Our speakers

Professor Alex Jen obtained his Ph. D. degree from the Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania in 1984. He is currently the Boeing-Johnson Chair Professor and Department Chair of the Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is also serving as the Chief Scientist of the Clean Energy Institute established by the governor of the Washington State. Dr. Jen’s research interest is focused on utilizing molecular, polymeric and biomacromolecular self-assembly to create ordered arrangement of organic and inorganic functional materials for photonics, opto-electronics, nanomedicine, and nanotechnology. He has co-authored more than 500 publications, given over 400 invited presentations, and has more than 20,000 citations and a H-index of 72. He is also a co-inventor for more than 50 patents and invention disclosures. For his pioneering contributions in organic photonics and electronics, he was elected as Fellow by several professional societies including the MRS Fellow of the Materials Research Society, ACS Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the AAAS Fellow by American Association of the Advancement of Science, the OSA Fellow of Optical Society of America, SPIE Fellow of the International Society of Optical Engineering, and PMSE Fellow of the American Chemical Society’s Polymeric Materials Science & Engineering Division. He was also elected as an Academician of the Washington State Academy of Sciences.

Tsutomu (Tom) Miyasaka received his Doctor of Engineering from The University of Tokyo in 1981. He joined Fuji Photo Film, Co., conducting R&Ds on high sensitivity photographic materials, lithium-ion secondary batteries, and design of an artificial photoreceptor, all of which relate to electrochemistry and photochemistry. In 2001, he moved to Toin University of Yokohama (TUY), Japan, as professor in Graduate School of Engineering to continue photoelectrochemistry. In 2006 to 2009 he was the dean of the Graduate School. In 2004 he has established a TUY-based company, Peccell Technologies, serving as CEO. In 2005 to 2010 he served as a guest professor at The University of Tokyo.

His research has been focused to light to electric energy conversion involving photochemical processes by enhancing rectified charge transfer at photo-functional interfaces of semiconductor electrodes. He has contributed to the design of low-temperature solution-printing process for fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells and solid-state hybrid photovoltaic (PV) cells. Since the discovery of the organic inorganic hybrid perovskite as PV material in 2006 and fabrication of high efficiency PV device in 2012, his research has moved to R&Ds of the lead halide perovskite PV device. He has promoted the research field of perovskite photovoltaics by organizing international conferences and by publishing many papers on enhancement of PV efficiency and durability, overall citation number of which is reaching more than 5,000 times. In 2009 he was awarded a Ministry of Science & Education prize on his achievements of green sustainable solar cell technology. In 2017 he received Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award. He is presently directing national research projects funded by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Nam-Gyu Park is professor and SKKU-Fellow at School of Chemical Engineering and adjunct professor at Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University. He got Ph.D. in Inorganic Solid State Chemistry from Seoul National University in 1995. He worked at ICMCB-CNRS, France, from 1996 to 1997 and at National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA, from 1997 to 1999 as postdoctoral researchers. He worked as Director of Solar Cell Research Center at Korea Institute of Science and Technology from 2005 to 2009 and as a principal scientist at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute from 2000 to 2005 before joining Sungkyunkwan University in 2009. He has been doing researches on high efficiency mesoscopic solar cells including perovskite solar cell and dye-sensitized solar cell since 1997. He is pioneer in solid state perovskite solar cell, which was first developed in 2012. He received awards, including Scientist Award of the Month (MEST, Korea), KyungHyang Electricity and Energy Award (KEPCO, Korea), KIST Award of the Year (KIST, Korea) and Dupont Science and Technology Award (Dupont Korea), SKKU fellowship, and MRS Outstanding Research Award (MRS, Boston) and WCPEC Paper Award (Kyoto, Japan). He published over 230 scientific papers, including Science, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Energy and Nature Communications, 80 patent applications and 8 book chapters. He received H-index of 67 as of May, 2017.

Atsushi Wakamiya received his Ph.D. degree from Kyoto University in 2003. He began his academic carreer at Nagoya University as an assistant professor in 2003. In 2010, he moved to Kyoto University as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2018. He received several awards: The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work (2020), Commendation for Science and Technology by MEXT Japan: Award for Science and Technology Research Category (2022), etc. He is a project leader of the Green Innovation Program (NEDO) and JST-Mirai Program. He is a co-founder and a director (as Chief Scientific Officer, CSO) of “EneCoat Technologies, Co. Ltd.”, a startup company for perovskite solar modules. His research interests include physical organic chemistry, elemental chemistry and materials chemistry.

