Founder of COLACRO, Prof. Fernando Mauro Lanças holds bachelor's degrees in Chemistry and in Physical and Biological Sciences; a Master's degree in Chemistry (1978) and a doctorate in Chemistry (1981), both from UNICAMP (Brazil).

He completed a Postdoctoral internship (1982-1983) at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI & SU) in Blacksburg (VA), USA, with Professor Harold McNair's group.

In 1995, he was a Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Ithaca (NY), USA, with Dr. Jack Henion's group.

Since 1996, he has been a Full Professor at the University of São Paulo - São Carlos Institute of Chemistry (IQSC-USP), where he founded and currently coordinates the Chromatography Laboratory.

His main area of expertise involves sample preparation techniques (both classical, such as supercritical fluid extraction and pressurized solvent extraction, and microtechniques such as SPME, SBSE, and MEPS); chromatographic separation (gas, liquid, and supercritical fluid) and their coupling with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS; GC-MS/MS).

He also works on the development of a system to unify all chromatographic techniques into a single analytical technique, "Unified Chromatography."

He develops new materials for separation techniques (graphene and derivatives, ionic liquids, MIPs, modified cyclodextrins, and others).

He is also interested in the online coupling between sample preparation techniques, chromatography, and mass spectrometry (e.g., MEPS-LC-Q-ToF) for the analysis of complex samples such as residues and contaminants in food and beverages; pharmaceuticals in biological fluids and the environment; pesticides and other environmental contaminants.

Professor Dr. Luigi Mondello is a prominent figure in the flavors and fragrances research industry as the author of "Mass Spectra of Pesticides with Retention Indices", "Flavors and Fragrances of Natural and Synthetic Compounds", and "FAMEs Fatty Acid Methyl Esters: Mass Spectral Database", as well as the Editor of the Journal of Separation Science published by John Wiley & Sons and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Essential Oil Research published by Taylor & Francis.

He received a degree in Chemistry from the University of Messina, Italy in 1991 and is now a Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry Science, Biological Science, Pharmaceutical Science and Environmental Science for the University.

Prof. Mondello is currently the author of 290+ scientific papers, 60+ book chapters, and 25+ reviews.

His research interests include chromatography techniques and the advancement of coupled techniques such as LC-GC-MS, GC-GC, GCxGC, LCxLC, LCxGC and their applications in the study of natural and synthetic complex matrices.

Professor Elena Stashenko is a member of the Editorial Committee of several international journals (Journal of Separation Science, Journal of Essential Oil Research, Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants, and Scientia Chromatographica). She is also a member of the National Scientific Council of Colombia as a researcher in the knowledge focus of Biotechnology, Environment, and Bioeconomy.

She holds a full membership in the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences (ACCEFYN) and is a member of the Colombian Association for the Advancement of Science (AvanCiencia).

She serves as the General Director of the National Center of Excellence for Research on the Agroindustrialization of Aromatic and Medicinal Tropical Plant Species (CENIVAM) and is the Director of the Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (CROM-MASS) at UIS.

Professor Stashenko has published more than 250 scientific articles in international and national indexed journals, as well as in proceedings of international scientific congresses and symposia. She has also been involved as an inventor, along with other researchers from UIS, in the processes for obtaining 11 patents – eight of which have been granted and three are pending.

She has been the principal investigator in over 35 research projects funded by various organizations, including the Universidad Industrial de Santander, the General System of Royalties, ECOPETROL, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, MinCiencias, the World Bank, the Government of Santander, the Government of Arauca, and the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH).

Dr. José Manuel Florêncio Nogueira graduated in Technological Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 1990.

In 1995, he got a doctorate in Chemistry (Organic Chemistry) and in 2010 an aggregate in Chemistry (Analytical Chemistry), also by the University of Lisbon.

Currently, he holds the position of Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (DQB) of Sciences ULisboa, being a member of the Center of Chemistry and Biochemistry of Sciences ULisboa and leading the group of Science and Technology of Separation. He also directs a laboratory of Chromatography & Capillary Electrophoresis.

He also works with the development, optimization and validation of new analytical methodologies, with special emphasis on modern approaches of sample preparation, namely solid phase extraction (SPE), solid phase microextraction (SPME) and sorbent extraction in the stir bar (SBSE) followed by chromatographic analysis, being his main research lines.

Recently, he is involved in the development of innovative analytical strategies based on sorption microextraction techniques, which leads to the vestigial analysis of priority compounds in several types of complex matrices.

Dr. Alejandro Cifuentes is a Full Research Professor at the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL), belonging to the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC), Madrid, Spain and head of the Laboratory of Foodomics. He has defined for the first time in a SCI journal the new discipline of Foodomics (see J. Chromatogr. A 1216 (2009) 7109, Electrophoresis 31 (2010) 205 and/or Mass Spec. Rev. 31 (2012) 49-69).

He has been Founding Director of the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL) and Deputy Director of Institute of Industrial Fermentations (CSIC) during the period 2007-2010. He is Scientific Director of the Platform of Metabolomics at CIAL belonging to the Excelence Campus CEI-UAM+CSIC.

He is Editor of Electrophoresis and TrAC-Trends in Analytical Chemistry and member of the Editorial Boards of other 17 international journals including Journal of Chromatography A, Journal of Separation Science, Food Analytical Methods, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Heliyon, etc.

He is author in over 270 SCI papers, 30 books and book chapters and 9 patents. Dr. Cifuentes has participated in 50 different R+D projects (supported by regional, national and international public institutions and companies) acting as Principal Researcher in 26 of them. Alejandro holds different national and international awards.

During his career, Dr. Cifuentes has been responsible for training more than 40 people including doctoral and postdoctoral students, M.Sc. students and technicians from Spain and abroad. He has also participated as invited lecturer in more than 200 symposia arranged by different national and international institutions from Asia, Europe, America, Africa and Oceania.

His running research lines include:
- Foodomics: developing new -omics- approaches in Food Science related to diet, colon cancer and Alzheimer.
- Detection of genetically modified organisms (GMOs, transgenic foods) and food pathogens using PCR techniques combined with capillary gel electrophoresis-laser induced fluorescence.
- Capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry applied for food quality and food safety.
- Chiral molecules as food-quality markers analyzed by capillary electrophoresis.
- Characterization of functional ingredients from natural sources (plants, alga and microalga) by capillary electrophoretic (CE) and chromatographic techniques (HPLC, GC and MS) as well as by in vitro assays.