Plenary Speakers
Prof. Gunther Rupprechter
Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria Title: "Atomic-level Insights in Catalytic Nanomaterials by in situ Surface Spectroscopy and Microscopy" The main research interests of Günther Rupprechter are in heterogeneous catalysis and nanomaterials, particularly in situ (operando) spectroscopy/microscopy of model and technological catalysts, applied to studies of the mechanisms and kinetics of processes relevant for energy and environment: hydrogen as clean fuel, methane reforming, CO2 and olefin hydrogenation, efficient automotive catalysis, sensing and waste remediation. In 2005 he received the Jochen Block Award of the German Catalysis Society for “the application of surface science methods to heterogeneous catalysis” and became corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2012. He is Editorial Board Member of “Catalysis Letters” and “Topics in Catalysis”, and Vice-Chair of the Austrian Catalysis Society. From 2011 to 2019 he was Speaker of the Collaborative Research Center “Functional Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces (FOXSI)” of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). He is “Renowned Overseas Professor” of Shanghai University of Engineering Science and Guest Professor at Kasetsart University Bangkok. Rupprechter is the Director of Research (Speaker) of a new Austrian Cluster of Excellence “Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage (MECS)”, including 5 Austrian universities/institutions. |
Prof. Paul W. Bohn
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering/Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, USA Title: "Hierarchically-Organized Multifunctional Nanostructures for Ultrasensitive Chemical Analysis" Paul Bohn received B.S. (University of Notre Dame, 1977) and Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981) degrees in Chemistry. He served 1981-83 at Bell Laboratories, Muray Hill, NJ as a Member of Technical Staff, after which he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 2006, he has been the Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Prof. Bohn is the Founding Director of the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health at Notre Dame, Founding Member of the Indiana Consortium for Analytical Science and Engineering, Director of the Center for Bioanalytic Metrology, an NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, and Director of the Analytical Sciences & Engineering at Notre Dame faculty hiring initiative. Bohn’s research interests include: molecular approaches to, and uses of, nanotechnology, integrated nanofluidic and microfluidic chemical measurement strategies for personal monitoring, and correlated chemical imaging, especially of microbial communities. He has received a number of recognitions for his work, including most recently the Charles N. Reilley Award of the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (2022). |
Prof. Julia Kornfield
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States Title: " Polymers and nanocomposites to treat vascular disease without a trace" Julia A. Kornfield, Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), is an expert in polymer science, particularly how polymers influence and are influenced by flow. She has applied small angle neutron and x-ray scattering to diverse systems, including end-associative polymers for aviation safety and security (Wei et al., Science 2015), flow-induced crystallization of polymers (e.g., Science 2007) and the effects of flow on polymer self-assembly (e.g., Science 1997). Since she joined the Caltech faculty in 1990, Kornfield has received the Dillon Medal of the American Physical Society, been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received the Bingham Medal of the Society of Rheology, among other honors. She holds 39 patents and is a co-founder of Calhoun Vision, which uses polymers developed at Caltech to customize vision by noninvasively optimizing a lens after it is implanted into a patients’ eye (FDA-approved 2017). Thus, her work spans from fundamental research on the molecular basis of polymer structure and properties, to commercialization of polymers that improve sustainability health and safety. |
Prof. Antoni Llobet
Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Tarragona, Spain Title: "Hybrid Molecular Materials for Energy Applications" Antoni Llobet obtained his PhD at the Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in July 1985 and then did postdoctoral stays at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Texas A&M Univ. in the USA. In 1993 joined the faculty of the Univ. de Girona and in 2004 that of UAB as a Full Professor. In September 2006, he was appointed as Group Leader at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona. In 2018 he has been awarded with the “Animesh Chakravorty” Endowment Lecture by the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) and the “Alexander von Humboldt Research Award” for a career achievement by the Humboldt Foundation from Germany. At present he is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) of “Catalysis Science and Technology” from the Royal Society of Chemistry, “European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry” from Wiley-VCH and “Artificial Photosynthesis” from the American Chemical Society (ACS). He served as EAB for “Inorganic Chemistry” from the ACS during the period January 2015 till December 2016. |
Keynote Speakers
Coming soon ...
