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.

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.

Prof. Qing Shen received her Bachelor’s degree in physics from Nanjing University of China in 1987 and earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1995. In 1996, she joined the University of Electro-Communications, Japan and became a full professor in 2016. In 1997, she got the Young Scientist Award of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. In 2003, she got the Best Paper Award of the Japan Society of Thermophysical Properties and the Young Scientist Award of the Symposium on Ultrasonic Electronics of Japan. In 2014, she got the Excellent Women Scientist Award of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. Her current research focuses on three interconnected areas: (1) the synthesis, optical properties, and optoelectronic applications of nanocrystal quantum dots; (2) mechanistic investigations into photoexcited carrier dynamics—such as hot carrier relaxation, multiple exciton generation, interfacial charge transfer, and recombination—to improve the efficiency of quantum dot, perovskite, and organic solar cells, as well as light-emitting devices (LEDs); (3) interface engineering for enhancing the performance of photovoltaics and LEDs. Over the past five years, she has published more than 100 high-impact papers in leading journals such as Nature Energy, Chemical Society Reviews, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition, which have been cited over 10,000 times.

 

René Janssen is university professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He received his Ph.D. in 1987 from the TU/e for a thesis on electron spin resonance and quantum chemical calculations of organic radicals in single crystals. He was lecturer at the TU/e since 1984, and a senior lecturer in physical organic chemistry since 1991. In 1993 and 1994 he joined the group of Professor Alan J. Heeger (Nobel laureate in 2000) at the University of California Santa Barbara as associate researcher to work on the photophysical properties of conjugated polymers. Presently the research of his group focuses on functional conjugated molecules and macromolecules as well as hybrid semiconductor materials that may find application in advanced technological applications. The synthesis of new materials is combined with time-resolved optical spectroscopy, electrochemistry, morphological characterization and the preparation of prototype devices to accomplish these goals. René Janssen has co-authored more than 600 scientific papers. He is co-recipient of the René Descartes Prize from the European Commission for outstanding collaborative research, and received the Research Prize of The Royal Institute of Engineers and in The Netherlands for his work. In 2015 René Janssen was awarded with the Spinoza Prize of The Dutch Research Council.

 

Philip Schulz holds a position as Research Director for Physical Chemistry and New Concepts for Photovoltaics at CNRS. In this capacity he leads the “Interfaces and Hybrid Materials for Photovoltaics” group at IPVF via the “Make Our Planet Great Again” program, which was initiated by the French President Emmanuel Macron. Before that, Philip Schulz has been a postdoctoral researcher at NREL from 2014 to 2017, and in the Department of Electrical Engineering of Princeton University from 2012 to 2014. He received his Ph.D. in physics from RWTH Aachen University in Germany in 2012.

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.

Silvia Colella is a researcher at the National research council, CNR-NANOTEC, in Bari, Italy. She received her PhD in “Nanoscience” at National Nanotechnology Laboratory in Lecce (Italy), in 2010. She has been visiting student in the group of professor Luisa De Cola at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität of Münster (Germany), where she dealt with the synthesis and photophysical characterization of electroluminescent metal complexes. In 2010 she joined BASF – The Chemical Company (Strasbourg) with a Marie Curie fellowship as experienced researcher in the frame of the EU project ITN SUPERIOR, working on Dye Sensitized Solar Cells. She continued as post-doc researcher at the Institut de science et ingénierie supramoléculaires (ISIS) in Strasbourg, France. In 2012 she started her independent research in Lecce (Italy) at the University of Salento in collaboration with CNR-NANOTEC, the team focused on the conception and optoelectronic characterization of innovative optoelectronic devices based on hybrid halide perovskites. Many high impact publication were produced in this time interval, among them one of the first report in halide perovskite for PV exploitation (Colella et al, Chemistry of Materials, 2013 25, 4613-4618).

Silvia Colella is author of >70 peer-reviewed publications in renowned international journals (including Energy and Environmental Science, Advanced Materials, ACS Energy Letters).

Her scientific production led to >3000 total citations and a h-index of 28 (https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=S2TZd_4AAAAJ&hl=it; https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=24170650100).

Joseph M. Luther obtained B.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2001. At NCSU he began his research career under the direction of Salah Bedair, who was the first to fabricate a tandem junction solar cell. Luther worked on growth and characterization high-efficiency III-V materials including GaN and GaAsN. His interest in photovoltaics sent him to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to pursue graduate work. He obtained a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado while researching effects of defects in bulk semiconductors in NREL�s Measurements and Characterization Division. In 2005, He joined Art Nozik�s group at NREL and studied semiconductor nanocrystals for multiple exciton generation for which he was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics from Colorado School of Mines. As a postdoctoral fellow, he studied fundamental synthesis and novel properties of nanomaterials under the direction Paul Alivisatos at the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2009, he rejoined NREL as a senior research scientist. His research interests lie in the growth, electronic coupling and optical properties of colloidal nanocrystals and quantum dots.

Loreta Angela Muscarella was born in Palermo, Italy. In 2012, she moved to Rome where she started a bachelor in chemistry at Sapienza - University of Rome. During her Master’s studies, she spent seven months at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) under the supervision of Dr. René Williams to write her thesis on the effect of metallic ions in mixed-halide perovskites to improve the stability and optoelectronic properties. She received her MSc degree in inorganic and physical chemistry cum laude (with honors). In 2018, Loreta joined the group of Prof. Dr. Bruno Ehrler at AMOLF as a PhD student. Here, she investigated the relation between structure and optoelectronic properties of 3D and layered 2D lead-halide perovskites by monitoring the optoelectronic properties of mechanically compressed perovskites. In 2022, she joined the group of Dr. Eline Hutter (Utrecht University) as a postdoc to study photochemistry processes using lead-free perovskites. Since January 2024, she is assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam where her group will combine spectroscopy and compositional engineering of perovskite-based materials to investigate on the external stimuli response of the emerging perovskite-based materials. 

Petra Cameron is an associate professor in Chemistry at the University of Bath.

Saiful Islam is Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in London and obtained his Chemistry degree and PhD from University College London. He then worked at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, and the Universities of Surrey and Bath.

