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).

Maria Ibáñez was born in La Sénia (Spain). She graduated in physics at the University of Barcelona, where she also obtained her PhD in 2013, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Cabot and Prof. Dr. Morante. Her PhD thesis was qualified Excellent Cum Laude and awarded with the Honors Doctorate by the University of Barcelona. Her PhD research was funded by a Spanish competitive grant (FPU) which supported her to conduct short-term research stays in cutting-edge laboratories. In particular she worked at CEA Grenoble (2009), the University of Chicago (2010), the California Institute of Technology (2011), the Cornell University (2012) and the Northwestern University (2013). In 2014, she joined the group of Prof. Dr. Kovalenko at ETH Zürich and EMPA as a research fellow where in 2017 she received the Ružička Prize. In September 2018 she became an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at IST Austria and started the Functional Nanomaterials group.

Peter Reiss is researcher at the Institute of Nanoscience & Cryogenics, CEA Grenoble, and Head of Laboratory of Molecular, Organic and Hybrid Electronics (LEMOH). He graduated (1997) from University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and earned his PhD in inorganic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Dieter Fenske (2000). His research activities focus on the development of synthesis methods for different kinds of colloidal nanocrystals and semiconductor nanowires, the surface functionalization of nanocrystals by “tailor-made” ligands resulting in novel nanoscale building blocks and the assembly of these building blocks into structurally controlled functional materials for optoelectronics. The studied applications range from fluorescent markers for biological labelling and detection over the development of efficient emitters for LEDs and displays to new strategies for nanocrystal based energy conversion and storage. Dr. Reiss acts as Associate Editor for Nanoscale Research Letters and Journal of Nanomaterials and co-organizes the international conference series « NaNaX – Nanoscience with Nanocrystals ».