Dr. Annalisa Bruno is an Associate Professor  Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N), coordinating a team working on perovskite solar cells and modules by thermal evaporation. Annalisa is also a tenured Scientist at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA). Previously, Annalisa was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London. Annalisa received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. Degrees in Physics from the University of Naples Federico II. Her research interests include perovskite light-harvesting and charge generation properties and their implementation in solar cells and optoelectronic devices.

The author was graduated from Osaka University in 1978 and received Ph.D from Osaka University in 1983. He joined R&D Center in Toshiba from 1978 to 2000, during which the author was engaged in development of ULSI lithography, solar cells direct methanol fuel cells, and polysilane. He joined polysilane research in Robert West group of Wisconsin University (US) from 1988 to 1990. He was a professor of Kyushu Institute of Technology (National Institute) since 2001. From 2019, the author is a professor in The University of Electro-Communications in Japan. His research interest is printable solar cells.

Seigo Ito received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo (Japan), with a thesis that was the first to discuss Graetzel-type dye-sensitized solar cells in Japan. He worked in the Laboratory of Professor Shozo Yanagida (Osaka University, Japan) for two years, and in the Laboratory of Professor Michael Graetzel, at the Swiss federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne as a postdoctoral scientist for over three years, where his efforts focused on the progress of high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells. He is currently professor at University of Hyogo, making new printable cost-effective solar cells.

Hideo Ohkita is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Science and Engineering at Kyoto University, which was established in 2026 by integrating six departments: Department of Material Chemistry, Department of Energy and Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Department of Molecular Engineering, Department of Polymer Chemistry, Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, and Department of Chemical Engineering.  He obtained his doctoral degree in 1997 from Kyoto University.  He became an Assistant Professor in 1997, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006, and became a Professor in the Department of Polymer Chemistry at Kyoto University in 2016.  He concurrently worked as an academic visitor with Professor Durrant at Imperial College London from 2005 to 2006, and as a researcher in the Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO) program “Photoenergy conversion systems and materials for the next generation solar cells” of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) from 2009 to 2015.  His research interests include studying photophysics and photochemistry in polymer systems.  His current research focuses on a spectroscopic approach to polymer-related photoconversion systems.

Akinori Saeki received BS and MS degrees in nuclear engineering from Osaka University in 1999 and 2001, respectively. He received Dr of engineering in applied chemistry from Osaka University in 2007. He had been an assistant professor at The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (ISIR), Osaka University in 2003-2009, an assistant professor (tenure-track) in 2010-2014, and an associate professor in 2014-2019 at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. He had joined in JST-PRESTO research programs of "Photoenergy conversion systems and materials for the next generation solar cells" in 2009-2013 and "Materials Informatics" in 2015-2019. He is currently a professor at Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University (2019-present). His research interest is in nanometer-scale dynamics of chemical intermediates in condensed matters such as organic semiconductors, organic liquids, and organic-inorganic hybrid materials.

Angus Hin-Lap Yip earned his BSc and MPhil in Materials Science from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and a PhD from the University of Washington. He was a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices at South China University of Technology (SCUT) from 2013 to 2020. Since 2021, he has been a professor at the City University of Hong Kong's Department of Materials Science and Engineering and School of Energy and Environment, and since 2022, the Associate Director of the Hong Kong Institute for Clean Energy (HKICE). His recognitions include being a Young Member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (2022) and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering (2024), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2023), a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (2024), and an Optica Fellow (2025). He was the winner of the International Union of Materials Research Societies Award and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Award (2023). He was appointed as an RGC Senior Research Fellow in 2025. His research focuses on advanced optoelectronic materials, especially in solar and LED technologies. Dr. Yip has published over 300 articles in leading journals, garnering more than 50,000 citations with an H-index greater than 110. He has been a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher from 2014 to 2025.

Prof. Satoshi Uchida is a professor (born in 1965) in Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo.  He received his PhD from Tohoku University in 1995 and moved to current position in 2006.  For more than 15 years his research focused on the field of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), specifically cell assembling technique such as full-plastic, light-weight, film type as a ubiquitous power source.  He is now also showing strong activity of Perovskite Solar Cells research based on the crystallography, surface engineering and electronic simulation.