Symposia Organizers

Virgil Andrei is a Nanyang Assistant Professor (NAP) in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at NTU Singapore. His research revolves around the integration of renewable energy technologies (photoelectrocatalysis, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics) for effective solar-to-chemical synthesis. His work places a strong focus on rational material, catalyst and device design, introducing modern fabrication techniques towards low-cost, large-scale solar fuel applications.

Virgil was born in Bucharest, Romania. He obtained his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in chemistry from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he studied thermoelectric polymer pastes and films in the group of Prof. Klaus Rademann (2014–2016). He then pursued a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Cambridge (2016–2020), where he developed perovskite-based artificial leaves in the group of Prof. Erwin Reisner, working closely with the optoelectronics group of Prof. Richard Friend at the Cavendish Laboratory. During his Title A Research Fellowship at St. John’s College, Cambridge (2020-2025), he introduced unconventional concepts including floating thin-film devices for water splitting and carbon dioxide reduction, pixelated devices for long term hydrogen production, or integrated thermoelectric modules for solar waste heat harvesting. As a visiting Winton Fellow in the group of Prof. Peidong Yang at the University of California, Berkeley (2022), he expanded the reaction scope of these systems further to value-added hydrocarbons and organic oxidation products.

I am an energetic, creative, female scientist with a solid expertise in Material Science and Technology.  I have successfully implemented an engineering approach to guide the development of functional nanohybrids through general and simple routes. Throughout my work, I have introduced important mechanisms on the cooperative coupling of dissimilar materials in single structures, which represents a fundamental knowledge for the creation of a new-generation of nano and macro hybrid materials. 

Dr. Baek received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2011 from KAIST, Korea, and Ph.D. in EEWS graduate school in 2017 from KAIST, Korea. Dr. Baek worked as a postdoctoral researcher at University of Toronto, ECS from 2017-2020. He started a new position as an Assistant Professor since March. 2020 from Korea University.  Baek group focuses on semiconducting nanomaterials, colloidal quantum dot (CQD) including synthesis, surface modification, and device fabrication. Especially, they are studying on infrared CQD materials, which can be utilized in various fields, such as autonomous driving, virtual reality, quantum communication, bio-imaging. Recently, they developed a non-toxic infrared CQD and thereby demonstrating the efficient photodetector, solar cells, LED and bio-sensor. The group has representative publications in Nat. Energy, Adv. Mater, Nat. Commun., Adv. Energy Mater., Chem. Eng. J, etc. in recent five years

Francesca Borghi is a tenure track assistant professor at the Physics Department of the University of Milano. She graduated in Physics from the University of Milano in 2011 and she received her PhD in Physics, Astrophysics and Applied Physics in 2015. Her research focuses on structural and functional properties of cluster-assembled nanostructured materials, and the development of neuromorphic computing systems and soft electronic devices. She’s currently coordinating multidisciplinary laboratories for the advanced characterization of neuromorphic systems at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (CIMaINa) at the Physics Department (UniMi). She’s co-founder of GRUCIO, a start-up initiative aiming at the development of unconventional data processing devices.

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.

Dr Stefania Cacovich is currently a CNRS researcher working at IPVF. Her research activity lies in the field of the advanced characterization of hybrid and inorganic materials for photovoltaic applications by employing a multi-scale and multi-technique approach. 

Her research into hybrid devices started during her doctoral studies (2014-2018), carried out at the Department of Materials Science of the University of Cambridge (UK) under the supervision of Prof Caterina Ducati.  Her thesis focused on the study of the chemical, structural and morphological properties of hybrid organic-inorganic thin films and photovoltaic devices using advanced analytical electron microscopy techniques. In 2018, she moved to Paris for a postdoctoral research position at IPVF to work on multidimensional spectrally and time resolved photoluminescence imaging methods. From 2020-2022, she was Marie Curie Individual Post-doctoral fellow in Physics at CNRS (UMR 9006) with a project aimed at exploring the fundamental photophysical processes underlying the operation of advanced optoelectronic devices.