His current research focuses on understanding atomistic and nano-scale processes in perovskite halides for solar cells, and in new materials for lithium batteries. Saiful has received several awards including the 2022 Royal Society Hughes Medal and 2020 American Chemical Society Award in Energy Chemistry. He presented the 2016 BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the theme of energy and is a Patron of Humanists UK.

https://www.uniba.it/it/docenti/listorti-andrea

Dr. Jovana V. Milić obtained her PhD in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich in July 2017. Her research interests encompass (supra)molecular engineering of bioinspired organic materials with the aim of developing functional nanotechnologies. Since October 2017, she has worked as a scientist with Prof. Michael Graetzel in the Laboratory for Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL in Switzerland on the development of novel photovoltaic materials, with the focus on dye-sensitized and hybrid perovskite solar cells. In September 2020, she has taken on a position of a Group Leader in the Soft Matter Physics Group of the Adolphe Merkle Institute at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. For more information, refer to her LinkedIn profile (linkedin.com/in/jovanavmilic), ORCID 0000-0002-9965-3460, and Twitter (@jovana_v_milic).

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.

Kai Zhu is currently a senior scientist in the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He received his PhD degree in physics from Syracuse University in 2003. Before this position, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Basic Science Center at NREL, focusing on fundamental charge carrier conduction and recombination in photoelectrochemical cells, especially dye-sensitized solar cells. Dr. Zhu’s research on dye-sensitized solar cells involves the development of advanced electrode materials/architectures, basic understanding of charge transport and recombination processes in these electrodes, and thin-film solar cell development/characterization/modeling. His recent research has centered on both basic and applied research on perovskite solar cells, including perovskite material development, device fabrication and characterization, and basic understanding of charge carrier dynamics in these cells. In addition to solar conversion applications, his research interests have also included III-Nitride wide-bandgap semiconductors for high-power blue and UV light emitting diodes and ordered nanostructured electrodes for Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors.

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.

Laura Herz is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. She received her PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2002 and was a Research Fellow at St John's College Cambridge from 2001 - 2003 after which she moved to Oxford. Her research interests lie in the area of organic and organic/inorganic hybrid semiconductors including aspects such as self-assembly, nano-scale effects, energy-transfer and light-harvesting for solar energy conversion.

 

René Janssen is university professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He received his Ph.D. in 1987 from the TU/e for a thesis on electron spin resonance and quantum chemical calculations of organic radicals in single crystals. He was lecturer at the TU/e since 1984, and a senior lecturer in physical organic chemistry since 1991. In 1993 and 1994 he joined the group of Professor Alan J. Heeger (Nobel laureate in 2000) at the University of California Santa Barbara as associate researcher to work on the photophysical properties of conjugated polymers. Presently the research of his group focuses on functional conjugated molecules and macromolecules as well as hybrid semiconductor materials that may find application in advanced technological applications. The synthesis of new materials is combined with time-resolved optical spectroscopy, electrochemistry, morphological characterization and the preparation of prototype devices to accomplish these goals. René Janssen has co-authored more than 600 scientific papers. He is co-recipient of the René Descartes Prize from the European Commission for outstanding collaborative research, and received the Research Prize of The Royal Institute of Engineers and in The Netherlands for his work. In 2015 René Janssen was awarded with the Spinoza Prize of The Dutch Research Council.

 

Meng Li is a Professor and Ph.D. supervisor at Henan University, affiliated with the School of Nanoscience and Material Engineering / the Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials. He also serves as a Youth Editorial Board Member of Appl. Phys. Lett. and eScience.
He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Soochow University in 2018, under the mentorship of Prof. Liangsheng Liao and Prof. Zhaokui Wang. From 2018 to 2021, Meng conducted postdoctoral research at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) with Prof. Antonio Abate. During this period, he received the Sino-German Cooperation Program Scholarship (OCPC), collaborating with Academician Yongfang Li as his Chinese advisor, and from 2020 to 2021, he pursued exchange research at EPFL in Prof. Michael Grätzel's group.
Meng's research focuses on semiconductor photovoltaic and light-emitting devices, with particular expertise in perovskite photovoltaic technologies. His work explores large-area perovskite modules, device interface engineering, and crystal dynamics, contributing to advancements in sustainable energy solutions.
He has published over 80 papers in leading journals, such as Science, Nature, Nat. Rev. Mater., Nat. Commun., Adv. Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Energy Environ. Sci., and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., accumulating more than 8,000 citations and an h-index of 51 (Google Scholar). As a corresponding or first author, Meng has contributed over 40 papers, including Science (1), Nature (1), Nat. Rev. Mater. (1), Nat. Commun. (1), Adv. Mater. (10), J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1), Light Sci. Appl. (1), Energy Environ. Sci. (2), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (3), Sci. Bull. (1), Adv. Energy Mater. (9), Adv. Funct. Mater. (3), ACS Energy Lett. (2), Nano Energy (3), and Appl. Phys. Lett. (1).
His research has been supported by significant funding, including grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (General and Youth Programs), the Henan Province Science and Technology R&D Program Joint Fund, the Postdoctoral International Exchange Program Fund, and the Henan University Innovation Youth Team Fund.

Chieh-Ting Lin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. He received his PhD in Materials Science from Imperial College London in 2020, and subsequently carried out postdoctoral research at Imperial College London and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. His research focuses on the development of high-efficiency thin-film solar cells, particularly hybrid tin–lead perovskites, with an emphasis on interface engineering, stability enhancement, and scalable fabrication. His group integrates advanced spectroscopic and device-physics characterization techniques to advance renewable energy conversion technologies for sustainable applications.

Maria Antonietta Loi studied physics at the University of Cagliari in Italy where she received the PhD in 2001. In the same year she joined the Linz Institute for Organic Solar cells, of the University of Linz, Austria as a post doctoral fellow. Later she worked as researcher at the Institute for Nanostructured Materials of the Italian National Research Council in Bologna Italy. In 2006 she became assistant professor and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She is now full professor in the same institution and chair of the Photophysics and OptoElectronics group. She has published more than 130 peer review articles in photophysics and optoelectronics of nanomaterials. In 2012 she has received an ERC starting grant.