Invited Speakers
Prof. Ulrike Kramm
Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany Ulrike Kramm studied applied physics at the university of applied science in Zwickau, Germany. The diploma thesis was obtained on nitrogen doped titania for photoelectrocatalytic water splitting at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute. Her PhD work focussed on the structural characterization of pyrolysed iron-porphyrin electrocatalysts. The PhD was obtained from TU Berlin. She was postdocs at different locations as Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, BTU Cottbus and INRS-EMT in Varennes, Canada. Before she became a full professor at the Department of Chemistry, she had a junior professorship also at TU Darmstadt, within the Graduate School of Excellence Energy Science and Engineering. She received different awards including the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz award, the Curious Mind Award Energie und Mobilität and a BMBF young research group. |
Prof. Rositsa Yakimova
Linkoping University, Linkoping, Sweden Title: "Engineered synthesis of novel 2D materials" Dr. Rositsa Yakimova is professor of material science (semiconductor crystal growth) at Linkoping University, Sweden. She has about 50 years of experience in the research of advanced semiconductor materials and new technological developments in SiC, AlN, ZnO, and III-Vs. Since 2008, she has initiated and carried out epi-graphene growth on SiC, functionalization, properties, and applications. Currently, 2DSiC synthesis and characterization are the topics beyond graphene in her group. She is an expert in sublimation growth and MOCVD. She has more than 600 publications, >12 000 citations, and an H index of 53. She is a co-founder of Graphensic AB, a spin-off company from Linköping University. She serves as a consultant for the SiC growth of Swedish and USA companies and as a member of evaluation, programme, etc. committees and boards. |
Prof. Junhua Li
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Junhua Li is a full professor in the School of Environment at Tsinghua University. He received a B.Sc. degree in chemistry from Jilin University (1992) and a PhD in nuclear fuel cycling and material from the China Institute of Atomic Energy (2001), respectively. He carried out postdoctoral research in environmental science and engineering at Tsinghua University (2002) and was a research professor at Michigan University (2008). At present, he is an editor aboard a member of Appl. Catal. B Environ, Chin. J. Catal., J. Environ. Sci., and Fron. Environ. Sci. Eng. Professor Li’s research interests are mainly in air pollution chemistry and control technologies, including the removal of NOx, VOC, Hg, and particulate matter from both mobile and stationary sources (combustion of coal, gas, and liquid fuels). In these fields, Dr. Li is the author or co-author of over 230 refereed publications, and the total citation times are over 10,000. In addition, he is authorised to have invented 32 patents and published two books. Most of the patents were implemented and applied to the removal of NOx and VOCs from real exhaust gas. Now he is a Cheung Kong Scholars professor and an Outstanding Young Scientist in China. And he obtained the State Technological Invention Award in 2015 and the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2010. |
Dr. Loredana Protesescu
University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands Loredana Protesescu (PhD obtained in 2016) has been an assistant professor since 2019 at Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen. She is an inorganic chemist with solid expertise in the chemistry of (novel) nanomaterials, their structural particularities, and their surface chemistry in relationship to self-assembly, and their properties. She uses chemical design to achieve functional materials at the nanoscale with applications in energy, extreme environment, and bio-applications. She has vast experience in the development of tailored semiconductor nanocrystals with applications in opto-electronic devices. Her contribution to the perovskite semiconductors nanocrystals is reflected by her extensive work with lead and tin halide perovskites with 2D and 3D structures and morphologies. |
Prof. Piercarlo Mustarelli
University of Milano Bicocca, Italy Title: "Functionalized nanofillers in batteries, fuel cells and electrolyzers" Piercarlo Mustarelli is a full professor at the Department of Materials Science of the University of Milano Bicocca. During the last 35 years, he has been interested in the study of the chemical-physical, structural, and transport properties of several materials, including functional glasses, liquid and solid electrolytes for lithium batteries, membranes for fuel cells and electrolysers, and cathode materials for lithium and post-lithium batteries. He has also been interested in thin films, nanostructured materials, and biomaterials of broad technological interest. He is a member of the Secretariat of Batteries Europe and of the Batteries European Partnership. He is head of the R2BATT Laboratory, granted by Regione Lombardia and dedicated to the issues of the reuse of lithium batteries and the recovery and recycling of critical materials. He is the author or co-author of approximately 300 publications in international journals and over 500 communications at national and international conferences. He has an H-index of 59 (Google Scholar). |
Prof. Mahesh Kumar
Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India Title: "Growth and gas sensing properties of CVD grown 2D Materials" Dr. Mahesh Kumar is Professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur. He has received INSA Medal for Young Scientists-2014 by Indian National Science Academy, the MRSI Medal-2016 by Materials Research Society of India, DAE-Young Achiever Award-2016 by BRNS, Research Excellence Award 2020 by IIT Jodhpur and Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize by The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He is recipient of the Brain Pool Program-2022 by Korean National Research Foundation, Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowships-2021; The Royal Society International Exchange Award-2021; JSPS Invitation Fellowship-2021, PIFI Visiting Scientist fellowship-2021 by Chinese Academy of Science; Duo-India Professor Fellowship-2020, Bhaskara Advanced Solar Energy Fellowship-2018 and INSA-DFG International Bilateral Exchange Award-2015. Recently INAE awarded him Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship 2022. He is also Editorial Board member of Nanotechnology, IEEE Sensors Journal, Bulletin of Materials Science and Nano Express. He is also Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Physics. He is founding Member and served as Chair of Indian National Young Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 170 research articles. His research interests are focused on 2D materials, Nanomaterials, Sensors, Semiconductor materials and devices. |
Prof. Urska Lavrencic Stangar
University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia Title: "Thin Films for Photocatalysis" Urška Lavrenčič Štangar began her career at the National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, researching sol-gel materials for various electrochemical devices. She was a postdoc at the Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Materials Chemistry, with Lise Meitner and Marie Curie fellowships. Then she joined University of Nova Gorica, where she did pioneering work in the field of photocatalysis for environmental applications in Slovenia. She was also Head of the Laboratory for Environmental Research and later Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences. She was President of the Organising Committee of the 3rd European Symposium on Photocatalysis. Since 2016, she has been Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, and leads the national research programme “Chemistry for Sustainable Development”. She has published more than 150 articles with over 4000 citations and is editor of the Chemical Engineering Journal. |
Prof. Andrea Latgé
Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Title: "Exploring electronic responses in carbon-based nanostructured structures" Andrea Latgé is a full professor at the Physics Department of the Universidade Federal Fluminense. Since her PhD (1989) in Physics she has been working on different problems in Condensed Matter Physics, including semiconductor heterostructures, carbon-nanotubes and a variety of carbon-based nanostructured materials. In the last 10 years, she has focused her interest on strained graphene-like systems and transport properties. More recently, she has started some studies on fractal lattices such as Sierpinski triangles and carpets and the response of linear molecular chains composed of such fractal structures. She is also interested in investigating the possibilities of functionalized graphene-like lattices working as gas sensors. She is a member of the Brazilian Physical Society and was the Director of Research and Graduate at her University for the past 5 years. She is the author of approximately 150 publications in international journals and has supervised a large number of PhD and Master thesis. |
Dr. Li WAN
Hubei University, Wuhan, P. R. China Title: "Defect passivation of perovskite crystal thin films: from experimental methods to reagent selection" Associate Professor Dr. Li Wan has joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Hubei University since July 2011. In February 2016, she went to the Institute of Materials and Chemistry at Technische Universität Wien as a guest researcher, working on hybrid perovskite solar cells in Prof. Dominik Eder’s group until February 2017. In June 2016, she also received the position of university associate professor. Dr. Wan’s main research interests include high-efficiency and low-cost photovoltaic devices, the preparation of various nano-carbon (carbon nanotubes, graphene), and composites for solar cell and optoelectronic applications. She also starts to focus on the research of solid waste recycling and utilisation using some green technologies. Dr. Li Wan is the author of >40 publications (incl. Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., Small, ACS Appl. Mater. Inter., Electrochim. Acta, Appl. Phys. Lett., Carbon) with >2200 citations and a Google H-index of 22. Dr. Li Wan has acquired research funding, including the Key Programme for Intergovernmental S&T Innovation Cooperation Projects of the National Key R&D Programme of China, the Nature Science Foundation of China, the Department of Science and Technology of Hubei Province of China and from the Educational Commission of Hubei Province. In 2021, she was selected as ‘2022 Emerging Investigators’ of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Royal Society of Chemistry. |
Assoc. Prof. Kai Wang
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China Title: "Performance optimization of wide-band gap perovskite solar cells and the fabrication of high-efficiency perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells" Kai Wang, an Associate Professor at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, primarily focuses on fundamental and applied research related to novel thin-film solar cells. His research is centered on the controllable preparation and modulation of inorganic charge transport materials, crystalline tuning, and interface modification of wide-bandgap perovskites. Furthermore, his work extends to the fabrication of large-area perovskite solar cells and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. As both the first author and corresponding author, Wang has published a total of 38 articles including prestigious journals such as Joule, Matter, Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Functional Materials among others. His contributions have garnered significant recognition with 1591 citations on Google Scholar and an h-index value of 21. |
Prof. Maria Camilla Bergonzi