Mariano Campoy Quiles´s research is devoted to the understanding and development of solution processed semiconductors for energy and optoelectronic applications. He and his team have built substantial research efforts in two application areas, solar photovoltaic (light to electric) and thermoelectric (heat to electric) energy conversion based on organic and hybrid materials. He studied physics at the Univesity of Santiago de Compostela, obtained his PhD in experimental physics from Imperial College London, and since 2008 he leads his team at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona.

Prof. Jung-Yao Chen received her Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University under the supervision of Prof. Wen-Chang Chen in 2016. She joined Prof. Alex Jen's research team at University of Washington in 2015. Currently, she is the Associate Professor in Dept. of Photonics of National Cheng Kung University. Her research interests are the process design, morphology analysis and optoelectronic applications of photoactive material including conjugated polymer, phosphorescent material and perovskite. Recently, Prof. Jung-Yao Chen's research activity is focused on the developement of non-volatile photomemory on artificial synapses and photonic integrated circuits. The main objective is to explore the mechanisms behind the photo-recording functionality and develope ultrafast responsive photomemory with multi-level memory behavior.

Zhuoying Chen is a CNRS researcher (Chargé de recherche) working in the Laboratoire de Physique et d’Etude des Matériaux (LPEM, CNRS-UMR 8213) at ESPCI Paris, a unit of Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) University in France. She received her Ph.D at Columbia University in the city of New York. After being a postdoc researcher in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, she joined CNRS in 2010. Her main research field is on optoelectronic devices (e.g. solar cells and photodetectors) based on colloidal and organic–inorganic hybrid nanomaterials synthesized from bottom-up approaches.

Vida Engmann obtained her Dr. rer. nat in 2014 from the Ilmenau University of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gobsch. In 2014 she joined the OPV group at Mads Clausen Institute of University of Southern Denmark as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2017 she was appointed assistant professor and in 2020 as associate professor, with the focus on degradation and additive-assisted stabilization of organic solar cells. Her international research stays include Uppsala University, University of Colorado Boulder / NREL, and Russian Academy of Sciences Chernogolovka.  In 2019 she received the Danish UNESCO-L'Oréal For Women in Science award and in 2020 the UNESCO L'Oréal International Rising Talent award. 

Dr. Fellinger is Head of the Division 3.6 Electrochemical Energy Materials at the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). He is a nanostructure and molecular scientist by training (diploma at University of Kassel, DE), who received his PhD in colloid chemistry (with summa cum laude) at the University of Potsdam/DE under the direct supervision of Prof. Markus Antonietti in 2011. After a short postdoctoral stays at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Prof. Ichiro Yamanaka) he was a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm (2012-2017). In 2016/17 he was an awarded Researcher-in-Residence at Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg (Prof. Anders Palmqvist), followed by one term as W2-substitute professor for inorganic chemistry at the University of Applied Science Zittau/Görlitz. Afterwards until 2020 he joined Prof. Hubert Gasteiger´s Chair for Technical Electrochemistry (Technical University Munich) with a fuel cell project. In 2020 Dr. Fellinger´s group joined the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin. Dr. Fellinger received the Donald-Ulrich Award 2017 of the International Sol-Gel Society and the Ernst-Haage Award for Chemistry of the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion. His research interests are the synthetic chemistry of novel materials and their usage in energy-related applications with a focus on different carbon-based materials like nitrogen-doped carbons, M-N-C catalysts or hard carbon anodes. He has published ~60 articles in peer-reviewed journals (>6000 citations, H-index: 41).

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. 

Prof. Z. Hens received his PhD in applied physics from Ghent University in 2000, worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Utrecht University and was appointed professor at the Ghent University department of inorganic and physical chemistry in 2002. His research concerns the synthesis, processing and characterization of colloidal nanocrystals.

Zacharie Jehl is a French scientist specializing in semiconductors, solid-state physics, photovoltaics, and optoelectronics. He holds a PhD in Physics from Paris-Saclay University and has extensive international experience, having worked in France, Japan, and Spain. Currently, he is a tenure-track professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), where he leads research on photovoltaic materials, low-dimensional semiconductors, and artificial synapses for neuromorphic computing. He has authored over 85 peer-reviewed publications, holds several patents, and has received prestigious grants, including the Ramon y Cajal and Marie Curie fellowships. Dr. Jehl is also the coordinator of the SOLIS European Project and actively collaborates with international research institutions.

