Shujiro Urata is Professor of Economics at Graduate School Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Faculty Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, Research Fellow at the Japanese Centre for Economic Research, Senior Research Advisor, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). Professor Urata received his B.A. in Economics from Keio University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.  He is a former Research Associate at the Brookings Institution and an Economist at the World Bank. He specializes in international economics. He has held numerous research and advisory positions including senior advisor to the Government of Indonesia, consultant to the World Bank, OECD. and the Government of Japan. He published and edited a number of books on international economic issues and is an author and co-author of numerous articles in professional journals. His recent books include Bilateral Trade Agreements: Origins, evolution, and implications, Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific, co-editor, World Scientific, 2010., co-editor, Routledge, 2005, Multinationals and Economic Growth in East Asia, co-editor, Routledge, 2006

Profesor Dr. Carolina Lopez C. is a Professor of International Relations at Tecnólogico de Monterrey University in Chihuahua, México.  In the early Nineties, she founded the Center for Dialogue and Human Wellbeing at her university, which collaborates with like-minded academic and civil society organizations both locally and around the world. From Profesor Dr. Carolina Lopez C.’ work has emerged the Ideological-Structural Analysis - a theory which has been utilized in Latin America, Europe and Asia in situations of both conflict and collaboration among groups of dialogue. Profesor Dr. Carolina Lopez C. has 40 publications in the areas of intercivilisational and intercultural dialogue, human rights and wellbeing, international relations and politics.  In addition to their academic work, personnel at her Center for Dialogue and Human Wellbeing maintain columns in the popular press in México, in order to ensure the application of academic work at the level of civil society. At the informal level, Profesor Dr. Carolina Lopez C. is involved in interfaith groups and activities, as part of a collective effort to help the “dialogical way of life” become more and more normative around the world.

Born in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Prof Abbas Mirkhor attended the Kansas State University, where he received his PhD in Economics in 1969. Prof. Mirakhor was an International Monetary Fund Executive Director from 1990 to 2008. He has served as an economist in the Research Department of the IMF between 1984 and 1990 and Dean of the Executive Board of the IMF.

Prof. Dr. Shih-chung Tristan Hsieh is a well-known scholar in the field of Ethnicity, Interpretative Anthropology, Ethno-history, Anthropology of Tourism, Indigenous Culture of Taiwan, Tai Studies and Lao Studies.  He holds a BA in Thai Studies, an MA, and a PhD in Anthropology- all from the University of Washington in Seattle. He also has a BA in History, and an MA in Archeology from Tunghai University in Taiwan, and the National University of Taiwan respectively.  Over the past twenty years, Prof. Hsieh - a Fullbright Scholar - has held various postings in the Department of Anthropology at the National University of Taiwan.  He has also served as president of the Society of Chinese Ethnology, and has been a Visiting Scholar  at Harvard-Yenching Institute.  At present Prof Hseih is supervising seven PhD students at his university.  In spite of his busy schedule, he continues conducting fieldwork in both Laos and Hokkaido.  Prof. Hsieh’s academic work includes three books on indigenous people in Taiwan, and a number of scholarly articles focusing on Southeast Asia-related studies.  He has recently begun a new field in Hokkaido, focusing on the Ainu People and their culture.  Prof. Hsieh hopes to develop an explanatory system concerning the Asian ethnicity of  minority communities vis-a-vis the Nation-State.

Professor Ryoji Noyori is a 2001 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with K. Barry Sharpless and William S. Knowles for the work on chirally catalyzed reactions. Currently, he is the President of RIKEN, Japan's multi-site national research initiative and University Professor of Nagoya University, Japan.

Born in 1938, Noyori graduated from the Kyoto University, Faculty of Enginerring in 1961 with a degree in industrial chemistry. After serving as an Instructor at Kyoto University and Associate Professor at Nagoya University, Noyori went to Harvard University as a postdoctoral associate. He was appointed Professor at Nagoya University in 1972 and assumed his current positions in 2003. He has received many prestigious awards, including the Chemical Society of Japan Award (1985), the Japan Academy Prize (1995), the Order of Culture (2000), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2001) and the Roger Adams Award (2001).

Professor Noyori is a Member of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences and the Japan Academy, and a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences in the USA and Korea, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society. He holds 10 honorary degrees and eight honorary professorships from universities around the world.