Speakers

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Prof. Jan Schmidt

Prof. Jan Schmidt
Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH), Germany & Institute of Solid-State Physics, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Title: "Options for ultrahigh efficiencies in photovoltaics"
Jan Schmidt is head of the Photovoltaics Department at the Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH) and Professor of Photovoltaics Materials Research at the Leibniz University Hanover. His research interests include the development of novel solar cell concepts and fabrication processes, with focus on surface passivation schemes and selective contacts, the development of novel characterization techniques for semiconductor materials and solar cells, and the analysis and manipulation of defects in semiconductors. He has authored and co-authored more than 160 peer-reviewed papers and more than 120 conference papers in the fields of photovoltaics and semiconductor physics. His research articles have been cited more than 13,000 times with an h-index of 62. Dr. Schmidt is scientific committee member for several conferences (EUPVSEC, SiliconPV/nPV, IEEE PVSC) and Editor of the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

Prof. Yong Zhang

Prof. Yong Zhang
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Title: "Fluorescent nanoparticles and nanoclusters for bioimaging and phototherapy"
Yong Zhang is a Provost's Chair Professor in Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). His current research interests include nanobiophotonics, nanomedicine, and microfluidic devices. Professor Zhang has authored over 300 peer-reviewed research papers in international journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, PNAS, and Chemical Reviews, and has won numerous research awards such as IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award and NUS Young Investigator Award. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and a Highly Cited Researcher amongst the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds named by Clarivate Analytics.

Prof. Eli Sutter

Prof. Eli Sutter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA
Title: "New Frontiers in Two Dimensional/Layered Materials"
Eli Sutter is a Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA). Before joining the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2015 she spent 12 years as Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her research focuses on in-situ electron microscopy of materials at variable temperatures and in different environments. She has co-authored more than 185 scientific publications, 50 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)

Prof. Atsushi Urakawa

Prof. Atsushi Urakawa
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Title: "Operando views on the dynamic nanostructures of catalytic materials"
Atsushi Urakawa was born in Japan. He obtained his BSc degree (with one year stay in the USA) in Applied Chemistry at Kyushu University (Japan) and he studied Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) for his MSc degree. He obtained his PhD in 2006 from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) where he worked as Senior Scientist and Lecturer until he joined ICIQ as Group Leader in Spain in 2010. In 2019, he undertook a new challenge as Professor of Catalysis Engineering at Delft University of Technology. His research team combines fundamental and applied research and focuses on the rational development of heterogeneous catalysts and processes aided by in situ and operando methodologies.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Prof. Ron Naaman

Prof. Ron Naaman
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Title: "Chiral molecules and the electron spin- A new approach towards nanotechnology"
Ron Naaman is a Professor Emeritus at the Department Of Chemical and Biological Physics at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. Over the years, Ron investigated new electronic properties that emerge when organic molecules are interacting with an inorganic substrate and with electrons to discover a new phenomenon known as Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS) effect. This means that electron transport through chiral molecules is spin dependent, an effect of great relevance in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

Prof. Hongwei Duan

Prof. Hongwei Duan
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
Hongwei Duan is an associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). His current research focuses on understanding surface/interface properties of micro- and nano-structures for tailored optical, electronic, magnetic, catalytic, and structural properties, and exploring their biomedical and environmental applications.

Prof. Ehrenfried Zschech

Prof. Ehrenfried Zschech
Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, Dresden, Germany
Title: "High-resolution X-ray computed tomography study of the morphology of electrocatalytic systems for water splitting"
Ehrenfried Zschech is Department Head for Microelectronic Materials and Nanoanalysis at the Fraunhofer Institute IKTS in Dresden, Germany, which he joined in 2009. His responsibilities include multi-scale materials characterization and reliability engineering. Ehrenfried Zschech received his Dr. rer. nat. degree from Technische Universität Dresden. He managed the Materials Analysis Department at Advanced Micro Devices in Dresden from 1997 to 2009. Ehrenfried Zschech holds an adjunct professorship at Faculty of Chemistry of Warsaw University, Poland, as well as honorary professorships for Nanomaterials at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus and for Nanoanalysis at Technische Universität Dresden. Ehrenfried Zschech is Member of the Board of Directors of the Materials Research Society (MRS), Member of the Senate of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) and Honorary Member of the Federation of the European Materials Societies (FEMS). In 2019, he was awarded with the FEMS European Materials Gold Medal.