Pascal is an early-career researcher in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, UK. He holds an EPSRC postdoctoral and David Clarke fellowship, which allows him to conduct his own research independently. Pascal currently investigates All-Small-Molecule Organic Solar Cells, processed from solution or in vacuum. He applies a range of optoelectronic and microstructural characterization techniques to understand and improve organic photovoltaics.

Safakath Karuthedath is an Assistant Professor at Tsinghua University Shenzhen International Graduate School, where he leads the Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Device Physics (USDP) Laboratory. His research focuses on fundamental photophysical phenomena in organic, hybrid, and emerging photovoltaic materials, with the goal of advancing solar-energy conversion efficiencies. He has extensive expertise in ultrafast spectroscopy, charge-carrier dynamics, and structure–property relationships in functional materials. At Tsinghua, he supervises a multidisciplinary team of doctoral, master’s, and postdoctoral researchers, working at the interface of spectroscopy, device physics, and materials science.

Maksym Kovalenko has been a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich since July 2011 and Associate professor from January 2017. His group is also partially hosted by EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) to support his highly interdisciplinary research program. He completed graduate studies at Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria, 2004-2007, with Prof. Wolfgang Heiss), followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago (USA, 2008-2011, with Prof. Dmitri Talapin). His present scientific focus is on the development of new synthesis methods for inorganic nanomaterials, their surface chemistry engineering, and assembly into macroscopically large solids. His ultimate, practical goal is to provide novel inorganic materials for optoelectronics, rechargeable Li-ion batteries, post-Li-battery materials, and catalysis. He is the recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant 2018, ERC Starting Grant 2012, Ruzicka Preis 2013 and Werner Prize 2016. He is also a Highly Cited Researcher 2018 (by Clarivate Analytics).

Zhanzhao LI received his PhD in Chemistry from Kyoto University (Japan) in 2022. He continued his postdoctoral research at Kyoto University and then moved to Italian Institute of Technology in Genova (IIT, Italy). He is currently an MSCA researcher in the NanoChemistry group at IIT, focusing on controlled nanocrystal synthesis, nanochemistry and properties.

Dr Luis Lanzetta is a Postdoctoral Fellow at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, KSA). He obtained his PhD in Chemistry at Imperial College London (UK) in 2020, where he focused on developing eco-friendly, tin-based perovskites for photovoltaic and light-emitting applications. His research focuses on next-generation materials for energy harvesting. Specifically, his expertise lies in the chemical degradation and stabilisation mechanisms of halide perovskite solar cells, aiming to provide design rules towards more efficient and stable technologies. He is additionally interested in molecular doping approaches for narrow-bandgap perovskites, as well as the spectroscopic and surface characterisation of this class of materials.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OcCV1VUAAAAJ&hl=es

Lorenzo obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2003 and since 2008 is Assistant Professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Pavia. In 2021 he was appointed Full Professor in the same department. He was the recipient of the Young Scientist Award for outstanding work in the field of perovskites at the International Conference on Perovskites held in late 2005 in Zürich, of the “Alfredo di Braccio” Prize for Chemistry 2008 of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awarded to distinguished under 35-year-old chemists and contributed the Journal Materials Chemistry and Chemical Communications“Emerging Investigator” issues in 2010 and 2011. He is working in several areas of solid state chemistry with particular interest in the investigation of structure–properties correlation in different kinds of functional materials, in particular electrolyte materials for clean energy, hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites and catalysis materials.  He is author of more than 200 papers on international peer-reviewed journals. Since 2018 he is member of Academic Senate and Vice-Director of the Chemistry Department. He is Director of the INSTM Reference Center “PREMIO” devoted to the synthesis of innovative materials and member of the Directive Board of INSTM. Since 2014 he is member of the Academic Board of the PhD in Chemistry of Pavia University. He is Editor of Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids.

