The Global Young Academy’s (GYA) 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Conference is in full swing, and today GYA members elected fresh leadership.
This year, GYA members elected a diverse and predominantly female Executive Committee (EC) to guide the organization forward. The EC, consisting of 11 members, will be Co-Chaired by Yensi Flores Bueso (University College Cork, Ireland) and Sam Chan Siok Yee (Universiti Sains Malaysia). Yensi served as Co-Chair last year, while Sam served as an EC member.
The further newly-elected EC members are as follows:
- Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia)
- Carina Geldhauser Telitsin (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
- Christian I. Nkanga (University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Francesco Maurelli (Constructor University, Germany)
- Hussam Hussein (Jordan)
- Natisha Dukhi (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa)
- Reem Abou Assi (Al-Kitab University, Iraq)
- Veda Krishnan (ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India)
- Wilson Alavia Medina (Disruptive Sustainable Technologies for Positive Change SpA, Chile)
Francesco served on the EC last year, while Hussam has been elected to his third term.
Reacting to her election, Co-Chair Sam expressed her enthusiasm:
“I look forward to working together collaboratively in the hopes of having a positive impact on the GYA community, and helping transform the structures of the GYA itself.”
Co-Chair Yensi added:
“I am honoured to continue serving as Co-Chair for another year. It is in the moments shared with esteemed GYA members and alumni – especially during the AGM – that I am reminded why I take this responsibility: to help ensure the GYA remains a platform that has been critical to the growth, resilience, and success of many of us. For countless members, it has supported career development and helped secure professional stability. For some, this has been a lifeline providing some relief on the darkest of times. To me, this community has become a family.”
Sam is a fully registered pharmacist and a member of academic staff in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM since 2013. Siok Yee’s research interest lies in the development of drug delivery system using solid dispersion technique and the use of polymeric material in the said system. She is also one of the initiators in the school who embraces innovative idea of flipped classroom, eLearning platforms and video tutorials for compounding pharmacy.
Yensi is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Postdoctoral Global Individual Fellow, which she uses to pursue a research project on Cancer Research at the University College Cork. Through this project (BacStar), she is working on strategies for the delivery of biomolecules by intratumoural bacteria, so these can serve as vehicles for the delivery of Cancer Therapeutics.
This year’s in-person AGM and International Conference of Young Scientists was held for the first time in Hyderabad, India, hosted by the Indian National Young Academy of Science (INYAS), with support by the Indian National Science Academy (INAS), and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad. All Conference events and workshops were held on the campus of the IIT.