Prof. Jochen Lauterbach

Prof. Jochen Lauterbach
University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States
Title: "Machine learning combined with high-throughput experimentation: a powerful combination for the discovery of novel catalysts"
Professor Lauterbach received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in the group of the 2007 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. G. Ertl. After a post-doc at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he joined the Chemical Engineering faculty at Purdue 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 Center for Strategic Approaches to the Generation of Electricity. Professor Lauterbach's research interests are in the area of heterogeneous catalysis and functional nanomaterials synthesis, as applied to environmental processes improving power generation from fossil fuels, generation of synthetic fuels from methane and carbon dioxide, upstream fuel generation from ammonia for fuel cells, and biomass torrefaction.

Prof. Eyal Zussman

Prof. Eyal Zussman
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Title: "Long-range ordered structure formation in polyelectrolyte chains"
Eyal Zussman is the Winograd Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Since joining the Technion, he has served as Director of the NanoEngineering Group. His research interests are in the area of molecular engineering of soft matter, in particular, the development of process-structure-property relationships, through the use of simulation and experiment, the development of functional electrospun fibers, and long-range ordering of polyelectrolyte chains.

Prof. Gerardo F. Goya

Prof. Gerardo F. Goya
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Dr. Gerardo F. Goya is an associate professor at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. He has been Associate Professor at the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and he is currently a researcher at the Institute of Nanoscience of Aragón (INA), University of Zaragoza.
His team has developed engineered MNPs for neural guidance under externally applied magnetic fields. He has over 130 publications on nanomagnetism and bioapplications and holds two patents. Prof. Goya has lead the design, development, and building of devices for measuring power absorption for magnetic hyperthermia, which made the basis for a spin-off company, nB Nanoscale Biomagnetics, of which he is co-founder and scientific advisor.

Prof. Jose Paulo Farinha

Prof. Jose Paulo Farinha
Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Jose Paulo Farinha is currently at Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon. He works in the areas of Materials Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Polymer Chemistry, focusing in the research and development of novel advanced functional materials, in particular nanostructured materials, featuring significant interaction with light, with applications in the energy, biomedical and environmental fields. Key interest areas are: - Functinal nanomaterials; - Nanoparticles; - Polymers and Colloids; - Emulsion and miniemulsion polymerization; - Controled polymerization; - Polymer coatings; - Optical sensor nanomaterials; - Fluorescence applications and laser scanning microscopy.

Prof. Samy El-Shall

Prof. Samy El-Shall
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA
Title: "Graphene-based Materials for Applications in Heterogeneous Catalysis, Water Treatment and Solar Water Desalination"
El-Shall received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Cairo University, and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He did postdoctoral research in nucleation and clusters at UCLA. His research interests include nanostructured materials, graphene and nanocatalysis for energy and environmental applications, gas phase clusters and nucleation. He has published over 260 refereed papers and review chapters, and he holds ten US patents on the synthesis of nanomaterials, nanoparticle catalysts, graphene, and graphene-supported catalysts.
Dr. El-Shall was selected as a Jefferson Science Fellow and worked as a Senior Science Advisor at the U.S. Department of State in 2012-2013. Dr. El-Shall received the Virginia Outstanding Scientist in 2018 awarded by the Governor of Virginia. He is an elected Fellow of both the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Prof. Pantaleo Davide Cozzoli

