Dr. Latiful Bari is a prominent Food Microbiologist, Biotechnologist, and Food safety expert with over 25 years of experience in Food Science research, teaching, administration, entrepreneurship, and industrial settings. He earned his Ph.D. in Public Health from Osaka Prefecture University, Japan, and his M.S. and B.S. from the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Dhaka (DU). He currently works as a Chief scientist & Head of the Food Nutrition & Agriculture Research Division at the Centre for Advanced Research in Sciences (CARS), University of Dhaka, prior to his current position, he served as the Principal Scientist of the same Laboratory for more than 8 years. Before joining CARS, DU, Dr. Latiful Bari worked at the National Food Research Institute (NFRI), Tsukuba, Japan, where he worked as a Scientist and worked closely with the Food contaminants and Quality Control to identify potential risk areas of improvement as they pertain to the regulatory or scientific issues. Prior to Joining as a Scientist at NFRI, Dr. Latiful Bari did his post-doctoral research work at the same institute for 2 years under JSPS financial support. He has been actively involved in various research projects at national and internationally recognized research institutions such as United Nations University, FAO, USDA, University of Dhaka, IPH, and Ministries of Bangladesh. His research and innovation contributed more than 200+ peer review publications, books and booklets, and four patents. His research in developing non–chlorine sanitizers, bio-based products for wastewater treatment, soil fertility improvement using microbiological models, natural de-coloring agents and so on are very popular contributions in sciences. He was awarded several prestigious awards, including Monboshu Scholarship from Japan Govt. (1996), JSPS (2001-2003), and ISGA award for solving sprout business (2008). He possesses good communication, organizational, supervisory, research, and teaching skills. In addition, he strives to be friendly and treat people with warmth and respect in his interpersonal dealings. Dr. Latiful Bari has provided technical support to scientists, government officials, graduate students, industry people, and the public. Besides his research, he founded the Asian Food Safety and Security Association (AFSA) and is highly connected to the worldwide scientific community. He has been serving as General Secretary for Asian Food Safety and Security Association (AFSA) since its inception in 2010. Based on his global experience as well as the scarcity of food testing services in Bangladesh, he took the initiative to establish a private laboratory in 2017 and organized diversified professional board members for WAFFEN Research Laboratory Limited in 2018. Hence, Dr. Latiful Bari is the founder and chairman of WAFFEN Research Laboratory Limited.

Agriculturist Abu Jafar Ansary is a distinguished development and humanitarian expert with over two decades of experience in project design, implementation, evaluation, impact studies, organizational development, partnership management, administration, financial management, and value chain and business development. He holds an MBA with a major in Marketing from Southeast University, Dhaka, and a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Agriculture from Sher-E-Bangla Agricultural University. Currently serving as the Managing Director of WAFFEN Research Laboratory Limited, Ansary's professional journey includes extensive work in various countries such as Tajikistan, South Sudan, France, Somalia, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Previously, Ansary worked as a development professional with CARE International and Handicap International. He is the founder of LIFE Association and a lifelong member of the Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh (KIB), and an executive member of the Asian Food Safety and Security Association (AFSA). Additionally, Ansary possesses expertise in business feasibility study, business plan development, action research, and innovation. He has collaborated with diverse stakeholders including national and local governments, donors, Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs), community-based organizations, universities, research organizations, Chambers of Commerce, and the private sector.

Prof. Abdul Khaleque is a prominent Molecular Biologist and Biotechnologist with over two decades of experience in basic research, teaching, administration, entrepreneur and industrial settings. He earned his Ph.D in Molecular Genetics from Kumamoto University, Japan and M.S in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from Dhaka University. He is currently working as a Professor in the Dept. of Biochemistry & Microbiology, North South University. Prior to his current position he served as the Chair of the same department for more than 5 years and Director, Office of Admissions for another 5 years. Before joining to NSU, Dr. Abdul Khaleque has worked with Invitrogen Corp. California, USA, where he worked closely with Quality Assurance and Quality Control to identify potential areas of improvement as they pertain to regulatory or scientific issues. Prior to Invitrogen Corp., Abdul Khaleque worked in Boston University and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, USA. In both institutes he was actively involved in cancer research directed at understanding the role of heat shock proteins in cancer metastasis. He was also involved with various research projects at national and internationally recognized research institutions such as La Trobe University, Australia, University of Dhaka, ICDDRB and BIRDEM etc. Over the past 20 years his research works have focused on many contemporary issues related to the cancer biology, mitochondrial protein transport, and regulation of protein phosphorylation in signal transduction pathways, antioxidant contents of Bangladeshi fruits and vegetables and molecular detection of food pathogen. He published over 50 peer-reviewed papers including several book chapters. Dr. Abdul Khaleque has been awarded with several prestigious awards, including Monboshu Scholarship from Japan Govt. (1997), Oncology Fellowship from Harvard Medical School, USA (2005); Chancellor award from the President of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh (1987). He possesses good communication, organizational, supervisory, research and teaching skills. In addition, he strives to be friendly and treat people with warmth and respect with his own interpersonal dealings.