Prof. Qing Shen received her Bachelor’s degree in physics from Nanjing University of China in 1987 and earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1995. In 1996, she joined the University of Electro-Communications, Japan and became a full professor in 2016. In 1997, she got the Young Scientist Award of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. In 2003, she got the Best Paper Award of the Japan Society of Thermophysical Properties and the Young Scientist Award of the Symposium on Ultrasonic Electronics of Japan. In 2014, she got the Excellent Women Scientist Award of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. Her current research focuses on three interconnected areas: (1) the synthesis, optical properties, and optoelectronic applications of nanocrystal quantum dots; (2) mechanistic investigations into photoexcited carrier dynamics—such as hot carrier relaxation, multiple exciton generation, interfacial charge transfer, and recombination—to improve the efficiency of quantum dot, perovskite, and organic solar cells, as well as light-emitting devices (LEDs); (3) interface engineering for enhancing the performance of photovoltaics and LEDs. Over the past five years, she has published more than 100 high-impact papers in leading journals such as Nature Energy, Chemical Society Reviews, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition, which have been cited over 10,000 times.

Angus Hin-Lap Yip joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and the School of Energy and Environment (SEE) at the City University of Hong Kong as Professor in 2021. He has been the associate director of the Hong Kong Institute for Clean Energy (HKICE) since 2022. He was also elected as a member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. From 2013-2020, he was a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices (SKLLMD) at the South China University of Technology (SCUT). He got his BSc (2001) and MPhil (2003) degrees in Materials Science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and completed his PhD degree in MSE in 2008 at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. His research combines materials, interface, and device engineering to improve polymer and perovskite solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. He has published more than 270 scientific papers with citations over 36000 and an H-index of 99. He was also honoured as ESI“Highly Cited Researcher” in Materials Science 9 times from 2014-2022.

Philipp Pelz received Bachelor degrees in Physics (2011) and Informatics (2012), and Master degrees in Applied & Engineering Physics, Materials Science & Chemistry (2013). In 2018 he obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Hamburg & The Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Germany. Subsequently, he spent three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and the National Center for Electron Microscopy. Since August 2022 he is Tenure-Track Professor for Computational Materials Microscopy at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Maria Chamarro is Professor in Physics at Sorbonne University, France and member of the Paris Institute of Nanosciences (INSP). She received her PhD in Physics (Optics speciality) form Zaragoza University, Spain, in 1989. Since 2021 she is a member of the French Committee for Scientific Research (five years) a position that she already occupied in the previous years (1995-2000). From 2012 to 2014 she was member of ‘Directory of Research’ at Pierre and Marie Curie University (now Sorbonne University). Her area of expertise is the experimental study of condensed matter electronic properties. In particular, she was interested in the spectroscopy of glasses doped with transition metals or rare earths, and the optical properties and relaxation dynamics of electronic excitations in semiconductor nanostructures. She was co-head of the "Spin Dynamics" team at INSP where she worked in the optical orientation and the all-optical manipulation of electron spin confined in a semiconductor quantum dot. In this framework, she developped ultrafast optical spectroscopies based on the photo-induced Faraday and Kerr effects. Now she coordinates a research project centred on the study of perovskite nanocrystals for nanophotonics applications.

Dawei Di is a MIT Technology Review 'Innovator Under 35' (global, 2019) and 'Innovator Under 35, China' (2018). He has joined the College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University as a Principal Investigator. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK. Dawei Di obtained a PhD (in Engineering) from the University of New South Wales, Australia and a second PhD (in Physics) from the University of Cambridge, UK. His doctoral supervisors include renowned scientists in optoelectronics and semiconductor physics, Professor Sir Richard H. Friend (FRS, FREng, FIEE, FInstP, Kt) (Cavendish Professor of Physics), and Scientia Professor Martin A. Green (FRS, AM, FIEEE, FAA, FTSE). Dawei Di’s research interests span from the exciton spin dynamics in organic light-emitting molecules, to the physics of record-breaking organic and perovskite optoelectronic devices (LEDs and solar cells). He published more than 40 papers in leading scientific journals including Science, Nature Photonics (cover article), Joule, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, ACS Energy Letters, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters and Progress in Photovoltaics. These include 8 papers in Science/Nature/Cell family journals. He filed 4 international patents, wrote 1 book chapter, and translated 3 textbooks. His work has been featured in research news and highlights in high-profile journals such as Nature, Nature Materials and Nature Reviews Chemistry. 

Sascha is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Physical Chemistry and Head of the Laboratory for Energy Materials at EPFL (Switzerland), while he is also maintaining strong ties with the Harvard community and in particular Winthrop House which he regularly visits as NRT and SCR member.

His team employs light-matter interactions to understand the next generation of soft semiconductors with the overarching goal of maximizing energy efficiency for a sustainable future by unlocking applications ranging from flexible light-weight solar cells & displays all the way to entirely new applications in quantum information processing.

Previously, he was a research group leader and Rowland Fellow at Harvard University. Before starting his lab at Harvard, Sascha studied Chemistry at Heidelberg University (Germany) and completed a PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge (UK), where he subsequently worked as EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow.

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).

Dr. Tze-Chien Sum is an Associate Professor at the Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) where he leads the Femtosecond Dynamics Laboratory. He is presently the Associate Dean (Research) at the College of Science. Tze-Chien received his Ph.D. in Physics from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2005, for the work in proton beam writing and ion-beam spectroscopy. His present research focuses on investigating light matter interactions; energy and charge transfer mechanisms; and probing carrier and quasi-particle dynamics in a broad range of emergent nanoscale and light harvesting systems. Tze-Chien received a total of 11 teaching awards from NUS and NTU, including the coveted Nanyang Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2006 and the 2010 SPMS Teaching Excellence Honour Roll Award. Most recently, he received the 2013 SPMS Young Researcher Award; the Institute of Physics Singapore 2014 World Scientific Medal and Prize for Outstanding Physics Research; the 2014 Nanyang Award for Research Excellence (Team); and the 2015 Chemical Society of Japan Asian International Symposium Distinguished Lectureship Award. More information can be found at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/tzechien/spms/index.html

Alexander S. Urban studied Physics at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) obtaining an equivalent to an M.Sc. degree (German: Dipl. Phys.) at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) in 2006. During his studies he spent a year at Heriot Watt University (UK), where he obtained an M.Phys. in Optoelectronics and Lasers in 2005. He then joined the Photonics and Optoelectronics Chair of Jochen Feldmann at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich (Germany) in 2007 where he worked on the optothermal manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles, earning his Ph.D. summa cum laude in 2010. He expanded his expertise in the fields of plasmonics and nanophotonics in the group of Naomi J. Halas at the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University (Houston, TX, USA), beginning in 2011. He returned to the LMU in 2014 to become a junior group leader with Jochen Feldmann, where he led the research thrusts on optical spectroscopy, focusing on hybrid nanomaterials such as halide perovskite nanocrystals and carbon dots. In 2017 he was awarded a prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council and shortly after that in 2018 he received a call as a Full Professor of Physics (W2) at the LMU.  Here, he now leads his own research group working on nanospectroscopy in novel hybrid nanomaterials.