Prof. Pantaleo Davide Cozzoli
University of Salento & National Nanotechnology Laboratory, CNR Institute Nanoscience, Lecce, Italy
Prof. P. Davide Cozzoli received his MSc degree in Chemistry in 1999 and his PhD in Chemical Sciences in 2004 from the University of Bari, Italy. In 2005 he joined the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL) of CNR Institute Nano science, Lecce, Italy. As CNR Associate Researcher, he has led the Nano chemistry group of NNL from 2009 to 2014. Since 2015 he holds a permanent position as Associate Professor of Experimental Matter Physics at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, and he is head of the Nano chemistry Department of the newly founded CNR Institute of Nanotechnology, Lecce, Italy.
His research is focused on the development of advanced colloidal nanocrystal architectures with controlled structural and topological features for applications in (photo) catalysis, photovoltaics, optoelectronics and biomedicine.

Prof. Oded Millo

Prof. Oded Millo
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Title: "Unconventional superconductivity in hybrid systems comprising chiral molecules, graphene and ferromagnets"
Oded Millo performed his Ph.D. research in Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying excitations at metallic surfaces. Was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Yale University, focusing there on quantum-transport and mesoscopic physics. He is now a full professor at the Racah Institute of Physics. His current research focuses on local-probe and transport studies of unconventional superconductivity (including high Tc and triplet-pairing superconductivity), nanostructured semiconductor systems (isolated nanocrystals and their assemblies), as well as photo-conductance properties of solar-cell materials. These works resulted in about 170 publications and h-index of 43. He was among the founders of the Hebrew University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and also served as the Head of Physics Department. Currently he is the Vice-Dean for Study Affairs at the Faculty of Sciences at the Hebrew University. Millo holds the Harry de Jur Chair in Applied Science, and he is a recipient of the IVS and the Young Researchers Landau prizes.

Dr. Artem Mishchenko

Dr. Artem Mishchenko
University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Title: "Rediscovering graphite: new physics in the old semimetal"
Artem Mishchenko works in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester; his research focuses on quantum transport in novel materials. The major contributions to this field have been published in over 90 peer-refereed papers, many in Science and Nature journals, leading to more than 16000 citations and h-index of 40. He has initiated several new research directions, such as a tunnelling and capacitance spectroscopy of van der Waals heterostructures; his works led to the development of many new functional devices, including nanoscale tunnelling transistors and photovoltaic sensors. As a recognition of his achievements, he has received several prestigious awards including SNSF Fellowship, EPSRC Fellowship, ERC Consolidator Grant, and EMFL Prize 2018. He is also named in 2018 and 2019 lists of Highly Cited Researchers from Clarivate Analytics.

Prof. Antonio Villaverde

Prof. Antonio Villaverde
Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
A. Villaverde is Chair Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Genetics and Microbiology and leader of the Nanobiotechnology group at the Institute for Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. He coordinates a research team of about 20 people working on the design of nano- and micro-scale protein materials for biomedical applications. Prof. Villaverde has authored more than 270 peer-reviewed research and review papers on microbiology, biotechnology and nanosciences, apart from several books, book chapters and patents. A. Villaverde founded the Open-Access journal Microbial Cell Factories, of which he has been Editor-in-Chief from 2002 to 2016.

Prof. David Munoz-Rojas

Prof. David Munoz-Rojas
Universite Grenoble Alpes, Saint Martin d'Heres, France
Title: "Open-air processing of innovative nanocomposite transparent conductive materials with spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (SALD)"
Dr. David Muñoz-Rojas received his degree in organic chemistry in 1999 and master’s degree in chemical engineering (2000) from the Instituto Químico de Sarrià (IQS, Barcelona, Spain), obtaining the P. Salvador Gil, S.I. 2000 prize. He did his PhD in materials science (2004) at the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Barcelona (CSIC-UAB). Thereafter, he worked as a postdoc at the Laboratoire de Réactivité et Chimie des Solides in Amiens (France), the Research Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Barcelona, and the University of Cambridge (Device Materials Group, UK). Dr. Muñoz-Rojas is currently a permanent CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire des Matériaux et du Génie Physique in Grenoble, France. He has been awarded two Marie Curie Fellowships (IEF in 2008 and CIG in 2014). His research focuses on using and developing cheap and scalable chemical approaches for the fabrication of novel functional materials for electronic and optoelectronic applications. In particular, he has pioneered the development of the novel spatial atomic layer deposition (SALD) technique for the deposition of active components for optoelectronic devices.

