tenure) Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Details: Dr. Aryeh Feinberg is an incoming Ramón y Cajal fellow at the Department of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate in the Blas Cabrera Institute of Physical Chemistry (IQF), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). His research focuses on studying the global cycling of mercury using an array of computational tools, including process-based and statistical models. Recently, his research has employed chemistry-climate models to analyze the atmospheric redox chemistry of mercury and identify new reaction pathways that impact the transport and deposition of mercury. Previously, Dr. Feinberg completed his PhD in Environmental Systems Science from ETH Zurich, investigating the atmospheric selenium and sulfur cycles, and a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, where he investigated the role of vegetation uptake in the mercury cycle and trends in atmospheric mercury observations.

Details: Prof. Rosa C. Rodriguez Martin-Doimeadios has held the position of Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry since 2018 and currently serves as Head of the Department of Analytical Chemistry and Food Technology at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Analytical Chemistry from the same institution in 1999. Her academic career includes several research stays at international institutions, notably a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the European Union's Marie Curie program during 2000–2001 at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Pau, France. Her research is primarily focused on the development of analytical methods and techniques for the speciation of metals and metalloids, with particular emphasis on mercury using enriched stable isotopes. Recent work involves also the application of nanomaterials as analytical tools and the advancement of methodologies for the characterization of nanoparticles, including those containing mercury and selenium in complex matrices. She is also engaged in studying the interactions between mercury and selenium in both humans and wildlife, with a focus on aquatic environments and the Amazon region. This research aims to elucidate the complex processes underlying these interactions under varying exposure conditions.

Details: Akane Yamakawa is a Senior Researcher in Environmental Geochemistry at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan. Her research focuses on the environmental dynamics of atmospheric mercury, using mercury isotope analysis to trace sources and transformation processes. She also leads NIES’s Environmental Reference Materials Program, which was first launched in 1979 as Japan’s pioneering initiative in this field. Today, these certified materials are distributed to universities, research institutes, and companies worldwide, supporting global efforts in environmental monitoring and analysis. Under her leadership, mercury isotope ratios have been incorporated into reference materials, contributing to the advancement of mercury research.