Dr. Yana Vaynzof is the Chair for Emerging Electronic Technologies at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany) and a Director at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden. She received a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Israel) in 2006 and a M. Sc. In Electrical Engineering from Princeton University (USA) in 2008. In 2011, she received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge (UK). Yana was a postdoctoral research associate at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (UK) and an assistant professor at Heidelberg University (Germany) from 2014 to 2019. Yana Vaynzof is the recipient of a number of fellowships and awards, including the ERC Starting Grant, ERC Consolidator Grant, Gordon Wu Fellowship, Henry Kressel Fellowship, Fulbright-Cottrell Award and the Walter Kalkhof-Rose Memorial Prize. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the winner of the Energy & Environmental Science Lectureship Award. Her research interests lie in the field of emerging photovoltaics, focusing on the study of material and device physics of organic, quantum dot and perovskite solar cells by integrating device fabrication and characterisation with the application and development of advanced spectroscopic methods.

Andreu Cabot received his PhD from the University of Barcelona in 2003. From 2004 to 2007, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. A. Paul Alivisatos group in the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2009 he joined the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research – IREC, where he is currently ICREA Research Professor. His research interests include the design and preparation of nanomaterials, the characterization of their functional properties and their use in energy technologies.

Professor Mirabbos Hojamberdiev is leading a CatMatX research group at the Masd Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark. His research group is developing next-generation catalytic materials based on mixed-anion compounds for various applications, including solar and electrocatalytic water splitting, ammonia decomposition, environmental remediation, etc. He has published more than 240 research articles and 5 patents.  He received various international recognitions, including the RECRUIT Grant funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Atta-ur-Rahman Prize from the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Georg Forster Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the 2018 IUPAC CHEMRAWN VII Prize for Green Chemistry and 2023 IUPAC-Zhejiang NHU International Award for Advancements in Green Chemistry from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Fulbright Visiting Scholarship, postdoctoral fellowships from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, European Commission’s Marie-Curie Fellowship, etc.

Prof. R. Robinson received his PhD in Applied Physics from Columbia University. After his PhD, Prof. Robinson was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at University of California, Berkeley/LBNL in the research group of Paul Alivisatos.  There, he worked on nanoparticle synthesis, chemical transformations of nanoparticles, and advanced property characterizations of nanoparticles.  In 2008 Richard began a faculty position at Cornell University in the Materials Science Department, and is currently an associate professor. His primary research interests are: (I) Synthesis and chemical transformations in nanocrystals, (II) Nanocrystals in energy applications, and (III) Synchrotron x-ray characterization of nanomaterials.

therobinsongroup.org/

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.

Montse Casas-Cabanas is the scientific coordinator of the Electrochemical Energy Storage Area and group leader of the Advanced Electrode Materials group at CIC energiGUNE. Her research interests focus on the design of battery materials and the understanding of phenomena that occur in energy storage devices through a multidisciplinary approach, with a focus in crystal chemistry. 

She is also author of >75 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and has been PI of several national and european projects. She has co-authored the FAULTS software for the refinement of X-ray data of crystalline structures with planar defects. She is also actively involved in the MESC+ Erasmus Mundus master course and has recently received the 2021 Young Researcher award ("Group Leader" category) from the  Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry.

09. 2020 - current - Project leader (group of Prof. F. Schreiber), Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tübingen

09.2018-08.2020 - Postdoctoral research assistant (group of Prof. O. Shpyrko). University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, USA)

11.2017-08.2018 - Postdoctoral research assistant (group of Dr. Ivan Vartaniants). Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (Hamburg, Germany)

10.2017 - PhD at National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” (Moscow, Russia)

10.2013 - 04.2017 - Doctoral candidate (group of Dr. Ivan Vartaniants). Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (Hamburg, Germany)

02.2013 - Diploma (with distinction)

09.2007 - 02.2013 - Undergraduate studies in physics at National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” (Moscow, Russia)

Research Scientist at Fraunhofer IAP, specializing in cadmium-free quantum dots (QDs) for next-generation light-emitting and display applications. My expertise covers quantum dot electroluminescence (QD-EL) device development and extends to QD color conversion (CF) technologies for advanced display architectures. I also work on scalable QD processing and high-precision printing methods — including inkjet and electrohydrodynamic (EHD)-jet printing — to enable sustainable and efficient manufacturing. Beyond displays, my research explores QD and nanomaterial integration for solar energy technologies, including organic photovoltaics (OPVs).

I hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin (2018) and an M.S. from Dankook University (2012), where I conducted research on flexible and transparent QD devices at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI). Currently, I lead and coordinate international R&D collaborations bridging Fraunhofer and global industry partners to drive innovation in next-generation optoelectronic devices.

Professional Affiliations & Leadership

-Steering Committee Member — Korea-Fraunhofer Collaboration Hub for Science & Technology (K-FAST)
Project planning and industry–research matchmaking between Fraunhofer and Korean enterprises

-Officer/Treasurer — Society for Information Display (SID) Mid-Europe Chapter
Coordinating chapter events, technical talks, and member engagement

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).

Philippe Guyot-Sionnest is a professor of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Chicago since 1991.  His group developed original aspects of colloidal quantum dots and nanoparticles, including single dot PL microscopy, the luminescent core/shell CdSe/ZnS, intraband spectroscopy, charge transfer doping, electrochemical and conductivity studies, the "solid state ligand exchange", and mid-infrared quantum dots.   Other significant works are the development of surface infrared-visible sum-frequency generation, and interfacial time resolved vibrational spectroscopy of adsorbates.  