Juan P. Martínez-Pastor, Full Prof. at the University of Valencia. PhD in Physics, 1990. Three years of postdoctoral experience at the European Laboratory of Non-Linear Spectroscopy (Florence, Italy) and at the École Normale Supérieure (Paris, France). Prof. Martínez-Pastor is expert in Semiconductor Physics, particularly optical properties and exciton recombination dynamics in quantum wells, wires and dots based on III-V semiconductors and other compounds since 1990. This research line continues nowadays focused on quantum light produced by quantum dot semiconductors and its management for quantum communications. After 2006 he has leaded/co-leaded several research lines in nanoscience and nanotechnology regarding the development of several types of nanomaterials (metal and quantum dots, multi-functional nanocomposites) and applications to photonics and plasmonics. In the last three years, he focuses his research in optical properties, exciton recombination dynamics and applications in photonics of two-dimensional semiconductors and metal halide perovskites. He has supervised 16 PhD theses and is author/co-author of 220 peer-reviewed publications, other than seven patents and promotor of a spin-off company.

Iván Mora-Seró (1974, M. Sc. Physics 1997, Ph. D. Physics 2004) is researcher at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain). His research during the Ph.D. at Universitat de València (Spain) was centered in the crystal growth of semiconductors II-VI with narrow gap. On February 2002 he joined the University Jaume I. From this date until nowadays his research work has been developed in: electronic transport in nanostructured devices, photovoltaics, photocatalysis, making both experimental and theoretical work. Currently he is associate professor at University Jaume I and he is Principal Researcher (Research Division F4) of the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM). Recent research activity was focused on new concepts for photovoltaic conversion and light emission based on nanoscaled devices and semiconductor materials following two mean lines: quantum dot solar cells with especial attention to sensitized devices and lead halide perovskite solar cells and LEDs, been this last line probably the current hottest topic in the development of new solar cells.

Pablo P. Boix, Ph.D. in Nanoscience, is a Research Scientist at Instituto de Tecnologia Química (CSIC). He led a pioneer perovskite research team at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2012-2016) with relevant contributions to materials and devices’ development (such as the first use of formamidinium cation in perovskite solar cells). His track record has more than 100 publications, which resulted in his selection as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2020 (Cross-Field) by Clarivate Web of Science, with an h index of 57. Dr. Boix is the co-inventor of 3 patents in the field of perovskite optoelectronics. Prior to his current position, he worked as a research group leader in a perovskite solar cell company (Dyesol Ltd, Switzerland), focusing on product R&D, and at Universitat de València. Currently, he is the PI of 2 research projects and the coPI of 3, including regional, national, and European funding.

assistant professor, materials science engineering department, mechanical engineering faculty, TU Delft, NL

Oleksandr Savateev was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in chemistry from the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” and the PhD degree in organic chemistry from the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. In 2015, he joined the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2017, at the same institute, he started his group “Innovative Heterogeneous Photocatalysis”. During this period of his carrier, he received several national German and European grants. In 2023, he took the position of the Vice-Chancellor Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a member of consortia of researchers that work on solving applied and fundamental problems by means of solar light and photocatalysis. His current research interests include organic synthesis mediated by heterogeneous photocatalysts, application of photocharged semiconductors in organic synthesis and data-driven research. He is an editor and author of several books, including “Carbon nitrides. Structure, properties and applications in science and technology”, and author of more than 100 research articles. In 2024, he completed his Habilitation in Organic Chemistry at the University of Potsdam, Germany. As an educator, he is interested in gamification of teaching and studying. He is a creator of ChemChallenge – the first video game for teaching and studying physical chemistry.

Alberto D. Scaccabarozzi is currently an Assistant Professor (Tenure Track Researcher – RTT) at the Department of Physics at Politecnico di Milano (Italy). He received his PhD from Imperial College London (UK) in 2017, where he worked under the supervision of Prof. Natalie Stingelin.

Following his doctoral studies, he held postdoctoral appointments at the Center for Nanoscience and Technology (CNST) of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Milan (Italy) in Dr. Mario Caironi’s group, and at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, in Prof. Thomas D. Anthopoulos' group.