University of Florence, Florence, Italy Title: "Nanoencapsulation of natural compounds: an innovative strategy for a successful therapeutic approach" Prof. Maria Camilla Bergonzi is Associate professor at the School of Human Health Sciences of the University of Florence, Italy. She is titular of Course of Pharmaceutical Technology and Legislation for ungraduated students of degree course in Pharmacy and co-titular of the course Soft Matter Materials Applied to Drug Delivery Systems, Food Supplements and Cosmetic Sciences, for the master degree in Advanced Molecular Sciences. She is author of over 130 original papers in international peer-reviewed journals one patent and three chapters of books.She has a deep background in the pharmaceutical technology and analysis of herbal drugs and herbal drug preparations. Her research includes the improvement of bioavailability and technological features of natural compounds, extracts and drugs, by using conventional and innovative micro and nanocarriers. Her studies are concerning the preparation of formulations able to cross the blood-brain barrier and to promote the oral absorption. She is member of Editorial Board of Pharmaceutics, Molecules, Current Drug Delivey, ChemMedChem, reviewer for many international journals and Editor of several Special Issues. |
Prof. Shengzhong Liu
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Title: "Perovskite: a wonder material for PV applications" Prof. Liu received his PhD from Northwestern University, USA in 1992. Upon completing his postdoctoral research at Argonne National Laboratory in 1994, he joined high-tech industrial research, most notably on solar cells with Solarex/BP Solar and United Solar Ovonic. His research focus includes nanomaterials, thin films, photoelectronics and solar cells. His major outcome in basic research are published in scientific journals, including Science, Nature, Joule, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, etc. He now serves as an associate Editor for NanoSelect, Editorial Board Member for Advanced Science, Device, Next Energy, Small Structure, J. Energy Chemistry and Scientific Report. He is selected as the top 1% most highly cited author by RSC and Clarivate Analytics. He is also among the “Top 2% Scientists Worldwide” by Stanford. His H-index is >100 and i10-index >300. He is a RSC Fellow. |
Prof. Jana Vejpravova
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Jana Kalbacova Vejpravova is a full professor, chair of the doctoral study school “Physics of nanostructures and nanomaterials” and group leader at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University, Prague. She graduated from Charles University with MSc. In “Chemistry” in 2003 and Ph.D. in “Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Research” in 2007. After her postdoctoral stays at Hasselt University, Belgium, and National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan, she worked as the head of the department in the Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences (2011- 2017). Her current research interests cover the experimental physics of low-dimensional materials, including carbon nanotubes, graphene and other two-dimensional materials, and magnetic nanoparticles focusing on advanced magnetometry techniques, and cryomagnetic optical & nuclear spectroscopies. Her work has been funded by ~ 15 projects as PI (~ 3.5 MEUR), including the prestigious ERC Starting grant (2016). She published ~ 160 papers, presented ~ 30 invited/plenary talks, and received multiple recognitions, e.g., Scopus/Elsevier Award (2010), Otto Wichterle Award (2014), F. Behounek Award for promotion and popularization of Czech science in the European Research Area (2019). |
Prof. Shimin Wang
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Prof. Dr. Shimin Wang received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry and Materials Science from Hubei University in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and Ph.D. degree (major in Microelectronics and Solid Electronics) from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1999. He worked as a professor in the Institute of piezoelectric ceramic technology from Hubei University in 1988, later he worked in the Department of Materials Science and Engineeringand is now the vice-president of Hubei University. His research areas include preparation of photoelectronic functional materials and films, nanomaterials, nanocomposites; design and synthesis of organic functional molecules; application of these novel materials in new generation of electronic and photo electronic devices (DSSCs, PSCs, fuel cell); mechanism investigation of the materials properties and performance. |
Dr. Vojtech Uhlir
Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic Vojtěch Uhlíř was born in Uherské Hradiště (former Czechoslovakia) in 1983. He received a MEng. degree in Physical Engineering from Brno University of Technology, the Czech Republic in 2006. His diploma thesis was devoted to investigation of magnetic properties of thin films by magneto-optical Kerr effect. In 2010, he received a Ph.D. in Physics from University of Grenoble, France and in Physical and Materials Engineering from Brno University of Technology for his work on current-induced magnetization dynamics in nanostructures. During the postdoctoral appointment at University of California, San Diego he was involved in several projects – all-optical magnetization switching, magnetic vortex dynamics and modification of magnetic properties by electric field. In 2016 he moved to Czechia to Brno University of Technology and since January 2018 holds a Research Group Leader position at Central European Institute of Technology. |
Dr. Jan M. Macak