Jennifer A. Hollingsworth is a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Fellow and Fellow of the American Physical Society, Division of Materials Physics, and The American Association for the Advancement of Science. She currently serves as Councilor for the Amercan Chemical Society Colloid & Surface Chemistry Division. She holds a BA in Chemistry from Grinnell College (Phi Beta Kappa) and a PhD degree in Inorganic Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. She joined LANL as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow in 1999, becoming a staff scientist in 2001. In 2013, she was awarded a LANL Fellows’ Prize for Research for her discovery and elaboration of non-blinking “giant” quantum dots (gQDs). In her role as staff scientist in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT; http://www.lanl.gov/expertise/profiles/view/jennifer-hollingsworth), a US DOE Nanoscale Science Research Center and User Facility, she endeavors to advance fundamental knowledge of optically active nanomaterials, targeting the elucidation of synthesis-nanostructure-properties correlations toward the rational design of novel functional materials. Her gQD design has been extended to multiple QD and other nanostructure systems, and several are being explored for applications from ultra-stable molecular probes for advanced single-particle tracking to solid-state lighting and single-photon generation. A recent focus of her group is to advance scanning probe nanolithography for precision placement of single nanocrystals into metasurfaces and plasmonic antennas.

 

 

Gerasimos Konstantatos received the Diploma from the University of Patras, Patras, Greece, in 2001 and the M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, in 2004 and 2008, respectively, all in electrical and computer engineering.He is currently a Group Leader with ICFO - the Institute of Photonic Sciences, Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain. His work has been published in over 25 journal articles, 7 of them in Nature-family journals, in the field of colloidal quantum dot optoelectonics. He is also an inventor of 5 granted patents licensed to Invisage Technologies and a recipient of the TR35 Spain 2012 award for his contributions on colloidal quantum dot photodetectors. His current research interests lie in the field of solution processed functional nanomaterials for solar cell and optical sensor applications.

Emmanuel Lhuillier has been undergraduate student at ESPCI in Paris and then followed a master in condensed matter physics from university Pierre and Marie Curie. He was then PhD student under the mentorship of Emmanuel Rosencher at Onera in the optics department, where he work on transport in quantum well heterostructure. As post doc he moved to the group of Philippe Guyot-Sionnest in the university of Chicago, and start working on infrared nanocrystal. Then he moved back to ESPCI for a second post in the group of Benoit Dubertret working on optoelectronic properties of colloidal nanoplatelets. Since 2015 he is a CNRS researcher at Institute for nanoscience of Paris at Sorbinne université. His research activities are focused on optoelectronic properties of confined Nanomaterial with a special interest on infrared system. He receive in 2017 an ERC starting grant to investigate infrared colloidal materials.

Luigi Angelo Castriotta is a post-Doctoral fellow from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, focusing on flexible perovskite solar cells and modules. He joined Prof. Huang's group at UNC (USA) in June 2023, as a Global Marie-Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow and as a Principal Investigator of the "EFESO" Project. He got his Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering in 2021 from University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy) as a Marie-Curie Fellow as part of the Innovative Training Network MAESTRO; He did his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy) and Masters’ in "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology" at Universitat de Barcelona (Spain) and in "Organic Molecular Electronics" at Technische Universitat Dresden (Germany).

Eleni Stavrinidou is an Associate Professor and leader of the Electronic Plants group at Linköping University. She received a PhD in Microelectronics from EMSE (France) in 2014. She then did her postdoctoral training at Linköping University (Sweden) during which she was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship. In 2017 Eleni Stavrinidou became Assistant Professor in Organic Electronics at Linköping University and established the Electronic Plants group. She received several grants including a Swedish Research Council Starting Grant and she is the Coordinator of the HyPhOE-FET-OPEN project. In 2019 she received the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science prize in Sweden. In 2020 she  became Associate Professor and Docent in Applied Physics. The same year she was awarded the Future Research Leaders grant of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. Her research interests focus on organic electronics for plant monitoring and  optimization, energy applications and bio-hybrid systems.

Dr. Habil. Martin Brinkmann (07.10.1971 in Mulhouse, France)

Directeur de Recherche CNRS

Institut Charles Sadron

CNRS Université de Strasbourg

23 rue du loess

67034 Strasbourg – France

h=45, 137 publications

 

Scientific Career

Since 2013          Director of Research CNRS

2002.                   Invited Researcher EPFL, group of L. Zuppiroli  

2000 -2013          Senior Scientist CNRS     

1999-2000           Postdoctoral researcher MIT, Cambridge, USA

1997-1999           Postdoctoral researcher at CNR Bologna, Italy

1994-1997           PhD, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg

 

Scientific Focus

Structure and morphology in thin organic films,

Organic semiconductors,

Transmission Electron Microscopy,

Crystallization and orientation of polymer and molecular materials,

Growth control in organic thin films. Polymer Thermoelectric Materials.

 

Scientific Awards

 

2007                    CNRS Bronze Medal

2011                    Prize of Groupe Français des Polymères – Société Française de Physique

 

Management activities

2013-2020      SYCOMMOR Group leader, ICS

2018-now      Deputy-director of Doctoral School of Physics and Chemical Physics             

                      ED182, Strasbourg

2017-now.      IC FRC and GFP member

2018-now: Coordinator ANR ANISOTHERM

Supervision:

12 PhD students  (Bruno Schmaltz, Christelle Vergnat, Navaphun Kayunkid, Lucia Hartmann, Alexandru Sarbu, Amer Hamidi-Sakr, Morgane Diebold, Vishnu Vijajakumar, Marion Brosset, Yuhan Zong, Shubhradip Guchait),

7 postdocs (Jean-François Moulin, Sirapat Pratontep, Navaphun Kayunkid, Uttiya Sureeporn, Nicolas Crespo-Monteiro, Maria Girleanu, Laure Biniek)

Teaching “Structure and Growth of Conjugated Polymer and Molecular Materials” , Master polymer Science (2010-2012), Strasbourg.

 

Reviewing: Macromolecules, Chemistry of Materials, JACS, Advanced Functional Materials,  Advanced Materials, J. Mater. Chem. C

Project reviewer for ANR, DFG, NSF, Swiss national Science foundation

 

Five most important publications

 

1) M. Brinkmann, J.-C. Wittmann: Orientation of regio-regular poly(3-hexylthiophene) by directional solidification: a simple method to reveal the semi-crystalline structure of a conjugated polymer, Adv. Mat. 2006, 18, 860.

2) N. Kayunkid, S. Uttiya and M. Brinkmann: Structural model of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) obtained by electron diffraction analysis, Macromolecules 2010, 43, 4961.

3) M. Brinkmann, E. Gonthier, S. Bogen, K. Tremmel, S. Ludwigs, M. Hufnagel, M. Sommer: Segregated versus mixed stacking of bithiophene and naphthalene bisimide units in highly oriented films of an n-type polymeric semiconductor, ACS Nano, 2012, 6, 10319.