Currently, his research interests encompass the broad field of organic electronics, with a focus on understanding structure-processing-property relationships of organic semiconductors for a wide range of devices. More recently, he has been expanding his research into bioelectronics, exploring the interface between organic semiconductors and living cells. This includes studying the electronic properties of electrically active bacteria and their potential integration into optoelectronic devices, bridging the gap between organic electronics and biological systems.

Ji-Youn Seo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nanoenergy Engineering at Pusan National University, Korea. She earned her BSc and MSc degrees from Ajou University in 2009 and 2011, respectively, and her PhD in Materials Science from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, under the mentorship of Professor Michael Grätzel. Her doctoral research focused on advancing dye-sensitized solar cells, contributing to innovations in renewable energy technologies. Following her academic training, Dr. Seo gained valuable industry experience at Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) in Korea, where she worked on bio-plastics and fuel cell technologies, and at H.GLASS in Switzerland, where she contributed to the development of organic photovoltaics (OPV) and dye-sensitized solar cells. Currently, Dr. Seo’s research centers on high-efficiency and stable perovskite solar cells, with a particular focus on large-area module fabrication. She is also actively involved in education, serving as the Associate director of Korea’s innovative open shared university and early-employment contract graduate school programs in the field of energy and semiconductor industries, fostering international collaboration and mentoring the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Ifan is a Professor in Electrochemistry at the Department of Materials at Imperial College: he leads the Interfacial Electrochemistry Group there and is also Atoms to Devices Research Area Lead at the Henry Royce Institute.

Ifan joined Imperial College in July 2017. Prior to Imperial, he was at the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU); he was first employed as a postdoctoral researcher, then  as assistant professor and finally as associate professor and leader of the Electrocatalysis Group there. In 2015, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) appointed Ifan as the Peabody Visiting Associate Professor. He taught and conducted research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT for a whole semester.

Ifan’s research aims to enable the large-scale electrochemical conversion of renewable energy to fuels and valuable chemicals and vice versa. Such processes will be critical in order to allow the increased uptake of renewable energy. His focus is on the catalyst at the electrode, i.e. the electrocatalyst. It turns out that the electrocatalyst material defines the efficiency of several important electrochemical processes, including:(i) electrolysis for the storage of renewable electricity — which is inherently intermittent — in the form of fuels, such as hydrogen or alcohols.(ii) fuel cells as a potentially zero emission source of power for automotive vehicles. (iii) the green synthesis of valuable chemicals, such as ammonia and H2O2. (iv) batteries, which tend to degrade by gas evolution at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Hence the reactions that need to be accelerated in electrolysers and fuel cells — such as CO2, CO, O2 and H2 evolution — are precisely those that need to be inhibited in batteries.

Ifan has discovered or co-discovered several new catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction, which exhibited significant improvements in performance over the prior state-of-the-art. In particular, his research on hydrogen peroxide production led to the establishment of the spinout company, HP Now.

Ifan is the recipient of RSC's Geoffrey Barker Medal (2024), the RSC's John Jeyes Award (2021). He also currently holds an European Resarch Council Consolidator Grant (2021-2025). Since 2022, he has been a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.

Verena Streibel studied Materials Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt (2007-2013). She completed her doctoral studies at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, focusing on in situ X-ray spectroscopy during electrochemical water splitting (2016). For her postdoctoral studies, she joined the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis at Stanford University (2018-2020), specializing in density functional theory-based microkinetic modeling of heterogeneous catalysis. In 2021, she joined the Walter Schottky Institute of the technical University of Munich, where she has been leading a BMBF Junior Research Group on artificial photosynthesis since 2024.

Verena's research focuses on surface and interface investigations to elucidate dynamic material changes during (photo)electrochemical processes for energy conversion. To this end, she combines (X-ray) spectroscopy methods under reaction conditions with theoretical modeling. With her research group, she develops thin-film photoelectrode materials and couples them to catalyst systems for solar fuels synthesis.

Jingwen Weng | LinkedIn

‪Jingwen Weng‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬

Dr Anthony Chun Yin Yuen acquired his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney in 2015. He is a newly appointed Associate Professor (Presidential Young Scholar) at the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPolyU) in 2023.

