Malta Conferences Foundation

Zafra Lerman is an American chemist, educator, and humanitarian. She conducted research on isotope effects at Cornell and Northwestern Universities in the US, and the ETH, Zurich, Switzerland. From 1986 to 2010, she chaired the American Chemical Society's Subcommittee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights. She has been successful in preventing executions, releasing prisoners of conscience from jail and bringing dissidents to freedom. She has received over 40 awards for her work in education, human rights, and science diplomacy, including the 1999 Presidential Award from U.S. President Clinton, the 2005 Nyholm Prize for Education from the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the 2015 Science Diplomacy Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the 2016 Andrei Sakharov prize for human rights from the American Physical Society (APS), and the 2016 Peace and Justice award from the UN NOVUS Summit. She was honored three times by the U.S. Congress with speeches about her work in 2002, 2004 and 2013. Her work has been featured on many national and international television and media outlets.

Ann Nalley is a Professor of Chemistry and Clarence Page Endowed Chair in the Department of Chemistry, Physics and Engineering at Cameron University, a position which she has held since 1969.  She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree at Northeastern Oklahoma State University, a Master's Degree in Analytical Chemistry at Oklahoma State University, and a Ph.D. in Radiation Chemistry from Texas Woman's University. She served as the President of the American Chemical Society (the largest scientific society in the world) in 2006.   She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among her many awards are the 2015 ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences and induction into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.

​Russell Johnson retired in 2016 from Honeywell International as an executive-level Corporate Fellow after a 42-year company career in the petroleum, chemicals, environmental, and aerospace industries.  He was granted more than 60 U.S. patents and was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Heroes of Chemistry Award for his work as Chief Scientist for demilitarization of chemical and strategic weapons. Johnson, an ACS Fellow, has served this professional society for over 40 years in local, national, and governance functions, with a special focus in areas of public and government affairs.

Lynn Hogue has more than 40 years of experience in chemistry education. She is retired after 17 years as the Associate Director of Miami University’s Center for Chemistry Education. While at the Center, she also was the director of its teacher and student programs and was a lead instructor for more than 50 funded National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Petrochemical Refiners Association, and Ohio Board of Regents programs.  She is co-author of 14 teacher resource books. Lynn is a widely traveled guest lecturer and workshop presenter at the national and international levels.

Emma Zajdela is a Ph.D. Candidate in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Her research focuses on developing mathematical models to understand and predict complex social phenomena, particularly to understand how conferences catalyze scientific collaboration which will be used to help with the collaborations formed at the Malta Conferences. Emma previously served as Treasurer of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics student chapters at University of Illinois Chicago (2017-2018) and Northwestern University (2021-2022).