The conference on Catalyst Design Strategies for Photo- and Electrochemical Fuel Synthesis (ECAT25), will take place in Madrid the 10th and 11th of February 2025.
Electro-, Photo-, and Photoelectrocatalytic transformations are emerging as sustainable routes to useful chemicals and fuels. The topic covers a range of reactions, including hydrogen evolution, water oxidation, carbon dioxide reduction, nitrogen fixation and other small molecule conversions. The main core of these processes is the catalyst which can alter the performance. Therefore, design and synthesis strategies building on synthesis procedures, advanced characterization and understanding, and integration into functional devices, are key to advancing these technologies. Furthermore, electrode and cell design may affect the catalyst performance and it should be taken into consideration from the early stage of catalyst development
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Here you will find all the information you need to attend the conference:
Marta Liras is Senior Researcher in the IMDEA Energy Institute in the Photoactivated Processes Unit.. She got her PhD in 2003 at UCM by her works is solid state laser dyes based on BODIPY developed at IQOG-CSIC and ICTP-CSIC. During 2004 she enjoyed a postdoctoral fellowship, funded by Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (CM) at IQFR-CSIC. Next, she was awarded with a postdoctoral grant into the Juan de la Cierva Programme (2005-2007) at Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche. She was postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa (Canada) under the supervision of J. C. (Tito) Scaiano (2008-2009). She come back to ICTP-CSIC with a JAE-Doc award (2009-2012) and she continues her research within both ICTP-CSIC (2012-2013) and IQOG-CSIC (2013-2015). At the end of 2015 she enjoys IMDEA energy Institute to work in the Photoactive Processes Unit. The same year she was awarded with a Ramon y Cajal Grant (2015 call) being promoted to Senior Assistant Researcher. Since 2022 she is Senior Researcher at IMDEA Energy Institute. She leads the Specialized Photochemistry Group of Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry GRUFO-RSEQ. Nowadays, she is using her expertise, in special in the polymer science, to develop new technologies in the energy field such as the design of multifunctional hybrid photo(electro)catalyst as well as the design of energy storage systems. She is co-author of more than 85 peer review journals. Attending to Google Scholar she holds h-index of 32 and i10 of 63. She has participated in a large number of Project at regional, national and European level (ERC-CoG, ERC -PoC (2), FET-Proactive, CSA-flagship, supervisor of Marie Curie grand). Currently, she is PI of two national project. During her career she has supervised more than 8 post-doctoral researchers and co-directed 4 PhD Thesis (3 of them on going). Also, during last five year she has supervised 8 master thesis works as well as 11 FP students
Claudio Ampelli obtained his PhD from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Pisa (Italy) in 2005, with a thesis focused on the development of chemical reactors for highly reactive systems, with emphasis on industrial sensors. After completing his doctorate, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Messina (Italy), gaining extensive experience in chemical and industrial engineering, especially in the development of nano-engineered electrodes and in the design and optimisation of (photo)electrochemical devices.
In 2010, he assumed the position of Junior Researcher (RTD), in 2016 Senior Researcher (RTD-b), and in 2019 Associate Professor in the Academic Discipline 09/ICHI-02 (Chemical Plants and Technologies). In the same discipline, he obtained the national scientific qualification to Full Professor in 2022.
He is a member of the Academic Board of the Industrial and International Doctoral School in “Advanced catalytic processes for using renewable energy sources” at the University of Messina. He has supervised over 10 PhD theses, several master’s and bachelor’s theses, and postdoctoral students’ projects.
Currently, he is the Principal Investigator (PI) for the research unit of Messina of two European H2020 Projects and a national PRIN project. In recent years, he has been involved in more than 20 multidisciplinary research projects funded by MUR and European Commission, coordinating activities in many work packages. Among these, from 2017 to 2021, under the H2020 A-LEAF Project (ID: 732840) he led an experimental study for the realization of a high-efficiency (>10%) artificial leaf-type reactor for the production of green hydrogen and formic acid.
He has co-authored around 90 articles indexed in ISI/Scopus and 130 contributions to national and international conferences (with 30 oral communications and 3 invited keynote lectures). He serves as a reviewer for many international scientific journals (with more than 120 certified reviews on Web of Science), including Science, Nature Catalysis, Applied Catalysis B and Chemical Engineering Journal. Since 2022, he has joined the Editorial Board of Journal of Energy Chemistry (Elsevier, IF=14.0, Q1).
Recently, he was invited to prestigious universities and research institutions in Portugal, Spain, France and Switzerland as a Visiting Professor and/or a Researcher as part of Erasmus Plus and Research & Mobility projects. He was included in the world’s top 2% of Scientist List for the years 2020-2021-2022 according to the ranking compiled by Stanford University.
His current research interests focus on the development of new chemical processes and technologies based on photo-electrocatalytic systems for the sustainable production of energy, fuels, and products of high industrial interest. His studies range from the synthesis of nanostructured materials for the preparation of electrodes to the design and construction of unconventional (photo-)electrochemical devices, including industrial scale-up. Special attention is given to understanding the phenomena that influence the chemical kinetics determining process performance, such as light absorption, charge separation, diffusion and transport of species in solution and at interfaces, charge distribution on electrodes, and overpotential.
The processes of interest include: i) the water photo-electrolysis and photo-reforming of organic waste streams for the production of green hydrogen; ii) the (photo-)electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 into higher-value products (in liquid and gas phases); iii) the electrocatalytic synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and water at room temperature and atmospheric pressure as an alternative to the Haber-Bosch process; and iv) the synthesis of ammonia and methane through the combination of non-thermal plasma and catalysis.
Blanca Fonollosa
ECAT25 Manager
Neus Pons
Onsite Manager
The conference will take place at IMDEA Energy Institute in Madrid.