Dr Yuen's research focuses on the development of advanced fire retardant materials with the aid of atomistic modelling techniques to characterise the in-depth flame retardant mechanisms such as charring, radical scavenging and vapourisation. Additionally, he focuses on the development of fire models to describe the flaming and degradation processes, charring and self-extinction behaviours of advanced materials, aiming to improve the fire resilience of building and construction and energy storage systems.

Dr Yuen is recognised as Top 2% Scientist Worldwide in consecutive years 2023 & 2024 by Stanford University and Elsevier Data Repository and published 5 highly cited papers. Dr Yuen has >150 SCI journals and 3 book chapters, with an H-index of 46 & >7,300 citations (Google Scholar). Also, he is an Editorial Board Member for SCI journals Nature Scientific Report & Discovery Applied Science and a Topical Advisory Panel Member for Polymers. Additionally, he is a coorporate member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) Fire Dicipline (Engineer Prefix title "Ir").

Matteo Zaffalon is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Materials Science of the University of Milano-Bicocca (IT), where he earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Nanotechnology in 2022. In 2020 he collaborated with the Nanotechnology & Advanced Spectroscopy group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (NM, USA) working on the spectroscopic investigation of solution grown functional nanostructures for application in photonic and optoelectronic devices. His research is now focused on the spectroscopic investigation and development of novel nanomaterials for the ultrafast detection and conversion of ionising radiation for energy and medical imaging applications.

Baowei Zhang completed his Ph.D. at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. He is currently an associate professor at Zhengzhou University, investigating the synthesis and assembly of semiconductor nanocluster/nanocrystals, and study their optical/mechanical properties.

Juliette Zito received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Genoa (Italy) in 2023. Her doctoral research was carried out at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) under the supervision of Ivan Infante and Liberato Manna, focusing on the development and application of computational tools for the atomistic description of semiconductor colloidal nanocrystals. She is currently an FWO Junior Postdoctoral fellow at the Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT) group of the University of Antwerp, where she combines molecular modeling techniques with quantitative electron microscopy to achieve atomistically precise 3D reconstructions of semiconductor nanocrystals. As part of the FWO fellowship, she also collaborates with the Center for Molecular Modelling (CMM) of the University of Ghent, focusing on the development of machine learning potentials (MLPs) for semiconductor nanocrystals.

After graduating in 2008, Clément Cabanetos completed a PhD at the CEISAM laboratory (Nantes, France), focusing on the synthesis of novel crosslinkable polymers for nonlinear optical applications. He then joined KAUST (Saudi Arabia) as a postdoctoral fellow, working on π-conjugated macromolecular materials for organic photovoltaics. In 2013, he was appointed as a permanent CNRS researcher at the MOLTECH-Anjou laboratory (Angers) to developed innovative concepts in organic electronics. He earned his habilitation to supervise research (HDR) in 2018 and was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2019 for his scientific achievements. In 2021, he joined the international joint lab 2BFUEL at Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea) to broaden his expertise and foster global collaborations, serving as Director from September 2022 to December 2023. In 2024, he returned to Angers as a CNRS Research Director and group leader (Kemtronix Research group). His current work focuses on the upcycling and design of novel π-conjugated materials for emerging applications including (antimicrobial) photodynamic therapy, green energy, optoelectronics, photocatalysis, and water remediation.

Gustavo de Miguel graduated in Chemistry in 2002 by the University of Cordoba, Spain. He completed his PhD Thesis in the Physical Chemistry Department of the same University in 2007 studying the molecular organization of thin films prepared at the air-water interface. After several post-doc positions in the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, University of Castilla-La Mancha and the Italian Institute of Technology, he moved back to the University of Cordoba with a Ramón y Cajal five-year tenure track position, becoming Associate Professor in 2020.   

Dr. de Miguel is a physical chemist with an expertise in absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy (steady-state and time-resolved) applied to elucidate the photophysics and photochemistry of organic compounds with application in photovoltaics. In the last years, he has added a good knowledge of structural characterization of hybrid materials (perovskites) through different X-ray diffraction techniques.

He participates in National and European projects focusing on how to enhance the stability of metal halide perovskite materials for photovoltaics (SUNREY, Ref:101084422). He has contributed with about 100 publications in international peer-reviewed journals.