University of Pardubice and Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic Title: "Centrifugal spining as a viable technology to prepare advanced bipolymeric and inorganic fibers for various applications" Dr. Jan M. Macak is a Senior Researcher and a group leader at the Center of Materials and Nanotechnologies of the University of Pardubice, Czech Republic and at the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) in Brno, Czech Republic, as the leader of the research group Advanced Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials. He got his Ph.D. in 2008 at the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He received several prestigious awards and in 2015 also ERC Starting grant „Chromtisol“ devoted to development of new type of solar cells based on nanotubular titania. His research is focused on the synthesis of advanced low-dimensional structures such as nanotubes, nanoparticles, nanofibers, in various ways and their applications. The presention will focus on the synthesis, characterization and utilization of centrifugal spun biopolymeric and inorganic nanofibers for cosmectic and catalytic applications. |
Dr. Jianwei Li
University of Turku, Turku, Finland Title: "Systems Chemistry: a Sustainable Strategy to Tackle Societal Challenges in Health and Environment" Dr. Jianwei Li is a Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader at the Medicity Research Laboratory within the University of Turku. Before he started his independent research in Finland in 2016, he obtained his Ph.D. degree under the guidance of Prof. Sijbren Otto at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2014. He also worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Hagan Bayley at Oxford University, UK. His research group aims to address health and environmental societal challenges through the unique intersection of systems chemistry and materials chemistry. So far, they have employed the tool of dynamic combinatorial chemistry to produce complex chemical systems from which noncovalent interactions directed the covalent synthesis of specific molecules that further self-assemble into functional supramolecular materials. These materials have been used for applications in drug delivery, hydrogen production and ecofriendly plastics. |
Prof. Marko Huttula
University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland Title: "Role and functionality of nanocatalysis on hydrogen and energy research" Marko Huttula is Professor of physics and the head of the Nano- and Molecular Systems research unit with research focus is in the physics of green transition, including hydrogen production. He is leading the Academy of Finland-funded (PROFI7) "Hydrogen Future as Climate Change Solution" research programme, Strategic Research Council JustH2Transit consortium and is a founding partner of the Hydrogen Research Forum Finland. He is leader of numerous research projects e,g, two intersectoral EU-MSCA COFUND doctoral programs. He is widely connected with international research institutions and infrastructures as well as EU organs such as Hydrogen Europe Research and the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance. |
Prof. Cornelia Palivan
University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland Title: "Hierarchical self-organization of polymersomes and Janus nanoparticles in clusters by controlled DNA hybridization" Prof. Dr. Cornelia G. Palivan is currently Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Chemistry Department at the University of Basel, Switzerland. She is a member of the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the management of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Molecular Systems Engineering Switzerland. The main focus of her research group is at the interface between physical-chemistry, nanoscience, and biophysics, with particular emphasis on bio-nano-systems for translational applications. Her research interests are in the field of developing hybrid functional materials based on combinations of biomolecules with synthetic assemblies at the nano- and micro-scale, and their interactions with cells or microorganisms. She published more than 190 research articles and reviews in the field and received various prizes and fellowships. She is an international expert for the evaluation of research projects (NWO-Nano Nederland, FWO Belgium, SNSF Switzerland, ERA-Chemistry and ERC grants program EU). |
Prof. Katsuaki Konishi
Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan Title: "Surfactant-assisted self-organization of molecular clusters" Katsuaki Konishi acquired a background in organic/coordination/supramolecular chemistry under the direction of Professor Shohei Inoue at the University of Tokyo. He obtained his Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry from the University of Tokyo. After working at the University of Tokyo with Professor Takuzo Aida on porphyrin and supramolecular chemistries, he joined the environmental faculty of Hokkaido University as an associate professor, where he started the study on metal clusters. He was appointed as a full professor in 2008. His current interest focuses on the precise synthesis of functional metal clusters and the design of smart multicluster-based materials. |
Dr. Marian Varga
Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia Title: "Tailoring 3D diamond and 2D transition metal dichalcogenides for functional heterostructures" Marian Varga received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in 2008 and 2013, respectively, from the Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology in Bratislava. In 2011, as a PhD student and later as a postdoctoral fellow, he joined the Diamond Materials group of prof. Alexander Kromka at the Institute of Physics (IoP) of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. In 2020, he obtained the position of senior researcher at the Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE) of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) in Bratislava within the Mobility and Reintegration Programme (MoRePro) of the SAS. His research activity focuses on chemical vapour deposition of carbon-based materials (mainly using polycrystalline diamond) in their intrinsic or doped form, preparation of 2D materials, post-growth modification including nanostructuring, etching and surface chemical functionalization, and characterization of their opto-electronic properties. He participated in research activities documented by more than 75 scientific publications (>1200 citations, Hirsch index 17), 1 book chapter and 1 utility model. |