Venue address: Av. Ramón de La Sagra, 3, 28935 Móstoles, Madrid.
Phone: +34 917371120
José Alemán defended his Doctoral Thesis in 2006 in the field of asymmetric synthesis under the supervision of Prof. García Ruano. After completing a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Jørgensen (2006-2008) in the field of organocatalysis, he joined the Department of Organic Chemistry at UAM as a Ramón y Cajal researcher and was later promoted to Associate Professor and Full Professor in 2023. He has been awarded various research prizes, such as the Lilly Prize for the best doctoral student (2005), the award for the best Doctoral Thesis at UAM (2006), the Sigma-Aldrich Award for Young Researchers of the RSEQ (2013), the Lilly Young Researcher Award (2015), and the José Barluenga-RSEQ Medal (2022). His research focuses mainly on asymmetric catalysis and catalytic materials, and he is the author of 220 scientific publications. He has supervised 25 Doctoral Theses, more than 40 Bachelor's and Master's theses, and has secured 18 projects in various competitive calls. Since 2021, he has been the Director of the Advanced Institute of Chemical Sciences-Universidad Autonoma de Madrid; in 2022, he was appointed Deputy Director of the Department of Organic Chemistry, and since 2024, he is Vice President of the Organic Chemistry section of the Spanish Royal Chemistry Society.
Teresa Andreu is senior lecturer in the Department of Materials Science and Physical Chemistry and holds a degree in Chemistry (UB, 1999) and a PhD in Materials Science and Technology (UB, 2004). She has been part-time lecturer at the Dept. of Materials Science of University of Barcelona (2014-17) and Polytechnic University of Catalonia (2017-19). After a period in industry as researcher in MacDermid Inc, she has been deputy group leader at the Catalonia Energy Research Institute (2009-20), and is now a member of the consolidated Materials for Surface Engineering (MES) group, and the principal investigator of the Sustainable Electrochemical Processes group at the Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTC). Her research focuses on the use of green electricity for the sustainability of the chemical industry, with the development of materials and reactors for hydrogen production, carbon dioxide conversion and waste valorization using (photo)electrochemical or plasma-catalytic technologies. Throughout her career, she has participated in and led several national, European and industrial projects.
She has participated in the definition of the Catalan Hydrogen Roadmap for 2030-2050 and is currently an active member of the Catalan Hydrogen Network H2CAT (Home – Xarxa H2CAT) and of the Executive Committee of the Hub of Global Sustainability of the University of Barcelona. She has been member of EMIRI (the energy materials industrial research initiative), the Spanish Technological Platform of CO2, PTECO2 (CCU group), and is currently member of the Real Sociedad de Quimica-grupo Electroquimica, the International Society of Electrochemistry, European Materials Research Society and Societat Catalana de Química (SCT). From 2024, she is appointed as SCT representative in the Physical Chemistry division of the European Chemical Society (EUCHEMS).
She is professor of Materials for Energy at the Master of Renewable and Sustainable Energies. She has mentored several postdoc researchers, supervised more than 10 TFMs and 11 PhD thesis in renewable energy-related subjects. Among the graduate doctors, most of them continue their scientific or technological career. Now, 4 thesis are in progress at UB. T. Andreu has authored 4 patents and more than 100 scientific articles. Her h-index is 49 (Scopus, march 2026).
Marco Favaro is the deputy head of the Institute for Solar Fuels at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB), Germany. After his PhD at the University of Padua (Italy) and Technical University of Munich (Germany), concluded in 2014, he spent two years as a Post-doctoral fellow at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis in Berkeley, USA, in the group of Dr. Junko Yano. He moved to Germany in 2017 to join the HZB. Here, his research activity focuses on understanding chemical composition/electronic-structural properties/performance interplay in photoelectrocatalysts by coupling operando multimodal spectroelectrochemical investigations with synchrotron-based in situ/operando spectroscopies.
Fernando Fresno (MSc Chemistry 2001, PhD Chemistry 2006, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) is a Tenured Scientist at the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry (ICP) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) since 2021. He has previously worked as a Senior Assistant Researcher at IMDEA Energy; as a Research Associate and Assistant Professor at the University of Nova Gorica; and as a postdoctoral researcher at ICP-CSIC and CIEMAT. He has spent research stays at IRCELYON and ICPEES institutes (CNRS, France) and the Universities of Aberdeen (United Kingdom) and Niigata (Japan). His scientific career has focused on developing materials for the efficient use of sunlight for environmental and energy purposes, mainly through photocatalytic and thermochemical processes. His >80 publications have received over 4000 citations, with an H index of 32. He is inventor of three patents in the field of photoactive materials. He is Associate Editor of J. Photochem. Photobiol. A: Chem.
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 micro and nanostructured materials for different applications spanning from structural components to optoelectronic devices. 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 where he focused on the development of non-destructive and in-situ characterization techniques of the sintering behavior of metallic porous materials. In January 2008, he joined the Group of Photovoltaic and Optoelectronic Devices of 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 electrical impedance spectroscopy. He has co-authored more than 80 scientific papers in international journals and has received more than 5000 citations. His current h-index is 31.
Seb obtained his PhD from The University of Manchester developing catalytic systems and their application in the synthesis of organic field-effect transistors in particular polytrarylamines. He moved to the University of Liverpool to pursue postdoctoral work in the area of conjugated microporous polymers initially working on solution processible materials. He then focused on using the extended conjugation of these materials by studying their ability to act as photocatalysts for water splitting. He was promoted to a Research Lead position within the same group leading a team that worked on solar water splitting using a range of organic photocatalysts. He joined the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde in June 2020 as an independent researcher with the goal of developing scalable systems for environmental applications initially particularly focusing on solar fuels generation and pathogen inactivation.
Francesco Tavella