4) A. Hamidi Sakr, L. Biniek, S. Fall, M. Brinkmann: Precise control of crystal size in highly oriented regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) thin films prepared by high temperature rubbing: correlations with optical properties and charge transport, Adv. Funct. Mat. 2016, 26, 408.

5) Vijayakumar, V.; Zhong, Y.; Untilova, V.; Bahri, M.; Herrmann, L.; Biniek, L.; Leclerc, N.; Brinkmann, M. Bringing Conducting Polymers to High Order: Toward Conductivities beyond 10⁵ S cm⁻¹ and Thermoelectric Power Factors of 2 mW m⁻¹ K⁻². Advanced Energy Materials 2019, 9, 1900266.

Jenny Nelson is a Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, where she has researched novel varieties of material for use in solar cells since 1989. Her current research is focussed on understanding the properties of molecular semiconductor materials and their application to organic solar cells. This work combines fundamental electrical, spectroscopic and structural studies of molecular electronic materials with numerical modelling and device studies, with the aim of optimising the performance of plastic solar cells. She has published around 200 articles in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters and a book on the physics of solar cells.

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.

Dr. Minghao Yu, PI, holds an independent research group (Materials & Electrochemistry for Sustainable Energy Storage) at Technische Universität Dresden. His research interest includes 1) the development of novel organic and inorganic 2D layered materials, 2) the investigation of advanced artificial interphases and electrolytes for next-generation batteries, 3) fundamental charge and ion dynamics during electrochemical energy storage processes, and 4) sustainable energy storage device fabrication, including supercapacitors, hybrid-ion capacitors, aqueous batteries, dual-ion batteries, and multivalent metal (Zn, Mg, Al) batteries. He has published more than 140 scientific articles which have attracted 23,000+ citations with an H-index of 76 (Web of Science). Besides, he is also an associated member of the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), an associated group leader at Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, a highly cited researcher (Clarivate Analytics, 2018-now), 2023 ERC Starting Grant winner, and a Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe.

Montse Casas-Cabanas is the scientific coordinator of the Electrochemical Energy Storage Area and group leader of the Advanced Electrode Materials group at CIC energiGUNE. Her research interests focus on the design of battery materials and the understanding of phenomena that occur in energy storage devices through a multidisciplinary approach, with a focus in crystal chemistry. 

She is also author of >75 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and has been PI of several national and european projects. She has co-authored the FAULTS software for the refinement of X-ray data of crystalline structures with planar defects. She is also actively involved in the MESC+ Erasmus Mundus master course and has recently received the 2021 Young Researcher award ("Group Leader" category) from the  Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry.

Ilya Akimov, Prof.

- Graduated State Electrotechnical University, St. Petersburg in 1997

- PhD in physics in 2000 at Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, St. Petersburg (Russia). 

- 2001-2006, Postdoc at Photonics Chair in Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany and as research assistant at PennState University in USA.

- In 2007 joined Experimental Physics 2 at TU Dortmund, where since 2019 he is professor.

Research interests: spin-related and magneto-optical phenomena in semiconductor nanostructures and magnetic materials using transient optical spectroscopy.

 

Grigorios Itskos obtained a B.Sc. in Physics in 1997 from University of Thessaloniki, Greece and carried out his PhD studies at SUNY at Buffalo, USA (Ph.D. in Physics 2003), under the supervision of Prof. Athos Petrou within the newly-born field of semiconductor spintronics. He worked as postdoctoral researcher (Imperial College London, 2003-2007) under the supervision of Profs. Donal Bradely and Ray Murray, focusing on photophysical studies of hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductors. In September 2007 he was hired as a faculty member at the Department of Physics, University of Cyprus (Lecturer 2007-2011, Assistant Professor 2011- 2017, Associate Professor 2017- now). His group research activities focus on optical studies of inorganic, organic and hybrid solution-processed semiconductors, with recent emphasis on the characterization and optoelectronic applications of semiconductor nanocrystals.  

Corina Andronescu received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University Politehnica of Bucharest (Romania) in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Her Ph.D. title she received from the same university in 2014. In 2016 she joined the group of Prof. W. Schuhmann (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany) first as postdoctoral researcher and later as group leader. December 2018, she was appointed Junior Professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where she is currently leading the group of Electrochemical Catalysis in the Faculty of Chemistry. Her research interests include development of hybrid electrocatalysts for the CO2 electroreduction reaction, alcohol electrooxidation as well as investigation of electrocatalysts at nanoscale using Scanning Electrochemical Cell Microscopy.

Doing my BSc/MSc in Physics and PhD in an interdisciplinary program crossing the disciplines like Chemical Engineering, Nanotechnology, and Electrochemistry made me who I am today – a scientist who enjoys the challenge of multifaceted research.

I enjoy doing basic research in order to solve applied tasks. This explains my research interest in fundamental physical chemistry, e.g. oxidation and dissolution of metals and semiconductors, electrocatalysis, and electrochemistry at modified interfaces but also electrochemical engineering, e.g. development and optimization of catalyst layers in fuel cells and water electrolyzes.

Progress in basic research is often a direct outcome of previous achievements in experimental instrumentation. Hence, a significant part of my interest is in the development of new tools, e.g. electrochemical on-line mass spectrometry, gas diffusion electrode approaches, and high-throughput screening methods.

James Durrant is Professor of Photochemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London and Ser Cymru Solar Professor, University of Swansea. His research addresses the photochemistry of new materials for solar energy conversion targeting both solar cells (photovoltaics) and solar to fuel (i.e.: artificial photosynthesis. It is based around employing transient optical and optoelectronic techniques to address materials function, and thereby elucidate design principles which enable technological development. His group is currently addressing the development and functional characterisation of organic and perovskite solar cells and photoelectrodes for solar fuel generation. More widely, he leads Imperial's Centre for Processable Electronics, founded the UK�s Solar Fuels Network and led the Welsh government funded S�r Cymru Solar initiative. He has published over 500 research papers and 5 patents, and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

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.