Prof. Patrik Schmuki
Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany Title: "Single atoms as co-catalysts for photocatalytic H2 generation" Patrik Schmuki obtained his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in 1992. From 1994–1997, he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory, U.S., and at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences of the National Research Council of Canada. From 1997–2000, he has been Associate Professor for Microstructuring Materials at EPFL, Switzerland, and in 2000, he became Full Professor and Head of the Institute for Surface Science and Corrosion at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 2017, he has also been head of the "Photoelectrochemistry" research division at the Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. He co-authored nearly 800 publications and six books, and from 2015 until 2021, he was among the highly cited researchers in the chemistry category. His research interests target electrochemistry and materials science at the nanoscale, with a particular focus on functional materials and self-organization processes. |
Prof. Luca Gavioli
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy Title: "Nanogranular NiFe catalysts for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction: efficiency and stability from individual nanoparticles to thin films" Prof. Gavioli obtained his PhD. in Physics in 1997 working on metal/semiconductor interfaces. His post-doc experience at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (TN, USA) and at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne was centered on 2D systems. In the 2001-2013 period, he worked as tenure track researcher at the Università Cattolica on different subjects: Alkali metals on semiconductors; Organic molecules and fullerenes on vicinal metal surfaces; Carbon based nanostructured systems; Self assembled metal clusters on titanium oxide templates; Synthesis of nanomaterials by non thermal laser ablation; He became professor in 2014, and his research interested moved to the synthesis and characterization of nanogranular materials. He is the founder and deputy director of the “International Doctoral Program in Science”, established in 2016 among the Università Cattolica, KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Notre Dame (Indi-ana, USA) and the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (Chile). |
Prof. Evren Mutlugun
Abdullah Gul University, Turkey Assoc. Prof. Evren Mutlugün received the B.Sc degree in Physics from Middle East Technical University in 2005. He got his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, both from Bilkent University Physics Department in 2007 and 2012 respectively. Prior to joining Abdullah Gül University as a faculty of Electrical-Electronics Engineering in 2014, he worked as a National Research Foundation Competitive Research Programme (NRF-CRP) research fellow at Nanyang Technological University, between 2012 and 2014. His research focuses on the colloidal quantum dot-based exciton harvesting systems for novel optoelectronic applications. He is the recipient of the 2017 Turkish Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist Award. |
Prof. Ioan-Cezar MARCU
University of Bucharest, Romania Title: "Study of the semiconductive and redox properties of reducible metal oxides via in situ electrical conductivity measurements. Consequences for catalysis" Born in 1971, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Prof. Marcu got his BSc in Chemistry & Physics in 1995, and his MSc in Heterogeneous Catalysis in 1996 at the University of Bucharest (UB). In 2002 he received his PhD in Catalysis at the Institute of Catalysis, University "Claude Bernard" Lyon 1, France. From October 2006 to September 2007, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute Charles Gerhardt of Montpellier, France, then, starting from 2007, he became a Senior Researcher at the Research Center for Catalysts and Catalytic Processes of UB. He obtained his Habilitation in Catalysis in 2013, and was appointed Full Professor at UB in February 2020, in charge of Chemical Technology and Catalytic Materials disciplines. Currently he is the Head of Department of Inorganic & Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry & Catalysis at UB. His research interests cover the field of catalysis by metal oxides. He co-authored more than 80 research papers, including three book chapters and four encyclopedia articles. |
Dr. Marco ALTOMARE
University of Twente, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, the Netherlands Title: "Solid-state dewetted nanoparticles: studying nanoscale effects in electro- (and photo-) catalysis" Marco Altomare obtained his MSc. degree in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Milano, Italy (2010), and his Ph.D. in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Milano, Italy (2014), under the supervision of Prof. Elena Selli. The topic of his thesis was “Towards the Photocatalytic Production of Solar Fuels – Nanostructured Titanium Dioxide for Photocatalysis & Photo-Electrochemistry”. After the Ph.D., he was postdoc and then Habilitation candidate at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in the lab of Prof. Patrik Schmuki. Since 2021, he is Tenure Track Assistant Professor and leads his own group specialized in nanomaterials for electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, and water splitting, in the Department of Chemical Engineering and MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. The research of the group led by Marco Altomare bridges nanotechnology and materials science at the nanoscale with heterogeneous catalysis for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals. Marco Altomare’s work deals with physical vapor deposition and solid-state dewetting methods to design model nanostructured catalysts, combined with in-situ synchrotron characterization techniques to elucidate structure-performance relationships and investigate catalyst stability in electro- and photo-catalytic processes. |
