Zakaria Hamimi is a structural geologist spent the majority of his academic careerer at Benha University (Egypt) along with some years at Sana'a University (Yemen,) and King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia). He has graduated (1984) from Assiut University (distinction with honor degree), and holds the M.Sc. (1988) from Zagazig University (Egypt) and the Ph.D. in Structural Geology and Tectonics (1992) from Cairo University. His research interests focus on Structural Geology, Microstructures and Tectonics. He has worked in many field-related sub-disciplines of Earth Sciences including geologic mapping, microstructural analysis, strain analysis, paleostress reconstruction, active tectonics, tectonic geomorphology, crustal deformation and image processing. He used all these fields to study key areas in the Arabian-Nubian Shield, and to decipher their deformation history. Zakaria Hamimi is the president, and one of the founding team, of the Arabian Geosciences Union since 2012. He has received the medal of the Egyptian Geological Society of Egypt in 2015, and also the medal of the Arab Mining and Petroleum Association in 2016. He has co-published 50 research articles in national and international indexed and refereed journals and authoredseveralbooks. In 2016, Zakaria Hamimi (1) joined the AJGS as Associate Editor responsible for evaluating submissions in the fields of Structural Geology, Microstructures and Tectonics, (2) selected as a Member of the Egyptian Universities Promotion Committee, the Supreme Council for Universities (SCU, Egypt), (3) nominated as a Secretary of the National Committee for Geological Sciences, Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, and (4) designated as the IUGS-Representative for Egypt. November 2017, he attended the Gondwana 16 International Conference held at Bangkok, Thailand, as the Representative of the National Committee for Geological Sciences, Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Egypt.

Ahmed N. El-Barkooky is a professor of applied sedimentary geology at Cairo University in Egypt, where he graduated with B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in geology in 1980. He obtained his MSc and PhD as well from the same university. He has been teaching several courses and supervising many MSc and PhD research programs at the Geology Department, Faculty of Science in Cairo University. In the meantime, he has been engaged in the petroleum industry as a geological advisor. He enjoys more 35 years of experience in both academia and industry. He has led and been involved in several exploration projects and special studies regarding basin architecture and tectonostratigraphic controls of petroleum systems. His research arena involves various depositional environments (rift basins, fluvial facies, shallow and deep marine clastics), basin analysis, sequence stratigraphy and tectonic control on sedimentation and stratigraphy. He conducts geological field seminars for both students of geology and professional geoscientists. Dr. El-Barkooky obtained broad regional experience in the geology of Egypt, North Africa and Middle East through several consultation and research projects.

Jesús Martínez Frías, born in Madrid, on October 3, 1960, is a Spanish geologist graduated at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1982, where he also obtained his PhD degree in 1986. He has developed several stays of research in UK (University of Leeds), Canada (University of Toronto), Germany (University of Heidelberg) and the USA (University of California). He is Scientific Researcher at the Geosciences Institute, IGEO (CSIC-UCM), Head of the Research Group of Meteorites and Planetary Geosciences and founder and Director of the Spanish Planetology and Astrobiology Network. He is also Honorific Professor of the Department of BioEngineering and AeroSpace Engineering of the Carlos III University (Madrid). He has participated in more than 40 projects and scientific campaigns (e.g. Antarctica, Mauritania, Iceland, Costa Rica). In 2002, he participated in the NASA flight to study the Leonid Meteor Shower. He is co-I in NASA-MSL (rover Curiosity), ESA-ExoMars and NASA-Mars2020 and in 2016 and 2017 heas was instructor of ESA astronauts in the PANGAEA program (Lanzarote and Chinijo Islands UNESCO Global Geopark). He has published 8 books and more than 200 articles (Science, Nature, Geology, etc). He was Former Member of the UN ECOSOC Committee on Natural Resources, Ex-ViceChair of the UNCSTD and Ex-Chair of IUGS-COGE. He is co-founder and President of the International Association for Geoethics (IAGETH), Committee Member of the IAU Astrobiology Commission and Senior Advisory Board Member of the Arabian Geoscience Union (ArabGU). He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Geosciences (MDPI) and co-editor of the Springer Book Series: "Geoheritage, Geoparks and Geotourism" and "GeoGuides". He has received several awardsand recognitions (i.e. NASA, ESA, GSAf (Goodwill Ambassador for Africa), ArabGU, Spanish Association of Scientists).

Harald Fritz, Born 1956, started his scientific career at Dept. Earth Sciences, University of Graz, Austria where he is based since about 40 years. In his early times he conducted projects on Variscan Europe and the evolution of the Alpine-Carpathian Belt. Somewhat accidently, he was invited for some weeks of teaching and field work in Egypt which was starting point of 30 years of research on East African mobile belts. Since the early 90th of the last century he conducted continuous projects on mountain building processes in East Africa with focus on Egypt, Kenya and Tanzania. Rooted in Alpine tectonics he also led projects in the Alpine Himalayan Belt and the European Alps. His expertise is mountain building processes in general with focus on tectonics, structural geology and isotope geology. Harald Fritz is married; father of three children and grandfather of growing amount of grandchildren. Teaching, administrative and editorial work at University of Graz is continuously increasing but he kept curious and is open to new challenges in Earth Science.

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