Stefan Weber (born 1981) studied Physics at the University of Konstanz. Already as an undergrad student he started to work with an SFM in the group of Prof. Leiderer. For his diploma thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Johannes Boneberg he studied the interaction of gold nanoparticles with pulsed laser light. In 2007, he joined the group of Prof. Butt at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Reaearch (MPI-P), Mainz. During his PhD, he spent six months at Seoul National University, Korea, in the groups of Prof. K. Char and Prof. C. Lee. In 2010 he received a joint doctoral degree from Mainz University and SNU. In 2011 he went to University College Dublin as a Feodor Lynen Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) to join Prof. Brian Rodriguez and Prof. Suzi Jarvis. In 2012 he became a group leader in the Physics of Interfaces group in the department of Prof. Hans-Jürgen Butt at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P), Mainz. From 2015 to 2023 he held a junior professor postition in the Physics department of Mainz University. Sind June 2023, he is a permament group leader at the Institute for Photovoltaics at University Stuttgart, where he heads the Nanoscale Microscopy and Characterization group. In 2024, he won an ERC Consolidator grant for the development of a Photovoltaic Microscope that combines nanoscale electrical imaging with high-resolution optical microscopy and ultrafast spectroscopy

Bio Professional Preparation M.S. in Chemistry, with Honours, University of Bari, Italy, 1996 Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Bari, Italy, 2001 Research interests Prof. L. Manna is an expert of synthesis and assembly of colloidal nanocrystals. His research interests span the advanced synthesis, structural characterization and assembly of inorganic nanostructures for applications in energy-related areas, in photonics, electronics and biology.

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.

Markus Niederberger is head of the Laboratory for Multifunctional Materials and full professor at the Department of Materials at ETH Zurich. He studied chemistry at ETH Zurich, where he also received his doctoral degree. After a postdoctoral stay at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he was group leader in the colloid department at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam. His research interests focus on the development of liquid-phase synthesis routes to inorganic nanoparticles and their assembly and processing into macroscopic materials with tailored properties and functionalities for applications in energy storage and conversion.

Dr. Villa obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Then, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) on the conversion of methane to methanol and at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) within an ERC-Proof-of-concept (MICROCLEANERS). In 2018, she joined the Advanced Functional Nanorobots center at the University of Chemistry and Technology (Czech Republic), where she worked as Senior Scientist for three years. Since 2021, she is leading a research group on advanced photocatalytic materials for energy and environmental applications at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ).

Katherine has a strong multidisciplinary profile gained by working at 8 research centers, Colombia, Spain, Czech Republic, and Belgium. Her research areas span from water decontamination, hydrogen generation, selective oxidation processes to light-driven micro/nanoswimmers. She has received important recognitions (MSCA-UNIPD-COFUND, Beatriu de Pinós, Ramón y Cajal, la Caixa Junior Leader, etc) as well as national and international competitive funding, including an ERC Starting Grant 2022 for her project (PhotoSwim).

Her research interests include photocatalysis, nanomaterials, renewable energy, micro/nanomotors, and environmental remediation.

Qian Wang is currently an Associate Professor at Nagoya University, Japan. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2014 at the University of Tokyo, Japan. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher for the Japan Technological Research Association of Artificial Photosynthetic Chemical Processes (ARPChem) project at the University of Tokyo. In 2018, she became a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. She joined Nagoya University as an Associate Professor in May 2021 and established her research group, which is currently developing new materials, approaches, and technologies for solar energy storage in the form of renewable fuels via artificial photosynthesis.

Dr. Esma Ismailova, Associate Professor with an HDR at Mines de Saint-Etienne (EMSE), France. She received her BSc. in Physics and a Master’s degree in Polymer Science at Strasbourg University in France, where she also completed her PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Physics sponsored by STMicroelectronics. She then joined the Laboratory for Organic Electronics at Cornell University, NY, USA as a PostDoc, studying the interface between biology and electronics. In 2010, she joined EMSE to establish a micro-fabrication platform for soft biocompatible neural implants at the Bioelectronics Department. Her current research interests focus on the design and fabrication of novel organic electronic devices for multi-parametric sensing. Dr. Ismailova has initiated national and international collaborations to develop organic wearable devices on textiles for healthcare.

Eleni Stavrinidou is an Associate Professor and leader of the Electronic Plants group at Linköping University. She received a PhD in Microelectronics from EMSE (France) in 2014. She then did her postdoctoral training at Linköping University (Sweden) during which she was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship. In 2017 Eleni Stavrinidou became Assistant Professor in Organic Electronics at Linköping University and established the Electronic Plants group. She received several grants including a Swedish Research Council Starting Grant and she is the Coordinator of the HyPhOE-FET-OPEN project. In 2019 she received the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science prize in Sweden. In 2020 she  became Associate Professor and Docent in Applied Physics. The same year she was awarded the Future Research Leaders grant of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. Her research interests focus on organic electronics for plant monitoring and  optimization, energy applications and bio-hybrid systems.

Juan Bisquert (pHD Universitat de València, 1991) is a Distinguished Research Professor at Instituto de Tecnología Química (Universitat Politècnica de València-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas). He is Executive Editor for Europe of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He has been distinguished in the list of Highly Cited Researchers from 2014 to 2024. The research activity of Juan Bisquert has been focused on the application of measurement techniques and physical modeling in several areas of energy devices materials, using organic and hybrid semiconductors as halide perovskite solar cells. Currently the main research topic aims to create miniature devices that operate as neurons and synapses for bio-inspired neuromorphic computation related to data sensing and image processing. The work on this topic combines harnessing hysteresis and memory properties of ionic-electronic conducting devices as memristors and transistors towards computational networks. The work is supported by European Research Council Advanced Grant.

Sandheep Ravishankar is currently a team leader in the photovoltaics department (IMD-3) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. He is interested in all aspects of the characterization and simulation of the device physics in perovskite single-junction and tandem solar cells. He uses a combination of electrical methods, luminescence methods and drift-diffusion simulations for this purpose, followed by the development of analytical or semi-analytical models for parameter estimation.

Wolfgang Tress is currently working as a scientist at LPI, EPFL in Switzerland, with general interests in developing and studying novel photovoltaic concepts and technologies. His research focuses on the device physics of perovskite solar cells; most recently, investigating recombination and hysteresis phenomena in this emerging material system. Previously, he was analyzing and modeling performance limiting processes in organic solar cells.