Prof. Jochen Lauterbach
University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States Title: "Morphological Influence on Catalytic Performance: A Comparative Study of Nanowires and Spherical Particles" Prof. Lauterbach received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry in the group of the 2007 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. G. Ertl. After a postdoc at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he joined the Chemical Engineering faculty at Pardue University in 1996 and moved to the University of Delaware in 2002. He joined the University of South Carolina in July 2010 as Smartstate Endowed Chair and Director of the South Carolina SmartState Centre for Strategic Approaches to the Generation of Electricity. Prof. Lauterbach's research interests are in the areas of heterogeneous catalysis and functional nanomaterial synthesis as applied to environmental processes, improving power generation from fossil fuels, the generation of synthetic fuels from methane and carbon dioxide, upstream fuel generation from ammonia for fuel cells, and biomass torrefaction. |
Dr. Iwona Rutkowska
University of Warsaw, Poland Iwona A. Rutkowska is a faculty member in chemistry at University of Warsaw. Her current research focuses on materials chemistry and electrochemistry of nanostructured metal oxides, noble metal nanoparticles and functionalized carbons, organic and inorganic polymers with emphasis on electrocatalytic processes for energy conversion and storage as well as on mechanisms of charge propagation. Her recent activities has concentrated on oxidation of small organic fuels, oxygen reduction reaction, nitrogen reduction, carbon dioxide reduction at various experimental conditions, and on redox flow batteries. She is a member of The Electrochemical Society (ECS), American Chemical Society (ACS) and International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE). In ECS she has served on many committees and co-organized numerous symposia. Presently, she is a Treasurer of Physical and Analytical Division and a Member-at-Large in Executive Committee of European Section. |
Assoc. Prof. Xu Zhang
Hubei University, Wuhan, P. R. China Zhang Xu obtained her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021 and subsequently joined the School of Materials Science of Hubei University as an associate professor. Her research interests primarily revolve around perovskite materials, thin films, and optoelectronics. She has published over 10 SCI papers in internationally renowned journals such as Energy Environ. Sci., Adv. Mater., and Adv. Energy Mater., accumulating a total citation count exceeding 3400. Additionally, she has taken charge of or participated in two national projects. |
Dr. Amir Pakdel
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland Title: "Nanoengineering of Thermoelectric Materials towards Enhanced Thermal Energy Harvesting" Amir Pakdel is a nanomaterials scientist and nanotechnologist, an assistant professor and a research group leader at Trinity College Dublin's School of Engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Tsukuba (Japan) and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS; Japan) in 2012. He then received a MANA postdoctoral fellowship and a JSPS research fellowship in Japan, and later an early-career researcher award from Science Foundation Ireland to establish his research group in Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) in 2019. Amir has investigated diverse and multidisciplinary nanomaterials-based research topics, including: thermal energy harvesting, energy storage, flexible and wearable electronics, functional and hierarchical surfaces, and electron microscopy. He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals in Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science disciplines, which have been cited more than 4000 times to date. He is an associate editor of Frontiers in Chemistry, Energies, and AIMS Materials Science. |
Prof. Eli Sutter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA Title: "1D van der Waals Nanostructures: Defect-Mediated VLS Growth, Morphology, and Optoelectronics" Eli Sutter is a Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA). She earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Condensed Matter Physics from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at ETH Zürich and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and appointments as Assistant Professor of Physics at the Colorado School of Mines and as Scientist in the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her research focuses on transmission electron microscopy and spectroscopy of 2D/layered materials and nanomaterials. She has co-authored more than 225 scientific publications, 80 invited talks, and holds 8 US Patents. She received a Scientific American 50 Award for Ultra-measurements (2007), the Sapphire Prize (2011) and Battelle Inventor of the Year Award (2015). She served as Chair of the International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology, Vail (CO) in 2014 and the 2017 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in Phoenix (AZ). |
Dr. Shaghayegh Naghdi
Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria Title: "Highly Water-stable Mixed-Coordination Metal-Organic Frameworks for efficient adsorption of nitrate from aqueous solutions" Shaghayegh Naghdi obtained her master's degree in Organic Chemistry from Kharazmi University in Tehran, Iran, focusing on the synthesis and characterization of novel thermally stable polyamides. After completing her master's degree, she worked in the industry for five years as quality control manager. Then, in August 2017, she moved to TU Wien in Austria to conduct her doctoral research in the Molecular Materials Chemistry group. She received her Doctorate in Natural Science in April 2022 and has been working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Molecular Materials Chemistry group at TU Wien since May 2022. Her current research is centered on designing and applying metal-organic frameworks in environmental efforts, specifically in photocatalysis and water treatment with the focus on hydrogen evolution (HER) and synthesizing new water-stable MOFs. |