Dr. Alex Robertson

Dr. Alex Robertson
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Title: "Using in-situ TEM to reveal nanoscale dynamics in energy materials"
Dr Robertson is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Department of Materials, Oxford. His current interests lie in the application of in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques toward understanding degradation mechanisms in materials for energy storage applications. Prior to this, his field of interest was two-dimensional materials, in particular their synthesis by chemical vapour deposition and their atomic level characterisation by TEM.

Prof. Tomasz Puzyn

Prof. Tomasz Puzyn
University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland
Head of the Laboratory of Environmental Chemometrics at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Gdansk. Current research interests of the Team relates to the development of computer methods to support the design of new products (nanomaterials, ionic liquids) that are safe for human health and the environment.
Professor Puzyn is the author of over 70 scientific articles in leading journals. His work has been cited more than 1,000 times. He is also the winner of many prestigious national and international awards, i.e.: individual scholarship of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of Science, grants of the Foundation for Polish Science (programmes: START, HOMING and FOCUS), a scholarship of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education holder and the winner of the Polish Prime Minister Prize for the best habilitation thesis in 2012.

Prof. Lifeng Liu

Prof. Lifeng Liu
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Braga, Portugal
Title: "High-performance water splitting electrocatalysts"
Lifeng Liu received both his Master (2004) and PhD (2007) degrees in Condensed Matter Physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in 2007, first working as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a staff scientist. He started his independent research career in 2008 and became a Group Leader in 2009. In 2011, he moved to the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) and set up a research group there, where his research interest primarily focuses on nanomaterials for use in water electrolysis, photoelectrochemical cells, rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors.

Prof. Pitchaimuthu Sudhagar

Prof. Pitchaimuthu Sudhagar
Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom
Title: "Nanomaterials for Solar Fuel Generation"
Dr. Sudhagar graduated from Physics discipline, Bharathiar University, India in 2009. He was working as Research Assistant Professor during 2009-2013 under Prof. Yong Soo Kang at Center for Next Generation Dye-sensitized Solar Cells in Hanyang University, South Korea. Concurrently, he has been serving as visiting scientist to Department of Applied Physics, University of Jaume I, Spain from 2011. He was a recipient of JSPS award from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan in 2013.
He is leading "Multifunctional Photocatalyst and Coating" research group at Swansea University. His research expertise is ‘nanomaterial synthesis and coatings’ towards constructing low-cost solar energy driven photoelectrochemical system/devices.

Prof. Marco Monopoli

Prof. Marco Monopoli
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
Dr. Marco Monopoli is Lecturer in the RCSI Chemistry Department where he is establishing a multi-disciplinary centre focused on obtaining a complete understanding of the mechanisms of interaction between nanomaterials and living systems essential for Nanomedicine, Nanotoxicology applications and to evaluate their Environmental Impact.
Dr Monopoli's studies have been focused on revealing the forces that govern bio-nano interactions and in understanding the biological implications of the protein corona.

Prof. Piotr Warszynski

Prof. Piotr Warszynski
Polish Academy of Science, Krakow, Poland
Title: "Nanocarriers formed by the sequential adsorption of polyelectrolytes as targeted and theranostic delivery systems"
Piotr Warszynski is a Professor and Deputy Director for Research at Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. His research work focus on:
- Electrokinetic phenomena and adsorption of polyelectrolytes, nanoparticles and colloids;
- Wetting phenomena; stability of thin foam and wetting films;
- Description of the electric double layer structure at interfaces;