Andrea Crovetto is an associate professor at DTU Nanolab, Technical University of Denmark. He obtained his PhD degree from DTU (advisor: Ole Hansen) with an external stay at UNSW (Australia) in Xiaojing Hao's group. He was then a postdoctoral researcher at DTU Physics with Ib Chorkendorff and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at NREL (USA) with Andriy Zakutayev, and at HZB (Germany) with Thomas Unold. The focus of Andrea's research is the discovery and development of new thin-film materials from unusual nooks of the periodic table. His key application area is optoelectronics, including solar cells, electrochemical cells, and transparent conductors.

Laura Herz is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. She received her PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2002 and was a Research Fellow at St John's College Cambridge from 2001 - 2003 after which she moved to Oxford. Her research interests lie in the area of organic and organic/inorganic hybrid semiconductors including aspects such as self-assembly, nano-scale effects, energy-transfer and light-harvesting for solar energy conversion.

Andres Castellanos-Gomez is a Tenured Scientist in the Spanish National Research Council. He explores novel 2D materials and studies their mechanical, electrical and optical properties with special interest on the application of these materials in nanomechanical and optoelectronic devices. He is author of more than 100 articles in international peer review journals and 6 book chapters. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2017 and has been selected as one of the Top Ten Spanish Talents of 2017 by the MIT Technology Reviews. He has been also recognized with the Young Researcher Award (experimental physics) of the Royal Physical Society of Spain (2016).

Prof. Zdenek Sofer is tenured professor at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague since 2019. He received his PhD also at University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Czech Republic, in 2008. During his PhD he spent one year in Forschungszentrum Julich (Peter Grünberg Institute, Germany) and also one postdoctoral stay at University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Research interests of prof. Sofer concerning on 2D materials, its crystal growth, chemical modifications and derivatisation. His research covers various applications of 2D materials including energy storage and conversion, electronic, catalysis and sensing devices. He is an associated editor of FlatChem journal. He has published over 460 articles, which received over 15000 citations (h-index of 61).

Dr. Francesco Di Stasio obtained a Ph.D. in Physics at University College London (UK) in 2012. He then worked as a research Scientist at Cambridge Display Technology (Sumitomo Chemical group, UK) until he undertook postdoctoral research at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT, Italy). In 2015 he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, Spain). Since 2020 he is Principal Investigator of the Photonic Nanomaterials group at IIT after being awarded an ERC Starting grant. Francesco is a materials scientist with more than 10 years of research experience in optoelectronics.

Current research interests and methodology: Nanomaterials for classical and non-classical light-sources: This research activity focuses on the investigation of synthetic routes to obtain highly luminescent semiconductor colloidal nanocrystals and exploit such material in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Here, we study how chemical treatments of colloidal nanocrystals can promote enhanced performance in devices, and physico-chemical properties of nanocrystals (e.g. self-assembly and surface chemistry) can be exploited to fabricate optoelectronic devices with innovative architectures. Novel methods and materials for light-emitting diodes: The group applies materials science to optoelectronics by determining which fabrication parameter lead to enhanced performance in LEDs. In order to transition from classical to non-classical light-sources based on colloidal nanocrystals, the group is developing novel methods for controlling the deposition and positioning of an individual nanocrystals in the device. Both “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches are investigated.

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.

Gerasimos Konstantatos received the Diploma from the University of Patras, Patras, Greece, in 2001 and the M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, in 2004 and 2008, respectively, all in electrical and computer engineering.He is currently a Group Leader with ICFO - the Institute of Photonic Sciences, Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain. His work has been published in over 25 journal articles, 7 of them in Nature-family journals, in the field of colloidal quantum dot optoelectonics. He is also an inventor of 5 granted patents licensed to Invisage Technologies and a recipient of the TR35 Spain 2012 award for his contributions on colloidal quantum dot photodetectors. His current research interests lie in the field of solution processed functional nanomaterials for solar cell and optical sensor applications.

Emmanuel is an ESPCI engineer and hold a master degree from universite Pierre and marie Curie in condensed matter physics. He did his PhD under supervision of Emmanuel Rosencher on the transport properties of superlattices used as infrared detector. He then did post doc in the group of Guyot Sionnest and Dubertret, working on the optoelectronic properties of nanocrystals. Since 2015 he is a CNRS researcher at Insitute for Nanoscience at Sorbonne Université. His team is dedicated to optoelectronic of confined nanomaterials

Maria Antonietta Loi studied physics at the University of Cagliari in Italy where she received the PhD in 2001. In the same year she joined the Linz Institute for Organic Solar cells, of the University of Linz, Austria as a post doctoral fellow. Later she worked as researcher at the Institute for Nanostructured Materials of the Italian National Research Council in Bologna Italy. In 2006 she became assistant professor and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She is now full professor in the same institution and chair of the Photophysics and OptoElectronics group. She has published more than 130 peer review articles in photophysics and optoelectronics of nanomaterials. In 2012 she has received an ERC starting grant.

Prof. Qing Shen received her Bachelor’s degree in physics from Nanjing University of China in 1987 and earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1995. In 1996, she joined the University of Electro-Communications, Japan and became a full professor in 2016. In 1997, she got the Young Scientist Award of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. In 2003, she got the Best Paper Award of the Japan Society of Thermophysical Properties and the Young Scientist Award of the Symposium on Ultrasonic Electronics of Japan. In 2014, she got the Excellent Women Scientist Award of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. Her current research focuses on three interconnected areas: (1) the synthesis, optical properties, and optoelectronic applications of nanocrystal quantum dots; (2) mechanistic investigations into photoexcited carrier dynamics—such as hot carrier relaxation, multiple exciton generation, interfacial charge transfer, and recombination—to improve the efficiency of quantum dot, perovskite, and organic solar cells, as well as light-emitting devices (LEDs); (3) interface engineering for enhancing the performance of photovoltaics and LEDs. Over the past five years, she has published more than 100 high-impact papers in leading journals such as Nature Energy, Chemical Society Reviews, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition, which have been cited over 10,000 times.

Mark W.B. Wilson (he/him) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, where his team strives to understand the synthesis, structure, and photophysics of colloidal quantum dots (and functionalized, hybrid architectures) to advance their use in photonic & optoelectronic applications. A present focus is advancing nanocrystal-sensitized triplet-fusion upconversion. His first degrees were in Engineering Physics and History at Queen’s University (Kingston). He next received a PhD in Physics (2012) from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof. Sir Richard Friend. Then, as a member of the Centre for Excitonics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he pursued postdoctoral studies (2012-2016) with Prof. Moungi Bawendi (Chemistry), before starting his independent career.