Prof. Peter Sutter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA Peter Sutter is Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from ETH Zürich. Following postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he held appointments as Assistant/Associate Professor in Physics at the Colorado School of Mines and Group Leader in the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory. His research focuses on 2D/layered materials and nanomaterials, studied by microscopy and nanometer-scale spectroscopy. |
Prof. Ayşegül GÖLCÜ
Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Title: "Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) combined with nanomaterials as electrochemical sensing applications for drug analysis" Professor Ayşegül Gölcü completed her primary, secondary, and high school education in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. She graduated from 19 Mayıs University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry. She completed her master’s and doctorate degrees at Ankara University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Analytical Chemistry. In 2010, she went to Clarkson University in Potsdam, the USA for “postdoc” studies and worked on “electrochemical sensors” with Prof. Petr Zuman. In 2012, she was appointed as a “full-time professor” at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of Chemistry and served for five years. She has been working at Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry since 2017. Since 2019, she has been collaborating with Prof. Omowunmi Sadik (New Jersey Institutes of Technology) on “binding mechanisms of natural compounds to dsDNA”. She has over one hundred national and international articles, projects, and theses on spectrophotometric and voltammetric drug analyses, drug-metal complexes, biosensors, and natural compounds. She is a member of the “Management Committee” in COST’s actions “D39- Metallo-Drug Design and Action” and “CM1105: Functional metal complexes that bind to biomolecules”. |
Prof. Eugenia Pechkova
University of Genova Medical School, Italy Title: "Protein's Langmuir-Blodgett nanofilms studied by X-Ray nanodiffraction, X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) and Cryo-Electron Microscopy" Eugenia Pechkova, who holds a Doctoral degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Biophysics, is now in charge of the Laboratory of Biophysics and Nanotechnology at the Department of Experimental Medicines, University of Genova Medical School in Italy. She focuses her research on Langmuir-Blodgett protein nanofilms and multilayers, studying their structure and applications. Additionally, she is interested in structural proteomics and nanocrystallography, as well as X-ray nanodiffraction and scattering using synchrotron radiation. She has pioneered the use of a protein nanotemplate approach for protein crystallography, working as visiting scientist at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, USA, and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), France. |
Prof. Katarzyna Siuzdak
Center for Plasma and Laser Engineering, Institute of Fluid Flow Machinery, Poland Title: "Laser nanostructuring of the materials for electrochemical applications" PhD DSc Eng Katarzyna Siuzdak is the Head of Laboratory of Functional Materials and associate professor in Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery Polish Academy of Sciences in Gdańsk, Poland. She is an expert in fabrication and characterization of electrochemically active nanostructures dedicated both for energy conversion and sensing devices. Her works are focused on using anodization, magnetron sputtering and laser treatment towards synthesis and tailoring of electrode materials dedicated for water splitting, photo-assisted catalysis as well as detection of molecules like dopamine, hormones and vitamins. She is the author of over 120 publications (H=30), book chapters, patent applications and PI of national and international projects realized in many scientific groups. She is a member of International Society of Electrochemistry and The Electrochemical Society. She also developed as scientist during internships in Bordeaux University of Technology in France, University of Coimbra in Portugal and Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany. She is a recipient of the Scholarship from the Minister of Science and Higher Education for the outstanding Young Researchers, the Scholarship START from Foundation for Polish Science, and for the technological achievement she obtained the scientific award of prof. Walter Nernst. She is also involved in popularization of science, especially STEM in social media on @science_mission profile. |
Prof. Anna Maria Coclite
University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy & Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria Anna Maria Coclite was born in Bari, in the south of Italy, where she studied chemistry. She was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving on to Graz, Austria, where she is as an associate professor in the Institute of Solid State Physics. She is the co-leader of the “Advanced Material Science” inter-faculty Field of Expertise at TU Graz since 2020. Her research interests focus on materials science and advanced methods for thin film growth, including thin film technologies, nanomaterials, and surface chemistry. In 2016, she won the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant to fund her research on “Smart Core-shell sensor arrays for artificial skins.” |