Prof. Anjanapura Raghu

Prof. Anjanapura Raghu
Jain University, Bangalore, India
Dr. Raghu earlier he worked at Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research (PPISR). He got seed money for young scientist award from Vision group of Science and technology, DST, Government of Karnataka. Anjanapura worked at the R&D Fuel Cell Division, Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai, India, on the development of membranes for fuel cell applications. His main research interests are synthesis and characterization of various types of polymeric nanocomposite for PEMFC and pervaporation separation applications, synthesis of nanographene/GO-based waterborne polyurethanes for electrostatic charge/discharge applications, the synthesis and characterization of novel polymers for various applications, and the synthesis and antibacterial study of some novel Indole derivatives.
He is editor/editorial board member in many international journals like Green Materials, International Journal of Polymer Sciences etc. And also he received more than 35 outstanding reviewer certificates from Elsevier Journals.

Prof. Martin Kalbac

Prof. Martin Kalbac
Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Title: "Rational modification of 2D materials"
Martin Kalbac graduated in inorganic chemistry from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, (1998), where he also received his Ph.D. degree in 2002 and has been habilitated in the field of inorganic chemistry (2019). Since 2001 he has worked at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Currently, he is a vice-director of the institute and the head of the Department of Low dimensional Systems. His research interests include carbon nanotubes, 2D materials, Raman spectroscopy and spectroelectrochemistry, isotope engineering of carbon nanostructures and sensorics

Prof. Sixto Gimenez Julia

Prof. Sixto Gimenez Julia
Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain
Sixto Giménez (M. Sc. Physics 1996, Ph. D. Physics 2002) is Associate Professor at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain). His professional career has been focused on the study of particulated materials. During his PhD thesis at the University of Navarra, he studied the relationship between processing of metallic and ceramic powders, their sintering behavior and mechanical properties. He took a Post-Doc position at the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven (2003-2006) where he focused on the development of non-destructive and in-situ characterization techniques of the sintering behavior of metallic porous materials. In 2006-2007, he was responsible for a new research line on nanostructured particulated materials for magnetic applications at CEIT (Spain). In January 2008, he joined the University Jaume I where he is involved in the development of new concepts for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices based on nanoscaled materials, particularly studying the optoelectronic and electrochemical responses of the devices by different spectroscopic techniques. He has co-authored more than 70 scientific papers in international journals and has received more than 3000 citations. His h-index is 26.

Prof. Benoit Heinrichs

Prof. Benoit Heinrichs
University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Benoît Heinrichs is a chemical engineer from the University of Liège, ULg (1993). During his PhD thesis in engineering at both the University of Liège and the Solvay company (1999), he developed bimetallic sol-gel catalysts for hydrodechlorination of industrial by-products.
In 2001, he moved to the Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands to develop iron-based catalysts for N2O abatement. He came back to ULg in 2002 where he was appointed as permanent researcher. In 2009, he was appointed as professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences where he teaches chemistry and thermodynamics to students in bachelor in engineering.
Within the Nanomaterial Catalysis Electrochemistry group, he is leading the Nanomaterials & Interfaces team which focuses on the design and production of nanostructured materials, on their characterization, and on their applications, especially in environmental catalysis and photocatalysis, in functionalized surface coatings and in microbatteries design.

Prof. Yulia Budnikova

Prof. Yulia Budnikova
A.E.Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry, Kazan, Russian Federation
Title: "Metal Complexes Immobilized on Silica Nanoparticles in Catalytic Redox Transformations"
Yulia H. Budnikova is a Doctor of Chemical Sciences (Habilitation), Head of Electrochemical Synthesis Laboratory of Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry, RAS, Kazan, Russia. She received PhD in Chemistry at Kazan State University, 1990. In 1997-1998, she worked in CNRS, Laboratoire d’Electrochimie, Catalyse et Synthése Organique, Thiais, France. Budnikova’ Group has interests ranging from fundamental electrochemistry to making new electrochemical synthetic technologies of organoelemental compounds preparation and new devices (fuel cells) based on molecular catalysts (metal complexes, nickel pectates, redox active coordination polymers). Current work focuses on electrochemistry of nanoparticles and catalysts for aromatic C-H phosphonation, amination, fluoroalkylation, etc.

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